|
The rule is a variant, not core, and it only functions off two 20's and then a confirm, so it won't work with say- 20/18/18 (assuming Kukri) but it will work off 20/20/18.
Its a bad variant IMO, that really just means senseless player deaths. I've rolled far too many double 20's in my time, i'm certain I could rattle off six or seven PC's who would have been killed instantly by my lucky GMing dice, had I been using this rule :P.
Never actually hard of that variant. What is it?
We don't use it.
It would be the 20/18/18 rule, go with three natural 20's if you are going to use it. The rule is about natural 20's, not crit range.
My only house rule, "no house rules." So, I wouldn't go for this either.
My groups always ran it to require all three rolls be a 20, or no instakill.
Same. I had an evil cleric who managed to decapitate a paladin in the first round with it, but never had the good luck to do it since.
I've been in a few groups that used it as a player. As a DM, I've never used it - it's been brought up a couple of times, but the response has always been "Okay, but if you guys can use it then so can the bad guys." The players usually stop requesting it at that point.
I used to do that. It happen twice in one game. Well actually the player rolled 3 20's against a boss, and later on I rolled 3 20's against that same player. Another player said "roll again" so I did for fun, and that came up as a 20 also.
I have also used 20, 20, confirm rule before. It only came up during boss fights, and it was almost always the players that rolled it.
I might consider 20/20/confirm provided that we were using hero points. One hero point would negate it, leaving a regular critical and perhaps a permanent scar (no mechanical effect). But my group doesn't really have much love for hero/action/whatever points in PF.
We do 20/20/20. I've seen people double twenty enough to know on the right night it can happen, but triple 20s that one is a little harder to pull off.
Just make sure the PCs understand what is good for them can also be used against them. Its damn cool when they do it to the big bad evil guy. Its suddenly not so cool when the big bad evil guy cuts one of them down without even a saving throw.
I try to avoid increasing the randomness of things in my game.
Statistically, increased randomness favors the underdog.
Since a competent GM is running encounters in which the PCs are strongly favored to win, then increasing the amount of randomness in the game will tend to favor the bad guys in the long run.
So, I play standard critical hit rules (which tend to be devastating enough), and do not use critical fumbles.
|
|
I actually pulled off two 20/20/another number during one gaming session... There was much excitement but we all (myself included) decided that the 3x20 = insta-kill was, perhaps, a bit much. This group did not come up with another house rule since I did not get the third 20...
For my games I allow an additional die of damage for every additional 20 (so exploding damage concept) but I do not increase anything except the damage die past the initial Crit doubling.
We've used the 20/20/20 for well over 20 years...Its happened to two PC's, 1 BBEG, and a half score or so minions over the years, seems to slightly to actually favor the PC's in our experience but hey... Harold the Saxon King was struck by a stray arrow at the battle of Hastings killing him and legitimizing William's "claim" to the English throne...
...stuff happens....
PCs having such an advantage in most combats is precisely why I like critical fumbles... they are hilarious because they don't often get you in serious trouble, but you always know there is the chance of trouble lurking around the next d20 roll :)
I like my Crit Decks too much to rule out using them. =)
PCs having such an advantage in most combats is precisely why I like critical fumbles... they are hilarious because they don't often get you in serious trouble, but you always know there is the chance of trouble lurking around the next d20 roll :)I like my Crit Decks too much to rule out using them. =)We love the critical and fumble decks, it is partially why we wanted it to increase critical multiplier, "SINGLE DAMAGE DRAW MORE CARDS!!" lol. Screw killing something, lop off its ear, a few toes, and puncture its spleen, 8 bleed damage, 2d4 dex damage, half speed, and can't hear! Mwahahaha! =D
I used it for the first time in Savage Tide. Returning villain NPC came back for a revenge attack, ended up blind, crippled, and bleeding badly forced into surrender. Later on a bunch of enemy mooks got beaten into submission with disabling crits rather than just raw damage and the party decided to take pity on 'em and take 'em captive. That was about where I was hooked.
And then there was the skarn barbarian getting a crit with her arm-blades on the Lemorian Golem and drawing the "decapitate" card - SHORYUKEN!!!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I like exploding criticals, but not instant kills. TOZ's idea about the exploding 20s is brilliant.
My group has been playing with the open-ended critical hits for years. Only requires threats to continue, but the excitement level with each consecutive is wondrous to behold. And I think it's far more balanced than an instant-kill, anyway.
It makes sense, though I've never heard of a group that uses that side of the rule. Then again, I've never managed a triple 1.
My groups only go for the straight 20/20/20.
The odds of rolling three 20s in a row is exceedingly low, so it's more of a reward for insane luck than anything.
I've only seen it happen once.
DMs roll far more than players. This variant rule is very weighted against players. It's far more likely that a PC is going to end up dead by allowing this at a table than a BBEG.
|
I had a similar variant with crit/fumble tables, wherein a 20/100 was instant death. 1/100 was also death, but you got a saving throw.
@Anguish: You're correct, but with such an extreme rule it's easy to say it only applies to the PCs. And if you use a 1/1/1 fumble rule, it balances things out anyway since the enemies are just as likely to fumble-death more often.
back in ad&d2 we had the 20-% rule... the % decided which body part was hit... 100=neck i.e. head off, 99-95 was head wound, and so on... that rules also worked against us as in 1-% fumbles... we had one guy who excelled at self-beheading his elven clerics of corellon. He was banned from making more clerics of corellon as he's driven them to extinction. ^^
Now we stick to raw with those nifty crit and fumble cards... I love those :-D
Our group was 20/20/Confirm which landed a death attack which was a fort save or die (roughly as death by massive damage, i think). We had a variant slant where it increments the crit multiplier which worked well in a less mental way, for BBEG fights.
20/20/20 happens one in 8000 rolls;
20/20/19+ happens one in 4000 rolls;
20/20/18+ happens one in 2667 rolls.
Assuming that, I dunno, 25 attack rolls happen each combat (obviously this varies a lot with level and character composition), and four combats happen each game session, and you game once a week with a few holiday breaks, you'd expect to see only one such roll every few years. (25 attacks/combat may be a bit on the low side, but that'll vary a lot anyway.) So it's definitely a story-maker, I guess. Note that extreme attack numbers and crit ranges can drive things way up; a character using two keen kukris and making 7 attacks on a full attack actually has about a 1-in-200 chance of triggering 20/20/15+ every time they full attack, so they alone, if they full attack 10 times a night, will trigger the deathblow a few times each year (on average) on their own.
Groups I've been involved in use it. Sometimes it changes, but we've generally done 20/20/hit and you are dead. We have re-rolls so usually players can get away from it.
20/20/20 rule with only natural 20s is always lots of fun.. once our level 13 Barbarian was killed by the rusty dagger of a goblin :)
The 20/20/20 house rule is bad for the players.
*ANY* increase in randomness works against the better trained and equipped opponents, which are usually the PCs.
If you want something special for this rare event, I recommend increasing the critical multiplier by 1 for each 20 rolled. Not deadly for the PCs, but a satisfyingly crunchy critical hit for a lucky roll.
I can't see why as a GM you would tie your hands that way. Why institute a rule so potentially disruptive to a game (to a campaign)? And it's not fair to a player who succeeds that you occasionally decide on the spot to waive it.
He's dead Jim.
Yeah, some don't like player deaths, they think it is the worse thing, the most disruptive thing. I've seen games continue. Being a hero involves risk after all.
If it is in, it applies to all, that is fair.
our group has the rule for 20ies only of course, and it works like vorpal but with any attack. And if the ennemy is weak enough even on undead and such.
In all my small career in came up once, the dwarf barbarian splitted a big fireworm in half (the long way) at the first round of the encounter. Was kinda epic