Fumbles

[the Jester]

Sooo... I've been mulling over reintroducing fumbles imc for a long time. I always used them before; one of the big inside jokes in my 2e campaign was that the worst possible fumble was spontaneous human combustion (you roll a 1 on your attack, followed by an 18 on 3d6 when you have nothing that will lower the severity of the fumble, followed by 00 on d%. It never happened, of course- I mean, come on, the odds are really against it- but it was a great thing to have at the top (or bottom) of the charts.

Anyhow, I've mulled for quite some time how to make fumbles work in 3rd edition to my satisfaction. Here's what I've come up with so far, based on my system for adding colorful effects (like disembowlment and limb loss) to crits.

Fumbles
A fumble, also called a critical failure, occurs whenever an attack, save or check is a modified 0 or less. A fumble can be anything from a minor inconvenience to utter disaster. Though a fumble is similar to a critical hit, it does not require a roll to confirm it. Instead, the requirement that the fumble be from a modified 0 or less fulfills the roll of confirming the fumble while serving to speed play.

Although there is no single chart for fumbled skill checks, as each skill can be used for any number of things, some basic guidelines for adjudicating them follows. A fumbled attack roll is another matter; the character should roll on the fumble chart below.

Fumble Severity: In many cases, a fumble is a fumble. However, sometimes it is useful to use a certain amount of graduation in rolling a fumble- for instance, a fumbled Craft check might ruin the work in progress, appear fine but have a terrible flaw that won’t be noticed until it’s too late or even develop a curse. On the other hand, it’s no fun to make a character who really botches their initiative roll to wait out multiple rounds (although if the dice go against him badly enough that he fumbles it two rounds in a row, then two missed turns it is). In general, if a dual gradient is desired, a fumble of -10 or less is a ‘minor’ fumble and anything worse is a ‘major’ fumble. If a triple gradient is desired, a result worse than -20 is a ‘catastrophic’ fumble.

Adjudicating Fumbles
Generally a fumble means the character utterly failed at whatever they were attempting, usually in a disastrous way. A character leaping across a chasm might fall onto especially jagged rocks, a character attempting to escape from a grapple might put himself into a pin, a character attempting to appraise an item might misestimate it by a huge amount, and so on. Sometimes the fumble might have a gradient- in other words the lower the fumble roll was, the worse the results are. (For example, this is the result with a fumbled attack roll.)

A character who fumbles an initiative roll does not get to go; she must re-roll initiative at the start of the next round. It is conceivable that someone having a bad day could fumble initiative two or more times in a row. That would be tragic.

A fumbled saving throw results in an extra 1 point per die of damage (including ability damage or drain, and also including negative levels). If the effect does not inflict damage, it will be more effective than normal- perhaps it will last longer, inflict a greater than normal penalty, give the caster a +2 on opposed charisma checks to convince the victim to do his bidding, etc.

Fumbled attacks

A minor fumble on an attack roll (0 to -10) results in a fumble severity of 1d20. A major fumble (-11 to -20) results in a severity of 3d12. A catastrophic fumble (-21 or worse) results in a severity of 4d8+15.

Severity---Result
1---Off-balance, lose rest of round
2---Bite tongue, 1 hp, 15% spell failure, -2 Bluff/Diplomacy for 1 hour
3---Move 1d4 squares in random direction (no AoOs)
4--- Staggered until end of your next turn
5 --- Moderately important item drops from pack, belt, etc.
6 ---Blinded 1 round
7--- Weapon caught in wall, snagged in roots, etc; str check, DC 18 to free
8--- Lose rest of this round and all of next round
9--- Drop shield or other hand’s weapon
10 --- Damage important piece of surroundings
11---Move 1d4 squares in random direction (triggers AoOs)
12--- Drop weapon
13--- Damage environment in such a fashion that you suffer 2d4 hp of damage (shelves fall on you, rocks land on your head, etc)
14--- Strike self for ½ damage
15--- Twist ankle, speed -5’ for 1d4 hours
16--- Break minor item (magic items get a Fort save)
17--- Blinded 1d4 rounds
18--- Trip, fall prone
19--- Very important item drops from pack, belt, etc.
20--- Twist ankle badly, 1d4 hp, speed -10’ for 1 day
21--- Twist wrist, 1d4 hp, -2 to attacks and skills using that hand
22--- Attack nearest ally (move up to 5’ to do so)
23--- Inflict full normal damage on your weapon
24--- Throw weapon 2d4 squares away
25--- Drop entire pack
26--- Strike sweet loot in the surroundings, destroying it
27 --- Trip, lose weapon 1d4 squares away
28 ---Strike self for full damage
29---Trip, stunned 1d4 rounds
30--- Break ankle, 2d4 hp, speed reduced to half until healed
31--- Break weapon (magic items get a Fort save, DC 10 + ½ your level + str bonus)
32--- Throw weapon at random ally (roll to hit)
33 --- Break major item (magic items get a Fort save)
34--- Break wrist, 2d4 hp, can’t use hand until healed
35--- Fall prone, break weapon (magic items get Fort save)
36--- Break wrist and weapon (2d4 hp, can’t use hand, magic items get Fort save)
37--- Bite tongue off, 2d4 hp, stunned one round, mute
38 --- Minor heart attack
39--- Slip, fall prone on weapon (full damage)
40--- Minor stroke
41--- Critical hit nearest ally (move up to 10’ to do so)- roll to hit
42--- Major heart attack
43--- Major stroke
44--- Critical hit self (roll to hit)
45--- Critical hit nearest ally (move up to 10’ to do so)- roll to confirm
46--- Critical hit nearest ally (move up to 10’ to do so)
47--- Spontaneous human combustion (Fort save, DC 100 to survive with a mere 20d20 points of damage)


Edit: Whoops, sent it out without the cut & paste of the rules!

 

[Brain]

Note that the Jester uses a variant called "exploding die" where d20 rolls that are natural 1s or 20s roll again and subtract or add the second number rolled respectively. If a 20 comes up on a subsequent roll, the die keeps exploding. Subsequent 1s do nothing special.

 

[jeffh]

If you use an exploding d20, your system makes multiple attacks a potential liability, which has the consequence that the people who are better at fighting are more likely to fumble. This is not reasonable.

Granted, I think fumbles are a really bad idea on both plausibility and game-mechanical grounds. People just don't screw up catastrophically in combat that much. This means that fumbles must be rare and not have major effects - but if that's the case, why have them? But if you are going to have them, it is a must, in my opinion, that high-level fighters with four attacks be less likely to fumble than low-level mages, not more. That is the flaw (well, one of the many flaws, existing at all being among the others) of almost all fumble systems I've seen proposed for d20, including the optional one in the DMG. The least bad one I've seen suggested a once-per-round percentile check with odds of failure inversely proportional to your BAB.

As for the consequences of a fumble, the suggestion I've seen that seemed most reasonable was to deny the fumbler AoOs for a round against attempts to trip, disarm etc (but not AoOs for other reasons). That would have the additional somewhat desirable result of making those maneuvers more common. I would actually consider that if I could figure out a way to do it that doesn't give the sort of loopy probabilities mentioned above and doesn't call for significant extra dice rolling. Die pool systems have an inherent advantage over d20 here, though that didn't stop White Wolf from making a similar screwup to the one I criticize above in the first edition of V:tM.

 

[Rawhide]

One of the games I run uses a very simple fumble mechanic. If you roll a 1, -and- you hit a total ac of 0 or less, you must make a DC 15 Reflex save. If you fail the save, you have the option of being disarmed, tripped, or flat-footed.

It rarely comes up. But it does encourage fighters to -not- power attack for huge numbers and then make full attack actions just to see if they roll a 20. which, since power attacking for 10 or so is a wild swing anyway, we like.

 

[robberbaron]

IMC you roll a 1 to hit and fail a DC15 Reflex save you fumble.
My short table runs from looking silly through lobbing your weapon away up to damaging yourself/nearest friend.
Nothing too gross but it does make it a little more fun, except that I (GM) roll most of the 1s.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

If I introduced fumbles to my game the PCs would be dead in a matter of seconds. Probably from skill checks.

 

[juliaromero]

We use the reflex save method. If you roll a natural 1 on an attack, you roll a reflex save DC 15 or fumble. We used to have fun fumble chart (well charts, on for melee, one for ranged, one for firearms and one for natural weapons) but it was a pain, so we made it always just lose next attack (roughly). This was simple, less likely at higher levels, and even if it happened at higher levels, it had less of a consequence since fighters had more attacks per round.

The only exception to this was a special weapon that was extremely hard to use and dnagerous for the untrained which fumbled on a natural 5 or less, no reflex save, and the result was always hitting yourself. This would go down by taking feats to use the item. But that was just fun (it was a type of monomolecular whip thingy in a dragonstar campaign).

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

We use the reflex save method. If you roll a natural 1 on an attack, you roll a reflex save DC 15 or fumble.

The fumble system I use is similar, but the fumble confirmation roll is an attack roll versus AC 15. The reason to use an attack roll instead of a reflex save is simple - who should fumble less, a low level rogue, or a high level fighter? If you use reflex saves, it will be the rogue. If you use attack rolls it will be the fighter.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I use a 1 followed by a reflex save dc 12
results are made rolled on a list that reflects the situation. It always ends that players turn.
you can only fumble or critcally succeed on skills If you are under preasure or distracted. IE If you could have taken a 10, you cannot fumble.
The list usually includes :
drop weapon
strike at friend (w new attack rolll)
provoke AoO
Damage weapon (only if approptiate)
fall prone
after looking at the posted fumble table, I also want to add:
Turn ankle -1d4 non leathal dmg, 1/2 speed until healed
move 1d4 squares in random direction, 1 square counts as a 5' step, more provokes AoO
Loose concentration : shaken 1d4 rounds.

My previous DM uses a 1 roll again
1-5 strike allay
6-15 No effect
16-20 drop prone

 

[Raflar]

IMC we treat Fumbles similar to Critical Hits.. If you roll a 1, roll again to confirm a fumble, if you miss (roll + att bonus) then it's a fumble, if you hit with the second roll it's just a miss.

On a fumble I tend to give the enemy an AoO, or I may make the player roll damage and apply that to the weapon to see if it breaks. (hit's the ground, bow snaps etc..)

A little more streamlined I think, saves you from looking up things in charts and rolling so many times (or different dice (d%))