Criticals and fumbles?

[runequester]

From experience, virtually the first thing any group invents for a house rule in old D&D or AD&D is critical hits and fumbles.

For years and years, my rule in AD&D was always "20's hit for max damage, 1's the DM invents some sort of mishap", and it worked pretty decently.


I think we tried a "20 gives a bonus attack, 1 gives enemy a free swing" too, but I don't remember if we liked it.


Currently, I don't use any system for either, but what do you guys do out there?

[scottenkainen]

When I was running 1st ed. AD&D, I always used criticals and fumbles. My interest in OD&D has led to me preferring simpler rules, so now I prefer to have no special mechanics added to combat to make it less abstract. I may still choose to describe a hit or miss as a critical or fumble, but only using flavor text.

[Deleted]

Improvisation.

[Deleted]

I've never used them.

[Sean Michael Kelly]

Often times, especially since I play with a number of kids at my table, I'll award the option to trade a d6 damage roll for the big "d30" damage roll when a nat20 is rolled. Critical fumbles are only used for comic effect occasionally.

[jacar]

I don't like fumbles. We play heroes and heroes don't fumble unless the story demands it. I do like simple critical hits. We currently play that a natural 20 allows your weapon to do double dice damage. You still only add your strength bonus once to the total but dice and magical modifiers for the weapon are added once to each die roll (effectively doubled).

[Finarvyn]

Jan 20, 2013 22:46:10 GMT -6 runequester said:

For years and years, my rule in AD&D was always "20's hit for max damage, 1's the DM invents some sort of mishap", and it worked pretty decently.

This is pretty much what I've done for OD&D for 30 years or so, except that I do 2x damage on a 20 instead of max damage.

The fumble results are improv, based on the situation. "Uh ... on a 1-2 you slip and fall, 3-4 drop your sword, 5-6 hit a good guy instead." That kind of thing.

I know that experienced fighters shouldn't goof up 5% of the time, but it adds an element of the unpredictable to the game and my players have never complained since I do the same thing for both players and monsters.

[coffee]

I've been in an AD&D game for a couple of years now, and that's kind of how the DM runs it. On a 1, you roll on the fumble table; on a 20 you roll on the crit table. You might get nothing, or you might break your mace on your buddy's head.

These tables were largely responsible for the deaths of many of the player characters. The monsters didn't kill us -- we did.

Gygax knew this, by the way. He specifically said so in the DMG on page 61:

Such rules as double damage and critical hits must cut both ways -- in which case the life expectancy of player characters will be shortened considerably...

I look at critical hits in a completely backwards way. It's not the hit roll, it's the damage roll.

If you roll a 6 for damage, then that was a critical hit! (No, you don't get any more damage added on; you've already done the maximum.)

At least, that's the way it works in my world. YMMV.

[jacar]

I know that experienced fighters shouldn't goof up 5% of the time, but it adds an element of the unpredictable to the game and my players have never complained since I do the same thing for both players and monsters.

Let em tell you a story. I have this Barbarian Fighter (1st ed so he is a fighter) who was 5th level at the time. He and the party were involved in a large battle with Goblins. By large I mean they had to break through an army to get inside the temple the Goblins were trying to take over. You would think that my warrior would waltz right through the pack. he had axes he used for throwing. because he had one for each hand, he could dual wield them and still stand a fair chance of hitting. Well, our DM said that a '1' is a fumble and your turn is over when that happens. Now, like I said, I am dual wielding which gives me ten (10!) attacks per round against less than 1HD creatures. Life is good for a warrior right? Wrong.

First, I didn't get to experience the joy of rolling 5D20 at a time since order mattered when a fumble occurred. I had to roll 1 right and 1 left and hope that no fumbles occurred before moving on to the next attack.

Second, does anyone want to take a guess on the likelihood of getting a '1' in 10 rolls is? If you guessed 40% you would be correct. I switched to 1 axe because I fumbled the first two rounds. BTW the likelihood of fumbling at least once in 5 attacks is 22%.

Be careful with the fumble rules. You may be gimping the very class that actually needs some help.

[runequester]

yeah, that's a pretty good example of the DM not really thinking things through.

That's why I like the "1 is a free enemy attack" option.

[jacar]

That's why I like the "1 is a free enemy attack" option.

Yeah. This is a pretty good option and kind of makes some sense. Korg the Barbarian with his two hand axes, goes wading through the Goblin pack at full bore with little regard for his own safety. He passes one who manages to take a poke at him while he is not looking.

No turn interruption required either. In my attacks I might roll even two '1s'. Simply resolve those attacks after I am done.

[runequester]

Jan 22, 2013 10:37:31 GMT -6 jacar said:

Yeah. This is a pretty good option and kind of makes some sense. Korg the Barbarian with his two hand axes, goes wading through the Goblin pack at full bore with little regard for his own safety. He passes one who manages to take a poke at him while he is not looking.

No turn interruption required either. In my attacks I might roll even two '1s'. Simply resolve those attacks after I am done.

Yeah, I like the notion that you exposed yourself to a chance attack. I guess for the Greyhawk types where monsters get multiple different attacks, the DM will have to pick one, but that's not such a big deal.

Of course it might help make those hydras a bit less scary too