Josh Horowitz
3/13/02
$Revision: 1.2 $
$Date: 2003/01/28 07:25:19 $

I have always had a problem with most critical hit and fumble charts. They are either too deadly, complicated, and frequent or too simple. Rolling a 1 or a 20 occurs 10% of the time. Now you could just do the old standby of double damage for a critical hit, but even that quickly becomes boring. The 3rd edition rules correct this a bit, but here is the system I used for 1st edition, modified a bit for 3rd edition.

If a natural 1 or a 20 is rolled, a second roll is made, using the same chances as the first roll. The effects are according to the chart:

CATEGORY	FIRST	SECOND	EFFECT
Critical Fumble	1	1	Stunned and Knocked Prone (init=0, -4AC, Lose Dex Bonus, Flatfooted, Provoke AoO, Lose Weapon(DC20))
Fumble	1	miss	Stunned and Off-Balance (init=0, -2AC, Lose Dex Bonus, Flatfooted, Provoke AoO, Lose Weapon (DC15))
Critical Miss	1	hit	Off-Balance (init=0, Lose Dex Bonus, Flatfooted)
Miss	1	20	Miss (no damage roll)
	miss	-
Hit	hit	-	Normal Damage Roll
	20	1
Critical Hit	20	miss	Max Damage
Smash	20	hit	Max Damage + (Multiplier-1)*Damage Roll
Critical Smash	20	20	Max Multiplier Damage

• Critical Fumble - You have been stunned and knocked prone. You are flat-footed, and your initiative is set to 0. You also lose your dex bonus and suffer -4 penalty to your AC until your next action. You provoke an Attack of Opportunity. Lose your weapon unless you make a Reflex Save (DC 20). Standing up is a move-equivalent action.
• Fumble - You have been stunned and knocked off-balance. You are flat-footed and your initiative is set to 0. You also lose your dex bonus and suffer a -2 penalty to your AC till your next action. You provoke an Attack of Opportunity. Lose your weapon unless your make a Reflex Save (DC15).
• Critical Miss - You are knocked off-balance. You are flat-footed, your initiative is set to 0, and you lose your dex bonus until your next action.
• Lose Weapon - If you fail the appropriate Reflex save, your weapon flies from your hand.
  • d12 direction
  • d20 distance in feet
  • 1st person in path of weapon takes normal weapon damage (first 5 ft hits fumbler!)
  • Weapon Save or break weapon:
    • Wood: DC15
    • Metal: DC 10
    • Hafted: DC 12
    • quality: +/- 2 on roll
    • enchantment: +2 for each '+' on roll (does not stack w/Masterwork)

Misc Notes:

In the new rules some weapons have critical threat ranges (ie. Long Sword can score a critical hit on 19 or 20.) For these weapons, the critical range counts as a 20 on the table above.

There is one subtle point to be aware of, however. A natural 20 always hits, no matter what. A roll below 20, even if it's within the critical range, is not an automatic hit. If an attack roll is less than 20, but in the critical range, it does not count as a hit if fails to hit the opponent.

Examples:

For example, let's assume that Phred is wielding a long sword (critical range 19-20) against an opponent for which he needs a 25 to hit. He can still score a hit on a natural 20, possibly a critical hit, but misses on a 19, even though it's in his critical hit range.

Some weapons also have different damage multipliers. For Critical Smashes, just use max multiplier damage. For Smashes, use: Max Damage + (Mult.-1)*Damage Roll. This formula makes sure that a Smash will never do less than the Max Damage for a weapon.

Here's an example: Sheila is wielding a scythe (2d4, x4). On her attack, she rolls a 20, 20 and gets a Critical Smash. Damage is 8x4=32. Later, she rolls a 20, hit and gets a Smash. Damage is 8 + (2d4 x 3).

Called Shots

• Max Damage if successful
• provokes an attack of opportunity
• -4 to hit
• -5 to init

Firing into Melee

• -4 to hit penalty
• on miss:
  • good enough for ranged touch attack: connects, but no damage
  • within 4 less of ranged touch: 1d8 to determine which 5ft space is hit.