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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 5102457" data-attributes="member: 15470">Rachel, I thought I was clear about that - the quoted section I had grabbed and cut-and-pasted from our own house rules document, which included results on both double-20 and double-1.The bit about "fumbling to victory" was pure directive for our DM's about making sure to limit the "1" followed by a "1" so that it didn't diminish the players' feeling of triumph when they win a battle; I've seen fumble systems that did actually cause that.Still, I think your "Deathblow" does have potentially the same problem.Imagine a DM has put all of the effort into creating a recurring villain through levels 5-9, and has set up a monumental battle at the end of level 10 with said BBEG ... and it just so happens that the first PC to roll an attack double-20's. Session over?Sure, it may feel "awesome" for the character who dealt the blow, but does it cheapen the victory for the other players?Likewise, I'd be pretty frustrated if my Level 10 fighter, who habitually wades into the center of the fray, and whose character design is around forcing people to attack me, were then penalized unduly:As I'm forcing people to attack me, monsters are going to roll to hit me more often than I roll to hit monsters .. which means I'm going to get felled like this more often than I get the "awesomeness" of dealing out the Deathblow.Seriously - its a 1-in-400 shot. I figure I get out in the middle of 10 fights per level .. call it six rounds per average fight .. maybe three people swinging at me per round .. So I'm expecting around 180 attacks against me per level. I'm going to get dropped like this approximately every other level, even if I'm at full hit points and "doing everything right"?When the result is "The DM tells a story", you get wildly varying effects. We certainly do get the occasional "A strike so awesome that it surprises even the attacker" .. but we also have the flexibility to ensure that we aren't killing a player or a major villain in a single shot.</blockquote>

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