Key Our Cars

Found this today and thought it worthy of posting to spread the knowledge.  As a general rule I like the way 4th Edition does critical hits especially since I’ve been using a house rule that has attacks doing average damage during playtests of houserules.  Which works well I think.

But I can see where 1 in 20 attacks doing maximum damage + bonus damage might be less than appealing to some.  While the author of the post above forgot that a critical hit isn’t the same as rolling maximum damage because of the bonus damage (at least past level 1 when everyone should have a magic item of some kind) but I can see where even so it might not have a critical impact.

I’m not a fan of the Critical Hit charts, never really have been as they’re just too lethal for my tastes.  And  Fumbles on a 1 are just so Keystone Kops / slapstick comedy as to be ludicrous.  Even a novice fighter I don’t think is going to fling his sword away 5% of his swings or stab himself in the leg or whatever. Â  It’s not very heroic for a Demi-god to drop his sword 1 out of 20 times he tries to hit something with it.

But this particular thought on the subject doesn’t seem too atrocious to me.  I think in game play it’s going to tend to be more irritating for the players (DM’s roll a LOT more than players do) than enjoyable but with the right groups it might be a lot of fun.

The basis of this system is fairly simple, on a critical hit you roll a d20 and consult a chart and based on that chart result you apply an existing condition to the target (blind, dazed, weakened, slowed etc).

I’m recreating the chart portion below for my own perusual but I highly recommend you visit the site and peruse the items there.

Critical Hits Chart
(Assign Maximum Damage + Combat Effect as listed below)

d20	Combat Effect & Flavor
1	No extra effect PC Flavor: “Your attack strikes true with great force, wounding your foe!” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy’s attack hits with great force, wounding you!”
2-4	Weakened for 1 round PC Flavor: “Your assault strikes your foe’s arm (or claw or snout) with a nerve jarring crack.” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy strikes your weapon (casting) arm, and it droops numbly to your side.”
5-6	Weakened until Save PC Flavor: “Your beating knocks the wind from your enemy and leaves him gasping.” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy beats the wind from you, leaving you gasping and weak.”
7-9	Slowed for 1 round PC Flavor: “Your attack rakes the legs of your foe, staggering them for a moment.” NPC Flavor: “Your foe rakes your legs with a cruel blow, staggering you for a moment.”
10-11	Slowed until Save PC Flavor: “Your strike tears at your foes legs, leaving them limping.” NPC Flavor: “Your assailant tears your legs with a mean blow, leaving you limping.”
12-14	Knocked Prone PC Flavor: “Your brutal attack pummels your enemy flat on the ground.” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy brutally pummels you, and you are dashed to the ground.”
15-16	Dazed for 1 round PC Flavor: “You strike your enemy full in the face, leaving them blinking and reeling.” NPC Flavor: “You foe strikes you viciously in the face, and you are left reeling and dazed.”
17	Dazed until Save PC Flavor: “You batter your enemy about the head and shoulder, and they reel in dismay.” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy batters you about the head and shoulders, and you reel in dismay.”
18-19	Stunned for 1 round PC Flavor: “Your assault bashes you enemy, and delivers his skull a resounding blow.” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy bashes you squarely on the head with stunning force.”
20	Stunned until Save PC Flavor: “Your attack batters your foe’s skull with a horrendous crack, agonizing him.” NPC Flavor: “Your foe batters your skull with a horrendous crack, and you reel in agony.”