Fumbles - Please No

[pauljathome]

Like everybody else, I just finished reading parts of the rules so I clearly could be missing something.

That said, I think introducing fumbles is a big mistake. It is going to seriously increase the lethality of the game (as has been shown in every single game that has fumbles :-().

Lets say you're a level 4 or 5 character and are hit by a fireball.
Fireball does 7d6 for an average of, say, 25 pts of damage.

You're a 5th level Elven Wizard with a Con of 14. So you've got 6+5*8 = 46 hit points. Roll a 1 on your reflex save and you're instantly dying

The fundamental problem with fumbles is that they are very weighted AGAINST PCs. PCs make many, many saves during their career. NPCs make 4 or 5 before they're dead :-)

[Pan]

The trade off is SoD spells working better in PF2. There are a lot of ways to protect yourself with feats that allow you to up your fail rating. I think playtesting will ultimately tell if the fails are too much to handle. Though this is something worth keeping an eye on.