Making Natural 20 super fun

[marli]

Ill be using this im my campaign
some opinion on balance and how it will work please

1)minons have 2HP instead of 1.
half damage deals bloodied damage to a minion.
2)rolling a natuaral 20 deals bloodied damage.

If a player rolls a natural 20 , everybody shuts up and that player discribes what happened in as imagintive discription as he desires.
If the DM deams that the disciption was fun,imagintive,discriptive,original or in character; he the applies bloodied damage not max dice damage.
this means a 20 can down an enemy.

Off course some creatures, NPCs and all players are immune to this ability....it should mark out some monsters as a worth your respect.

i calculate at 60-80% minions you would deal an extra 1.25% damage.
thats a perfectly ok shift for the advantage of the players flavouring the game and thier own characters.

 

[Andramelech]

I know you could have it where this effects monsters and not players, but I wouldn't do that. I think part of what makes criticals so "In your face!", is that it can happen to the players as well. Random tables can work pretty good: roll d4
1 Balls= stunned for x amount of time
2 Face= all enemies have total concealment for x
3 Arm = -2 to hit for x
4 Leg = movement reduced by x for y


I'm trying to come up with a good critical failure for both sides. I call it "Saving face". It's just a save. The way I did it in third was to have them trip up and end up prone, but in 4th ed this is not so bad. Maybe I'll have melee weapons fall in a random adjacent square, or have them grant combat advantage untill their next turn.

 

[marli]

the objective is for everyone to celebrate a 20,
the automatic miss.
Idont believe it will unbalance the game too much.

 

[shamsael]

The problem with drastic critical fumbles is that they happen too often in d20 games.

Does it really make sense that a fighter who is an expert at swinging a sword should somehow let go of the thing 5% of the time?

 

[marli]

I'm won't ne using dramatic fumble.
I'm talking about dramatic success'

 

[TarionzCousin]

I'm won't ne using dramatic fumble.
I'm talking about dramatic success'

I believe shamsael was addressing Andramelech's point about Critical Fumbles.

marli, your rules will change the game somewhat. This may be more fun for you and your group. Try it out and see how people feel about it. You can always go back to the original rules.

 

[buddhafrog]

I bought a large metal d20 that PC's roll after rolling a natural 20.

I made a 1-20 "magic" and "Weapon" bonus chart that the player gets based upon the roll of the metal d20. The damage or effect gradually increases, but not until 17-20 does it become fairly significant. It's fun and the players love to get their hands on the large metal die.

 

[Fridayknight]

Yeah i really dont like it when i describe how im going to rox someone with my natural twenty and it ends up being not good enough. Fix this plz.

 

[KrazyK]

I'm going to assume you're doing this from the start of an adventure with level 1 PCs fighting level 1 NPCs. I say that because, from what I'm reading, you could have a level 5-7 wizard w/ party fighting a level 6 Cave Bear(170hp, Bloodied 85) cast magic missle and instead of only doing 8 + Int, it does 85 damage if the crit is worded nicely. I think this should only be implemented if the power used was a daily or powerful encounter. Personally I would never do this, its too much drama to deal with. Think about it, you give one player the bonus for some total epic wording and now you've got a new standard and everyone after has to out epic the last guy.

 

[Fridayknight]

uhm isnt it good to encourage in-game competition that allows roleplaying?