Spicing up critical hits

[Mark Hoover]

I have combat-centric players; they'd rather fight than gather info and roleplay. As such I'm always looking to make combats more fun.

I remember as a kid one of our GM's had a critical hits deck: get a crit and draw a card. Ex: Spontaneous decapitation: instant death, no bleeding.

So without going out to the interwebs, hobby shops and such to hunt up such a deck does anyone have a clever houserule I might borrow to liven up these things?

Here's one I thought of but have yet to put in play: get a crit and either take double damage or single damage plus the spontaneous use of 1 "improved..." CMB feat, such as improved sunder, improved trip, improved reposition etc. In this instance you'd still need to resolve the CMB effect through rolls and such but you'd get the full benefit of the feat (+2 to your roll, no attack of opportunity); if the player already had the base feat they could choose another or advance it to the next level in the feat tree.

Ex: Brock our 2hw fighter bravely takes a fireball to the face plus a quickened wand of magic missiles charging a wizard. The wand is a nuisance and will destroy the party so he attacks hitting w/a confirmed critical. Brock takes the "improved" option and chooses to inflict a little damage while sundering the wand. Since he already has Improved Sunder on his character sheet he opts to bump it to Greater Sunder. In a spectacular shower of sparks and eldritch energy he slices upward along the arcanists body ending his attack by shattering the wand. The burst of magical energies harms the wizard as well per the Greater Sunder feat.

[Ope]

Best advice I can give is to talk to your players and get their input as to what they would like to see offered from critical strikes. Each game table is different, so someone else's suggestions may not work for your group.

Also, be sure your players know crits will be used against them too. They will be less likely to ask for instant death or disfiguring rolls. Keep in mind, it may be an iterative process where your first version is the final version.

[Mark Hoover]

Oh, I'm just in the "gathering ideas" phase to pitch to the players. I'm a major proponent of talking w/my players and often annoy them in the down-time between games with requests for critiques, suggestions and what not. This is how I found out they wanted more combat in the first place.

Another thought I had was that after 0HP damage became permanent. To wit: Brock takes a minotaur's gore attack that drops him to -2. He now takes 2 pts of stat damage somewhere (Con, Str or Dex is what I'm thinking off the top of my head). This damage, like a negative level, becomes permanent if not healed with some decent Healing Skill rolls or Restoration of some kind w/in 24 hours.

This would explain why you see NPC's like the horribly burned wizard (permanent Cha damage,) the dwarven former warrior/turned barkeep who walks w/a limp (permanent Dex damage) or the one eyed rogue (permanent Wis damage?) or whatever.

[The 8th Dwarf]

You could do it this way... (This owes its inspiration to ROLEMASTER a game where classes are rewarded for being good at something).

Feel free to scale it for the desired lethality.

Get descriptive or allow the players to describe the criticals within the bounds of the roll.

Healing damage to major organs and re-attaching limbs mending broken bones... if attempted within 24 hours limbs can be re-attached (if in good condition) and organ damage can be cured.

Cure light wounds - fingers/toes
Cure Moderate Wounds - hands/feet
Cure Serious Wounds - Arms/feet
Cure Critical Wounds - crushed skulls and so on.

Slashing weapons
Exceed confirmation by 3 sever a finger/toe or small gash, cause +1 bleed until healed -2 to actions with limb

Exceed confirmation by 6 sever a hand/foot or medium gash cause +3 bleed until healed -4 to actions with limb

Exceed confirmation by 12 sever a arm/leg or large gash cause +6 bleed -4 to actions with limb and Sickened until healed

Exceed confirmation by 18 sever neck on failure of fort save. If passed throat cut fr +12 bleed and nauseated until healed.

Crushing weapon
Exceed confirmation by 3 break a finger/toe target Staggered 1rnd and -2 with limb with broken digits or if foot moves at 3/4 speed until healed

Exceed confirmation by 6 break a hand/foot target is Staggered 1rnd and Sickened until healed.

Exceed confirmation by 12 break a arm/leg cause Staggered 1rnd and Exhausted until healed and nauseated until healed

Exceed confirmation by 18 crush skull death if fort save failed otherwise the target is Exhausted and Confused until healed

Piercing Weapons
Exceed confirmation by 3 Small wound +1 bleed

Exceed confirmation by 6 cut artery target Staggered 1rnd +3 bleed

Exceed confirmation by 12 damage minor organ/cut important artery target Sickened and +6 bleed

Exceed confirmation by 18 destroy major organ (brain, heart, lungs, kidneys)Fort save or target dies writhing on ground in intense agony. If target saves +12 bleed Staggered 1rnd then nauseated until healed

Magic -
Exceed confirmation or fail the save by 3 The spell is so intense one of the following will take place for one round
1. Dazzled
2. Deafened
3. Staggered
4. Shaken

Exceed confirmation or fail the save by 6 The spell is so intense one of the following will take place.
1. Dazzled 2rnds
2. Deafened 2rnds
3. Staggered 2rds
4. Fatigued 1rnd
5. Frightened 1rnd
6. Dazed 1rnd

Exceed confirmation or fail the save by 12 The spell is so intense one of the following will take place.
1. Blinded 3rnds
2. Fatigued 3rnds
3. Frightened 3rnd
4. Dazed 3rnds
5. Confused 3rnds
6. Panicked 2rnds

Exceed confirmation or fail the save by 18 The spell is so intense one of the following will take place.
1. Confused until healed
2. Panicked until healed
3. Paralysed until healed
4. Stunned until healed
5. Energy Drained
6. Head explodes if fort save is failed - if passed choose two of the above.