Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannager" data-source="post: 5705017" data-attributes="member: 73683">This. These are DM ideas that sound cool in the DM's head because he isn't going to be on the receiving end of any of the negative implications of instating such a rule.My advice is to just chuck this rule into the bin of discarded ideas. Unless your players have been clamoring for a grittier, more realistic game (and both of those things), they probably aren't going to be fans of the new rule.Also, your thread tag says Pathfinder. If you're playing in a 3.5-based system, penalties for critical misses are a terrible idea. TERRIBLE. Because of the way iterative attacks work, the higher-level your melee character is, the more often he will critically fumble. This is paradoxical - it follows that a more experienced character would be more proficient with his weapon and keeping it under control, not less. It also serves as an asymmetric penalty; it significantly inconveniences non-caster characters (the ones who make the vast majority of attack rolls) while doing very little to inconvenience spellcasters. In a system where spellcasting classes are already significantly stronger than non-casters (especially at the higher levels where such a rule would have the biggest impact), this is doing nothing but increasing the power gulf between casters and non-casters. That's not something you want, unless you are striving for a game where non-casters play sidekick to Wizards, Clerics, and Druids.To put things in perspective, a tricked-out two-weapon fighter could have (give or take) 10 attacks per round by the time he finises his adventuring career. Assuming zero attacks of opportunity, he will be fumbling his weapon every twelve seconds on average. Again, this is a master swordsman we're talking about. It doesn't matter whether he's fighting a demigod or a pack of kobolds, he will fumble his weapon of his own accord every other round. Every twelve seconds.</blockquote>

Verification