Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rallek" data-source="post: 3975490" data-attributes="member: 8463">My group has used critical misses since I started playing, and when I inherited the magic DM hat, I continued to use them. Perhaps critical miss is the wrong term, it's more like a fumble, actually. Whenever a natural 1 is rolled during an attack, The DM rolls to see if a fumble occurs, and what the result of the fumble is. This ranges for a normal miss, to a minor mis-hap (like over extending your attack and being denied your dex bonus to AC until your next action) to a more serious screw up (dropping or throwing your weapon, falling down, provoking AoO's, possibly even breaking your weapon). Of course it isn't all bad, the fumble check could also result in you stumbling into your opponent and knocking him down, forcing him to drop his weapon, you might even have scored a critical hit against the enemy next to or behind the one that you were aiming at. Just because you "throw" your sword, that doesn't mean an enemy can't "catch" it for you... hopefully in the head, throat, or chest.I guess the key points to our use of critical fumbles is that first, there is no static table. The DM rolls the dice to determine the nature of the fumble, and the magnitude. The final in-game result is determined "on-the-fly" and is context sensitive to the situation at hand. This allows the DM to weight the average in favor of the skill/level/situation of the character making the fumble, and the nature of the weapon being used. Breaking the bowstring of your average shortbow... sure. Shattering your +3 Sword of Legend.... not so much. My group uses critical fumbles because we like them. They inject the unexpected in a way that we enjoy, and while they never, or at least rarely completely reverse the flow of a battle, they can definitely make an otherwise "easy" encounter into a much tougher fight. That makes all combat a little harder to predict, and thus just a little more uncertain... perhaps even a little more dangerous.... and that suits us just fine.As always YMMV.EDIT: It may also be worth noting that you can't maim, or even directly injure yourself the way we play it. Humiliate, inconvenience, and frustrate yourself sure, but you don't have to worry about chopping off your own leg, or stabbing yourself in the hand... at least not under normal circumstances.</blockquote>

Verification