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Hello,
I will soon be starting a Pathfinder campaign and I had a quick question: Would it be unbalancing it I allowed a player with a x3 crit weapon to pull from the Crit. Deck, but allow them to do x3 damage? For instance, instead of the x2 damage and the accompaning affect, allow the player to do x3 damage(Great Axe)and also allow the effect from the card.
Thanks.
I don't think so.
However if you take away the critical multiplier in exchange for pulls from the critical hit deck... Well, my players choose to NOT pull because most of the effects were not as effective as the multiplier damage.
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It is not unbalancing.
In fact, one of the options suggested is to allow the x3 crit to pull two cards and allow the player to choose which effect.
My group allows x3 crits to pull twice and apply BOTH cards.
The cards will shorten some fights. I have seen the cards turn the tide of battle with a single draw. This makes for exciting and tense moments.
Just remember, if a player can do it, an NPC should be able to as well.
P.S.
Watch out for the decapitation card. I had a character at full health fall to it.
I don't give my players the choice of pulling cards or not. The fact is, not using the deck tends to deal more damage, while using the deck has cooler effects.
I use the suggested rule that x3 weapons get to draw two cards and pick their result and it has made for some really cool events, like the ranger with a composite longbow dazing the large crocodile man that had the party barbarian in his mouth. (The barbarian was then able to escape from the dazed monster's mouth.) That fight was also the last time I let the players elect not to take a card too, because the barbarian with his greatsword elected to just roll damage on his crit, and hit for something astronomical. Sure, it was possible he could have got a x2+effect card on his draw, but letting him elect to take the regular x2 damage lets him always choose that, and he always would rather than risk getting one of the x1+effect cards.
Honestly though, that poor barbarian ends up drawing from the Critical Fumble deck far more often.
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But yeah, my thought is that it's no big deal if you want to make double damage into triple damage for x3 weapons.
You might want to consider only letting them draw a card on a natural 20. We had a keen-rapier-wielder for a while and all the cards he was drawing were taxing the GM because of all the ability damage.
How we use the crit deck:
We only use the deck, not just standard damage. If you have a x3 weapon and the card says 2x, you roll 3x. If the card says normal damage, you roll x2. With a x4 weapon, normal means x3 :P
Seems to work so far.
It was my understanding that the crit deck BY ITSELF was unbalancing.
Hello,
I will soon be starting a Pathfinder campaign and I had a quick question: Would it be unbalancing it I allowed a player with a x3 crit weapon to pull from the Crit. Deck, but allow them to do x3 damage? For instance, instead of the x2 damage and the accompaning affect, allow the player to do x3 damage(Great Axe)and also allow the effect from the card.
Thanks.
Yeah it is. The affects along are enough to cripple the monsters. Making the players choose the card or the affect is good enough. The card that does 3d6 dex and the one that causes bleed damage equal to weapon damage are really good/bad depending on which side of the hit you are on.
There are others also.PS:I also use the cards against the players, and I let them vote as to whether or we will use them before the campaign begins.
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My group hase used the crit deck for a year or so now. It will unbalance your game bad if you alow for both effects. Even drawing two cards and applying both effects is realy over powered.
What my group uses becous we realy like the unique effects of the deck. How ever we know it can be over powering. Most of the cards will say they do double damage + an effect.
On a crit hit.
With a X2 ( Draw one card and apply the card )
With a X3 ( Draw one card and X2 damage + card effect. Max of X3 damage )
With a X4 ( Draw one card and X3 damage + card effect. Max of X4 damage )
I just do as the rules for the cards said.
As an example if you have a x3 slashing weapon you pull 2 cards and choose which of the effects you want along with regular damage unless the card says otherwise then you get to do that amount.
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The way my DM uses the deck is anything with an actual name gets to use it on crits and your crit multiplier drops by one when using it. So a "normal damage + effect" card on a x2 weapon would just do the normal non-crit damage and whatever effect, a x3 would do x2 damage and the effect, etc. The "double damage" cards puts your crit multiplier back to where the weapon normally is, so if your player drew a "double damage and effect" card on his great axe, he'd do x3 damage with it. It hasn't been unbalancing at all or bogged combat down any.
We add one to the multiplier on the card for x3 weapons and two for a x4 critical weapon.
How we use the crit deck:
We only use the deck, not just standard damage. If you have a x3 weapon and the card says 2x, you roll 3x. If the card says normal damage, you roll x2. With a x4 weapon, normal means x3 :P
Seems to work so far.
That's exactly what we're doing as well, and we've been happy with it so far (and it still makes these x4 scythes very dangerous weapons).
On another note, the Crit cards help a lot with the story. The effect has a name and basically give a flavourful discription of what happens. This also means that my one Oracle has two items he wouldnt not normally have. a hand and 3 fingers. He just keeps getting those easy to claim trophies. :P
I GM one group and play in another and we have basically stopped using the crit deck. It was fine I guess but it can become very difficult to manage as a GM when trying to track all of the effects. it also tends to extend some of the fights as additional damage is converted into some other effect.
Not saying that is right or wrong, just my experience.
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A critical hit means that you draw a card from the critical hit deck and apply its condition.
Exception: Precision damage (such as from a rogue's sneak attack class feature) and additional damage dice from special weapon qualities (such as flaming) are not multiplied when you score a critical hit.
Increased Threat Range: Sometimes your threat range is greater than 20. That is, you can score a threat on a lower number. In such cases, a roll of lower than 20 is not an automatic hit. Any attack roll that doesn't result in a hit is not a threat.
Increased Critical Multiplier: Some weapons draw more cards than others. for every multiple above x2 you draw an additional card (2 for x3, 3 for x4 etc.). In this case all effects on cards are taken, and damage is multiplied as thus: starting with normal damage each card that calls for double damage increases the damage multiple by one; each card that calls for triple damage increases the multiple by 2. Example: John scores a critical hit with his greataxe (x3 multiplier) and draws 2 cards. He draw one card for normal damage and one card for double damage, so he deals x2 damage and causes both card effects. Later in the combat Mike gets a crit with his scythe (x4 multiplier), he is lucky and draws two cards dealing double damage and one card for triple damage, so he deals x5 damage and all three cards effects take place (If he had drawn one card for normal damage, one card for double, and one card for triple then he would have dealt x4, the same result would happen on 3 double damage cards). Later on John scores another crit, both cards call for double damage meaning he deals x3 damage.
Spells and Critical Hits: A spell that requires an attack roll can score a critical hit. A spell attack that requires no attack roll cannot score a critical hit. If a spell causes ability damage or drain (see Special Abilities), the damage or drain is doubled on a critical hit.
We also use the fumble deck, we love them for our games, and all enemies get to use the decks same as PCs. We also have rules for limb loss and instant kill (although those are exceptionally rare) we prefer grim and gritty games.
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As mentioned by several above, I basically drop -1 from the multiplier and then take the effect of the card. A x3 weapon does x2 +card(meaning if the card says double damage, you do x3 again).
Also, I believe its mentioned somewhere in the crit card rules that if you have weapon focus you get to draw two cards and choose one so we do that as well.