I like critical fumbles in my games for a number of reasons.\u00a0 First of all, as a storyteller I like it when disaster strikes.\u00a0 When I\u2019m visualizing and describing a pitched battle I relish the possibility that one of the combatants might slip in the growing pool of blood on the flagstones or over-swing their battle-axe and accidentally strike one of their comrades.\u00a0 It makes the battles feel more real to me, and it also makes combat feel more dangerous.<\/p>\n
In practical terms, it does make combat more dangerous for everyone involved.\u00a0 If big monsters might accidentally kill their minions when they\u2019re trying to smash that knight, or if the players might lose their footing and fall prone, then there\u2019s more damage being handed out every round.\u00a0 It makes the monsters go down a little more quickly, but it also exposes the players to more danger.\u00a0 As DM I consider this a win-win because I like my games to feel as dangerous as possible, and I like combat to go quickly.<\/p>\n
But I don\u2019t like to slow my games down with looking anything up.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been playing and running games long enough that I know pretty much all the rules by heart, and for my fumble rules I wanted to come up with something that could easily be memorized and that wouldn\u2019t slow down combat with referencing a table.\u00a0 Therefore, I came up with the following optional rule.<\/p>\n
Critical Fumbles<\/strong><\/p>\n
Any time an attacker rolls a 1 on their attack roll die, they fumble.\u00a0 Roll another d20 to determine the severity of the fumble.<\/p>\n
Die Roll\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fumble Result<\/strong>
\n16-20\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Character is off-balance and grants combat advantage until the end of the current character\u2019s next turn.
\n11-15\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Attacker looses their footing and falls prone.
\n6-10\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Attacker drops their weapon or loses their next attack if weaponless.
\n1-5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Attacker targets an ally or themselves with the fumbled attack.\u00a0 Re-roll the attack to see if it hits the new target.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI like it because it\u2019s nice and simple \u2013 there are four results with increasingly dire consequences, so it\u2019s easy for me to remember \u201coff balance, fall prone, drop weapon, or attack self or ally\u201d.<\/p>\n
Let us know what you think in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I like critical fumbles in my games for a number of reasons.\u00a0 First of all, as a storyteller I like it when disaster strikes.\u00a0 When I\u2019m visualizing and describing a pitched battle I relish the possibility that one of the combatants might slip in the growing pool of blood on the flagstones or over-swing their battle-axe and accidentally strike one of their comrades.\u00a0 It makes the battles feel more real to me, and it also makes combat feel more dangerous. In practical terms, it does make combat more dangerous for everyone involved.\u00a0 If big monsters might accidentally kill their minions when they\u2019re trying to smash that knight, or if the players might lose their footing and fall prone, then there\u2019s more damage being handed out every round.\u00a0 It makes the monsters go down a little more quickly, but it also exposes the players to more danger.\u00a0 As DM I consider this a win-win because I like my games to feel as dangerous as possible, and I like combat to go quickly. But I don\u2019t like to slow my games down with looking anything up.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been playing and running games long enough that I know pretty much all the rules by heart, and for my fumble rules I wanted to come up with something that could easily be memorized and that wouldn\u2019t slow down combat with referencing a table.\u00a0 Therefore, I came up with the following optional rule. Critical Fumbles Any time an attacker rolls a 1 on their attack Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,662,224,721,109],"tags":[680],"class_list":["post-1459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1st-ed","category-3rd-edition-dungeons-dragons-d20-fantasy-pathfinder","category-4th-edition","category-5th-edition-dungeons-dragons","category-variant-rules","tag-critical-fumble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1460,"href":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions\/1460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}