Roll "1" - Variations

[ckirby]

Hiya, group.

I've opted to use the roll of 1 on a d20 as follows:

1. All enemies around player immediately receive an attack of opportunity with a +2 to hit.

2. Any friendly around the player must successfully roll a Reflex save (DC???) or be entangled with their blundering amigo and loose their attack (if they haven't already attacked).

Any other variations out there?

 

[peterka1]

too much

my fumble: roll ref vs 10 or lose extra attacks + flat footed

 

[Crothian]

That's harsh. With crits you at least have to roll again to confirm it. But just a nat one is a flat 5% chance. Whirlwind attack doesn't seem so good anymore with that rule.

We use a Ref save DC 15 and then have a mild table for those who made it and a major table for those who missed it. We like variety in our fumbles.

 

[ckirby]

I'd be interested in a copy of that table, Crothian. If possible, could you post or mail a copy?

Thanks!

 

[Phoenix8008]

In my campaign, if a 1 is rolled the PC must make a Dex check at DC10. If they succeed, nothing happens. If they fail, then they roll a d4 and a d8. The d4 result is the number of 5' squares that they dropped their weapon(with 1 being in the square they are standing in. They also risk damaging themselves if this happens by making another attack roll to see if it hits). The d8 determines what direction the weapon flew(with 1 being the direction they are facing and going clockwise around the cardinal points. This can lead to cases of friendly fire with missle weapons!).

We actually had a combat where we only won because the knoll archer fumbled and killed himself with his own arrow! (There was only 1 PC left standing with a few HP's and he was trying to finish the harpy and therefore was the sole target of the knoll sniper.)

 

[Theovis]

I do the "fumble test" thing for any natural 1's, including skill tests and saves. I get them to roll the appropriate stat against DC 10.

I don't have a system for what happens on a botch, I just wing it.

I'd agree that ckirby's fumble rules are pretty dang harsh.

 

[Crothian]

I'd be interested in a copy of that table, Crothian. If possible, could you post or mail a copy?

Thanks!

I'll ask the DM if I can post it here. It's not my creation, or else I'd have no problem with it. I'll e-mail him and see what he says.

 

[wolfpunk]

Here is the simple system I use. It is easy to determine the result, and usually results in something way better then the DM having to come up with some equivalent disaster all the time.

Critical Misses

If an attack roll is a roll of a natural 1, a critical miss has occurred. The player or DM then rolls a 1d8, the roll determines the result of the critical miss.

Result

1 Amazingly dumb luck. The critical mis, somehow causes an event to happen that ends in the attack being carried out successfully as if it were a threat to critical. The player or DM then rolls to see if this hit is a critical hit.

2-7 Attack of Opportunity. The defender is able to capitalize on the situation and receives an Attack of Opportunity against the attacker. If the defender does not have an AoO to use, then this ability is lost.

8 Catastrophe. The critical miss is indeed critical, a weapon is dropped, a bow string snaps, the character loses their footing, any situation such as this could occur. In addition the attacker also suffers from the Attack of Oppurtunity listed above.

Has worked well in my campaigns.

 

[navriin]

I'm considering insertng critical failures in my game, and basically use them like a reverse critical check-ie. on a '1'roll again, if the second roll fails to hit your opponent, it's a critical failure.

I'll probably just have a critical failure provoke an attack of oppurtunity from the opponent that was critically missed, anything more sounds to harsh and i'm not a terrible fan of big charts.

 

[kramis]

fumble chart relfex save

I made it relatively easy, if a 1 is rolled, any attacker makes a reflex save. If it's 15 or over, nothing happens, if it's under 15 you immediately check the appropriate chart (there are 3 of them, unarmed, melee, and missile weapons). I'm not going to bother printing the chart as it's sort of aribtrary, mostly things like off balance minuses to AC, loss of additional attacks, provoking attacks of opportunity, etc. It only gets really serious if you roll a 1 on your reflex save (regardless of modifier), in which case you usually cirtical hit yourself if possible.

Note that some fumbles actually result in ok results by luck with missile weapons. One of the fumble results is shoot at random target in same quarter circle from you as the original. You reroll attack roll to see if it hits. If you are firing into a mass of rushing enemies this isn't a bad thing. Off course, to me that's just a realistic implication of firing into a rushing crowd.

Anyway, having one quick roll afterward makes it really easy and fast, and we don't even bother looking at the chart if it's 15 or over. So it never really slows the game down at all, and adds just a little extra interest.