Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6677527" data-attributes="member: 92305">Back to the OP....CRITICAL HIT CHARTSMy first use of a Crit Chart came from Dragon Magazine.  It was a percentile chart that one of us typed up.  Good gods, it was deadly.  "Critical Hit Friend" came up more often than we wanted.  And, as I got older, I realized that the chart was no good for the game.  The PCs were exposed to its effects a million times more often than NPCs.  One PC may fight seven goblins.  That's 7-to-1, right there, against the PCs.  The longer you play, the higher the probability that the PCs will get maimed if not killed.  We ended up with all sorts of injuries.  Eyes missing.  Missing limbs.  Missing fingers or ears were common.It was just a big negative for the players.  So, we dropped it.We still laugh, to this day, how Sturm Brightblade died when playing the first DragonLance adventure, DL1, under the original AD&D rules, back in the day.  Riverwind, standing next to him on a ledge in the dungeon at the climax of the adventure, pulled a javelin of lightning out of his quiver on his back.  The player rolled a natural 1 on his attack.  The Crit Hit chart roll was 00 or some other awful number close to that.  The line said, "Critical Hit - Friend".  It was Sturm, standing behind him on the ledge.  So, what happened was, the dragon came flying up into the upper parts of the lair.  Riverwind braced himself, then drew his javelin, cocked it back a little too far and stuck Sturm in the chest.  Bbbzzzzzt!  Sturm was stabbed and fried and fell to his death.Poor Sturm.Yeah, it wasn't long after that when we retired the Critical Hit Chart.Afterward...NO CHART, OR SIMPLE RULE, OR MORE SENSEFor years afterward, we used nothing.  Or, we used this simple method that seemed to be fair:  Roll natural 20, it's double damage.  Roll natural 1, your enemy gets a free, extra attack on you.  This was all pre-3E.I have seen some Crit Hit charts that work well.  There is one designed for Mongoose's Conan RPG (yet, I don't use it).  Whenever a Crit happens, you throw for extra damage as you do normally with the 3.5E d20 System.  But, you also roll on a chart.  The chart is skewed so that, more often than not, the extra injury effect is just bothersome and lasts for a limited time.  Effects were like:  Helm rung, hearing at -50% for 1 hour, or Knee Bashed, movement halved and no running for 1d6 hours.That type of chart is much more playable.  Rolling on the chart is a Saving Roll instead of a random roll, and with the chart being skewed, you really have to brick the save in order to get a result where your character dies or is permanently maimed.  If a chart like this is written well, it can be used without the PCs taking the brunt of the awful damage, coming out of the game maimed.But, a lot of thought must be put into creating such a chart so that it is balanced.My favorite.....GUSTUD!I created a rule for my d20 Conan game that my players really like.  It's a type of Critical Hit chart, but it is different from those discussed above.  It only applies to melee (not ranged attacks).  And, the standard d20 rules are still used (natural 20 still causes a Critical Threat that needs to be resolved).On a Melee Attack Throw, when a Natural One is rolled, the GUSTUD rule is triggered.Roll 1d61.  Grapple2.   Unarmed Attack3.  Sunder Attack4.  Trip5.  Unarmed Attack6.  DisarmTypically, an Attack of Opportunity is given to the defender when most of these special attacks are attempted.  But, when given to a foe because of a roll of a natural 1, the AoO is not allowed.  This means that the natural 1 triggers a special attack by the character's foe.Now, the foe does not have to take advantage of the special attack.  And, why wouldn't he attempt the special attack?  Well, because most of the special attacks give the target a recourse action if the special attack is failed.  For example, if Able attempts a Trip on Berkus and fails, then Berkus gets to try to trip Able in return.Secondly, a character may not want to take the combat in that direction indicated by the special attack.  For example, if a Grapple can be attempted, a character may not want to take advantage of that attack because he may not be a good match for the grapple attempt, or he may not want to take the combat into a wrestling match at this time.--  So, there are times when the Natural 1 is rolled but the foe doesn't take advantage of the opportunity given him.--  And, there are times when the Natural 1 is rolled when the foe does attempt the special attack but fails.  The Natural 1 turns out being a boon for the character who rolled it (instead of a penalty).--  And, there are times when the Natural 1 turns out to be a fumble for the character who rolled it.  It just depends on how the special attack plays out.In our combats, we've found the GUSTUD rule really livens combat, making it exciting.  You never know what's going to happen.  And, our fights end up looking more like this:  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqri1xh3mlI" target="_blank">COOL SCENE FROM THE MOVIE "CENTURION"</a></blockquote>

Verification