Critical Hit/Fumble Tables - GM Toolbox

Not everyone uses Critical Hit and Fumble tables for D&D. But I do, and now so can you. This thing has entertained us for decades. Feel free to use it, or modify it to make it your own. Links below. Enjoy.
1st/2nd Edition Package: drive.google.c...
5th Edition Package: drive.google.c...
My own novels and stories can be found here: amzn.to/2CUhrei

[@SSkorkowsky]

Addendum: One idea (to borrow from Interlock Unlimited) is when a player rolls a 1, have them then roll a D20. If the roll is under their level, the attack is only a failure and not a Fumble. If the D20 is their level or higher, the attack is a Fumble and the table is used (A 20 on the second roll would always be a fumble). This would cut down on rampant Fumbles by PCs with many attacks earned because they are high level. Therefore a PC of 11th level would only Fumble 50% of the time that their attack roll was a 1.

[@Random_Chiroptera]

Seth Skorkowsky Hey there, I've been a big fan of 3.5 edition, and had mixed feelings about Pathfinder. I heard a lot of negative reviews on 4th edition, but nothing about 5th. Given my fondness for playing non-standard races, to build underdogs and unlikely heroes, is 5th Edition a good fit for me, do you think?

[@hqueso]

One thing I like about 5th is that it is 'flatter.' By that I mean that there are fewer bonuses, so total bonuses to rolls are lower than in some games (to some degree). The result is that you aren't as strongly penalized by missing out on a +1 here or there. This means that you can play an unlikely character race/class combo without much penalty to advancement and capability. Since races have bonuses to certain stats, but not penalties to others, every race is at least average at things they do. So a half-orc wizard or gnome barbarian works just fine. These types of character may not be optimal, but they are viable and enjoyable.

[@Random_Chiroptera]

Steven Taylor I've never tried anything outside of 3.5. Could you tell me more advantages?

[@hqueso]

OK, this is all opinion of course. I enjoy both editions greatly, each for it's own reasons. 3.5 has a lot of options that can create a multitude of bonuses, penalties and other effects. Piecing together the best build from a huge stack of books is really fun- even the core books allow a lot of tuning and tweaking. The downside is that if you don't optimize, you can find your character being much less effective than the characters in the party whose players do optimize. In my main group, we have a player who wouldn't make his own 3.5 character- he'd tell the group's min-maxer what he wanted and that player would make the build for him. In 5th, you really don't get this. This is due to two main factors in my opinion: Advantage/Disadvantage and Subclasses. Advantage/Disadvantage is a mechanic that affects d20 rolls. If you have positive effects that make things easier for you to do something, you have Advantage on the roll- you roll 2 d20s and use the better. If there are negative circumstances, you have Disadvantage- you have to roll 2 d20s and take the lower of the two. If you have both Advantage and Disadvantage, they cancel out- roll normally. It doesn't matter how many things give a roll Advantage or Disadvantage- you only apply it once. As such, there really isn't a way to squeeze out bonus on top of bonus. Subclasses are specialties within your class, that grant a set of abilities at certain levels. Using the Fighter as an example, your Fighter chooses at 3rd level if they are going to be a Champion (a big damage attacker) or an Battle Master (a tactical fighter who uses special maneuvers) or similar. You cannot mix and match these on a character, so you cannot just pull the best mods from each subclass and max your character. This means that even a fighter from an unlikely race or an odd build ("I want my Charisma to be my best stat!") can work well and be effective. Lastly, I want to mention proficiency. Unlike 3.5, where you choose proficiencies and can pump points into individual skills as you level, in 5th you are either proficient or not proficient in an action. If you are not proficient in Stealth, for example, you just roll d20 and add your Dex bonus. If you are proficient, you also add in your proficiency bonus. This is a flat bonus that starts at +2 for 1st level characters and increases every four levels to +6 at 17th level. Each character chooses a background at 1st level (Urchin, Sage, Acolyte, etc.) that grants a couple of skill and tool proficiencies, so you can mix up your character a bit- a fighter with a Sage background or a Wizard Charlatan. This removes some for the sameness that can result from the 'simpler' 5th class structure. TL;DR: 3.5 allows you to make incredibly specialized builds, but can be punishing to the player who is bad at optimization or who wants to play a character who is of an odd build. 5th makes characters easier and makes odd concepts more workable in comparative power level, but at the cost of build-craft no longer being a real thing. You can make some optimal choices, of course, but these optimized characters aren't that much dominating over basic builds.

[@Random_Chiroptera]

Steven Taylor How about if say I wanted to port over the basic race and class of a character started in 3.5, with race pulled from a Monster Manual, and a template that was made for that race? Specifically I had a Poison Dusk Lizardman, with the Viletooth (Black Dragonspawn) template applied, played as a Ranger.

[@0x777]

"The assassin steps out of the shadow, he draws his dagger and lunges at your character, he" (roll) "fumbles" (roll) "hits himself" (roll) "critically" (roll) "and dies"... I guess he misunderstood what a "suicide attack" is supposed to mean...

[@erniemiller1953]

Life of Brian

[@robertnett9793]

@@erniemiller1953 Peoples Front of Judaea - flying suicide squad :D "That... will show 'em" *dies* :D

[@MalrexMontresor]

I love the story about the weak Halfling NPC that was supposed to die just dominating the battlefield because of lucky rolls. It reminds me of the time my players decided to get a ship and they needed to hire a crew. Being lazy, I decided to give the 20 crew they hired easy to remember names: There was Unn, Deus, Thrace, Quattro, Cinco, the twins Sikes and Siven, Otto, Nina, Deci, Levin, Twelf, Thireen... etc. Over the course of the adventure, they were attacked by a pirate ship and all those poor level 1 sailors begun to die; but not Sikes and Siven, they were holding their own and even killing pirates left and right. In the midst of the battle, the villain used a control weather scroll to summon a massive storm, and the fight continued during an epic hurricane with the ships trapped together and spinning in a deadly vortex while lightning lit up the sky. In the end, most of the NPC crew died, but Sikes managed to make his swim check to hold on to the debris and make it to shore with the party. The party was so impressed with Sikes that when the party leader levelled up, he took the leadership feat and Sikes became his cohort. Sikes followed the party for several years, carrying their loot, faithfully serving them, until one day his luck run out when the party was nearly wiped out by the resurrected avatar of a long-dead God of Undeath. They survived, but four players had died and they only had one scroll of raise dead. Which the party agreed (even the dead players) should be used on Sikes first. After this, they didn't dare to risk his life anymore, so they bought Sikes an estate and a vineyard, so he could retire in wealth with a wife and children. All this for an NPC that was originally supposed to be cannon fodder.

[@The_Custos]

That's great.

[@danielgoldberg5357]

Awesome!

[@EpicMiniMeatwad]

Fumbling: Yanking defeat from the jaws of victory.

[@krissisk4163]

Multiple improbable critical hits once resulted in an NPC attacking us to steal the legendary Bard's Brick of Slaying. It was just a normal brick that the bard had been carrying and using as a weapon occasionally since he'd picked it up as an improvised weapon in a bar fight during the first session of the campaign. He just happened to roll critical hits and cave in someone's skull every third time he used it and, him being a bard, word "somehow" got around that it was a powerful artifact. That NPC became the latest victim of the Bard's Brick of Slaying.

[@PanEtRosa]

D&D is the greatest game ever conceived. X'D That's beautiful.

[@gandalftheantlion]

That’s awesome!

[@JB-ym4up]

It was the inspiration for the spell bigbys bashing brick.

[@robertnett9793]

I had lot's of those experiences, where, what begun as a somewhat cool character ended up as the laughing stock due to some unfortunate fumbles. Especially as in the groups I played the crit/fumble rules were handled really strictly. As in - you kneel over the slain enemy, givimg him the coup de grass - end up fumbling 'Critical damage to self' and slay your own character to the last hitpoint...' I would have really appreciated, if the GM had the storytelling ability to tell it this way: "You kneel over the seemingly unconscious enemy, raising your sword - but in the last moment his arm shoot up - a small dagger in his hand, planting it right into your chest." But as the rules there don't suggest such kind of heretic interpreation - the GM never did, but went with 'Oh . you nearly decapitate yourself. way to go hero...'

[@kennethd.christy6326]

We had a random, friendly cop shoot a fleeing suspect who'd been complicit in kidnapping 50 children and summoning a dead witch. Keeper rolled a 1 (Call of Cthulhu) so the perp's head exploded and Shooty McGoo became an important ally to our party.

[@OnTheBackOfBullets]

Do police get a bonus to rolls against minorities in Call of Cthulhu?

[@stm7810]

@@OnTheBackOfBullets HP lovecraft was as racist as the modern capitalist system of policing so I'd say yes.

[@willinnewhaven3285]

If Narsil had never been shattered, it would never have been reforged into The Flame of the West that Aragorn carried.

[@Mithguar]

Narsil didn't Shattered because of critical fumble. It was more of a "weapon shattering attack" situation.

[@theears995]

The fact that the Paladin basically one-shot that dragon is freaking awesome 😂

[@kevingooley9628]

So like 10 years ago we played a 4e module based on a Death Dealer graphic novel. Due to extreme lack of magic in setting, and to emulate the brutality of combat in the novel, it included it's own critical hit table, with instant death options. After finishing the module, the DM, a fan of the Death Dealer novels, continued the campaign, slowly including standard 4e monsters as appropriate. I had a rougelike character who preferred throwing knives, tomahawks, shuriken, etc. Over the next 6 months of playing, he crit killed two minor dragons, a hydra, and a basilisk, one of the dragons literally like Seth's paladin, first one in the room, the dragon roused from behind a rockpile, he had no cover but won initiative, he valiantly threw one of his daggers in a defiant gesture, critical hit, rolled instant death, as the dragon opened its mouth to spew noxious poison over him, the dagger flew into its mouth, stuck in it's esophagus, and it breathed poison into its own lungs. By the end of the campaign, he was known in the kingdom as Eric the Wyrmslayer. The DM liked him so much, he kept him as a high status NPC in later games. It was epically cool.

[@The_Custos]

Wonder if he used smite?

[@linkno1]

"An epic character should never ever fall down" A mythical or legendary character should never fall down. Even the best of us have stumbled and fallen. As much as I dislike the movie, Hercules with Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson had a concept that I absolutely adore. Everybody spreads all these far fetched rumours and paints Hercules to be this larger than life unstoppable hero that has completed unbelievable feats, he can do anything and he pretty much just nods and agrees despite non of it being true, or at least highly exaggerated. He's still a badass hero, but he's nothing compared to his own legend. Likewise, when a group I've been in has done something awesome but we fucked up quite a lot accomplishing that, I get a bit of that same feeling when coming across an NPC who only knows of and praises the successes we've had, having no idea of the screw ups and mishaps which happened achieving that. Between ourselves we feel lucky to still be alive but to them, we're a heroic band of unstoppable adventurers who can do this impossible. As for the crit/fumble tables: I'll be using those. As much as I have things written down, I always love adding more RNG to this game because it makes it feel that bit more like anything can happen. On top of that, it gets a bit repetitive and boring describing and thinking of new ways to make a critical hit or failure work, not to mention if it's an encounter or NPC I've worked hard on I'm very unlikely to think "Oh he got a critical fail, off with his arm!" and gimp my own encounter. Throw in the fumble table though and I'll gladly let that happen. Makes it interesting, a fun little note for the players rather than myself randomly deciding "it's been a while since one of their weapons broke, better do that this time". And with missing limbs, I can't say any of my characters have lost one during a battle, but my first character lost his arm after getting stuck between dragon scales and cutting it of himself to save his own life quite early in the campaign. Did it ruin the campaign? No, I just got creative and thanks to my characters backstory got to work on making a mechanical prosthetic which my DM said would increase my damage with his right hand punches to a d6 instead of a d4. It also created some unique moments during the campaign such as when being imprisoned the prosthetic was confiscated limiting my options during the escape, or when I specified he was going to open a suspicious chest with his right hand and it turned out to be a mimic...Who may have gotten through my AC but my character just glared with disamusement at it gnawing on a fake metal limb. In a game where you can do pretty much anything with the only real limit being your imagination, I can't understand the lack of creativity to think losing a limb would be such a negative thing. Negative? Yes, but not game breaking. I've created a character I've got ready to use who in her backstory lost an arm effectively killing her only ambition of being a soldier, later taking study in the arcane arts with the desire to learn one specific spell: mage hand, the sole purpose to act as a prosthetic.

[@MasterNinja1373]

I am a newcomer to D&D, (been playing with my friends) and I have been watching your videos to try and learn how to be better player. I just wanted to thank you for making these videos, they are really helpful

[@SinerAthin]

I love critical hit/fumble tables, namely because as you said, they can help even the otherwise crazy power curve in DND. Which means players cannot really hold the enemy in contempt. Even a Goblin might get lucky and roll that 100, or sever a limb/cripple them. Even a combat master might lose from time to time, if simply given enough chances to do so. No one's truly inured from fate and chance, and that makes every fight more intense, in addition to allowing low level NPCs to stay relevant for longer, even if they won't exactly be reliable.

[@raswartz]

I missed your PCs from this video -- those guys are the best. ;)

[@Ralndrath]

Dark Heresy has a GREAT critical hit table. Gory and over the top as befitting a P&P RPG set in the grim darkness of the 41st milennium.

[@joncarroll2040]

The Dark Heresy crit table is the direct descendent of my favorite crit system: the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay one.

[@tavishwhite3714]

We've been using Seth's fumble table for about a year now and it has brought a lot of life to our games. Thanks for introducing us to it sir. We've even had an instant death situation by a flock of summoned birds. Ridiculous and amazing ^~^

[@michaelkraemer5846]

I am a simple man, I see Seth's videos, I give him a thumb's up.

[@CelticCrossGC]

I've played rolemaster. The whole game is based around tables. You never die from hit point damage. You die from criticals. The tables have led to so many interesting stories. Thanks to one magic critical table, my ranger who always acted first and would instantly kill anything not right ended up with a goat leg and a snake for a hand. One healer class is based on the ability to take on other people's damage and to then regenerate yourself in rounds, minutes, or hours instead of weeks. In one fight we had a great laugh because in character the healer was excited that despite the fact that in a party of 6 we managed 8 broken legs, they were all left legs including the repeats, so she could take them all at the same time. Another time because she grew a new ear after one was cut off, she cared her old ear with her, not wanting to leave pieces of herself just lying around. She ended up using it to determine the pool we needed to cross was acid. A well done table can add a lot to a story.

[@Palocles]

I remember MERP had some tables like this. And was based on role master anyway, so no surprise. Made things fun. Mortality based on crit results rather than HP reaching zero is actually a great, if maybe book keep-y, idea.

[@somebloke3869]

@You must gather your party Before venturing forth Arms law will get you the basic combat system and the all important weapon and critical tables. There are a few editions of the core rules and I use a bit from all of them. Look for titles like Rolemaster fantasy roleplay, character law, spell law.

[@SixWingZombi]

I used to be a part of a group where, instead of crit/fumble tables, we had critical and fumble DECKS. Each card had a different effect and it added an interesting element to the combats Like where one of our players was having to face down three werebears alone. With his first attack he managed to crit one of them and pulled a card. That card was "Throat Slash" which meant that the monster was effectively removed from combat unless it got healed up. So rather than a 3 on 1, it was reduced to a slightly more manageable 2 on 1. In the end, he wound up winning, but contracted lycanthropy... which we never got around to treating.

[@samuelzuleger5134]

There is a long story to this one, but we were at the climax of a massive campaign. 3 GMs, 15 players, and an epic 6-hour final battle. I had bounced around the campaign due to the number of GMs and players, and ended up as a low-level player in the third group. In context, I was the first rank player, and was expected to last the first hour or two. I didn't mind (none of us did, this was the climax to over four years of campaigns). It was a different system (BESM, Revised Second Edition for the curious), and we had both critical hits and fumbles, and also a rule on "called shots." Called shots were when a character didn't just swing wild, but targeted a specific location or part of the enemy's body. For example, rather than swinging your sword, you aim for the neck. They were harder to hit, but if you failed that, you could still get a hit in, just less than the normal damage. Anyway, so I say, "What the hell! Called shot, carotid artery on the hellhound!" (It was about equal to me in levels.) Critical hit, roll the table, behead and instantly kill the damn thing. It should have been a close three rounds! I spend the next turn aiming and just eat an attack. "Called shot, carotid artery on the next hellhound!" GM face-palms as there was no way I should have hit the first one, and no one would imagine two crits in a row. Critical hit, roll the table, 4xdamage. #2 is down. Take aim again and this time enemies miss. Called shot again and hit. Not critical, but damage of called shot finishes it off. I just killed off three enemies that, in theory, should have been able to beat me. I am now into round 7 of a battle I should not have lasted 5 rounds into, and three enemies that were my equal are now dead. One last time, I decide, "What the hell!" I charge head long at the BBEG and throw a wild attack that should never, in a million years, hit. It would cost her an action to avoid, and another to set up for her spell, buying the larger team two turns uninterrupted to beat the minions. I launch into my attack...and critical hit (I used a different set of dice each time). I am vampiric, so my teeth are now lodged deep inside her (that...came out wier...nevermind), damage only doubled and her HP were ridiculous, but she was now our equivalent of grappled, and could not charge the spell. I died the next turn, but my teeth continued to cause damage and she was still grappled for FIVE TURNS until minions had to rip my corpse off her (with a critical fumble that caused further damage!). Combined with good strategy and a few other lucky rolls, and the planned epic battle kind of went lopsided. Sure, we lost almost half the team at the end, but we knew enough that two or three of us surviving would actually be an accomplishment. The GMs were both grimacing and laughing hysterically, and it was actually one of the first times any of them really had to use the critical hit/fumble tables. The original GM who had started the whole thing four years prior actually said he had only seen the tables used about a dozen times before this, and we had used it at least twice as much in that single day. The scales had been decidedly against us, and the luck over four years hadn't been much better, but karma showed up big that day...and it was hysterical. Still one of my favorite TTRPG experiences ever (and it was my very first campaign!).

[@capnahayes]

You're gonna LOVE the Star Wars Crit system when you discover it sir. It is without question the best Crit system I have ever seen.

[@goth_fraggle]

I think the weapon-breaking option is awesome! This could always lead into an unexpected quest to reforge said weapon, giving the player a personal motivation and goal and new inspiration for story for the DM

[@Colouroutofspace4]

I think just on 1s anf 20s is a little too common to fumble. The 3.5 rule for critical confirmation works for both crits and fumbles works much better (20 then confirm the hit, 1 then confirm with a miss)

[@SkyEcho751]

When you brought up weapons breaking, Beowulf just popped into my head as he had 3 swords two of which that broke and the other one that was just useless.

[@davidwright7193]

SkyEcho751 Beowulf? I thought he generally distained swords (grendel and his mother are immune to weapons anyway) in favour of ripping the monsters arm off and beating it to death with the soggy end.

[@jddeats]

@@davidwright7193 IIRC, he did prefer hand to hand, but he did indeed use swords. Offhand, I can remember Hrunting and Naegling. One of them he broke on Grendel's mother.

[@nathanielsizemore8594]

Back in the 1980's I found a game that had excellent crit and fumble tables, it was Claw Law, Arms Law, and Spell Law. The tables give excellent details and descriptions of the results.

[@somebloke3869]

That's all part of the Rolemaster system. I use it and can't go back to simple hit points.

[@nathanielsizemore8594]

@@somebloke3869, thanks for reminding me of the games real name. I really enjoyed playing it.

[@somebloke3869]

It's also known as chartmaster.

[@ConorPender]

In our D&D game, a Dragon egg hatched and started eating the Kobolds who were protecting and worshipping it. I describe how one of the Kobolds jumps on the baby Dragon to grapple it, but is thrown off effortlessly. Well, my players chime in, saying he should get a roll, so I roll it and of course the Kobold gets a 20. Next round he gets another 20 on a handle animal roll, followed by a third (!!) 20 on a ride check. I was speechless. In the fight that ensued, all the Kobolds died, except Meepo riding the newly hatched Dragon, but so too does one of the players die. Straight away he decides "I'm playing Meepo", and creates a Kobold Ranger with the beast companion class features. Great way to introduce a new character!

[@SabreXT]

Lindybeige had an interesting take on realistic fumbles from his experience in reenactments. I don't know how well it would work in a game, but it might be worth looking into.

[@CafConIsOn]

These are much appreciated. The group and I have talked for years about whipping up our own fumble tables for Pathfinder and 5e but we never seem to get around to it. We usually just use Paizo' s Critical Hit/Fumble decks, those are fun and have some great effects but stopping combat to shuffle a deck can suck sometimes and of course they usually require some on the fly conversion to work for 5e

[@SSkorkowsky]

Have fun with it, and of course tear it up and modify it however you all like. Makes a good starting point.

[@CafConIsOn]

Again, much appreciated!

[@jesternario]

I used your critical hit or fumble tables in my current D&D game. They went over pretty well. My players had a lot of fun rolling as they did extra damage and fell over backwards, losing their weapons into nearby water and things. My compliments to whoever made those tables.

[@markblant]

My only issue with fumbles is that statistically they affect higher level characters, particularly fighters or barbarians, far more as they start to get multiple attacks per round. A character with one attack has 5% chance each round to fumble (1 on a d20), while a higher level character with four attacks has 18.5% chance to fumble at least once in a round (4 rolls and the chance of one of those being a 1). Providing this is taken into consideration that's okay, but unchecked it does penalise certain classes far more than others.

[@rodpeterson4485]

Personally, Crit/Fail Chart is fundamentally sound. Last month I introduced my family to AD&D 1e. After the 2nd encounter in module B8 two healers died and the party died on the 1st random encounter in the hallway.. So I stoppped using it.

[@elfhririn]

@Seth Tables are greatttt. But SW does it right... it goes up to 130. So only mods will get you the instant death or sever a limb. The mod might be from a consecutive critical hit, or a magic weapon, whatever. It might be a good edit for you

[@nowthenzen]

Hi Seth, very interesting. I have gone back and forth on Crits and fumbles and these are the Rules I use now: Crits and Fumbles: Crits and Fumbles: A natural 20 is a possible Crit. If a Natural 20 is rolled you must confirm the Cirt by making a normal to hit roll against the target (i.e., a 20 and followed by a normal to hit is a Crit). The effect is either max damage or roll 2x the number of damage dice. Damage modifiers are not doubled. If you roll a natural 1 you will fumble unless you then roll what is in effect a saving throw vs fumble. To save you must roll a normal to hit on a 20-sided die, all modifiers apply. If a fumble occurs additional rolls may be allowed, such as against Physical or Intangible fortitude if the situation warrants (see below). Simple Fumble Chart (1D6): 1 Chance to Drop Weapon (might require Intangible Fortitude roll, GM choice) 2,3 Stumble, lose next attack or chance to fall (might require Intangible Fortitude roll, GM choice) 4,5 Stumble, +2 to the next attack against you and no shield bonus or a chance to fall (might require Intangible Fortitude roll, GM choice) 6 Shield Breaks, useless until repaired or replaced, or drop what’s in your off hand (no shield means no shield bonus). If a player manages to roll 20 and 20 the GM might allow them to call the Crit, i.e. I rolled 20 20 and I force the Anti-Paladin to drop their vorpal blade; or I cut off the Ogre’s nose and it retreats from battle relishing it’s improved charisma, or my silvered blade pierces the vampire’s dead heart and causes it to dematerialize.

[@haroldtchicken5871]

In Pathfinder 2e, rolling 10 above or below the dc also counts as a crit and many effects have specific extra things that occur on the different degrees of success/failure

[@TacDyne]

Back in the early '80s we used fumble tables from others and double damage crits for a short time. Then one of the guys showed up with a D100. We made new tables just for that die with all sorts of insane outcomes. It really livened up the combat, and we actually looked forward to crits and fumbles after that.

[@michaelchildre1460]

I always used the "Good Hits and Bad Misses" table from an old Dragon magazine. Never had an issue with a player, and rolling a 20 or 1 was often the highlight of a session. And 1 time changed the course of a campaign. The players were roughly halfway through the Caves of Chaos in Keep the Borderlands ( modified for second edition). The paladin of the group managed to roll such a ridiculous combination of a fumble that I just ended up ruling that he slipped and fell on his sword impaling himself. I actually had something in the works that I was able to work into this. The paladin happened to be the nephew of the leader of the Keep, who I had already decided was deeply evil and actively seeking to make a pact with the powers of Ravenloft. I decided this was the perfect opportunity, and made the paladins bizarre death the sacrifice that was needed to complete the pact.

[@Ilimar1]

Great handouts, much appreciated from our new group. I'm working on the other brilliant idea - notebooks.

[@aneldritchdreamgames5041]

I have a Wiggis of my own, he was a tavern serving boy named Dirk. He was enamored with one of the PCs and joined the group (via being forced to stay in the trunk of the "mobius carriage" (artificer in the party) )he was going to be like a mook that cleaned the PCs armor and stuff, but he just rolled 20 all the time. he started gaining levels, saving the party, single hit slayed a boss, and became a distinctive meber of the empire, and he did eventually get the girl (PC) so Dirk the serving boy is forever immortilized in memory.

[@kevinsullivan3448]

I remember Crit and Fumble tables from the early Dragon Magazines and other sources. I worked up my own tables in the mid 80s to include a greater number of crit and fumble types. Not all games are suitable for such tables, but they can be a lot of fun.

[@thekingkreo3204]

OMG A WILLOW REFERENCE I THOUGHT NOBODY ELSE KNEW

[@rpeterson9182]

Lol. When I need DM inspiration on my home brew campaign I watch Willow (as well as a small list of other movies) to get me back into "the writing zone". : ) Have loved that movie since I was 7!

[@davidburton9690]

I did crit and fumble confirmations, but my players wanted more effects. We just started playing every crit and every fumble with the table, and massive frequency of them. The half-orc fighter would regularly get knocked unconscious during the fight, and then woken up at the end. He'd play it as if he blacked out in rage and killed all of the remaining foes, it was hilarious. He even got decapitated by some orc later in the campaign, and the party went with it. They knew what they wanted with those crit and fumble tables!

[@lamesbond0077]

I'm a naysayer on a fumble. First Seth's doing something great with this channel. It's timely and valid... For the most part. When it comes down to the wire, random tables have a place in random adventures. And I like to straddle the fence on planned and random games. I think it comes down to player expectations. When an unknown element can suddenly shift the game it changes expectations. For example if im running chaosium games I don't add a lot of elemental magic to set TONE because I want my players to investigate. Random would be more appropriate for say... Cyberpunk. I agree with Seth but I think random tables belong in random games. (And hey I dig a good random session now and again)

[@iPuzzlePirate]

I once ran a Starship Troopers d20 campaign, solo, for a friend of mine because schedules being what they were we couldn't get anyone else to join us. It was meant to be a one-shot, but became a campaign, and we kept it solo. Since it was meant to be a solo one-shot, I didn't hold any punches at all (no plot armor) but as my saying it became a campaign suggests, the player's character lived. As the campaign continued, I maintained my no-holding any punches, and the character advanced in military rank as the story continued and they survived deadly mission after deadly mission. Since they were advancing in rank, I had to put them in charge of NPCs, in their fire-team, then squad, and later platoon, but I didn't want to decided who lived or died, nor micro-manage every NPC, and we were doing theater of the mind stuff, so no maps or minis. So, I devised a fairly simple way of determining which of the bad guys attacked who of the player's squad, including the player. I kept MOST of the player's NPC's stats the same, and would roll a handful of d20s for the NPC-bug attacks, and after throwing out all the obvious misses, I'd roll a number of dice to match the table I made to decide who got hit, and then roll for damage on each of them. I rolled the dice out in front of my player, because it was just as suspenseful to him as it was to me, and since I wasn't pulling any punches (or fudging the dice) there was no need to hide them. It allowed my player to see I really wasn't directing attacks at him or away from him (other than throwing a whole horde of bugs at him, or whatever...) if he was going to live or die, well it wasn't all up to the dice, but the dice sure got a lot of say. Well, there was one NPC named, "Harper" who was an NPC in "basic training" with my player's PC, and was there when the PC was put in charge of the fire-team for the first time, and then lived through every mission with my PC, and NEVER ONCE got hit by an enemy attack, not once. We came to see Harper as invincible, the guy who never got so much as a scratch. Even when my PC was taken down to zero (and I think lower) health, made his saves against death, and manged to live, he was carried out of the mission over the back of Harper. Harper was awarded a special medal for that one. We celebrated that escape from the jaws of death, and later toasted in real life to Harper with big grins on our faces. You guys can probably guess where this is going, but I'll continue anyway. As fate would have it, I took some inspiration from the movie (and it from real life) Black Hawk Down, and the drop-ship they were in on the next mission took a hit and veered off course and it had to crash land in a hot zone. The bugs sensed/saw the crash and immediately started swarming the wrecked drop-ship. They were not far behind enemy lines, but they were BEHIND ENEMY LINES! The popped the big hatch on the back of the ship and we rolled initiative. There was in the swarm of bugs an Assassin bug crawling around on the top of the drop-ship, the troopers opened fire on the standard arachnid types which immediately tried swarming in as soon as the door was opened, but the Assassin bug, which I described it's clattering around on-top of the drop-ship to my player, was biding its time. Once the door was cleared enough for the troopers to exit the vehicle, somewhat amazingly none of them taking any damage, they all exited the vehicle. And that's when I rolled for the Assassin Bug's attack. It had been holding its action. In hindsight I could have maybe gave the PC and his NPCs a saving throw, or spot check, but as I saw it they were still in combat and the Assassin bug was just hiding and holding its action. Well, anyway, I roll to hit, and bam! Rolled a Nat-20. So, going out of order because it was a single bug, I rolled for damage, and BAM! Nearly max damage, it was like 1 point shy of max damage. And then, I rolled to see who got it. The assassin bug drove its giant sword-like arm into Harper's back and it jutted out from his chest, right through Harper's heart. After I finished my dramatic description, I paused, and the player and I just sat there in silence for a little while. It was quietly dramatic, neither of us saying anything for a good long moment. I can't remember who sighed first, or exactly what we said, but I ended up pulling my player back into the story by describing what the other NPCs were saying and doing. I imagine it now as the player's character just standing there shocked, sound being muffled, and all this action going on around him, and then suddenly the sound comes back, the other men in the platoon are shouting things, and asking for orders, etc. It was tense. We ended up roleplaying the funeral for that NPC, and still occasionally bring him up and talk about him or toast to him. And he was only meant to be a red shirt, to die along with my solo-player in a single-shot, meant to be TPK-Starship-Troopers-Adventure. Maybe I should make a table-top war-stories video. :P

[@MyersSgt]

Our group for many years used a simple critical hits and fumbles table that is very minimal (simply "1" meant dropped weapon and "20" meant double max damage (before any adds)), because some of our players really hate the critical fumbles (we're all supposed to be heroes, right?) and by level 5 or 6, have a lot of time invested in their characters. The other argument against using these tables was the extra dice rolling involved that slows the action down. I personally love critical hits and fumbles tables, but think 5% is a bit of a high percentage of "swings" that result in a fumble after level 3 or 4. So at our nest session, I am going to propose the "Interlock Unlimited" method and see if we can give it a "test run" in our AD&D 2E games, without slowing the game down too much. Thanks for this video and posting your custom tables for downloading!

[@dunewizard]

Twice in my DM'ing experience, I have had a party member throw a critical and subsequently one shot a story arc's BBEG, due to critical hit tables like this. I can tell you, as a seasoned DM, you try like mad to join in the excitement with your players, but it is the closest to being on the receiving end of a really ugly TPK as a DM can ever get, and nothing you or your players do, can change that sinking feeling. The first time it happened, it was just a feeling of being deflated, most of the story to that point was 100% ad-lib so the personal investment was not all that significant. I had planned for the encounter to take about 30-60 minutes to play out, and now I had 55 minutes of time to figure out how to fill on the fly, while my players high-fived each other endlessly. The second time nearly made me hang up my DMG. I had planned the encounter to be played out in stages, with the BBEG managing to slip away for the party to pursue several times, only to reach a final climactic scene, on the rooftop of the BBEG's fortress, and the killing blow would send him tumbling over the edge, to be impaled on his own palisades... Except, he never made it off the riser of his own throne... the ranger won initiative, fired a called shot, which critical hit, fatally, and brought an end to literally months of play, planning and preparation... with... one... sheaf... arrow... After that I altered my critical tables to remove instant fatalities, both on fumbles and criticals, because they are just too disruptive to the narrative and honestly steal heroic moments from the rest of the table as well, but I do still use them.

[@konquers]

yeah never put instant death , you can exhange ta for like a x3 or x4 the dmg , so in your storie here even if this make is hit point make him dead ,your player dont know that and you can just add him a little more hit point to make him at least try to run out :P

[@PaulLaPorteJr]

Dude, this package is absolutely brilliant. Thank you for making this shareable.

[@hqueso]

I disagree with the person that told you Epic characters should never fall down, but I do think that even moderately competent people shouldn't fail miserably 1 in 20 times they do the thing they are best at. As such, if I use such tables (which I don't, currently, but that's a choice based on my group's needs and preferences rather than a hard and fast rejection) I usually allow some kind of recovery- a save, or the 'roll under your level on a d20 to avoid the fumble" to negate the failure. In a large group, I find that can bog things down a little, so avoid it. I know that fencing and actual combat are very different, but I used to fence before my back decided to have problems with it. I was not very good, about average for a casual participant who went to lessons but wasn't competition ready. I did drop a weapon on occasion or have a weapon break on me mid-practice or -match. Rarely. Once every five or six sessions. Not once every twenty attack sequences or so. I don't mind having rules for these little failures, but they become ridiculous if they are just on an unfiltered Nat 1. Disclaimer- I ain't gonna tell you how to have fun. If your group likes that frequency of fumbling, then have at it. I'd love to hear the stories of your most amazing or funny mass-failures!

[@rpeterson9182]

I agree with you and that's why I haven't used a crit/fumble table in years. My issues were that statistically a 20th level player could crit/fumble just as much as a 1st level player and that felt unrealistic and frankly unfair. If you have 20 levels of experience under your belt you shouldn't be screwing up as often as a rookie adventurer. On the other side of the coin, a rookie shouldn't have the finesse to hit the vital parts of opponents as often as an experienced/nuanced 20th level character. That being said, I still wanted to use a crit/fumble table because of some of the amazing times our group had with them in the past. We had a campaign with two people playing half-Orc barbarians (backstory was older and younger brother) in our party of 5. While fighting orcs from a Southern tribe the younger brother fumbled and the DM had him roll a d12 for the direction his Greataxe would fly off to (like numbers on a clock). He rolled, and the axe barely missed his older brother hitting the orc dead-on his older brother was fighting. The DM asked him to roll damage (also a d12) since the Fumble hit someone. He rolled a 12. In 3rd edition, orcs have 1d8 hp (average of 4). Twelve points of damage is...overkill. So the DM proceeded to describe how younger brother's Greataxe slipped from his hand mid-swing, spinning 30 feet across the room to plunge into the side of the orc's head, dropping him to the ground dead. The downside was that he was now weaponless and had to draw a backup weapon, but It was by far the coolest fumble I've ever witnessed. I loved this video, but wasn't convinced on using a crit/fumble table again until I saw Seth's addendum at the beginning of the comments about rolling a d20 against your PC level to see if it really is a crit/fumble or a normal hit/miss. A lot more realistic and it makes crits/fumbles occur on a more realistic basis depending on whether you are high level/low level. I'm starting a campaign in the next couple of months (when my group finishes learning 5e; we're moving up from 3.5) and I think I will use Seth's crit/fumble tables (but with modifications to avoid player problems we've had in the past). Great video, Seth! And great ideas! Thanks for making RPGs (and DMing) more fun with your hilarious videos!!!!

[@hqueso]

I do like the idea of a second roll based on your level or some prowess-indicating number, but probably will not do so in the campaign I am about to start simply because I have a larger-than-normal number of players for me, and we have a limited time frame where everyone can make it to the game. As such, I don't want to introduce extra rolls, especially during combat. In a smaller group or if we had a longer session time, I'd probably give it a try even if it risked slowing things down slightly.

[@kevingooley9628]

I think some in the industry may be of the same opinion, many game updates seem to be including crit tables with double rolls, either the roll under you level, or the first roll being a crit chance, then a second unmodified d20 roll to see if it's actually a crit. I don't know the actual odds of rolling a 1 or 20 twice in a row, but it's less than 1 in 20.

[@stm7810]

In Call of Cthulu we made it a rule if your skill was below 50 with a gun and you rolled 100 you didn't just fuck up, you just awakened the ghost of Wile E Coyote, your bullet bouncing off the wall behind your target and hitting you for half damage like something out of a cartoon, this resulted in a situation where I was shooting at an eldritch patch work monster, all tumours and limbs, missing, dealing with a jam, then after the bullet bounced and hit me in the eye, leaving me half blind I was pissed off, tossed the gun, critically succeded and it scewered the thing straight through the brain like it was made of play dough. Another time some cops started a shoot out, it seemed my friend had died, but it was ruled the crit success on the constitution roll was a burst of adrenaline to let him rise much more, killing the cops who all had backs turned to him, and because my character was already blind by then due to injury they refused to believe he did something that badass.

[@OpiatesAndTits]

You had fencing equipment break every six sessions wtf? You were either using it improperly or it was already compromised. I don’t recall anyone dropping a sword at least not during actual sparring...those swords have almost no mass behind them so it’s unlikely you lose your grip.

[@jesternario]

So, I modified the list you presented us a bit. One thing I put on mine, as a bit of homage to the asterisk comment on the Tarrasque in the 2nd edition Monster Manual, is that if the PC who fumbles rolls a nat 100, they fail so spectacularly that they ACTUALLY MANAGE TO HIT THEIR OPPONENT ANYWAY. Of course the 96-99 is that they hit a fellow PC.

[@christopherfry5526]

You are making me want to jump back into RPG's. Thank you so much for all the great content.

[@erikvucicevic6667]

I am very much familiar with your Red Dragon Situation. In a game of Dark Heresy the final encounter was a half-ready Chaos Dreadnought who came charging at the group. The first character rolls an attack and fumbles, slipping in the mud and falling down face first. The second character then rolled a critical hit and just oneshot the dreadnought. It was a great victory, how Zarkov the Techmage leaped off of Cahra, a drug addict scum, elevating him high into the air before coming crashing down with his power sword, splitting the heretic construct in half in one blow while yelling "You are not a STG b****!". I gladly gave that moment to my group, even if it completely took away my boss fight. These are the moments why we all love and enjoy PnP.

[@enlightenedknight9882]

When myself and friends were younger, playing the original 3rd Ed DnD, we house ruled the triple 20 crit rule. Where if a player roles 3 natural 20s in a row on an attack they automatically killed whatever they were hitting. We all still remember playing a game where the DM had put a Beholder in the dungeon with the intent of making us retreat ,because we were way too low of level..And of course my buddy triple crit'd the Beholder dead hahahaha the face of my buddy DMing *Priceless* good times. Btw love your channel it's really gotten me back into wanting to game I bought the My Little Pony RPG for Christmas with hopes of getting my daughter into gaming.

[@jadeLoTuZ]

A tip, If you want to use fumbles, but think they accure to often (1 of 20), heres an alternative rule. A natural "1" is not an automatic fumble, its just an automatic failure. You instead must test for fumble with another roll. This role is a base roll against your Skill that you used. Crit hits actually works almost the same in this version, a natural "20" is a crit hit, but just a normal double damage type. But you'll also test to se if its a "Perfect Crit Hit". Roll again with your skill, if you fail the second one, its just a "Crit hit". If you succeed then its a Perfect hit. Basicly a Insta Kill or Win, with Double damage plus Max damage. Sever a limb, if it is head then it is decapacitated (head is rolling of its shoulder). Note: You may also play the NPCs, Mobs/Minions and Goons, so they still just fumble on a natural 1, and crits on a 20. There is no such thing as Perfect for them, or is it?! ... ;) (Note: I use this. I got it from a Swedish RPG version of the Dungeons and Dragons, called "Drakar och Demoner" ... in english "Dragons and Demons". Its a classic game in Sweden, since the 1980's.)

[@gmradio2436]

We have a simple fumble system in our games. Nat 1: roll again, if one roll again, if not eat an attack of opportunity. 2 Nat 1s: roll again, if one roll again, if not hit yourself. 3 Nat 1s: you are dead, but something happens Swords: Cut off your own head, and adjacent target. Bows: Shatters, kill you by splinters, and the arrow crits nearest target/character. Spells: You explode in an arcane detonation. Damage and area based in spell level. This applies to players and all enemies. There is one last rule we use. Attention of the Old Gods: Any chain of 1s longer than 3 consecutive rolls draws the attention of the Old Gods and it is a terrible thing. Starting with a 5 foot sphere and doubling in size for each 1 is a zone of death. No save, No immunity. No resurrection. It has popped up twice and both times have been memorable.

[@GRex7777]

Sometime I need to sit down and make my own tables. Most of them are decent, but it's a house rule in our games that magical weapons/armor don't break unless something/someone is disenchanting them, and SO many tables are about breaking the weapon. That and the instant kill needs some kind of understandable caveat to keep it from killing bosses instantly.

[@SSkorkowsky]

We came from the dark times when gear and equipment had their own saves against fireballs, lightning, and acid. If a PC failed their personal save they then had to start saving for their stuff. It was kind of a cool chart because the save charts were broken down to material saving versus type of damage, so paper was screwed against fire, but pretty safe against crushing blows. Magic items had a +1 with an additional plus for every plus the item had (so a +1 sword had a +2 save, and the like). Stripping gear was pretty common back then. Artifacts/Relics were the only thing immune to that stuff.

[@christianthatcher9644]

Only recently discovered your channel, great stuff. We always use Crit Hit and Miss tables. For me that is AD&D. Thanks for putting up your tables ive modded mine to include some of your ideas.

[@immolated55]

Liked specifically for the Madmartigan reference. I have a fumble table that is based off the strength of the enemy. Basically the PC rolls 1d20 and adds their level to the roll. The DC of the roll is 10+Enemies CR. If they fail, they fumble, if they succeed, it's just a miss.

[@brettsimpson1505]

Great video, Seth. Thank you for sharing. There is a purity and a simplicity to these charts that takes me back to the early - mid '80s. It would be fun to play with these rules.

[@akizeta]

I've had a love-hate relationship with fumbles and crits ever since my first Runequest character lost his arm to a fumble.

[@Jake-23]

Thank you @Seth for sharing these tables

[@GM_Darius]

I personally love the Critical Hit/Fumble tables and decks. we used them in any game we can and some of the results have been hilarious and excellent just when they're needed. Like our first time through the Pathfinder Beginner's Box. Spoilers for that ahead. There is a black dragon at the end of the adventure and while the party did find the Dragonbane sword within the caves, it's still a heckin' large dragon and they were level 2. So while it was a losing battle, the party's archer attacks... and rolls a 20. Turns out, black dragons can get appendicitis. This dropped his Constitution by about 4 (rolled well on that DC) and fatigued him, making him an easy target to hit.

[@rogaineablar5608]

Back in the day, we did double damage for natural 20's. That was it back in the 80's.

[@dirtbag1713]

This is exactly why I chose the tavern brawler feat for my human way of the drunken fist monk. Fumbling is just part of his character!

[@cameronsydnor7330]

One time I was DMing and one of my players was a cleric who was a chef and he used a frying pan as a weapon. He could not keep that frying pan in his hands any time he used it he dropped it. to the point where his “holy weapon” was a frying pan that had a magic enchantment making it impossible to drop. It was absolutely hilarious.

[@edpistemic]

This rang so true for me!! :) I vividly remember absolutely golden moments at both extremes. Your 'redshirt' turned epic hero is also something that has happened to an NPC or two in my games! Wonderful, happy memories! :)

[@marcchoronzey3923]

That's a very cool starter package. Thanks for sharing! As an old school RPG player/ GM, I really like Fumble and Crit tables. It's one of the reasons I love MERP so much.

[@MrMortadelas]

We use modified tables from good MERP/Rolemaster. Best thing that ever happened to our games, people get scars, get disarmed, there are broken bones, people wear helmets and arm/leg protection, and lightning/cold/fire spells do totally different things. yeah, chain lightning is something to be dreaded if you wear metal armour.

[@BanjoSick]

yeah, Thise are great!! "Stumble over an imaginary unseen dead turtle. You lose two rounds of attack, but can still parry." That is great!!!! Played Rolemaster many years. My go to system!

[@nokomarie1963]

We've used your table for six months, very fun.

[@Redgoo2]

I had a similar situation with an NPC wrecking shit. It was call of Cthulhu- orient express. We got to the Dark ages flashback and were in church with a bunch of knights helping us kill cultists. This one knight NPC called boab survived 5 arrows, getting crushed by a chandelier and a laser blast from the wizard. He ripped the Wizards head off. We left boab mid fight with a dragon under the city. Some say boab is still there.

[@greedow]

how the hell did he survive? did rasputin possess him at some point?

[@Redgoo2]

Qualquer gamer just good rolls and the power of Jesus

[@DarranSims]

I was playing RuneQuest in the early 80’s and managed to roll ‘00’ on my attack, a fumble! I then rolled my fumble and got ‘00’ again. Roll three times on the fumble table and apply all results. I then rolled ‘hit self for double damage’, ‘hit friend for maximum damage’, and ‘roll on Fumble table again’. I ended up rolling another ‘00’ so the final result was I took out half the group and my own character too.

[@techno_tuna]

XD I too have a random redshirt that turned into a beast. Bob, destroyer of worlds, went on to crit a mini-boss to death while the players fought the rest of the encounter. I had no intention of him living the fight, or even doing damage, but he did both very well. He later went on to crit many, many things to death to the point where the party just started giving him all of the crazy and steampunk-ish guns I had in mind for them to use. By the end, Bob, destroyer of worlds was STILL CRITING with an 8 barreled volley gun. As a player I regularly fumble once or twice per combat.

[@StutleyConstable]

Thumbs up for all the movie references. You grabbed my attention with Madmartigan and capped it off with a callback to one of my favorite movies of all time: Dragonslayer! Great video Seth! Thanks.

[@TacDyne]

For the players who claim their weapons wouldn't break, there are plenty of examples in museums world wide of swords which have snapped in half, and were then heat forged back together.

[@bigblue344]

Random crits are fair and balanced

[@stevenschnepp576]

They're balanced against the players, yeah.

[@AuthorReborn]

Fair, certainly. Random chance is the great equalizer of tabletop after all. Balanced? I would disagree, but don't let that stop you

[@flexyspagoot]

@@AuthorReborn it's a tf2 reference.

[@finalshade14]

BONK

[@MidnightSnackx]

Birds fly, Grass grows, and brother... I hurt people

[@capnahayes]

The Star Wars role playing game by Fantasy Flight Games as well as Genesys (their generic house rules system) has one of the absolute best Crit systems I have ever seen!

[@stephenchristiansen2851]

As a GM, I had a bad guy following the PC's everywhere. He was the bane of their existence and they could never kill him. Every time they went against him, they had to run away. One encounter that came up went like this: PC wins initiative, PC rolls nat 20, PC rolls instant kill and my bad guy went down, dead. My heart almost broke. I wanted an epic battle, I wanted this bad guy to continue to be the bane of the PC's existence, but it was the game and in the end everyone had fun (which was the most important). That moment is still talked about today. Another game: PC has gun waiting for John Wilkes Booth while protecting Pres Abe Lincoln. The PC had the surprise, had tons of experience, had aim, had everything he needed to succeed and asked if he really needed to roll. I said yes. Booth rushes in and PC rolls nat 1, gun misfires. Yup...history just couldn't be stopped. I use crit hit and crit fumble charts (and I change it up now and then to fit the situation: doing a limb loss on a gelatinous cube doesn't really do anything, but in my game it does cut off a corner and does damage but that corner starts to grow another cube).

[@markrucker9107]

Crits have always been the most memorable part of any game I have ever played!

[@ArvelDreth]

Your examples of people losing their weapons or weapons breaking are the enemy actively disarming someone or trying to break the hero's weapon. Have you ever seen a movie where the main hero swings and their sword flies out of their hand or they swing and the enemy blocks or parries, both guys are using regular swords, and the hero's sword shatters out of nowhere? Those are the two scenarios that I think shouldn't just come out if left field, you need to have a good explanation for it.

[@Emohawk707]

I’ve been playing for a year... I’ve never heard of these before, but they sound pretty awesome

[@Kagoliksis]

Wonderful video. Keep them up!

[@Ernoskij]

I use critical hits/fumbles in my games, but I don't have a table to roll on. When a player (or monster) rolls a natural 20 or a 1, I look at the situation and then I invent a result that fits the narrative. This is a little tougher on the DM than having a table because it demands that you can come up with a plausible scenario that fits the narrative of the situation. I do have things that I use more often than others, like getting your weapon stuck in a tree or door or similar, or hitting your friend with an arrow because they are in the line of fire to the monster. On the critical hit side that always gives the extra dice roll, but the results vary. Sometimes it dismembers the enemy, sometimes they manages to hit an extra opponent, sometimes they trip the opponent or disarm them. Occasionally I also use the critical hit to kill off an enemy even though the critical hit didn't actually do enough damage, just because it fits well in the situation. A thing I try to teach my players is to not just roll an attack, but describe what they are trying to do with the attack, how they are attacking. Partly it makes them be more invested in the action, and partly it gives me some more pieces to play with on critical hits and fumbles.

[@Tyler-Kearney]

Personal opinion, I feel that when possible it's great for fumbles to be environmental effects. Anything from you miss and now you have to pull your axe out of a tree to missing an attack and knocking over a pot of boiling water and all combatants in the area have to make a dex save or take damage. Nat 1s leading to unpredictable environmental effects can be quite epic and often times hilarious in combat.

[@torenatkinson1986]

I use these tables extensively with Ruin Nation. Losing limbs is kind of an expected part of the game. That's what prosthetics are for.

[@Sha_Fermo]

In a Star Wars campaign I am in, my character has lost one arm and both legs. He is becoming more machine than man at this point and has lead to some really cool scenarios. Like basically while he was a force adept pilot now he uses his mechanical limbs to interface with his craft better. We also came into contact with a sentient droid that was curious about how a man could become so close to a droid and still remain a man. Where does the line between man and droid start? This droid died in an epic battle. Making my character wonder about the connection a droid has to the force. Not to mention we encountered an alternate future where the empire ruled still, and Vader was very interested in my character, after all, he saw a lot of himself in me. In short, losing a limb has made my character awesome! And it isn’t so much trying to stick on the rails to where we are, but where our character is going!

[@jamesrizza2640]

Another option you can use with fumble tables particuliarly is to confirm the fumble like you do critical hits, (I am a PF1e GM), using 1-3 on a d20 to confirm the fumble. Yes its an extra step but then players don't feel as bad when it happens. This effectively reduces the frequency of fumbles while still including them in the game.

[@Dekunutcase]

I love crits, but I like when they make sense to the story. If you are shooting in front of your party, it doesn't make much sense to have the arrow hit a party member, but broken bowstrings or way off mark hits are good. I like to use a d8 to determine where a melee weapon flies when it is dropped and they've dropped under enemies and in ally's faces before. Be creative, even if you aren't using a table.

[@andrewgilinger4248]

Thanks for all the packages, that was really awesome of you to take the time to do and I think they will definitely be a great addition to my next game!

[@grayne86]

The thing about fumbling and how epic heroes shouldn't do it is that the "legend" of those heroes doesn't reflect the reality. No one talks about how they slip in the mud, trudge through sewage or fall off their horses etc etc. PC's LIVE the reality while others tell the legends of their most triumphant moments. That's part of the fun, you sit in a tavern and listen to a bard sing a ridiculously gilded version of a time you slayed a dragon. But they left out the part where you flubbed a dodged and caught a face/mouth full of dirt. Those are the memories you and your fellow heroes carry with you, the things you laugh about around a campfire, raise drinks in memory to in dingy taverns, chide each other about while climbing the wall of some fortress. Over my years of playing and DMing it's these unseen moments that the players share and laugh about, felling giants, dragons, beholders and demi-gods is something they'll do on the regular at a certain point but remember that time Hethet got his axe stuck in a door and had to spend the rest of the fight using a potato peeler he found in the kitchen? Those are the times that remind us that even the most epic of heroes are still fallible. Some mistakes are funny, others are deadly but they adventure anyway because it calls to them and no other life will be as fulfilling.

[@AaronQ64]

Ive never met a random table I didnt like. Probably why I love Dungeon Crawl Classics so much.

[@steamfeuver]

Thank you so much for sharing this! I really like your videos and insight as a GM myself. They'd definitively improved how I roll my game.

[@5d6bestof32]

i think improvising crit fails is perfectly fine and more immersive since situations vary depending on encounter. crit successes i like to have the player say how theyd do it. adds more excitement and lets them be the badass they want to be.

[@alanrennox7340]

I love the critical hits and fumbles, although we tend to use rolemaster standard as our game mechanic, but we've had some brilliant criticals and fumbles. Like the apprentice ranger (lvl 1) who shoots an arrow at the marauder warchief, double open ends his dice roll and follows with a natural 100 on critical. Then there was the gold hungry dwarf, who while exploring mines attempted to leap a chasm while fully armoured and carrying an assortment of axes, double fumble and a fumbled saving throw to boot, I think he's still falling....

[@Amehdion]

I usually only allow "boss" monsters to roll on the crit table and I have a special table for monsters that has a lot of RP type consequences on it. For example; our fighter got crit by an Evistro's bite attack and now has a lasting ache in the shoulder that got bit. And our cleric got crit by a Kobold Chieftain's claw attack and now has a gnarly scar on her neck. My players seem to enjoy that kind of stuff.

[@GirlPainting]

you should have a look into the game "rolemaster" or the little offspring "M.E.R.G" ;) the critical hit tables in this game are insanely detailed for each weapon type used / oponent type

[@ghedgs]

MERP (Middle Earth Role-Playing) It was my first rpg :)

[@BanjoSick]

Rolemaster started as a supplement for D&D for combat with critical hit tables and fumbles called Arms Law!

[@ImrazorZodd]

The tables are great, and I say that despite the fumble table was a huge part of my very dear character dying last week.

[@justicar347]

I have the critical hits and fumble decks from paizo. I love them because they create lots of unexpected effects. Even better, you can have the players the card to pick their own death sentence on a critical fumble.

[@dungeonforcevids]

We used to use the critical tables from the 90s '2.5' D&D DM screen. Back in the heady days of 2nd Edition I played a dragon slayer paladin (Jon Wyrmsbane - yeah not original, but I was young) who had a greatsword. Long story short, the Council of Wyrms called him out to fight their champion - they were sick of him hunting down and killing all their members, and this was to settle the matter. In the first round the ancient red dragon struck with every attack, then used its breath weapon, almost killing my (11th?) level character *and* melting his mount. Things were not looking good. Jon did the only thing he could - he hoisted his two-handed dragon slayer and swung an arc at the creature. I roll a 20. Back then we used to confirm the crit with another roll. If you hit, it was a crit, if the 2nd roll missed, it was just a regular hit. So I roll again. Another. 20. DM looks ashen. Rolls on the critical table. Large weapon. Body part comes up. 'Head'. As the dust and smoke settles the red dragon lays dead, a greatsword embedded in its skull. Instant death. The evil dragons made their excuses and flew away. And he was forever known as 'One-blow Wyrmsbane.' So yeah, crits can be great. Though one of our wizards once killed himself with his own dagger, so ...swings and roundabouts!

[@ViewtifulZeke]

The Critical HIt and Fumble decks of cards have become a staple at my game table. They add just enough danger/mischief to be entertaining, without being TOO powerful. There's only a handfull of instakill cards and even then it's not a pure instakill as it requires a fail on a roll to die (save or die, woo!). In a previous group we played Warhammer FRP 2nd, and that game has some serious crit tables. A crit roll there made an otherwise minor NPC a memorable character because he got critted and had his nose chopped off and later reemerged with a steel nose cap. Crits are fun.

[@nathanberrigan9839]

If you're playing an OGL game, there's a free Android app called CriticalRoll. It has different tables for different attack types ( a melee fumble is different than a bow fumble which is different than a spell fumble, etc)

[@zidahya]

Shadowrun 6 has one of the most brutal crit tables I have ever seen. So much violation and limb loosing...

[@maltross]

Thank you for this! I am starting a new campaign Monday, and needed something like this for crit hits/fumbles and the other info helps a lot.

[@bluelionsage99]

Ah, crits and fumbles. Our first trip there was Good Hits and Bad Misses from Dragon Magazine. Worked in damage specific tables when we wrote our own game system. Made my own tables for my 5E campaign. Key points of my system. (1) actual 'events' are many of them. Legs, hands, faces and such damaged. Even equipment. (2) A qualifying roll system. If you just use 1 and 20, there is a 2 in 20 or 10% chance of a trip to the table. Every 10th attack will result in a table check. So on a 1 I have a second roll and on a 20 a save of sorts against target's own AC. Statistically it is first a 2 in 20 followed by about a 15% chance for a player or big bad npc to suffer a crit and 10% fumble. But based on the character'[s attack or defense value. When they happen they are rare and of note.