Critital miss chart advice

[Nemesis Destiny]

Pretty much - basically I'm just suggesting a variation on the Reckless Breakage rules from Dark Sun. Tone them up or down as desired. It's what I do in my non-DS home campaign and it works well.

Basically, when a natural 1 can result in players getting weakened and dazed, all it does is lead to longer, more boring combats IME. I don't find that it adds much to the fun. YMMV, of course, but I don't recommend it. I'd say granting CA, at the most.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Just as there are critical hits, there are critical misses, which apply to both player and DM attack rolls. See below and please post feedback on what you'd remove, add or change. Thanks in advance!

Do you also have a Critical Hit table or are you just sticking with max damage?

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Are you asking me, or the OP?

 

[Viking Bastard]

I was talking to the OP.


I've been thinking about Crit tables myself (because I like 'em) and like the OP, I have been wondering whether Conditions aren't the way to go (for both hits and fumbles). It seems like a pretty natural narrative fit, but I *am* a little worried about tracking them.

I was thinking that you'd roll d20 and treat it a bit like a saving throw: For fumbles 10+ is just a auto-miss, while 1-9 have a condition attached; for hits it's reversed, 1-9 is max damage, 10+ adds a condition. I was also considering that rolling 20 for a fumble reversed the fumble into a hit (you fumble, but it works out OK).

Something similar to this (I imagine effects generally last one round):

Critical Miss table (roll d20):
1 - Attacker hits self or ally (reduced damage, probably).
2 - Attacker is Prone.
3 - Attacker drops weapon / weapon breaks.
4 - Attacker is Blinded.
5-7 - Attacker grants CA.
8 - Attacker is Weakened.
9 - Attacker is Deafened.
10-19 - No extra effect.
20 - Attacker stumbles, but hits anyway (reduced damage, probably).

Critical Hit table (roll d20):
1-9 - No extra effect.
10 - Target is Deafened.
11 - Target is Weakened.
12-16 - Target grants CA.
17 - Target is Blinded.
18 - Target drops weapon / weapon breaks.
19 - Target is Prone.
20 - Attacker gets an extra Standard Action.

 

[the Jester]

If you want nasty fumbles to be possible but not likely, use a bell curve severity roll (3d6, etc). That way most of the fumbles can be low-impact with the occasional "OH CRAP!" moment.

 

[MarauderX]

Do you also have a Critical Hit table or are you just sticking with max damage?

I do have a critical hit extra damage, with a d20 being rolled again to determine the results. For spells and such that affect multiple targets, only the first target can be critically affected. A player can determine which one that is in a group. The DM also gets crits too, but not on the AoE attacks.