A 20 is always a hit, a 1 is always a fumble. Now this is an optional rule for 4E. What the hell?
Dude this has to be said ...fumbles are unfun
Especially when the fumble is the mangling of a venerable brand name.
Since you roll an attack against every creature caught in your AE, Wizards and characters with lots of area powers are going to be fumbling a lot more than others. Likewise, in 3E a "fumble on a 1" rule resulted in you becoming MORE likely to flub up as you got better, not the other way around (as expected).
I do like fumble rules, but I think the best implementation was how my group runs it in our 3E games ... a 1 is a "fumble threat" which requires confirmation, another missed attack roll. Like 3E crit hits in reverse.
Crits without confirms are fine, but I don't really like fumbles without them.
Cheers! :)
A 20 is always a hit, a 1 is always a fumble. Now this is an optional rule for 4E. What the hell?
actually it was only true of 2e and later (and it is 20 is always a hit and 1 is always a miss), it was not true in 1e, OD&D or classic. So not seeing it in 4e doesn't really bother me.
Dude this has to be said ...fumbles are unfun
I dissagree... some of the funest moments in games I have played come from dramtic tension resulting from a flubbed roll.
Dude this has to be said ...fumbles are unfunSomebody doesn't own the GameMastery Critical Fumble deck.
Fumbles get a new brand of cheering in my games, even when they're from fellow players.
I have yet to get this one the crit deck is much loved.
Dude this has to be said ...fumbles are unfunI dissagree... some of the funest moments in games I have played come from dramtic tension resulting from a flubbed role.
Well man me to ..that was a stab at the wotc folks that keep saying this or that is unfun and had to go.
I do like fumble rules, but I think the best implementation was how my group runs it in our 3E games ... a 1 is a "fumble threat" which requires confirmation, another missed attack roll. Like 3E crit hits in reverse.
Crits without confirms are fine, but I don't really like fumbles without them.
I've been doing the same thing for about six years now.
A 1 in 20 chance to seriously screw up seems like a lot, especially since that average doesn't change with character progression.
Compare that to the chance of confirming a critical hit, a PC has a better chance of harming himself than putting a critical hit on the bad guy.
Now, my current DM does straight-up, you roll a 1, and the Dragon Compendium is opened! While it is fun to watch (at times), my previous statement hold true for our party. We have had several encounters where we nearly TPK'd ourselves.
While kinda funny... it's not the way you want to go out.
But yes... fumbles bring out memorable moments. For our current group, the party fighter fumbled the first three times she tried to cleave, and ended up dropping herself each time. Funny. But it wouldn't have been "fun" to have a TPK because of losing a front line fighter to an unlucky die roll.
After our Game Day experience, I'm going to ask the DM to consider merging the 4e crit rule with the 3.x: nat 20 = max damage, a confirmed crit uses the crit table. (Or cards.)
A 20 is always a hit, a 1 is always a fumble. Now this is an optional rule for 4E. What the hell?
Err, am I missing something?
4E PHB says:
Miss: If your attack roll is lower than the defense
score, the attack misses. Usually, there’s no effect.
Some powers have an effect on a miss, such as dealing
half damage.
Automatic Miss: If you roll a natural 1 (the die
shows a 1), your attack automatically misses.
And 3.5E PHB says:
Automatic Misses and Hits: A natural 1 (the d20 comes up 1) on an attack roll is always a miss. A natural 20 (the d20 comes up 20) is always a hit. A natural 20 is also a threat—a possible critical hit.
What is the difference?
If you are talking "critical fumbles", they were an optional rule on 3.5E, just like on 4E.