Critical hit / Critical fumble card decks

[Douglas Muir 406]

Been thinking about picking these up; they have generally favorable reviews, and might add some spice.

But I do see a potential mechanical problem. Critical and fumbles both tend to work against PCs, because PCs must survive dozens of combats while most of their monstrous opponents only fight once. If the PC gets a critical that decapitates a goblin, that's amusing; if a goblin can roll a crit that decapitates a PC, it's maybe less so. So, a good critical or fumble table should take this into account.

Do the cards do this? Based on the samples available in the store, it doesn't look like it. Several of the possible crits and fumbles where in "holy crap" territory -- if they happened to my PC, I'd be seriously boggling. ("Hey, the goblin shaman rolled a critical on that Scorching Ray, and drew... Planar Rift! Will Save or your PC is sent to a random outer plane.")

The critical deck patches this by recommending that only boss monsters and major NPCs use the deck. Have to say I don't like that much -- and the fumble deck, which is nearly as lethal, doesn't even offer that option.

How has this worked out in actual play?

Doug M.

[Bob_Loblaw]

This is what the Rules Card suggests:

Player Use
Whenever a player confirms a crit, that player draws one card from the deck and follows the result appropriate to the weapon's damage type (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing). For magical attacks, use the magic entry. For weapons with critical multipliers of x3, the player draws two cards and chooses which effect to use (x4 weapons draw 3 cards). The player must take the card's result unless it cannot be applied, in which case the player rolls x2 damage normally

GM Use
There are three ways a GM can use these cards. Since they can be quite deadly to players, we recommend the first option.

* The GM only draws cards for crits scored by major villians or NPCs.
* Monsters and NPCs mush spend a feat to draw cards when scoring a critical hit.
* All monsters and NPCs draw cards when scoring a crit.

On the back of the Card is the Definitions:

Save: Unless a DC is listed, the DC for any save that is called for is equal to the confirmation roll used to score the critical hit (after all modifiers have been applied). Saves only affect additional damage effects, never base weapon damage.

So the Decapitation effect says: Double Damage and death (Fort negates).

That means that if the enemy rolled a 25 to confirm the critical hit, then a Fortitude DC 25 would negate the decapitation but not the double damage.

[Evil Lincoln]

The cards are awesome and fun, my group loves them.

They do need a little help rules-wise.

After much use, this is the method we settled upon at my table:

Evil Lincoln's House Rules wrote:

Critical Hits, Fumbles, and Cards
If you roll a natural 20, you draw a card from the "Critical Hit Deck". This effect is applied and has no bearing on the critical hit RAW. Think of these as "Natural 20 Cards". If the card effect includes a damage multiplier, this is ignored unless it is the only effect of the card. Instead, use the normal damage multiplier for the weapon on a critical hit.

If you roll a natural 1, you draw a card from the "Critical Fumble Deck."

A character with multiple attacks only risks a fumble on their first attack of the round! All subsequent rolls of a 1 are still treated as an automatic miss, but you do not suffer the effects of an additional fumble card. If you start a full attack and suffer a fumble, you may "abort" to a standard attack, or continue with your attacks.

A long time ago I did an analysis of the fairness of the different crit types. Bludgeoning is considerably underpowered compared to the other cards, so that's why I divorced damage multipliers from the cards.

I divorced the Crit cards themselves from crits, making them "Natural 20 cards" mainly to avoid unwanted interactions with Pathfinder's crit rules. Just levels the playing field.

The fumble thing is just fair. No matter how many attacks you have, you have the same chance of fumbling. Some people may think this is too much, but I like my combats to be hectic, and a lot of the fumble cards are less severe than most GM-resolved fumbles.

Note that I don't have confirmation rolls for cards. This is because my group really loves these things, so drawing a crit/fumble 10% of time doesn't bother my crew. Your mileage may vary.