[Combat, Weapons] Crits for Con damage

[Griffith Dragonlake]

And what happens when the Iron Golem score a crit, or the Storm Giant? Or for that matter a colossal red dragon? Suddenly your 20th level character is dead from a single average critical hit. This is basically the VP/WP system which makes keen rapiers very, very popular.

I ran just such a system for a 3e campaign lasting around 6 months. Afterwards I decided that it's more fun to have critical multipliers with full bonuses and allowing them to be open-ended. That is, keep confirming your crit until you no longer crit, e.g. each time you roll the critical threat during the confirmation, roll again. This open-ended crit (borrowing from Rolemaster) increases the multiplier one step with each crit. In rare cases, a PC could deliver over 100 points of damage -- quite the rarity but also becomes legendary. I also replaced negative hit points with Con damage. And all piercing damage has a x4 crit multiplier. And much, much, more.

 

[comrade raoul]

The quickest solution--at least for D&D--might be to separate Constitution damage dealt on a critical hit from the weapon's damage dice.

Instead, you might determine the size of a weapon's Con damage dice according to its size, and the number of dice according to its multiplier (by taking the multiplier - 1). Thus, light weapons use d4, one-handed weapons use d6, and two-handed weapons use d8. (A dagger deals 1d4 points of damage on a crit; a pick deals 3d6; a greataxe deals 2d8.)

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

That sounds like a good idea, but the designation of light, 1-h, and 2-h are relative.. so you would have to go by size category.. your dice listed would be for a Medium creature. A Large Creature with properly sized weapons would deal " light weapons use d6, one-handed weapons use d8, and two-handed weapons use d10." .. etc...

Its still a simple idea, but does slant things for Huge creatures dealing Great Picks...

 

[Irda Ranger]

Ok, got the details.

All weapons threaten on a 20, confirm to crit. Only feats will increase the threat range.

When you crit, your damage die (1d8) is Con damage. Any bonuses from strength, WS, sneak attack, etc. are hip point damage (on top of the hp lost from lost Con).

To keep this from being a total killer, I would house rule that HP lost from Con reduction can never lower you below 0 HP. If the damage bonus alone drops you to negatives, so be it, but I wouldn't kill a (already wounded) 5th level PC because he got hit with a single crossbow bolt for 10 Con (25 HP) by a city guardsman. The loss of the 10 con and being dropped to 0 hp is more than deadly enough.

For those who absolutely insist on being "fair" to the scythe, I'd give it a +1 Con damage on a crit.

I have to say, I really like this. The odds of a 1st-2nd level city guard (or mook orc) confirming a crit on a PC with a decent AC is really low (~1000:1), but it's real, and therefore the PC's will display some level of judgment. It also make crits almost equally deadly between the classes.

 

[Thondor]

Leave the threat range, and translate the multiplyer into the type of dice you roll.

X2 deals 1d4 con Damage
X3 deals 1d6 con Damage
X4 deals 1D8 con Damage

Yes you should be seriously effected, but to ouright kill someone is much more difficult.
This is a better solution for the PC's

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

Leave the threat range, and translate the multiplyer into the type of dice you roll.

X2 deals 1d4 con Damage
X3 deals 1d6 con Damage
X4 deals 1D8 con Damage

Yes you should be seriously effected, but to ouright kill someone is much more difficult.
This is a better solution for the PC's

So when the storm giant or iron golem scores a critical hit against the medium-size PC, he deals 1d4 con damage? Same as a 10 STR Human with a club?

No thank you, just not my cuppa tea.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Easy enough to add that every two differences in size changes the critical mulitplier by 1.
As such the Storm Giant would weilding a Warhammer {20/x3} would deal 1D8 Con on a critical.

Of course, you would have to draw out the scale... perhaps:

X0 deals 1 point of con Damage
X1 deals 1D2 con damage
X2 deals 1d4 con Damage
X3 deals 1d6 con Damage
X4 deals 1D8 con Damage
X5 deals 1D10 con Damage
X6 deals 2D6 con Damage

Of course makes crits versus massive creatures pointless....and makes massive creatures very deadly. Halfings would really not want to get hit by a Warhammer weilding Storm giant!