Re: Critical Hits

I just fudge.

Darryl: I don't think the roof can support a mezzanine.
Steve: Shall I give him a call and tell him not to worry about the Spiral
	Staircase?
The Castle: 1997

On Fri, 3 Jul 1998, cameron orwin wrote:

> Critical hit charts are often fun, but can sometimes disrupt a game.  I
> remember one campaign where my 1st or 2nd level thief killed a major NPC
> with a hand x-bow as he was making his escape.  Although great for me, it
> really caused problems in the plot line for the DM.
>
> DM's can often recover, but it can be a pain.  One solution that we came up
> with was to exempt any named NPC from critical hits.  What this means is
> that in a normal fight against an orc or bandit, critical hits are
> available.  But, when PC's take on a monster or NPC that the DM has spent
> some time fleshing out (ie given a name to), a critical hit might only
> result in double damage or something less fatal.
>
> This solution worked well for us.
>
> Just a thought.
>
>
> At 12:18 PM 7/3/98 +0000, you wrote:
> >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
> >___________________________________________________
> >optimus@????.???.????-??????.de
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