Critical Success & Failure (Ep. 97)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- Professor Dungeonmaster reveals how he handles critical successes and failures--WITHOUT using a single chart!
Dungeoncraft Facebook : / 1620296361377654
Professor DungeonMaster lectures on critical hits and misses--with NO CHARTS!
Music:
"Fury of the Dragon's Breath" by Peter Crowley
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By Kevin Macleod: Virtutes Instrumenti, et al. All tracks are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommon...)
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One way to relate the skill of the character to the chance of a fumble or critical, is to roll 1d20 again, and if the second roll is a fail (in the case of natural 1) or success (natural 20), then the bad/good effect kicks in.
A very fine suggestion. BTW--when my nerd friends find out you commented on this channel, they are going to FREAK OUT.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I have commented on other videos of yours, notably recently one that had me in the thumbnail!
I like your general approach to the game - keeping it simple and moving.
@@lindybeige We are not worthy!
@@lindybeige We do something similar, but the second die has a wider range. Any number on a d20 is 5% chance, we all know this, but feel it’s too high. We aim for 1%. On Nat 20 we roll a second d20 and if you get a 16-20 then a crit hit. Nat 1, then a 1-4, cause a crit fail cause your life is about to suck on 2 bad rolls. 😆
Yes 5% of rolls ending in disaster is not realistic. But 5% of 5% is 0.25%. That makes more sense for a critical fail.
"Wizards lead brief but very memorable lives!" I spit out my coffee!🤣
My group has more dead wizards than Spinal Tap has drummers.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 my wizards cast 11 dice fireballs. That 1 die higher.
Ever since I saw this video years ago. I use "Adventurers live very brief, very memorable lives" when someone asks what my games are like. Thank You Professor
On a Fumble, the "opposing party" gets to choose from the following list posted on my DM screen;
1) Drop Your Weapon
2) Hit Friend in Range of Your Attack
3) Hit Self for Normal Damage
4) You Overextend Yourself & Opponent gets a Riposte Attack
5) Trip and Fall
6) Opponent Blinds You for 1D3 Rounds
Ignore the haters. I am constantly trying to learn to be a better DM for my groups. Whether I use it or not, I am always open to listen. Great vid as usual!
Natural One’s are an automatic miss in 5th ed. as per the Player’s Handbook:
“Rolling 1or 20
Sometimes fate blesses or curses a combatant, causing the novice to hit and the veteran to miss.
If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. In addition, the attack is a critical hit, as explained later in this chapter.
If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC.” Player’s Handbook 5th ed. p 194
Personally I like the way 4th ed. handled crits. When you rolled a natural 20 you did the maximum damage that you could with that attack.
Not a fan of 5th with this as part of the reason. This means there’s a flat 5% chance you are going to horribly fail when you do something and that feels a bit high. EG- you walk across a large tree to cross the chasm. Nat 20, umm you do it very well, the best walking anyone has ever seen. Nat 1, you fall to a horrible death. One can argue that you trip, grab some vines and pull back up, but that eliminates the need for the roll. The crit success doesn’t balance out though. Not a fan of the 5% death rule.
@@nesmandan1037 per rulebook, crits only happen in combat. Unless you're DM uses them all the time as a house rule? So you wouldn't roll for crossing a tree. (Personally, I wouldn't ask for a roll to cross a tree over a chasm, unless there was a high risk situation, ie, running from enemies, being shot at, doing it in a storm, etc. Even then, you wouldn't necessarily fall to your death, maybe you'd lose a piece of equipment from your gear while catching yourself?)
@@kevingooley9628 We use them semi frequently as we’ve found them to spice up game play, open the field for jokes, and allow stories to become spontaneous. This allows our group to get some more role playing get some “air time”. Our current adventure is saving a cleric from a dungeon but there is an 8 mile forest stretch that is infested with goblins. 6 trips have resulted in 0 random encounters - As DM I don’t fudge rolls and leave them open to everyone - backup plans to keep the fun going on a stream of bad dice rolls. Anyhoo, we use the roll result also as an impression of how well an action was performed. STR 9 rolls a 1 to pick up a crate does so gracefully as well, a roll of 8 involves much struggling, a 10 shifts the crate but barely, a 15 is grunting with some slight embarrassment, a involves faceplanting in mud and ripping pants - this WILL have an effect for the rest of the adventures life in the area. People will see them as a weakling, anything the do may be considered lucky, borrowing items may have a higher down payment.
Also I won’t kill a player outright unless it is incredibly stupid. A crit failure crossing the chasm may result in them getting their feet tangled in a vine and hanging on for dear life IF they were being careful. If they are drunk, have it oiled up, and trying to show off in front of the town…. Well they are going to need a new character sheet, unless the situation calls for punishment but new character would ruin the fun in the room.
@@nesmandan1037 also nat 1 is only an auto fail for attacks in 5e. Saves and ability checks do not auto fail. Neither do they auto succeed on 20s. Auto success/failure happens only on attacks. Furthermore, 5e (nor any DnD edition that I’m aware of) has critical failures per rules.
Wizard: Recreates reality
::nods sagely::
Fighter: Attacks four times
OMFG BROKEN.
lol.
We started with critical hits on natural 20 back in the mid 80s too.
In the 80s we used judges guild's Arms Law.
@@3vil3lvis Yes! I still have my batter copy around somewhere...
With regard to fighters having a greater action economy than wizards, the rationale has always been that spellcasting is a rote activity that takes time and concentration to perform and is something that can't be rushed, whereas weapon combat involves fast, moment-to-moment strikes that can be increased in frequency with training. The multi attack rule also allows the damage of wizard spell attacks vs. a fighter's multiple strikes for the same level to reach parity. In OSR, the tradeoff used to be that wizards were weak and vulnerable at low levels and powerhouses at high levels, unmatched by any other class purely on the basis of damage dealing. These days, however, players have become more accustomed to the notion of balanced classes (more or less) as a way to prevent one class from dominating the game.
@@TA-by9wv When you talk about a combat round, yes the game defines that as a moment in which such combat maneuvers take place. An attack itself, however, represents the actual opportunity to land a telling blow. With that in mind, having multiple attacks at higher levels matters especially when you talk about weapon effects such as those from a sword of wounding, where every blow landed has the potential to deliver an effect. It is also the mechanism by which martial PCs are able to fend off hordes of lesser monsters that would normally overwhelm them at lower levels (and look awesomely cool while doing so).
Personally, I've never had issue with multiple attacks, and it most certainly doesn't rise to the level of being "chaotic". If you have two attacks, roll two d20 on your turn. If both landed, roll double damage dice. Done.
@@TA-by9wv Fair enough. At the end of the day, it's all about the end user and your desired level of complexity. Hell, there are those who complain that 5E is too simple and want to go in the other direction and add stuff. My own players just happen to enjoy 5E RAW, and since its rules don't really bog down for us the way it seems to for others, I'm well satisfied to keep things the way they are.
Agreed. High level mage casts Psychic Scream and affects 10 enemies in range with 14d6 damage (avg 54hp) save for half to also avoid being stunned.
Also, if the damage kills them their head explodes.
I think doing this once would be sufficient in one round.
I started in 3.0 and my DM and most of the group was old school. Their biggest crit house rule was if you rolled a Nat 20 and backed it up with a Nat 20, you roll again and if that was a Nat 20 you auto kill what ever you are attacking. Played with them for 15 years on and off and only saw that twice.
In one campaign I sent the final boss (a dragon) flying over the heads of the PCs while they were in the forest, just to warn them of the danger ahead.
The sorceress player immediately cast a spell and got 3x Nat 20.
I thought it was right for her to kill the dragon immediately. Now in the villages of the region there is a statue of her in every square
that frazetta reference at the end is wonderful
ICRPG is awesome. Your comments and approach make sense to me and your "keep it moving" philosophy is perfect.
Thank for watching and for the kind words.
Always excited when there's a new episode
I'm new to D&D and even newer to DMing. I feel like my skills as a DM get better after watching these videos. I'm gonna allow my players to expend a inspiration point in lieu of a death saving throw.
Welcome to the hobby and thanks for watching!
I prefer to have critical hits deal max + extra damage. Rolling minimum on a critical stinks. Also ICRPG is a brilliant little book and definitely worth a look.
that's what I do.
On a nat 20 we do max damage + proficiency bonus (5e)
Temet Nosce I may incorporate this concept with max + relevant stat bonus. Str for fighter/melee. Chr for sorc spell. Wis for wizard spell. Dex for rogue/finesse melee. Etc. Or relevant stat for skill. (Pathfinder).
Dude, I'm late to the Dungeon Craft party, and though D&D isn't my jam, I am lovin' your ideas and philosophy, your approach and attitude. I've yet to walk away from one of your vids without at least once nodding sagely in agreement as you lay down the law of your game. And, yes, I bought ICRPG because you endorsed it. Been gamin'' for over 40 years and I've never run across another GM I agreed with more. Keep rockin' it PDM, keep rockin' it.
Thanks. I appreciate your kind words. This channel has been so to grow, so it’s exciting when more people find it. Also, I think ICRPG is D&D, just a streamlined version. Anything with the 6 ability scores, AC, & Hp is D&D, just like Methodists, Mormons, & Mennonites fall within the tent of Christianity.
I had one crybaby complain that his sword shouldn't fall out of his hand, (he rolled a 1), his sword landed 3ft in front of him. It was the first time he made a bad roll. He left the game, I laughed. I did later decide to make a crit fail like a crit success by having them roll a confirmation roll, [1,2 or 3]. This makes it less frequent maybe the crybabies will think its a bit more fair. I say get some new dice. As always your channel is fun, provocative and inspiring. Keep it up and always wear that +1 Vest of protection.
Thanks. What’s funny is, real warriors have backup weapons in case that happens-and it happens in films ALL the TIME! I am writing an episode where I talk about this. Stay tuned.
‘No internet’ in the 80s is true, but what we did have was Dungeon magazine or Dragon magazine where I recall many suggestions like critical tables. That was where my friend circle got many ideas we tried.
I love the idea of using fate dice for when a 1 is rolled. Thank you for that. I think I'm going to try it.
Me too, Brian.
I'm a fan of critical success and failure in game, I like the randomness it infuses. I'm not a big fan of the critical success mechanic in 5e though. it seems to me if you get a crit, that should automatically mean something good. It shouldn't be possible to Crit, but then wiff on damage. My house rule is that a crit is automatically max regular damage, plus a roll for additional damage. That way, even if the player rolls garbage, they still got a max damage strike plus a little extra. To my mind, the player shouldn't be punished on their Crit just because they rolled poorly on damage.
I love descriptive combats. Am fortunate to still be around after decades of fighting in rings, mats,, cages, and bar rooms. 16 years as as head bouncer in a seedy night club. One of my favorite real life battles was 4 of us bouncers (2 of us D&Ders since 80's) against 16 guys from a landscaping crew in town to demolish the old Penn Dott building in Harrisburg. It was like a wild west movie. Luckily 10 of them had in the same green t shirt, and the foreman had white ones with the same logo. It was like keeping track of orcs and their lieutenants. There were patrons jumping in to help, or settle old grievances with my party of bouncers, chairs, stools, body slams, I took a soccer kick to the face as I was kneeling over a downed opponent, seeing guys staggering backwards get caught by bystanders and tossed back into the mix. There are many scenes indelibly etched into my memory. And I had to recall many of them the next week at the Police Department and justify what had happened. I remember the police chief asking "You seem so smart, why the hell do you do this?". I told him "I love it, to mix it up, but to be one of the good guys. Plus it helps my D&D game".
Often when I'm running a group combat I draw upon that and other memories.
This is the best thing I ever saw.
The whole multiple attacks per round started in the era when a combat round was 1 minute long, and the attack roll represented the best opportunity you had in that round of fighting (swinging, missing, feinting, parrying, dodging, etc) to strike a telling blow. Now it's 6 seconds long and every attack represents every swing of your weapon. Ten attacks in six seconds? GOD-like! And in AD&D those to-hit charts stated that some AC's required a natural 20 plus bonuses just to hit, so no way could a Nat 20 always be a critical hit. Even so, that house rule was popular where I played, tho not everybody used it, and a Nat 1 was always a "fumble" of some kind.
I feel like you could build a whole adventure or even a campaign just based off of Frazetta paintings. Grabbing content, but also channeling themes and atmosphere.
I still use the critical fumble table I photocopied in 1981 Dragon magazine, still the same copy I glued to a piece of cardboard.
Awesome!
Back in the Third Edition days, Paizo reprinted the critical hit/fumble charts from Dragon magazine in a hardcover book titled Dragon Compendium Vol 1. It retailed for $40.00 but used copies are available on Amazon from time to time.
can you share a pic? Here or on the FB group?
@@GuyTayler Here's the link to Amazon:
www.amazon.com/Dragon-Compendium-Dungeons-Dragons-Vol/dp/0977007146/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Dragon+Compendium+Vol+1&qid=1571173300&s=books&sr=1-1
It is an updated "Best of Dragon" like the old reprints from the 1980's. Hope this helps.
Great idea, +d12 on damage for a critical roll. I am writing it into my homebrew rules.
I like the idea of the awesome point in the form of a "lucky break" which can give the heroes the extra clue they need or even save a character's life but is always balanced by an "unlucky break" I can use to save a villain's life or get the heroes captured when I need to. I'd still give inspiration for role-playing, but with the lesser effect of just re-rolling a die.
Cool! Thanks for sharing!
Talk more about ICRPG. I love it, I want to hear how other people are using it, and Hank's usually (but not always) right. I want to hear how it's behavior changes in the wild, under the guidance of other smart people who have seen the brilliance in its simplicity. So, yeah, every time you say ICRPG I'm cheering.
It's interesting the Professor brings up this topic, everyone really DID have a house rule! My pals back in the 80s, playing AD&D, had a "20 and a 1" rule. That is, if you role a 20 and then roll a 1, you instantly kill your opponent. This leads to a few interesting outcomes. For one, even if you're level 20 suddenly that horde of orcs is a threat. One of them just might get lucky! There's the flip side too. During a "we're just drinking beer and messing around" game (yes, we drank beer when I was 16 in my parents basement) the DM thought it would be hilarious to have an ancient red dragon swoop upon our 1st level party and YUP, I hit it in the eye with my dagger. Literally it was four hours of looting and counting exp until we were lords at level 10 each! :D
Fantastic video. Seriously, simply awesome.
The lady's cameo was particularly excellent. LOL
Fantastic and fun video! Thanks professor- everyone like to win, but sometimes we lose, fumble, or strike out when we wanted to score a home run.
"and that's how your wizard got the nickname 'Lefty'. " Good one! That was almost a spit-take.
Don't have a critical failure die? improvise one by using a regular d6. A 1 becomes a "-" ; a 2 or 3 becomes a "blank" and a 4, 5, or 6 becomes a "+". Or you could make cards with those symbols on the cards and you draw one from the deck.
There should be a 1/3 chance to get either result. 1-2 is minus, 3-4 is blank and 5-6 is plus.
This is amazing timing... I have just had a debate with sum1 on how to deal with Crit Pally attack+bonus action smite+ divine smite, should be handled. My Main issue is that it makes any other players crit weak in comparison and I want everyone to feel awesome.
I believe that this will fix that!
Glad it was helpful!
Watched this twice in a row! Yeah, maybe I'm a tad slow but this was good stuff.
Our groups use Rolemaster rules, which have a rich tapestry of fumble and awesome results. Yes, there's math involved, and yes, the combats are slower than Professor Dungeon Master would EVER tolerate. But we like it.
Ahhhh... "Rulesmaster." I haven't played that in decades!
Been waiting for this subject for ages.
At our table I have the same rule about critical successes and fails. "If you crits, you gets." as we say.
What's good for the goose IS good for the gander. Damn right.
I am really loving your videos. Great mix of ideas, plus some of your lines are comedic gold. I plan on implementing some of these ideas with my students for the club I run at my school, they would get a kick out of them. Great stuff, keep up the fantastic work!!
Started criticals in California in 1980 courtesy of the Arduin Grimoire. [Shakes head] The way-back machine.
Great video. I’m one of those dms in the 80s-90s that had my own charts for critical success and failures. 😀
Always a lot of fun to make, especially in math class where you were supposed to be doing something else.
Dungeon Craft and now I teach math.
I have played with the double dice and a mas damage rule for crits, the just role a d12 (especially with your compressed range) makes it simple. Anything the speeds up the game and makes combat flow faster and more cinematic is a boon. ICRPG is a master work of boiling down mechanics, even if you dont use it for that is has great insight into encounter, traps and reward structure.
Mrs. Dungeon Master....what is it like to be a player at Mr. Dungeon Masters table
...after hearing you say “you only let us attack once”..I’m curious
and what? add 9 d10s to that single attack? or nerf all the monsters...and spells... and game...
@@harlemsar I'm very curious how fighter are even worth considering at that point
@@TaberIV Agreed. Might as well stop them from leveling at 4.
@@TookyG I saw him mention in another video his games don't often get above level 6 because he levels very slowly. I also don't think he really uses subclasses. I feel like I like a lot about this style, but also get the feeling like there's almost no mechanical character customization, idk though
@@harlemsar Just never give the extra hit points, or increase the damage per attack based on number. Really those extra hit points are not that great as they just draw that battle out. There quite a few thing you can do, my games are by increasing the damage, and a few other things.
You sir, are a genius.
And your vids are hilarious! Keep up the great work Professor!
I was struck by the “humans meddling in forces they shouldn’t” bit when it comes to spell failures. I think I might implement it that way in my next game!
4:21 Professor starts summoning RNGesus
R.I.P. Luther
The way you do these things is extremely convoluted at first glance. I would enjoy playing a game with you as a Dungeon Master, you explaining it is surely worse than me seeing it at play with my own eyes.
Professor, would you consider either doing a video on your recommended reading (other RPGs, RPG adjacent books, RPG meta books, etc) or posting a list in you description, maybe with Amazon affiliate links?
as usual, fantastic content!
In the early /mid 80s, a natural 20 mean't we went to the critical chart... roll percentile dice and see what happened. 00 mean't off with his head and instant death... each number had a result -- cut his belt and his pants fall down so he misses his next attack... or natural 1 mean't the Onezee chart... maybe your pants fall down and you miss your next attack or your sword breaks or you set your hair on fire with a fire spell. Those were the days...
This reminds me of claw law and arms law
@@ronniejdio9411 Me too.
This is the first video that I want to leave a lengthy comment. I deal with crits through over or under hitting. Basically if your roll + modifiers is double or more the target value, it's a critical success. Half or less? Critical failure.
You're right that double damage is boring every time, gotta mix it up.
I don't agree with the "why roll at all if a 1 can succeed?" The simplest answer is that you could still get a 20, but with my adaptation it is even more dynamic.
Have always loved the d12. Since AD&D long sword did that damage to large creatures.
What it comes down to is players, don't want to suffer the pangs of what real Heros suffer. ( Body parts are gone, players dieing, items destroyed, mental and emotional break down on and on) Being brave doesn't always pan out well. Players want the hero without the possible cost.
Hey Professor! I've heard you mention the idea that fighters shouldn't get extra attacks because casters are never able to cast extra spells in a few videos now, but it seems like an easy counter to that is the fact that casters gain access to higher level spell slots as they level up and are able to cast spells with increasingly high damage as they attain these spell slots, and I'm wondering how you address that in your games.
Just found your videos and I love how dramatically different you run your games from the official current rules, it's awesome to see how you've taken up certain rules and dropped others to refine them into an ultimately better game for your gaming group!
2:40 I think the historical reason why spell casters only got 1 spell and a fighter got 5 attacks is the old min-maxer's favorite metric: Damage Per Round. I don't know how spells work in your campaign, but traditionally in AD&D and Pathfinder, a spell like Fireball does 1d6 damage per level of the caster. A well-placed Fireball on a group of enemies could see a 5th level Wizard delving out close to (and possibly exceeding) 100 points of damage.
That is an _insane_ amount of damage. Meanwhile a 5th level fighter just got their 2nd attack. Spell casting is still broken, in my opinion. Yes, a magic user is limited in the number of spells they get per day, but honestly, how many encounters are there per day? Spell casting is an integral part of the fantasy RPG, but seems to be very difficult to balance.
As a side note: In 3rd edition D&D when Haste affected spell casting, it just completely broke the game. One of the players in our regular high-level game had his go-to combo for any Wizard he played: Haste, Time Stop, and Delayed Blast Fireball. He'd combo it to about 180 d6 points of damage, and with meta-magic feats, he could change the damage type of his fireball. The rest of us just gave up at one point because every combat encounter was just the wizard leaving a crater, and nothing for the rest of us to do.
Thanks for the thoughtful response. That's a great example of what can happen to games at high levels.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 The obvious solution is to kill the PCs before they get too powerful. >:D "Anyone else notice our characters always seem to die before we hit level 5?"
Critical hits became really interesting when we started using the effects table from dragon magazine, lose a hand, your head or a permanent limb those where the days.
I remember those days....
Was that the same article where different weapons had their own critical hit charts?
At this DM's table, your plot armor is a -3 to your AC. Also love how the wizard may as well be a crazed, cackling pyromaniac with a trenchcoat full of alchemist fire mixed with nitroglycerin doing jumping jacks during a earthquake...plus he has bad gas. Should have chosen a safer profession, brah!
His epitaph reads:
HERE LIES WIZARD MAN... AND HERE...SOME OVER THERE...AND THE REST IS FERTILIZING THAT FARMER'S CROPS. HE THOUGHT HIS CLUB WAS FOR MEMBERS ONLY, ONLY TO DISCOVER TOO LATE THAT NATURE HAD THE BIGGEST MEMBER OF ALL.
here is the table for my campaign: (Note: Souls are awarded on deathblows and are valuable to players for many uses, including healing injuries, exhaustion, purchasing spell slots at short rest, and upgrading weapons.)
Crit Fail (Attack&Saves) 1d6:
1. TOTAL FAILURE: On attack, take half dmg roll to self and break concentration. If saving fail, minus 10 feet speed as an "injury"
2. DAUNTED: 1 point of exhaustion.
3. MISSTEP: Fall/knocked prone and end turn.
4. FAULTY GEAR: Unable to make any combat actions until the end of your next turn.
5. A FAVOR OF FATE: N/A. You now owe a debt to the hands that guide you. Your next D20 roll is at true DISADV regardless circumstances.
6. PROPHET'S GUIDANCE: N/A. The prophecies warned you of this moment, and you were prepared to fail gracefully.
Crit Success Outcome 1d6:
1. A VICIOUS STRIKE! N/A normal crit
2. RIP AND TEAR! +2 irresistible dmg to roll
3. TAUNTING DISMOUNT! Inspire yourself with how cool it looked. 1 point of inspiration.
4. IMPROVISED LAYUP: Player can choose one outcome:
A- instead of dealing any damage, stun the target until it takes damage or until the end of its next turn, whichever comes first.
OR
B- deal normal damage but refund one major action.
5. "WITNESS ME, PROPHET!": no need to roll for damage. max hit die damage x2 + modifier. in addition, 1d20 souls pour out from the carnage and added to player MacGuffin.
6. GAMBLING FATE: A legendary moment presents itself to you. Your moment of destiny has come! Roll another 1d20.
[1]/zero damage/miss [2-19]/normal crit [20]/instant death + max souls roll
Dun der da da da (Ooh Ah! Ooh Ah!) - you know its going to be epic at that point in a TH-cam video.
Yeah I definitely agree with a lot of the principles in this video. Making combat less boring is better and I love the idea of cutting out the multiple attack rolls. For my personal D&D game, I've condensed the multiple attacks down to a single attack roll that applies to all attacks, and then the fighter rolls damage. That way all the attacks hit, all the attacks crit or all the attacks miss, which makes things far more interesting and produces some interesting swings.
I agree about the automatic hit if you have enough pluses, but that probably means you're getting too many pluses or the enemy is so underwhelming that you might not even bother looking at stats.
The crit failure mechanic is brilliant, btw. Also, "knocked out of your hand" is different from "dropped it", dramatically and emotionally. I'll keep this in mind as I administer critical failures!
Lots of these rules were incorporated into Wrath and Glory, the 40k RPG
I read the first edition of that. what was it called?
Dungeon Craft - current edition is Wrath & Glory, earlier forms of 40k RPG were Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader
I also laughed at "Brief but memorable lives." :D
I mentioned it on your Facebook page, but Paizo's Crit/Fumble decks are a life saver. The variety is so nice, and saves me from repeating the "you drop your sword" trope.
Great video again. Oh, and "Hello, Mrs. DungeonMaster!"
I like this, keeps things easy without actually needing a fumble chart and don't have to worry about being too harsh. A great method if using a free form magic system.
Index Card RPG is brilliant! 😎👍
When my group and I played Pathfinder we really enjoyed TPK Games critical rules. especially the fumbles. The successes and fumbles worked and were a bit OP but because it was required to confirm the success or fumble... It was doable. Of course, my players were a bit unhappy that in Gamma world a 20 was not necessarily double damage. also fun.
Awesome set of rules!
I love critical hits and critical misses. The idea that there is always a possibility you fail even if only 5% is good. I prefer critical misses to not really harm players but may cost them (it is a great was to pull out OP items you gave foolishly.) But mostly I don't do the "you hit your buddy." I like the extra D12 idea vs doubling certain parts of the damage roll. I like to do the Matt Mercer "Tell me how you want to do this?" for a crit. Let the player explain what happened that delivered the extra damage. At that point if they tell a great but brief tale of how they also body checked the orc or kicked them in some sensitive region, they may also earn inspiration or awesomeness out of the crit. So it benefits them down the road a bit too.
You need a certified DM school to go out into the world! Hard to find one 😢🔥😁Great job guys! Keep it up.
Simple fix: critical hit results in max damage being dealt, no bonus damage or need to roll at all. This works really well when coupled with your limited HP house rules.
THAT's actually a cool idea. Thanks for sharing!
Agree, Index Card RPG is fantastic.
As a DM, I take natural-ones as an opportunity to inject a complication to the scene, a complication that forces the PC to make a choice of some kind (i.e. not an immediate negative effect lie damage etc).
Imagine a combat scene with Jackie Chan taking place in a museum or a china shop .. all the wacky complications that occur are because someone rolled a fumble. So, your fighter just rolled a nat-1 while fighting some goblins in a mountain shrine .. uh oh, a dias holding an ancient and delicate ceramic vase is wobbling precariously .. if you let it fall and shatter the priests here won't be happy, but if you don't kill this goblin it might kill you on its next attack.
Hey PDM I think a really good way to grow your channel is to start mixing in some customization options for players videos. Limiting feats and subclasses and proficiencies, how do you make your players feel like they're playing a unique character? A lot of the fastest growing channels are player focused, which makes sense because there are many more than DMs. And as Matt Colville suggests, there may be even more theory crafting, wannabe players than people actually playing the game. I think you can appeal to both these groups aswell as DMs.
I'm thinking about it. The problem is when most players think "customization," they think about the things the character can DO. I think what makes a character interesting is their background. Example: Nell Nimblefingers is a thief whose family was killed by the plague and fell in with a street gang. She's 19 but LOOKS 12, so she pretends she's lost, leads victims down and alley, and has the rest of her gang club them. She always carries a lucky rabbit's foot (no powers) and loaded dice. She can't swim and is very superstitious. She smokes tiny cigars and drinks dwarf whiskey. She'll never travel with a party of 6, believing it to be a cursed number. Her life goal is to get revenge on the noble who killed one of her gang members. THAT'S customization--not the powers or abilities she has.
Dragon magazine touched upon crits.
"Why are you rolling at all?" To get a 20.
"For those that are tired of hearing about it, I DON'T CARE!" Yes! It is an incredible system.
I have a critical hit chart for each type of weapon. My fighter died from the DM rolling a natural twenty and then a 00 on a hit chart which resulted in him being decapitated in the first round of combat. It was awesome!
This dude as a DM seems super technical. More competitive, more gameplay based, and less character/narratively based. Would definitely be fun, and deaths would be really tuff.
@@TA-by9wv I can definitely see that. I know a bunch of people who would much prefer this type of Dungeons and Dragons. Seems like DMs like this are rare, though, which is a shame.
@@mynamesjustmaxwell6814 You and Eddie are right. Check out the OSR. It's how we've been playing D&D for 40+ years.
We believe the RAW is for tournament play at conventions. The rules are simply suggestions for the GM/referee. House rules are the norm. But it is difficult to find experienced (talented) GMs to run these type of games.
Love your system thanks for sharing.
You always say that fighters shouldn't get more attacks because wizards can't cast more spells, but their spells scale up. Cantrips increase in damage dice and many spells can be up-cast.
Good point.
That fudge dice is a cool idea! Where can I get one? In my campaign a Natural 1 needs a D20 check, if they roll above the hit targets AC, they stay afoot. If they roll below their AC, they fall prone. The character over swung and lost footing, it happens more often than not in a real battle, because of the adrenaline of swinging and evading, and the terrain, especially in large battles where you are tripping over bodies. I use to do more as you do, I'm not sure why I moved away from it. Maybe, prone was just easier. I think I'm going to bring it back. Cool Idea's! Great Video!
You can order fudge/fate dice from Dice Shop Online. I’ve ordered a couple, and I’m looking forward to testing out the Professor’s idea...
I have been a little rash before Professor, but I'd love to hear your opinions in some rules from DCCRPG. Specially Mighty Deeds of Warriors and Mercurial Magic.
He had a video about it.
Favorite d&d series btw ! Great takes !
0:52 In 5e nat 20 attacks do always hit. I think it somewhere that: "Sometimes destiny leads veterans to fail and rookies(?) to fail". Also nat 20s do crit and fighter's champion subclass among others kind of relies on critical hits (improved critical), so I'm pretty sure the rules have crits.
There are no official criteria rules in 5E (not familiar with champion subclass) , but there should be. Cheers!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 This is from 5e basic rules. P. 76. I didn't have the phb currently at hand.
_Rolling 1 or 20_
_Sometimes fate blesses or curses a combatant, causing the novice to hit and the veteran to miss.
If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. This is called a critical hit, which is explained later in this chapter.
If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC_
P. 78
_Critical Hits_
_When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice
for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play,
you can roll all the damage dice at once_
Anyway, champions do have a problem with multiattack crit stuff that you mentioned. A level 20 champion fighter has a 15% chance to crit on every attack. The chance to NOT crit during the round is 0,85 to the power of the amount of attacks you make. A normal champion dual wielding has less than 50% chance for that. Use action surge and use the attack action twice (making 9 attacks in total). It becomes less than 25%.
@@tortture3519 Thank you. I have the basic rules. Is it in the expanded rules--the PH or DMG?
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 It's in the ph. You haven't lost out on much with the champion. It's a boring subclass.
I don’t think a 20th level wizard is ever going to feel like a fighter is doing more than them.
Perhaps
Did you ever hear of the the Arduin Trilogy? They contained critical hit & miss charts and it came out right after AD&D in the late 70's We used to use it's charts but in order to get a critical, you had to roll a natural 20 or 1 and then back it up with a hit or miss. This would reduce the amount of crit's per game.
Good stuff as always!!!
Gotta say you might want to read this:
songoftheblade.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/a-short-history-of-critical-hits-in-dd/
Summation:
In Original D&D or Holmes Basic, there was no rule for this, but the highest attack roll you’d ever need to hit was a 17, if you were attacking a target with AC 2 and you were a 1st level Fighting Man.
BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia D&D specifically states that natural 20s are considered automatic hits (and natural 1s are automatic misses)
Our first official mention of critical hits is in AD&D 2nd Edition, where even there it is an optional rule. It mentions two systems:
1. Every natural 20 rolled while making an attack will let the character roll their damage dice twice.
2. Every natural 20 rolled while making an attack will let the character make another attack right after that one. If that second attack also comes out to a natural 20, then a third attack will be made, and so on and so forth. The damage rolls are otherwise completely normal, and you might not even get any benefit from the natural 20 if your second attack misses.
From the AD&D 2nd Edition DMG:
The simplest critical hit system makes every natural 20 rolled on the attack roll count for double damage.
In D&D 3rd Edition:
1. A natural 20 is always an automatic hit
2. Your weapon is going to have a “critical threat” property, which defines which natural numbers on a d20 can trigger a critical threat. A longsword, for example, has a critical threat of 19-20, which means a critical threat is triggered on a natural 19 and 20 (automatic hits are always only natural 20s)
3. If you make an attack roll and the d20 comes up on a number that’s within the weapon’s critical threat, you make a second attack roll identical to the one you just made.
4. If that second attack roll is a miss, then it’s a normal hit
5. If that second roll is still a hit, you score a critical hit. You roll your damage dice a second time and you take your flat modifiers a second time. If your weapon has an x3 or x4 critical hit multiplier, you can even roll your damage dice and add your flat modifiers that many more times.
This brings us to 4th Edition, which further iterated on the critical hit mechanics:
1. When you roll a natural 20 on an attack, that is an automatic hit.
2. If 20+modifiers is not high enough to meet or beat the target’s defense, then it’s just a normal hit. For all practical purposes this should never happen.
3. If 20+modifiers is high enough to meet or beat the target’s defense, that is a critical hit. In effect, the roll that triggered the crit is also its own confirmation roll.
4. The damage of a critical hit is then defined as the maximum value of a normal hit, plus a rolled value (typically 1d6) per +1 enhancement bonus, which is generally accessible to players as early as level 1. 4th Edition crits also maximized the damage dice rolled from any other effect that would happen with a normal hit, such as Sneak Attack damage, whereas 3rd Edition specifically disallowed this.
Finally, we get to 5th Edition:
1. A natural 20 is an automatic hit, and also an automatic crit. No confirmation rolls necessary.
2. A critical hit’s damage is defined as rolling damage dice twice, with flat bonuses left as-is.
(All the above is from the linked website and there's a lot more in the original post)
It seems that nearly every edition of the game has dealt with the idea of the 'automatic' hit or fail or the natural 20 doing extra damage...or I am missing something here?
I do max damage on a 20. And 1 one with a missile weapon I will determine how hard of a shot it was and come up with a number roll percentile to see if they hit another party member. A 1 with a melee weapon you drop your weapon.
That's cool too!
This video caused me to laugh so abruptly I scared my sleeping dog. Good shit, Im stealing the fate dice idea.
If you don't allow more than 2 attacks a round, then you are unfairly punishing Fighters and Barbarians as a Wizard's spells become more damaging as they level, while a Fighter's and Barbarian's individual attacks don't, the trade off is that they get more attacks. This goes double for 5e as a Fighter's primary gimmick is getting two full attack actions, while Cantrips can be used indefinitely and will eventually out damage any but the most powerful of magical weapons.
For instance, Firebolt deals 3d10 at lvl 11 and has a range of 120ft, while a Fighter gets 3 Attacks at lvl 11. So assuming the use of a Longbow 1d8 which has a range of 150ft, and that each has a 50% chance of hitting as 5e did away with different BAB, the Fighter would average less damage not only because of the smaller die but because he needs to roll to hit three times in a row. 5.0625 on average for the Fighter, and 8.25 for the Wizard/Sorcerer. And to sink home just how ridiculous limiting the attacks of the martial classes is, a Mage has a 5% chance of doubling their damage dice, while for a similar effect a Fighter has a .000125% chance of pulling off a similar feat by rolling 3 Crits in a row.
Then add to the fact that Sorcerers can cast two spells, one as standard action and another Quickened as a bonus action using their Sorcery pool, or with Twinned Spell (though at least Meta Magic can't be used on Cantrips), you are essentially telling your players to play a mage of some flavor or at the very least a Rogue or Paladin.
Now even back in 3.5/PF1 when Cantrips didn't increase in power with level, it makes no sense to cripple your primary Martial Classes, as the Rogue with their burst damage would just become the primary damage dealer of your campaigns, assuming they weren't already.
I hear you. I would just allow the fighter to do double the damage with each attack. Like, instead of doing four attacks at d8 plus STR, have each attack do 2d8. OR as a fighter levels up they do a bigger die of damage. Same results in less time.
Your "Awesome" die, remind me of "Fate" tokens, and other sources we came up with during our Palladium and Warhammer game time.
I haven't used them in mine yet, because we are still adjusting to settling the players in and no one really died yet (i make a backstory with my Fate tokens).
And greetings from Baltimore fellow East Coaster!
I would love to play a wizard in PDM's campaign. Magic should be powerful and dangerous. 😎👍
I remember this one time we were adventureing in a narrow cave goblins attack. The barbarian swings his sword to attack the goblin he crit fails and impaled the wizard the wizard was casting fireball and gets launched at the goblins so wizards do in fact have short life spans but he did manage to kill all the goblins in a fireball made of him self!
We started in the early 80s with 1st ed. and used the article Good Hits and Bad Misses from Dragon #39 (www.annarchive.com/files/Drmg039.pdf pg34) but after a few months we moved to a simpler method of nat 20 being double damage and a nat 1 being normal damage to self on a failed dex save for melee or normal damage to friendly with missile weapons.
With multi hits . If you get a 1, You could spend the other hit actions retrieving your sword or other equivalent.
Great video as always. There is an audio glitch at 4:21 though.
I always looked at a fighter as have multiple attacks the same a wizard (necromancer) being able to raise a small horde of undead, which can get you more attacks than a fighter. I use the Bill Allen damage alternative for Crit success.
I allow warriors (translation fighters, i play a half homebrew 2e) to have more attacks with a higher roll, but classes like a ranger or assassin get less attacks with a lower roll. The logic in my head is that they would be picking more lethal places to strike, but a warrior just slashes at whatever they can.