D&D 5E What are your favourite fumble tables?

[JCS]

I used to love the old MERP Critical Hit and Fumble tables. This fumble for the crossbow was a classic...

"You slip and pin your foot to the ground with a quarrel. +10 hits. 2 hits per round. -30 to activity. Stunned 3 rounds."

Of course, this melee fumble was also popular...

"Worst move seen in ages. -60 to activity from a pulled groin. Foe is stunned 2 rounds laughing."

 

[MNblockhead]

Fumbles are stupid. They're saying that 1 out of twenty attacks a skilled fighter somehow has a notable and pathetic 'whoopsi daisy'. For a twentieth level fighter that's once every 5 rounds (30 seconds) of combat, less if they use bonus actions to attack. Dumb.

Fumbles mean that in chaos of combat, s**t happens. I get what you are saying about highly skilled heroes not messing up 5% of their attacks. Perhaps it is best to drop the term "fumble." A crit miss simply means something goes wrong. It can increase cinematic flavor.

At our table, we enjoy the extra flavor and suspense of drawing from crit hit/fail decks (both for PCs and NPCs).

You may think "fumbles" are stupid. I think it is silly—and boring—to have combat where equipment never malfunctions; nobody ever slips on the mud and gore of the battle field; spellcasting requiring fine motor skills, exacting language, and precious components never goes awry, and no heroic efforts ever end in a face plant.

 

[Lanefan]

Fumbles are stupid. They're saying that 1 out of twenty attacks a skilled fighter somehow has a notable and pathetic 'whoopsi daisy'. For a twentieth level fighter that's once every 5 rounds (30 seconds) of combat, less if they use bonus actions to attack. Dumb.

That assumes you're using no kind of confirmation roll. It's easy to tweak a confirm roll to suit skill - as easy, in fact, as rolling to hit again on a nat. 1 and only if that second roll would miss is there an actual fumble. Otherwise it's just a bad miss.

So, once in 20 anyone rolling to hit or aim will threaten a fumble, but the chance of actually messing things up goes down with advancing skill. Seems simple enough to me... ::shrug::

Lan-"besides, a little slapstick never hurt anyone...much"-efan

 

[Ricochet]

We use these charts for 5E. I honestly have no idea where I found them initially, as there is no author on the pages, but it was in some thread or other here on EN World iirc back in the PLaytest era of 5E.

Here they are. Perhaps the author sees it, and if so, GREAT WORK!

View attachment Fumble Charts - Google Docs.pdf

I posted our fumble rules for 5E and Pathfinder in a separate thread here, if anyone is interested in other systems.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...le-systems-for-5E-and-Pathfinder-3E&p=7132896

 

[Father Hand]

Rolemaster used to have a wonderful spell failure chart.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

There’s this:
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/232573

Not every crit fumble need be devastating, but crit fumbles should be some kind of flavorful regardless of how “powerful” the character is. Otherwise, rolling a 1 will only be just another unremarkable miss.