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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6185687" data-attributes="member: 4937">That is a house rule.   It is not an official rule of the Pathfinder RPG, and I should say that even without knowing Pathfinder well I knew that was a house rule on the grounds that the designers of the Pathfinder RPG are usually quite competent.I would strongly advice against adopting such a house rule, as it is far more detrimental to the PC's than it is to the NPC's (as for that matter are all critical hits).   The problem is that the PC's are expected to dispatch 100's or 1000's of NPC's over the course of their career.   So an 'instant death' of an NPC as a result of good luck by a PC doesn't really change much for the PC's who will mow through most enemies anyway.  So, you saved a round or two of fighting by beating an NPC early. But the NPC's usually need dispatch the PC party only once.  PC's are subject to 100's if not 1000's of attacks in their career.   If there is a 1:8000 chance an attack will kill them, then it's pretty much guaranteed that PC's will be instantly beheaded no save.  If this occurs at an inopportune moment, it's permanent PC death no save allowed.   Worse, if it occurs in an actually tense combat early on, it's possibly going to start a snowball that leads to a TPK.  I think that it is more than enough that a PC critical could lead to massive damage and a 'Save or Die' situation , and even that is an optional rule in Pathfinder.</blockquote>

Verification