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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6257719" data-attributes="member: 20323">[MENTION=72717]Exploder Wizard[/MENTION]So we have a two-weapon fighter in our game who rolls lots of d20's each session. One session, I kid you not, he had five natural 1's. I started adlibbing these increasingly hilarious mishaps that hat plagued him with swords getting stuck in doors, jammed in his dwarven ally's shield, flying free of his grasp, etc. Obviously he'd much rather be hitting but the dynamic critical misses at least made it fun on some level. But it got me thinking about those combats where a player misses five times in a row even without a critical miss.What I came to is that the &quot;you miss, next...&quot; style of play, whether it's due to old habits or always exceedingly long combats, is less fun for me and my group than:(a) never missing (or at least nearly always hitting)(b) having interesting complications happen on a missI think this has a lot to do with play style. In my group about half the players will describe what they're doing in detail while the other half will say &quot;I'm using ability X.&quot; For those who do invest in describing their PC's actions, having the whims of a d20 determine whether or not something happens from that description can feel less fun than it would have for a player who just said &quot;I'm using ability X.&quot;So here's my radical opinion...Every PC ability in the game should have one of the following:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> it automatically hits, but is mitigated by a saving throw.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> whenever you miss you gain an attack bonus and the potential damage increases.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> whenever you miss with the ability it has a specific effect that occurs and the ability explains what that looks like in the narrative.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> or go the Dungeon World route and give the DM &quot;moves&quot; to make on a miss</li>
</ul></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 6257719, member: 20323"] [MENTION=72717]Exploder Wizard[/MENTION] So we have a two-weapon fighter in our game who rolls lots of d20's each session. One session, I kid you not, he had five natural 1's. I started adlibbing these increasingly hilarious mishaps that hat plagued him with swords getting stuck in doors, jammed in his dwarven ally's shield, flying free of his grasp, etc. Obviously he'd much rather be hitting but the dynamic critical misses at least made it fun on some level. But it got me thinking about those combats where a player misses five times in a row even without a critical miss. What I came to is that the "you miss, next..." style of play, whether it's due to old habits or always exceedingly long combats, is less fun for me and my group than: (a) never missing (or at least nearly always hitting) (b) having interesting complications happen on a miss I think this has a lot to do with play style. In my group about half the players will describe what they're doing in detail while the other half will say "I'm using ability X." For those who do invest in describing their PC's actions, having the whims of a d20 determine whether or not something happens from that description can feel less fun than it would have for a player who just said "I'm using ability X." So here's my radical opinion...Every PC ability in the game should have one of the following: [list][*] it automatically hits, but is mitigated by a saving throw. [*] whenever you miss you gain an attack bonus and the potential damage increases. [*] whenever you miss with the ability it has a specific effect that occurs and the ability explains what that looks like in the narrative. [*] or go the Dungeon World route and give the DM "moves" to make on a miss [/list] [/QUOTE]

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