My Critical Miss (Fumbles) Table

[Khisanth the Ancient]

If a natural "1" is rolled, roll to hit again. If it would have hit, the attack misses normally. If it misses too, the attack is a critical miss.
Roll 1d20 on the table below:
1-10---------11-15---16-19 20
Unbalance Fumble Drop Accident

Unbalance : Weapon swings out of balance, -2 to initiative next round.
Fumble : Ref DC14, if successful treat as an unbalance, if failed lose one round by fumbling.
Drop: Lose one round picking up your dropped weapon.
Accident : Roll again on Accident Table (below):
1-10---11-15----16-19--20
Drop Scratch Cut Self-Blow
Drop: As above.
Scratch: Suffer 1 point of damage.
Cut : Suffer half weapon damage (minimum of one point).
Self-Blow: Suffer full damage.

 

[ThomasBJJ]

I was thinking basically the opposite of a critical hit, similar to the above post to a point...

Roll a "Natural 1" , roll again to "Confirm" the fumble.
If the confirmation roll is a miss, a "Fumble" has occoured, if the confirmation roll is a hit, there is no fumble.

In the even of a "fumble" I would rule either the weapon used is dropped, or if no weapon is involved the character falls prone.

I would consider a "natural 1" on a Tumble skill check to force a confirm fumble roll, or similar circumstances with use of skill checks.

And alternate system is this:

Character rolls a "natural 1", must make a Reflex save to avoid "Fumble" which can again either be a fall prone, or drop weapon result. The DC for this save could be set by the DM, or the DC could equal the amount you missed the roll by. (You needed a 17, but rolled a 1. You need to beat DC 16).

High Dex characters will not be as suceptible to fumbles as low dex chars, but that is as it should be IMO.

 

[IndyPendant]

I had a simple fumble concept too: roll a natural 1, roll again. On a miss, you've crit fumbled. Penalty: you only get to take a partial action on your next action. Simple enough not to slow down game play, yet enough of a penalty that players do not want to fumble--particularly at the higher levels.

 

[MarauderX]

Break it!

I like to include 'weapon breaks' on mine. I have it before damage, and if it's magical it gets to make one last fumble check with the magic bonus added against the break chart. No matter what if you roll three 1's in a row, that weapon is gone. I would put that in place of the 'Self-Blow' you have there, as IMO you never fully attempt to hack your own leg off or similiar. Weapons breaking means a lot more in higher level campaigns, but in the low levels the damage often matters more, as a PC can just pull out a back-up weapon and buy a replacement after the battle.

As I see it, weapons break on the battlefield all of the time, and the weapons made back then weren't constructed of consistant alloys with perfect balance and such. Whether metal or not they tend to break without someone trying to sunder it.

 

[ThomasBJJ]

I think drawing an immediate Attack of Opportunity is also a good option for a Fumble/Critical Miss.