Critical Hits

Hi everybody,

after the long discussion about weapon damage and hitpoints I have
thought up a little chart for critical hits.
Well, next time I play Spelljammer I am going to introduce this 5
minute work to my players, but perhaps there are obvious flaws in it,
so I decided to post it here:

- These 'rules' only apply to hand to hand combat, not magic.

- Whenever an unmodified "1" is rolled, the attacker loses his / her
/ its weapon and needs to pick it up again, losing the next attack.
Animals and other beings with "natural" weapons might tumble or
something. In either case they cannot attack the next round after
they have scored an unmodified "1".

- Whenever an unmodified "20" is scored, the attacker must roll an
additional attack. If the attack hits he can choose to roll damage as
normal or to roll on the critical hit chart.

- The roll on the chart is made with D20. For every full 5 Hitdice /
Experience Levels the roll is modified by 1.

Below 10: No effect
10+: Victim takes 1D3 damage.
12+: Victim is stunned for 1D4 rounds (+3 Thac0, -2 Damage,
Spellfailure 25%, Speedfactor +4)
14+: Victim takes additional weapondamage
16+: Victim is stunned for an additional 2 rounds
18+: Victim is knocked out for D20+10 rounds
19+: Victim takes additional weapondamage
20+: Victim dies a horrible death

Note that all effects are cumulative, thus an "18" would indicate
that the Victim loses 1D3 + weapondamage in hitpoints, is stunned for
1D4+2 rounds and is knocked out for D20+10 rounds.
A succesful saving throw against death magic reduces the criticalhit
by one row. For example a "19" would be only a "18+" hit afterwards.
For every full 10 Hitdice or experiencelevels (the highest for dual-
or multiclass characters counts) the row is automatically reduced by
one.

With this rule a Dragon could not be killed outrihgt, since it
would automatically reduce the row.
Nevertheless every monster would pose a threat to the PCs now, since
it can consideringly harm them (even though it is still very
unlikely).

With regards,

Kai



"Logic is the foundation of discipline.
Discipline is the essence of control.
I am in control."
Tuvok, Voyager
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