Critical hit system

[mmadsen]

I've seen a statistical analysis of the Rolemaster critical hit/fumble system. Apparently if the system is used to model armies more units die from friendly fire than combat with the enemy.

That may be one of the more realistic elements of the Rolemaster system.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I also have a critical fumble in my game. If you roll a 1, roll again. If the second roll would have missed your target then they get an AoO against you. I think it works well as the opposite to a crit.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Dragonhelm]

Nat 20 is a crit for double damage. No threat ranges, no confirmation rolls. Has the disadvantage of making some weapons, like the scimitar, less useful, but it's easy and I like it.

Same here. It's easy to remember. There's nothing like rolling that natural 20 and knowing you got a crit.

I used to use Good Hits and Bad Misses (AD&D version, not Dragon Compendium version), but that has the disadvantage of being another chart to reference.

One time, I asked a player what he was doing in game. He says he's going to kill the DM. I made him roll. Natural 20. He rolled on Good Hits and Bad Misses and got double-zero: decapitation, immediate death. I told everyone that the universe imploded. Game over!

I also use the natural 1 = fumble rule. Basically, I base the fumble off of whatever the player is doing. Fighting with a sword? Stab your buddy by mistake. Shooting a crossbow? Weapon breaks. Or maybe the character needs to make a Reflex save in order to not lose his footing. That sort of thing.

 

[Voadam]

I used to use a crit fumble mechanic in 3e but really didn't like how it impacted the play of our combats so I ditched it.

In my games I use standard 3e crit rules. I have Torn Asunder and MERP and have considered allowing feats to allow use of their critical hit things so it can be a mostly PC or special NPC thing without worrying about spectacular mooks.

I play in a high level game where the Paizo deck is used. It was a lot of fun to cut the legs out from under a scorrow drider I was facing, but I'm glad my eldritch knight has the elemental heart spells to make me immune to crit damage. That same drider first pierced my lung with his stinger before I killed him.

 

[Lanefan]

In my 1e-based game I use a really simple critical hit system: on a natural 20, roll a d10. On 8-9-0 damage is 2x-3x-4x respectively. It has served me well for many a year. And *nothing* is immune to criticals, provided you can hit it at all.

For fumbles, on a natural 1 roll a d6, on 1 you have fumbled. If your to-hit roll is brought to 1 or less by things that would logically make you more likely to fumble (e.g. bane effects, being badly hurt, shooting into melee, etc.) then 1 on d6 indicates a minor fumble, using a less-dangerous subset of the main fumble table. (note that when a vastly superior fighter is fighting at minuses vs. a weak opponent, it can sometimes happen that a given roll results either in a fumble or a hit depending on the d6!)

Fumbles get more creative than criticals - you can break, drop or throw your weapon; clobber yourself or an ally, usually not too hard but sometimes full damage and even rarely critical; trip or stumble; drop or break a shield, etc.

Lane-"condition critical"-fan