Crit charts in D&D?
- Thread starter molonel
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Steel_Wind
Legend
I've been using Good Hits and Bad Misses - updated for 3.5 in the Dragon Compendium.
You must Roll a natural 20 followed by a confirming natural 20 to get the roll as "Good Hit". For a "Bad Miss" - one followed by a one will put you rolling on that unpleasant table.
One or the other pops up once every other session it seems. It's of limited value - but entertaining from time to time.
You must Roll a natural 20 followed by a confirming natural 20 to get the roll as "Good Hit". For a "Bad Miss" - one followed by a one will put you rolling on that unpleasant table.
One or the other pops up once every other session it seems. It's of limited value - but entertaining from time to time.
Psion
Adventurer
I have an injury system, but find page-flipping and chart lookups distracting during play. I created a little system that uses the same dice you roll the save with and get quick results. I eventually started using a little chessex body location dice to add a bit more color.
In addition to the flavor and detail, I made my system the way it is because:
The result:
http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=656090&postcount=2
Yeah, my system runs around proportion of remaining HP, too. The roll only gets invoked if you lose half your remaining HP in one event. Obviously, there is always a save if you go below 0.
In addition to the flavor and detail, I made my system the way it is because:
- I always disliked that D&D characters could engage in a pitched, knock down, drag out fight, and be right as rain the next morning. So I wanted the lingering effects of major battles to be things like limb impairment, ability damage, etc.
- But I didn't want to make it make incidental combat (much) more deadly.
- I didn't want to change the balance of existing weapons and also wanted a system useful with "non-attack" damage, so I based in on HP damage.
- As mentioned, is chartless (for me at least; I just remember the pattern and apply short division.)
The result:
http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=656090&postcount=2
the Jester said:
Yeah, my system runs around proportion of remaining HP, too. The roll only gets invoked if you lose half your remaining HP in one event. Obviously, there is always a save if you go below 0.
For my money, the classic crit/fumble tables come from Arms Law, the combat rules from an early edition of Rolemaster.
I believe those were the ones that contained fumbles so absurdly fatal that your opponent laughed until they swallowed their tongue and choked to death...
I believe those were the ones that contained fumbles so absurdly fatal that your opponent laughed until they swallowed their tongue and choked to death...
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GlassJaw
Hero
I used to be vehemently opposed to crit charts. But as I worked on my own ruleset and watching shows like Rome, I've been more and more interested in at least exploring some possibilities.
When designing new rules or deciding whether to incoporate variant rules into my game, I always think about what I want the new rules to accomplish. I start with the fluff first. Just adding rules to your game for the sake of new rules is the wrong approach. One I have a clear idea what I want to accomplish, I start to think about the in-game consequences for the characters and how it will affect the players. Those are two different but related issues. Bottom line: does it make the game more enjoyable or will the new rules just frustrate the players.
First off, I would never use them in a "standard" D&D game. The core D&D ruleset doesn't attempt to emulate any "real-world" situations and I don't feel a hit chart system belongs.
My interest for a hit chart system is to further emulate brutal and realistic combat and the effects that occur when highly trained individuals swing sharp metal blades at lightly armored opponents. I want combat to be deadly and possibly result in the loss of limbs. I like to use the phrase "any punk with a gun" - regardless of their level, the PC's still need to be concerned about entering combat with any opponent.
That said, any new system that increases the chances of some kind of negative effect will end up affecting the players moreso than the NPC's. With a hit chart system, especially one that could result in the loss of limbs, I have a few criteria:
1. Since the effects could be significant and long-lasting, I don't want the chance of occurence to be completely random.
2. The player should know if their character is about to be put in harm's way and they should have some chance of avoiding it (even if it is costly or not a guarantee). For this reason, I think a hit location system works best if action points are used as well.
3. The skill/level/ability of the character should be a factor in whether they can avoid serious injury. A 1st level character may be able to land a serious blow against a 20th level character but it should be very difficult.
4. If serious injury or the loss of a limb does occur, there should be an in-game mechanism for some kind of recovery, even if it isn't 100%.
5. The system should minimize die-rolling as much as possible. I'm going to start by using the crit confirmation roll to determine the effects.
Anyway, this is the start of my system. Maybe I'll put this in the House Rules forum as a new thread.
When designing new rules or deciding whether to incoporate variant rules into my game, I always think about what I want the new rules to accomplish. I start with the fluff first. Just adding rules to your game for the sake of new rules is the wrong approach. One I have a clear idea what I want to accomplish, I start to think about the in-game consequences for the characters and how it will affect the players. Those are two different but related issues. Bottom line: does it make the game more enjoyable or will the new rules just frustrate the players.
First off, I would never use them in a "standard" D&D game. The core D&D ruleset doesn't attempt to emulate any "real-world" situations and I don't feel a hit chart system belongs.
My interest for a hit chart system is to further emulate brutal and realistic combat and the effects that occur when highly trained individuals swing sharp metal blades at lightly armored opponents. I want combat to be deadly and possibly result in the loss of limbs. I like to use the phrase "any punk with a gun" - regardless of their level, the PC's still need to be concerned about entering combat with any opponent.
That said, any new system that increases the chances of some kind of negative effect will end up affecting the players moreso than the NPC's. With a hit chart system, especially one that could result in the loss of limbs, I have a few criteria:
1. Since the effects could be significant and long-lasting, I don't want the chance of occurence to be completely random.
2. The player should know if their character is about to be put in harm's way and they should have some chance of avoiding it (even if it is costly or not a guarantee). For this reason, I think a hit location system works best if action points are used as well.
3. The skill/level/ability of the character should be a factor in whether they can avoid serious injury. A 1st level character may be able to land a serious blow against a 20th level character but it should be very difficult.
4. If serious injury or the loss of a limb does occur, there should be an in-game mechanism for some kind of recovery, even if it isn't 100%.
5. The system should minimize die-rolling as much as possible. I'm going to start by using the crit confirmation roll to determine the effects.
Anyway, this is the start of my system. Maybe I'll put this in the House Rules forum as a new thread.
Mallus said:
I'm starting my own campaign for the first time, and I'm considering using those. My favorite was something like, "worst move seen in ages...50% chance your opponent is out for 1 round from laughing". A friend of mine put ALL of those old crit charts from rolemaster into a program, so all I have to do is plug in the number on whichever crit chart I want (light sabre, essence, slashing, grappling,...whatever) and out comes the result. I'm thinking of maybe using them and giving out Fate Points for players to use to reverse killing blows...dipping into house rules territory now...I can see how deadly that would make combat in D&D 3.5.
Matrix Sorcica
Hero
Very interesting. Did you post in house rules?GlassJaw said:
Presto2112
Explorer
molonel said:
Our last DM used the crit charts from the Dragon Compendium. We as a group houseruled them in, and then later further houseruled that they'd only be referenced on a natural 20 (Any critical hit made by roll ing something other than 20 would still use the critical damage assigned to the weapon).
I shall be carrying on that tradition.
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