Critical Failure chart

[Heir Raktus]

I was wondering if any fellow DM's might have a botch table that they use? I listen to a friend of mine DM all the time and he has his own botch table that he rolls to unleash on his groups. Just looking for some clever ideas for my group.

 

[Morrus]

Why not use your friend's table?

 

[Heir Raktus]

Becuase I may or may not be playing with him at some point, so he doesn't want to share.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Crit Hits & Fumbles

Here are the charts I have developed and used (attached as word doc). Yes, we like things gritty.

If interested - discussion re the charts here: Rules Discussion: New Crit Charts

Cheers, C

Edit: Sorry - Can't seem to get attachment to work?? Here is a link to them. Look at files section at bottom.
http://connorscampaigns.wikidot.com/dm-tools/

All of this can be found in the site in my sig. Cheers again. C

Edit2: I have attached a Word 97-2003 version to my post on page three of thread.

 

[Lanefan]

I have a fumble chart, though I don't know how to attach it here. It includes various combinations of the following:

- minor damage to self
- minor damage to friend
- full damage to self
- full damage to friend
- critical damage to self/friend
- weapon dropped
- weapon thrown near (10')
- weapon thrown far (20+')
- weapon broken (if magic, save or break)
- shield or helmet broken/slipped
- somehow leave self vulnerable, free attack for opponent

I also have a spell failure table, for when a caster is interrupted or something otherwise goes sideways; usually one of three things will happen:

- nothing (or maybe a small puff of smoke or quiet 'pffft' or 'pop')
- spell reverses if possible
- a wild magic surge

And there's a third table, for when a magic item breaks or magical energy is otherwise released in a way it shouldn't be, results can be:

- nothing
- an explosion of magical energy
- a wild magic surge

Wild magic surges can cause just about any effect you as DM can dream up, from the utterly trivial (a cup of tea appears in someone's hand) to the somewhat confusing (marching footsteps are heard approaching, tramping through party, then receding to silence) to the vaguely dangerous (a 2-12d6 fireball goes off somewhere nearby) to the always-useful (everyone in the party is affected as if by 'Heal') to the completely disastrous (gate in a demon lord or similar, it is not controlled and reacts accordingly) to the wonderful (the next time caster wishes for something it will come true as if 'wish' cast, caster does not know this).

The tables, of course, trend toward the trivial.

Lan-"the only thing worse than wild magic is tame magic"-efan

 

[Heir Raktus]

Screenshot it?

 

[Celebrim]

Prior thread on this topic:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-house-rules/222528-my-games-critical-fumble-chart.html

 

[Heathen72]

Don't forget this Gem from MERP Critical fumble table (Rolemaster)

Worst move seen in ages. -90 from pulled groin. Enemy stunned for 3 rounds laughing.

 

[Celebrim]

Don't forget this Gem from MERP Critical fumble table (Rolemaster)

That would be a great way to kill dinosaurs.

Pull the worst move ever seen, and while the dinosaur is stunned from laughing for 3 rounds, the rest of the party can butcher it in safety.

Any well thought out fumble chart makes the following considerations:

1) Skilled combatants are less likely to fumble than unskilled ones, and ideally this is true even if the skilled combatant attacks more often than the unskilled one.
2) Fumble results don't make unnecessary assumptions about the combat situation, so that any result applies equally well to any situation. Fumbles generally shouldn't result in combat advantage of some sort.
3) Fumble results are significant enough to justify the bother of rolling for them, but not so significant that they usually determine the outcome of battles (and in particular the outcome of battles between skilled combatants). The same should also be true of criticals.
4) The fumble results are cinematic in that from the fumble result it's easy to imagine in a visual manner what has happened and to describe the scene with evocative and visually compelling language.

So long as the table conforms to those basic principles, I'm likely to be ok with it. I'm not really a fan of either criticals or fumbles, because in my experience they are so rarely well thought out and because on the whole they tend to favor NPC's more than PC's.

 

[jonesy]

Bit more generic fumbles:

1. You slip and fall. Luckily your face catches the ground. Take a point of damage.
2. You somehow tangle into your own clothing. It'll take a round to free yourself.
3. You are distracted by [something chosen by the DM]. Instead of finishing what you were doing you look at it. Isn't it amazing?
4. Somehow you drop everything you were holding. If you weren't holding anything, you still think you were and look down to find it.
5. Total fumble. Whatever you were doing is instead directed in a random direction [DM rolls] other than the original.
6. You make a momentary stumble, but quickly recover. Immediately redo the action with a -5 penalty. If you get this twice in a row choose #1 instead.
7. What you were trying to do succeeds, but also leaves you wide open. -1 AC until your next round.
8. You fail spectacularly, but make a perfect recovery and actually succeed exactly as you were trying to. Your closest opponent is stunned by this until his next round.