This is not a request for opinions. I don't mind you expressing yours if you can do it reasonably civil. This is just to get an option I sometimes use out into a larger audience.
As a GM, when ever I happen to roll a natural 20 on an attack, I try to confirm it. If I roll another natural 20 on the confirm roll, I roll a third time. If the third roll results in a hit, the target automatically dies. This applies to players also.
I have had this happen on both sides of the table. It doesn't happen often but it does happen. If you like the idea you are welcome to use it. If you don't like the idea, don't use it.
OK well thanks for sharing but you may want to move this from the advice section(advice would idicate you are asking for advice)unless you want others to voice an opinion....
Just to make sure: why?
To have a chance of less than 0.25% to instant kill an enemy? Im not getting the purpose.
Can I express my opinion on the concept of creating a discussion thread where people aren't supposed to express their opinions?
We also continue rolling as long as 20s come (or 1s at that). But the result is not instant death, it is just an over the top/awesome attack or failure that happens.
Since we also use critical hit/fumble cards we just draw more critical cards and see if we can combine the effects in a funny/creative/impressive way.
This rule definitely favors the NPCs over the course of a campaign. Not only do the NPCs normally outnumber the PCs (unless you go with a bunch of solo encounters which are dumb designs) but they by default only have an average life expectancy of 1 encounter.
If a NPC dies after 1 round or 5 rounds really doesn't mean much.
But if an experienced PC gets a lucky crit against him then instant death isn't as much fun.
Honestly if you want to do a more lethal game play around with death by massive damage rules especially with scaling DCs.
Instead of insta-death, you should add critical modifiers when multiple 20s are rolled (x2, becomes, x4, then x6, etc). It's more fun for the PCs to get to spend a few minutes rolling dice, adding pluses, double checking the math, and then finally coming up with a number that pretty much insta-kills the enemy anyway, though that's not always the case.
You can talk about it...
...but don't talk about it!
@Wasum,
I have used the Critical Hit and Critical Failure decks. This just seemed a bit of fun. There was no particular reason for it.
@ Roberta Yang,
If you read the starting post, I said I was not looking for opinions, but was not against people expressing their opinions if they could do it civilly.
@Joanna Swiftblade,
I had never considered that particular option. Interesting take on this option. I may bring that up to the group.
Well, I honestly don't like that rule. But I would also never use critical hit decks as they mess up game balance a lot.
But as long as you enjoy it:D
I'd just be really mad if my character died vs a lucky CR1/2 goblin:P
in that case then, I don't think our group would use it, too much dice rolling.
We just use the crit roll that a lot of people seem to use, nat 20 is always a crit, no need to re-roll, saves time and un-needed extra dice rolls. Once you get into the 3 attacks a round each phase adding more and more dice rolls just slows everything down.
But carry on if that's what you enjoy doing
Well, I honestly don't like that rule. But I would also never use critical hit decks as they mess up game balance a lot.
I'm not a fan of those decks either, for hits or fumbles. Watching your friend cut his own head off on a critical fumble is just embarrassing. You just don't know what to say in a situation like that...
"Hey bro...sorry that you just cut your own head off...yeah...sucks."
Yar.
This really needs to be in the "Suggestions/House Rules/Homebrew" forum, not Advice. *flagging for movement*
and FYI: my group does use the decks. We find them to be a great option, but they are just that: an option. (players have the choice of card or pure damage for crits)... the key for me is that the card, if used (and especially for fumbles) has to make sense. If as the GM I pull a card and I don't like it or think it will take away from the fun, I don't use it and pull a different card.
We have thought about similar rules in the past, often leaning towards the three-strike crit-kill rule (where 3 natural 20's in a row is an insta-kill), but have deigned against it for a number of reasons. The likelihood of really stupid PC deaths is one of them. There is also the feeling of fairness. Yeah, luck of the dice and all that, but it feels more frightening and satisfying when your own character dies from a creature who actually HAS an insta-kill ability (vorpal, for example), or from actually working through the HP system, or failing several saving throws from SoD spells, than from a really (un)lucky string of rolls from any old shmuck. All of the former at least give some opportunity to fight back/mitigate in character. A three-strike crit-kill option does not.
In our opinion, at least.
~P
I've played in a group that used the 20/20/confirm = dead rule. Only saw it happen once though and it was versus an end boss, so that was kinda nifty.
The group I'm in now uses 20/20/confirm = Max damage. In this group, i've seen it come up probably 4 times, both towards the Mobs and the PC's. Thinking of how much it would have sucked loosing those PC's to an instant kill, i gotta say i prefer the second variation.
The group I'm in now uses 20/20/confirm = Max damage.
Oh I like this one a lot... Very nice!
In my group, we use hero points. If you confirm a critical hit, you get to draw a card from the Critical Hit Deck. If you like the effect from the card, you may spend a hero point to use that instead of the normal critical damage.
I have a similar mechanic, however I couple it with a scaling crit threshold. For every 5 levels a character gains, his base crit threshold drops by one. For example, a longsword in the hands of a 1st level fighter has a crit range of 19-20; however a longsword in the hands of a 16th level fighter has a crit range 16-20. This stacks with feats such as Improved Critical.