Crit Fail example rules

[Brit O]

I'd like a clearer set rules for crit fail. Since we're including it, it seems like a better explanation of what should happen be included. Just an example set of what could happen for the DM to pick from instead of it seeming like the DM is just screwing with his players.

I for one, always call them on the fly but one idea i had is to include weapon damage on the list of possibilities. Something like accidentally hitting a rock that kinda blunts the blade. The biggest reason I'd like this is that equipment damage only comes up after fighting an opponent that sunders things, and you encounter something like that once every 5th campaign.

Including it as the result of a crit fail would be interesting, especially since it'll increase the likelyhood of non-sundering experts to go "Oh, his just cracked his axe haft. This could be worth a shot." and trying for it. To often I see players think "well I could sunder his weapon, but by the time I was finished I may have just killed him already." If damage occurs naturally as a part of combat it'll make it a bit more viable and exciting.

Anyone think this is a good idea, even as just a variant?

[Saurstalk]

Have you considered Paizo's Critical Fumbles deck? It's pretty nice and has a wide variety of outcomes.

Paizo also has a Critical Hits deck that's pretty darn nice.

[eggellis]

Where does it mention them at all?

[hogarth]

eggellis wrote:

Where does it mention them at all?

Where it says: "A roll of 1 is always a miss."

[Brit O]

its a variant, but if after a roll of 1 you make a dex check or something vs DC 15. If you fail, something truly bad happens in the form of (here's my examples):

Dropping your weapon.
Tripping and falling Prone.
Hitting the wrong target (sometimes allies in extreme cases)
Somehow leave an opening in your defense (-2 to AC for a round)

And my favorite, in one funny case we had a character with a lasso and he crit failed and I ruled he accidently caught his head in the rope before throwing and entangled himself. Luckily this was a pretty lighthearted game and it was fun for the whole group and not frustrating. Woudln't recommend as a core suggestion.

But what I'm saying is if I think a player dropping his weapon is more appropriate than him tripping I'd like to have something to point at besides arguing with him about how I'm just punishing him. Just being able to say, "It says here that's one of the possibilities" makes me seem like less of a meany.

[Saurstalk]

When my elf cleric/ranger started out, we had a serious combat scene where the paladin raced forward and she held back - peppering the opposition with arrows. Only, I was on a horrid streak of natural 1s followed by confirmed rolls against the Paladin's armor class. You can imagine what happened.

(Fortunately, the Paladin didn't die!)

[0gre]

hogarth wrote:

eggellis wrote:

Where does it mention them at all?

Where it says: "A roll of 1 is always a miss."

Well that's a different rule. Critical fumble usually implies "something bad might happen when you roll a 1" as opposed to just missing. There is no actual "Critical Miss" rule where things go south on a 1. It would be fun, I like the Citical Hits and Critical Miss deck idea but I've never bought them. I'm not sure the critical miss deck is fair to fighters.

-- Dennis