Homebrew Critical Fumble Idea

[Maigrey]

So, I hate critical fumbles, I have always felt they were unfair and uneven.

Anyway, for an upcoming game, this is what I want to do.

1st spells vs defense. I am putting the roll in the casters hands. Instead of rolling fort/ref/will save when attacked, the caster will make an attack roll to hit the target's fort/ref/will defense. There will also be a chance for critical fumble and hit for the spell. This means that a wizard could roll multiple attacks on a single roll (if multiple crits are scored only one card is drawn and the effect applied to everyone crit, if multiple fumbles are rolled, then draw 1 card for each fumble and the worst effect is applied, DM decides what is worst)

2nd when you roll a natural 1 on the attack you will auto miss. You will then have the option to re-roll attack to turn it into a hit. If the re-roll is successful, then it is a hit as normal (there is no chance of a critical hit on the re-roll). If the re-roll misses then it is a critical fumble. If you roll a 1 on the re-roll draw 2 cards and take the worse effect(DM decides what is worst).

Opinions?

[Covent]

Just don't use critical fumbles? They are optional after all.

[Maigrey]

Covent wrote:

Just don't use critical fumbles? They are optional after all.

I have been DMing for 30 years, I don't use them, I have never liked the mechanics. I always thought they could add some decent flavor, but at the cost of bad mechanics seems like a poor option. That is why I attempted to come up with good mechanics for them.

[Claxon]

Are you proposing that instead of 10+ spell level + relevant ability modifier vs 1d20 + appropriate save modifier that you want to make it 1d20 + spell level + ability modifier vs save modifier (or even 1d20 + save) sounds terrible. You're adding a big bonus chance to the overall power of the casters. Sure, they could fail more often, but they also have a greater chance of succeeding more often too.

[Maigrey]

Instead of 10 + Spell Level + ability mod vs 1d20 + save modifier, it will be 1d20 + Spell Level + Ability mod vs 11 + Save modifier.

[kestral287]

Seems... rather pointless honestly.

You buff everybody by increasing everybody's hit chance a few percentage points (since nat 1 is no longer an auto-miss). Beyond that it has an obnoxiously low chance of ever showing up unless people are getting into situations that they really shouldn't.

[Maigrey]

kestral287 wrote:

Seems... rather pointless honestly.

You buff everybody by increasing everybody's hit chance a few percentage points (since nat 1 is no longer an auto-miss). Beyond that it has an obnoxiously low chance of ever showing up unless people are getting into situations that they really shouldn't.

It is still Auto-miss, they just have the opportunity to turn it into a hit, by risking the chance of a critical fumble.

yes if they take the chance every time, you would see an increase in hits by ~2.5%, with a critical fumble rate of ~2.5% assuming ~50% chance to hit.

[kestral287]

That 50% chance is... not likely. A smart player will use it on the first attack, maybe the second if they're full BAB, and just let the rest drop. They're going to figure out pretty quickly what the risks are, and on the whole humans are risk-averse.

Realistically, if you see the fumbles come out even 2% of the time I would be shocked at how risky your group plays.

*Shrug* Which to me means it sort of fails at filling your goal; you're not really putting any 'flavor' into the system with something that will almost never occur.