All Questions
Tagged with critical-failure or fumbles
34 questions
57
votes
12
answers
33k
views
Is a fumble on a natural 1 an official rule?
I am currently a player in a D&D 3.5 game where rolling a 1 on any attack roll is not only an automatic miss, but also means that something "bad" happens – such as dropping your sword, falling ...
- 2,861
49
votes
1
answer
131k
views
Is a critical failure on a natural 1 a rule or house rule?
There's a question about this relating to 3.5e, but I couldn't find one for 5e.
According to RAW, is a natural 1 a critical failure? And if so, under what scenarios does it apply, and what is the ...
- 8,140
48
votes
6
answers
10k
views
After successfully hitting with an attack roll, when rolling for damage, if you roll a 1, is that a negative crit?
Our dm is treating our "1" damage rolls as a natural 1. So when you roll a 1d4 and you do 1 dmg (after succeeding hit dice) we get an especially bad outcome. Is this normal procedure?
- 928
28
votes
8
answers
6k
views
Looking for an alternative to my DM's favorite fumble table
I've been playing in a new D&D 3.5 game for a few weeks, and it's going pretty well, with one major exception. The DM is a huge fan of critical hits and critical fumbles, and he has found the ...
- 1,514
27
votes
10
answers
4k
views
How can the probability of a fumble decrease linearly with more dice?
I'm working on a simplified RPG system that uses only D6s, and I want a mechanic for fumbles/critical fails.
Depending on how good the player character is, they have 1-5 dice to roll and they have to ...
- 373
22
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Do all RPGs have critical failures, and which was the first?
In all the games I remember playing, critical failures have always, in every case triggered an event. This critical failure is due to exceptionally bad rolls on dice, either a 'natural one' in DnD or ...
user9869
22
votes
3
answers
5k
views
What effects do critical and fumble tables have on D&D 3.5?
Just getting some extra damage, and just missing, seem pretty boring. A lot of people like to spruce things up by having critical hits and natural-1 fumbles result in a roll on a special table, which ...
- 361k
20
votes
1
answer
44k
views
If you roll a 1 on a saving throw against a damage spell, do you take extra damage?
For example:
Fireball Each creature must make a DEX saving throw. A target takes 8d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a
successful one.
If a target caught in the fireball ...
- 1,991
18
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is a Critical Failure a Failure?
Are Critical Failures a subset of Failures, or a separate thing?
One person I play with says that Halfling Luck does not trigger on Critical Failures, as it just says:
Trigger You fail a skill check ...
- 65.9k
16
votes
1
answer
11k
views
Do the automatic success and failure rules apply to skill checks?
We had a rule check tonight that we couldn't answer. On the Pathfinder wiki I could only find info on natural 20s and 1s in regards to attack rolls and saves in combat.
Do they also apply to skill ...
- 927
13
votes
1
answer
7k
views
If you have 99 in a skill, and roll a 96, is it a success or a fumble?
To succeed a roll in Call of Cthulhu you have to meet or roll under your skill threshold, but rolls that are between 96-100 are fumbles (critical failures).
What happens when you roll under your ...
- 6,714
12
votes
1
answer
2k
views
If a character with the Alert feat rolls a crit fail on their Perception check, are they surprised?
A Druid in my campaign has the Alert feat, which stops her from being surprised.
If she rolls a critical failure on her Perception check, would:
She get surprised because she crit-failed?
The ...
- 121
12
votes
1
answer
275
views
Cortex rules: critical failures
The Cortex rules say (and I'm paraphrasing from memory) that critical failures happen when all the dice are 1's.
Is this all the dice, or just the stat and skill? If I have an asset that adds a die, ...
- 3,915
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Preventing automatically failed saving throws on a natural 1
I am looking for ways for a character to become immune to the (5%) chance of automatically failing a saving throw because of a natural one on the d20 roll.
Aside from the Knight class at level 17
You ...
- 121
11
votes
3
answers
505
views
Can Warp Mind's effect be mitigated just by hitting your friend?
The Warp Mind spell says the following:
You scramble a creature's mental faculties and sensory input. The
target must attempt a Will saving throw. Regardless of the result of
that save, the target is ...
- 37.6k
11
votes
1
answer
3k
views
What is the critical failure threshold?
Pathfinder 2e has, what I consider to be, a fun mechanic that that rolling 10 over or under the DC causes critical success or failure (or turns failure to success and vice versa). It came up recently ...
- 44.7k
10
votes
3
answers
2k
views
When performing an Investigation check to look for traps, do you activate any traps if you roll under the DC?
When performing an Investigation check to investigate traps, do you activate the traps if you roll under the DC?
If you are, for instance, checking out the floor looking for pressure plates and roll ...
- 781
9
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Are oozes immune to critical failures?
In a previous session, one of my players used Sudden Bolt against a Living Sap. Living Sap's have immunity to critical hits. They rolled low on their Reflex Save, and got 11 less than the spellcaster'...
- 14.6k
9
votes
3
answers
409
views
Improving "fumbles" when using pools of d10s in TROS
The original rules in TROS use varying pools of d10s to attempt rolling one or more successes against a varying Target Number (e.g., commonly a TN=7). Roll the pool of dice, count up the successes ...
- 785
8
votes
3
answers
5k
views
How can giving skill checks critical fails and successes affect game balance?
At my table there is the house rule that skills can crit on a natural 1 and 20.
At least I think a natural 20 would be treated special over a 19. But I do know that 1's give harsh consequences.
In ...
- 4,177
8
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Once a Character exceeds Wound Threshold, do they gain a new Critical Injury each time they take damage?
Edge of the Empire Core Book, Pg 215 : Exceeding Wound Threshold
When a PC suffers wounds greater than their wound threshold, they are knocked out and incapacitated until their wounds are reduced so ...
- 1,688
7
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Do these rules for Critical Successes and Critical Failures seem fair?
I'm thinking about implementing the following houserules at my table to try to bring back the concept of "Critical Successes" by piggybacking off the Advantage/Disadvantage system.
Critical Success
...
- 53.1k
6
votes
7
answers
4k
views
How can I handle critical failure without slowing down the action?
In my last session, my group had in a single encounter over 8 botches, I lost count in fact!
At first, I was statistically amazed at how our ranger botched 4 rounds in a row
(in-game interpretation ...
- 1,131
5
votes
2
answers
638
views
Critical Failures on Attribute rolls
As it only says, in the Savage Worlds Pathfinder book, if you roll a 1 on both a skill and wild die, does that mean you can't critical fail an attribute roll and hence can reroll with a Bennie? Or ...
- 2,616
5
votes
1
answer
20k
views
Are there any consequences of a Critical Failure on attack rolls?
At "Attack rolls" on page 446 of CRB I could not find anything.
For generic weapon attack rolls, is there a difference between Failures and Critical Failures?
- 65.9k
5
votes
1
answer
281
views
How much damage does a creature with the Improved Evasion feature take if critically failing a Reflex Save?
Improved Evasion (available on at least Rogues and Swashbucklers) provides the following benefit:
You elude danger to a degree that few can match. Your proficiency rank for Reflex saves increases to ...
- 44.7k
5
votes
1
answer
213
views
Is there any rule as to what happens if you roll a fumble that turns out to be less than 1?
I know the 'core exxet' removed any modifiers to degree of fumble, as was, but in the old rules where fumbles had a +15, 0, or -15 according to whether they were 1, 2, or 3, what was supposed to ...
- 2,809
4
votes
1
answer
385
views
Are there any established mechanics for firing into close combat and missing very badly?
While working my way through the combat rules, the need to shoot into close combat came up.
The attacker, a Human with a Smith and Wesson .357 (2d6+1) wanted to shoot a frogman who has just Stunned ...
- 455
4
votes
1
answer
331
views
Is there an official variant rule where a natural 1 ends a full attack action?
In many 3.5 games that I have played, a roll of a natural one on an attack roll is basically just a miss, but you cannot make any more attacks that round. I thought this was an official variant rule, ...
- 2,775
4
votes
1
answer
4k
views
If you roll a natural 1 for a skill check, is that a critical failure? [duplicate]
Or do you just add your bonus like it was any other number? I'm asking because of another question about traps and how easy it is to find them at mid to high level.
My first thought was that a ...
- 373
4
votes
1
answer
748
views
Can you roll a critical failure on a single action where you roll multiple skill dice?
A normal Trait roll involves only 2 dice for a Wild Card, and thus the rule for Critical Failures is described as:
snake-eyes (double 1s) on one of these rolls is a critical failure
(SW Deluxe 63)...
- 61.9k
3
votes
0
answers
99
views
What was the first game to have an explicit "worse than failure" rule? [duplicate]
These days it's not uncommon for systems to have a rule, explicitly stated, in the rulebooks as an "optional" rule, or commonly house-ruled in, where a sufficiently bad roll of the dice not only ...
- 55.3k
2
votes
1
answer
527
views
How can I convert GameMastery's Critical Fumble Deck for use in 5e?
I'm a DM for 5e. I found my dad's old Critical Fumble Deck, and was wondering how I can adapt this for 5e, since it's 3.5 compatible.
How can I convert GameMastery's Critical Fumble Deck for use in ...
- 139
1
vote
1
answer
206
views
Improving “fumbles” when using pools dice in TROS, part 2
(Thank you all so much for your help on my last post! I appreciate the explanations, graphs and suggestions given. As I continue to experiment with my homebrew variant, I do a lot of probability ...
- 785