I think that I would just going to ditch the whole critical hit stuff. The mechanics already incorporate the idea of landing a good blow through the overkill mechanism.
I did have an idea regarding an alternative approach, but it is dependent on using the 3d6 rules variant (which I do) as well as an alternative approach to BAB.
It probably should be in a new thread, but I'll stick it here for the moment. Its still very much in the conceptual stage.
* Characters roll 3d6 rather than 1d20.
* BAB represents the number of extra dice the character has at their disposal. So a character with BAB +3 could roll 6d6 (Take.Highest.3). Strength, enchantment and other bonuses are added to the total as usual.
Instead of Criticals, the charaters can sacrifice dice to achieve an Effect. For example:
* sacrifice 1 dice, bypass light Armour;
* sacrifice 2 dice, bypass medium armour;
* sacrifice 3 dice, bypass heavy armour;
* sacrifice 1 dice, successful strike reduces Spd by 10 ft.
* sacrifice 2 dice, successful strike reduces Spd by 20 ft.
* sacrifice 1 dice, daze target (one round, one round per overkill?).
Other Effects could be incorporated. For example, characters could sacrifice dice to change the characteristics of their weapon. For example:
* sacrifice 1 dice to change a slashing weapon to a bludgeoning weapon.
* sacrifice 1 (2?) dice to effective gain reach (5 ft.)
Humm. There was a thread about a alternative combat system along these lines. I think I'm going to see if I can hunt it down.
thotd
Best crit charts in the history of mankind. Just watch out for those collapsed lungs, they're a doozie. The magic crit charts were also pretty obscene. You could end up turning everything within 100 feet of you into glass like an atomic bomb in the desert. Nasty stuff.
