Back in the old days, we played D&D with the Loremaster Critical Hit/Fumble charts. They added some nasty effects to the game, making it really deadly. Like, sever someone’s spine and leave them paralyzed for the rest of their lives deadly… I thought that it would be cool to introduce something similar to my game and see if the players bite. The idea is that on an attack roll made with Advantage that results in a double 20 roll, a critical effect is triggered. The player would then roll a percentage roll and the chart would generate the result. A double 20 on Advantage has a 1 in 400 chance of happening, so this is not very game breaking, btw. I wrote it so that it is easy to narrate for both spell effects and martial attacks. I may come up with a Fumble chart later, but I wanted to put this out there before my next home game.
Critical Effects
On a 20/20 Attack Roll made with Advantage, resolve all damage and effects due to the attack, then roll percentage dice and consult this chart to generate a Critical Effect:
01-10 Your attack knocks your target prone.
11-20 Your attack severely slows down your target. Its speed is halved for the duration of the encounter.
21-25 Your attack severely injures your target, causing it to suffer 3HP of damage at the start of its turn for the duration of the encounter.
26-30 Your attack causes your target to become exhausted (level 1). Any further successful attacks agains this creature will increase its exhaustion level by 1.
31-35 Your powerful attack frightens your target for the duration of the encounter.
36-40 Your potent attack severely impairs your target, its speed is halved and it is blinded for the duration of the encounter.
41-45 What a hit! You stun your target for 2 rounds!
46-50 Your attack destroys your target’s weapon arm (or if natural weapons, it’s main attack limb). It’s pain causes it to suffer Disadvantage on all attack rolls for the duration of the encounter.
51-55 Your attack disarms your target, sending its weapon flying 10 feet in a direction of your choice. If your target had no weapons, you push it back 10 feet in a direction of your choice instead.
56-60 You sever your target’s spine. It immediately falls prone and is paralyzed. If your target has no spine, the same effects apply. Narrate accordingly.
61-65 Your attack causes permanent mobility damage to your target. Its speed is reduced to 5 feet.
66-70 Your attack is so powerful it affects your target as if it were affected by a Confusion spell (PHB pg 224).
71-75 Your vicious attack rips through your target’s defenses, causing it to suffer -5 to its Armor Class for the duration of the encounter.
76-80 Your attack blinds your opponent and also causes it to become deafened for the duration of the encounter.
81-85 Your attack damages your opponent’s nervous system. It suffers disadvantage on any saving throw for the duration of the encounter.
86-90 Your attack severely dazes your opponent. It suffers disadvantage on any roll for the duration of the encounter.
91-98 You go in for the kill. Your opponent suffers vulnerability to all damage types you inflict on it for the rest of the encounter.
99 You instantly kill your opponent. No questions asked. Where did this burst of strength come from?
100 Your frightfully powerful attack instantly kills your opponent. If another hostile creature is within 5′ of it, your attack kills that creature as well. Your incredible victory will be spoken about for years to come.
thoughts?
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1958fury
September 5, 2014
I like it.
Brandon
September 5, 2014
Awesome! We have always used something similar, but with a single nat 20. Then roll on a table for some bumped up damage. We just revised it for 5e. It adds flavor and makes combat more deadly. Fumbles are covered, too!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/chjj0xjd1kaf1p2/Critical%20Hit%20and%20Fumble%20Table.docx?dl=0
dmfumbl
September 5, 2014
I’ll be using this in my own game, I’ve long been playing with the house rule that a nat 20 on almost anything is above and beyond the normal, like a nat 20 on a “save for 1/2 damage”, I’ll typically take an additional 10-20% off the damage so it’s less than half. This idea of the double crit fits in with that thinking as well.
Yannis Shymko (@yshymko)
September 5, 2014
Sounds very interesting but would it apply to monsters too? That would be the fair thing to do but could yield some crazy results.
Symatt
September 5, 2014
Having some for of Critical chart (and also a fumble chart ) can add some seriously cool depth to the games we play. Going back to 4e I created a critical hit location chart and a fumble chart. Both added some awesome game times.
I love your ideas and a printable version would be nice . Look forward to reading your fumble ideas.
Good stuff
wolvercote66
September 5, 2014
My players loved rolling on a similar crit and fumble table back in the 2E days. I’m hesitant to institute one with 5e still. I’m gonna give it more time playing it straight before tinkering.
ArashiNoMoui
September 5, 2014
My only thought is that you have something that will come up only once in every 400 rolls within a situation that isn’t guranteed, and thus the chart is flavored well for something that will happen so rarely.
So let’s say there are 20 attack rolls per session with Advantage. That means it’ll take roughly 20 sessions for a critical to be rolled. If you game weekly, barring holidays and life, that’s what – two critical hits a year, where you will pull out the chart. So I would either make the critical hits more common (any critical with advantage?) or the chart results more dramatic and game changing.
Thomas Drevon
September 5, 2014
This is cool. So cool, in fact, that 1 in 400 is not often enough for my taste 🙂 I’ll give it a go in my recently started 5e campaign with a 20/18-20 and then ease back if this proves too dangerous. Thanks for sharing this!
John A
September 5, 2014
20 attack rolls per session with advantage? More like less than 5. Attack rolls with advantage are hard to come by! A rather complex, lengthy chart, for an event that will, in a bi-weekly game, only happen once every 3 years!
newbiedm
September 5, 2014
Kobolds attacked with advantage all the time in my last session. If two are standing next to each other they had advantage, and so it was. not THAT rare.
Fieldmechanik
September 5, 2014
Good stuff. Also reference “Good Hits, Bad Misses” from TSR. http://www.red-dragon-inn.net/gaming/library/charsheets/goodhits_badmisses.pdf as well as the tables from Rolemaster or the Pathfinder Critical Hits/Fumble decks.
Shane Harsch
September 5, 2014
I would say that 20/Hit would warrant a roll on this table. To simplify, I’d just allow the players to add a Condition (appropriate for the weapon). The big challenge is that rules like this actually hurt the PCs more then the monsters, since we don’t care if monsters die. Each PC will suffer this over the course of their careers. To balance this, perhaps this is a “Named Combatant” only rule, so that nameless orcs and bugbears don’t get this advantage.
Vorinclexiclap
September 5, 2014
My group has been playing with similar rules in our 3.5 game. Except it’s for critical failures. On a natural 1, a player rolls a d100, and the higher the number is, the worse the result is (DM’s decision exactly how it works out). The exception which has turned out at least two amazing results is that on a roll of 42, something incredible happens. Out of the character’s ineptitude, fantastic things occur. One time, our party was attempting to fix a goblinoid Xbox with duct tape. the roll of 42 turned our fumbling into an accidental arcane ritual turning the Xbox into an Xbox Slim. The other time, while trying to intimidate an evil thief in court, the inept attempted lawyer pointed to a random person in the court-room and said “We have found your accomplice!” accidentally pointing at said accomplice (unbeknownst to the character), causing the accomplice to have a heart-attack and the thief on trial to give a full confession.
Of course the opposite has happened much more frequently, where a simple fight against a balor turned into a fight against 3 balors and a tarrasque.
Garrett Crowe
September 5, 2014
Love it. Can’t wait to read the flip side. Double 1s with Disadvantage
boobas
September 6, 2014
Why not just make it a 1-20 chart and reference it only when a “named” character has advantage. When one die is a natural 20, the second die sets the critical.
newbiedm
September 6, 2014
I like that too. 🙂
DMDanDanFielding
September 30, 2015
I like this! I’d be interested to see that fumble chart for the 1/1 roll with disadvantage if/when you write it.