Laying Waste: The Guidebook to Critical Combat (PFRPG) PDF

It is live...

Not only live it's holding the still beating heart of every PC in it's path. "Get your Crit Together!"

Thanks for the review NecessaryEvil, I have to agree. Laying Waste will amp your game up to 11.

Of course! It's one of the most used gaming supplements at my table. I've got a ton of other groups using it as well.

Had a player finish off a fight by decapitation. Don't see that much anymore.

Thanks for the review Megan!

One of our players rolled a critical fumble today and failed his save. He became tangled up in his own bow and had to try to use Escape Artist (a skill he didn't have ranks in) to untangle himself. Our table was roaring with laughter--including the player of the hapless archer. Definitely made the combat more memorable and interesting, not just an HP slugfest/war of attrition. Everyone leveled up at the end of the session and I laughed as many of them took ranks in Escape Artist because they feared that result on the fumble table. A monster also fumbled and stuck himself with his own spear and kept bleeding 2 HP per round as a result. This system is really simple and fun.

Love hearing that! One thing we all noted in the playtest was that more people would be taking the Heal skill too. Let's face it, most warrior-types should know some basic medical training just in case!

We are updating the PDF this afternoon to address a couple minor fixes. Print copies are coming soon.

The fumble rules definitely seem to favor monks and paladins, given that you can avoid their worst effects with DC 20 saving throws.

Fumbles tend to be less common, depending on the relative power. As a GM you could pretty easily rule that fumbles have DC 15 saves if you are playing in a 15 point buy low-magic game. Of course you are correct though, being good at everything and having divine favor definitely helps!

Have a question....I have the Critical Hit and fumble card decks. How does Laying Waste compare to those?

We built it on the framework of the critical hit and fumble decks. What we did though was address much of the concerns people had with them though. The crits have a new system designed to make even threat rolls exciting (no total let downs from not confirming). Also, we've expanded the crits into tiers of effect (light, moderate and severe). You need to be very skilled or roll really well to do some of the more heinous crits.

On top of that, each of the effects have a save for the critical effect. If you make the save, you suffer some bonus damage instead of a debilitating effect. Even if you save, there is still some effect. Everyone wins. Also, there are options to heal or recover from all the effects. I bet your players all start putting some ranks into Heal or other skills after you play with this.

Not to mention, we put together a veritable who's who of contributing writers who helped design 16 martial archetypes and over 100 combat feats. This is a huge sourcebook that will change how combat works in your games. Thanks to our kickstarter, we had over a hundred playtesters get their input in on the final design and it both works well and is a lot of fun. I've heard from a lot of groups that they won't go back to the old system of critical hits after using this.

It's fun, I promise.

I have a question about the 100 combat feats. Are they all involved with critical hits? One or a few feats would have cut it to make a crit-book but 100 feats implies that this is more of an 'Ultimate Martial' book than a 'Critical Hits' book.

Any plans for it to come to print?

Malwing, almost all the feats have to do with critical effects. The rest are combat feats.

Lord Raptor, we just approved the proofs today, so print copies will be available everywhere soon. In the meantime, you can pre-order them from Shop.d20pfsrd.com though.

Hey, I just bought this product and I'm really digging what I'm reading so far, but as I'm writing out these effects for easy reference on VTT, I found myself confused on how the bludgeoning effect Breathless works across severities.

At light, it tells me that the target is fatigued without listing a duration, so one can assume that should last until rested (as is described in the same entry).

In the moderate section, however, the fatigue lasts only 1d2 rounds, and can also be dealt with via a Heal check - an option not seen at the light. Getting some errata for this result across all severities would be great.

But otherwise the system seems really elegant and I'm pumped to try it out this weekend!

Thanks.

Curious if this ever came up during any playtest. Can a player choose to fail his saving throw on a debilitating effect, to avoid taking the extra damage? For instance the effect would be knocked prone. I could see a player rather have that happen than to be hit with an extra 2d6 - 4d6 points of extra damage.

I wouldn't suggest allowing that. We did have people ask it. Naturally, I would defer to the GM and the situation, but the effects are supposed to be the "bad stuff" and the bonus damage be the trade-off if you save.

Thanks for the review Yuengling Dragon! The good news is that we left out the more magical archetypes on purpose. You'll see them in a future 'Laying Waste' supplement that deals with magic, psionics and alchemical critical hits (and fumbles). Cheers!

I wouldn't suggest allowing that. We did have people ask it. Naturally, I would defer to the GM and the situation, but the effects are supposed to be the "bad stuff" and the bonus damage be the trade-off if you save.

I think it is a flaw in a system when it is likely that somebody would prefer to fail a save against an effect inflicted by a foe. Half damage is generally better than full damage, but is being knocked prone worse than taking extra damage? The answer to that question is highly situational.

Malwing, almost all the feats have to do with critical effects. The rest are combat feats.

Lord Raptor, we just approved the proofs today, so print copies will be available everywhere soon. In the meantime, you can pre-order them from Shop.d20pfsrd.com though.

thank you

Necroblivion wrote:

I wouldn't suggest allowing that. We did have people ask it. Naturally, I would defer to the GM and the situation, but the effects are supposed to be the "bad stuff" and the bonus damage be the trade-off if you save.

I think it is a flaw in a system when it is likely that somebody would prefer to fail a save against an effect inflicted by a foe. Half damage is generally better than full damage, but is being knocked prone worse than taking extra damage? The answer to that question is highly situational.

I would think the answer to that is... Was it a ranged attack that knocked you down? No? Then it's probably worst then extra damage.

For those of you who are afraid this may slow down games, it becomes pretty seamless after a few runs through. We are working on a handy cheat sheet for printing that will let you have all the charts for your weapon.

Also, there is a really great Laying Waste app on google play and on d20pfsrd.com. I've used it, and it's very slick.

Reviewed first on Endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and on Lou Agresta's RPGaggression and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.

I think it is a flaw in a system when it is likely that somebody would prefer to fail a save against an effect inflicted by a foe. Half damage is generally better than full damage, but is being knocked prone worse than taking extra damage? The answer to that question is highly situational.

Agreed. This is why I would probably allow a character to intentionally choose to fail his/her save, depending on the situation.

I think it's perfectly acceptable to allow PCs to choose to fail saves using this. That would have to be agreed upon by all first, but it won't hurt anything.

We ran an Ultimate Gladiator championship this past weekend using these rules and the option Armor as DR. Wow! It was intense and a ton of fun.

How do you determine what crit tables to use for weapons and effects that deal multiple types of damage, like most natural weapons and morningstars and the like?