Solid 20 on Tumble

[DragnLancr]

I DM for my group in D&D 3.5. An event came up once where the rogue in the party happened to be the last one standing while fighting a weretiger. Anyways, the weretiger was almost dead, but not close enough for one hit from the rogue to drop him, unless it was a sneak attack. It just so happened that the rogue decided to tumble up to the weretiger, and rolled a solid 20 on the tumble check. I ruled then that he could get a sneak attack, mostly because I didn't want a total party wipe-out because they didn't deserve that, but my decision came from the solid 20 on the tumble check. Since then, that's been a house rule: roll a solid 20 on a tumble check, opponent loses his/her dex bonus to AC that round because you just managed to make the opponent have no idea where you were going.

Does this make any sense to you guys? Does it sound like an acceptable rule?

 

[Nadaka]

It is a very apropriate situational determination.

As for permenant houserules? only if you add rules for "critical hit" for all other skills as well.

 

[SteelDraco]

There's a stunt in Iron Heroes that lets you do exactly that - basically, you tumble past their defenses, and attack from an unexpected direction. So there's some precedent for it in d20 games, at least.

 

[Land Outcast]

So there's some precedent for it in d20 games, at least.

Indeed, called "Feint"