D&D 5E Critical Failures

[Lord Twig]

Some of the players in my game have expressed interest in having critical failures in the game. I will admit it is fun when the enemy rolls a natural one and things go hilariously bad for them, but the fact is that critical failures are far more devastating to player characters than to monsters.

It's also worse for characters with multiple attacks, like two weapon fighters and monks. The more you roll, the greater the chance that you will fumble. This also means that as you go up in level that your chance of a critical failure goes up. At 1st level you may only have one chance to fail, but at 11th level you have tripled your chance to fail. That doesn't make sense to me. Why would you critically fail more often when you get better?

So does anyone have a good system for critical failures that add some fun to the game, but doesn't punish players for making more attacks?

 

[Sunseeker]

I've never seen one no. Most "critical fumble" systems exist to make combat silly and punish the party for a natural outcome of the dice.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

You might just limit critical failures to 1/turn.

Also, when a 1 comes up, you can have them reroll to "confirm" the crit failure. Ie, they only get a critical failure if they miss on the second roll.

That would mostly solve that particular problem.

 

[Lord Twig]

I've never seen one no. Most "critical fumble" systems exist to make combat silly and punish the party for a natural outcome of the dice.

Me either. Hence this post.

You might just limit critical failures to 1/turn.

Also, when a 1 comes up, you can have them reroll to "confirm" the crit failure. Ie, they only get a critical failure if they miss on the second roll.

That would mostly solve that particular problem.

Even limited to once a round a 5th level two weapon fighter still has 3 chances to crit fail in a turn. And I have considered "confirming" the failure, but that is more dice rolling and complication, which is something I want to avoid.

I think my real trouble started on the first encounter of a quick adventure I did. The party was camping near a swamp and some zombies came out at night to attack them. The first on rolled a nat 1 and I described it as the zombie clumsily attacking, slipping in the mud and falling flat on his face. The characters loved it! So did I! But now what do I do?

Honestly I have considered only allowing NPCs to crit fail as an option, but I'm not sure the players will go for it.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I remember a suggestion that it could only happen if you had disadvantage, if both dice come up 1. That keeps it rare enough to not turn the game silly, and also prevents it from affecting PCs unduly because PCs usually have a better option than to attack with disadvantage.

 

[Quickleaf]

Some of the players in my game have expressed interest in having critical failures in the game. I will admit it is fun when the enemy rolls a natural one and things go hilariously bad for them, but the fact is that critical failures are far more devastating to player characters than to monsters.

It's also worse for characters with multiple attacks, like two weapon fighters and monks. The more you roll, the greater the chance that you will fumble. This also means that as you go up in level that your chance of a critical failure goes up. At 1st level you may only have one chance to fail, but at 11th level you have tripled your chance to fail. That doesn't make sense to me. Why would you critically fail more often when you get better?

So does anyone have a good system for critical failures that add some fun to the game, but doesn't punish players for making more attacks?

I have an unusual story. I was DMing a game where 3 of the players asked for a critical fumble system, and the rest were neutral or mildly positive. It wasn't on my radar screen at all until they asked for it. So I let them design the system. It was a standard "when you roll a 1..." and then there was a table. What was unique was that the table had lots of funny outcomes, lots of nasty outcomes, and a very small number of which turned calamity into wildly unexpected fortune.

As for assuming that crit fails are more impactful to PCs than monsters....I seriously doubt that once the PCs are past 4th level or so....look at how many monsters of CR 1/2 and up have Multiattack in the Monster Manual!

One option, if you don't want the risk of crit fails increasing with multiple attacks, is to borrow the "Death Flag" house rule. Basically, "Death Flag" means that any PC reduced to 0 hit points doesn't die unless their player raises the "Death Flag" signaling that they're willing to risk death in a given dramatic situation. This might be done verbally or with some agreed upon gesture. And I think groups using "Death Flag" grant some kind of boon, possibly Inspiration or something, when a player raises the "Death Flag" for their PC during combat. It's meant for groups who are into low PC mortality games.

You could apply that to crit fails, with crit fails only happening when a player decides to take on increased risk...for some kind of reward. You'd have to come up with whatever mechanic works for your group, but that's the barebones of the idea.

 

[Lord Twig]

I have an unusual story. I was DMing a game where 3 of the players asked for a critical fumble system, and the rest were neutral or mildly positive. It wasn't on my radar screen at all until they asked for it. So I let them design the system. It was a standard "when you roll a 1..." and then there was a table. What was unique was that the table had lots of funny outcomes, lots of nasty outcomes, and a very small number of which turned calamity into wildly unexpected fortune.

Hmmm... A chart is kinda similar to the confirmation roll. It is still another roll, but instead of nothing happening, I could have something amusing, but not really game effecting, happen. Not sure if I want to add a chart though.

As for assuming that crit fails are more impactful to PCs than monsters....I seriously doubt that once the PCs are past 4th level or so....look at how many monsters of CR 1/2 and up have Multiattack in the Monster Manual!

Sorry, misunderstanding here. Sure the monsters, altogether, might make more rolls than the PCs, but each individual monster only makes a handful of rolls before it is killed by the PCs. Each PC (hopefully) will make hundreds, possibly thousands, of rolls before they retire (one way or another).

If a goblin fumbles and slices off his own head, that's hilarious! If a PC does it you have a very not happy player. Okay, extreme example, but it makes my point. If a fumble kills an enemy it is not a big deal. There are plenty more. If it kills a PC, and I've seen it happen, it's a problem.

One option, if you don't want the risk of crit fails increasing with multiple attacks, is to borrow the "Death Flag" house rule. Basically, "Death Flag" means that any PC reduced to 0 hit points doesn't die unless their player raises the "Death Flag" signaling that they're willing to risk death in a given dramatic situation. This might be done verbally or with some agreed upon gesture. And I think groups using "Death Flag" grant some kind of boon, possibly Inspiration or something, when a player raises the "Death Flag" for their PC during combat. It's meant for groups who are into low PC mortality games.

You could apply that to crit fails, with crit fails only happening when a player decides to take on increased risk...for some kind of reward. You'd have to come up with whatever mechanic works for your group, but that's the barebones of the idea.

This kinda falls in line with my, "Only bad guys crit fail" suggestion above. Except it introduces a risk/reward mechanic, which I like. Not sure what the reward would be yet though. Suggestions?

 

[thorgrit]

The best fumble rule I've ever come across is just asking the PC who made the fumble to describe what happens. Those who enjoy auto-crit sneak attacking their own heads into four pieces will love it, and people who don't like added penalties for fumbles can make up a short flourish about they slipped on an invisible turtle and missed, but regained their footing.

 

[X13Phantom]

I always try to put fumble charts into games, it works well if everyone doesn't take the game too serious and doesn't slow down the game too much (have the chart handy)

The other thing I find is don't make everything just damage and falling have other effects on mine after you fumble and roll a 20 on the chart you do the Arnold-Conan sword spin and your opponents might be impressed or intimidated by your display

 

[Imaculata]

In my campaign I feature firearms, and whenever a player fumbles an attack with a firearm, they roll on a missfire table to see what happens. Some firearm types (such as holdout pistols) are more prone to catastrophic mishaps than others (just like in real life). Likewise, mastercrafted firearms are less prone to mishaps.

Misfire table (D20)

Dueling pistols / Masterwork	Flintlock and other fire arms	Multi-barrel/shot	Hold out Pistols	Roll Result
1	1	1-2	1-3	The firearm explodes, dealing 1d6 damage on the wielder.
2-4	2-5	3-6	4-7	The weapon’s firing mechanism breaks. The weapon must be repaired before being used again, which costs one-quarter of the weapon’s total price and requires a successful DC 15 Craft (Gun smithing) check.
5-7	6-8	7-9	8-10	Something prevents the weapon’s firing mechanism from working. Determining and fixing the problem requires a full-round action. The firearm may not be used again, until the problem is fixed.
8-10	9-11	10-12	11-13	Moisture or the wrong amount of gunpowder prevents the firearm from firing. The firearm must be reloaded before it can be fired again.
11-14	12-15	13-16	14-17	A mechanical problem prevents the firearm from firing. The attack fails this round but may be retried with a new attack without reloading.
15-16	16-17	17-19	18-19	An imperfection in the muzzle causes this shot to go astray. The firearm’s user makes another attack on another creature within 5 feet of the original target, randomly determining if there are multiple targets. If there are no other targets within 5 feet, the shot simply misses.
17-20	18-20	20	20	No effect, the firearm misses as normal.