Luck represents a characters innate ability to seemingly be in the right place at the right time or avoid scenarios others would have encountered. This trait attempts to offset the 1 in 20 chance of a critical failure roll in Dungeons and Dragons which is ironically just as likely at level one as it is at level 30. Here is how it works with over 25 years of play testing...
New characters roll 4d4 at character creation and re-roll ones so they start with an 8-16 luck score. With each new level they will add a d4 to their luck score. In addition during game play, for all Attack rolls, Skill checks and Saving throws, each 20 adds a luck and each 1 deducts a luck from their score.
The character uses luck to potentially counter the negative effects of a critical fail. However, the character must petition the DM with an in game scenario and explanation of how they were LUCKY. Once the DM accepts the scenario, the player rolls d100 and is successful if they roll their LUCK roll or less on the die.
A few classic examples:
During a battle a character fires an arrow and misses. Later in the battle a character throws a dagger at a target 30 ft away and rolls a 1 on the d20. (Critical Fail) The player has a 19 luck, so he deducts one from his luck making it 18 and then the player says, :I want to make a luck roll." DM says, "Ok, tell us what happened." The player says, " As I chucked the dagger across the battlefield, it collided mid-air with the arrow fired by the teammate earlier in the round and both fell to the ground harmlessly." After the DM accept this as a possible "LUCKY" event. The player now rolls the d100 and needs to get an 18 or less for the luck to actually happen.
During a guild invasion the rogue fails a stealth check with roll of 1 on the d20. (Critical Fail) as he creeps along the roof eave. The Player says, " The shingle I stepped on made an audible squeek. However, someone in the room below dropped a glass and shattered it at same moment and the sound was not heard. The DM says, "No" (Because he knows no one is in the room below) So the player says," Then the shingle slid off the roof and would have been heard by the guard standing near but it landed in hay right as the guard coughed out loud, thereby going unnoticed. The DM accepts the scenario and the player fails the luck roll. The shingle falls and lands on the guards shoulder, he looks up immediately and runs into the building.
As you can see, early in the game it will not affect much and will rarely be successful but when it is, the party will cheer the lucky happenstance and move on. However, later in the game when a 15th level character rolls a critical fail in battle, he/she will be able to counter most of these with the use of luck. This is a great tool to ensure the players are in character and paying attention and they own the individual situations.
Notes:
One thing we have never allowed is for a successful luck roll to cause a failed hit to actually hit the original target. It mearly avoids the negative effects of the critical fail.
The DM always maintains control on whether the luck request is allowed before the roll is attempted.As the players, get familiar with using the luck score the scenarios will become quite creative.
You may also decide to allow the appropriate score modifier to be added to the luck roll attempt. So in the second scenario, you may add the Dex bonus since stealth relies on it. Players luck is 14 and dex bonus is +2 so he must roll a 16 or less to be successful.
This will really stretch some personality types to actually be creative in coming up with some way to avoid a critical fail.
A whole mechanic based around circumventing a punishment critical fail system? I'd just rather not play with punishment crit fails myself.. rolling a 1 is already punishing enough, I don't see the need to add a "you stab your friend" or a "you throw your sword" ontop of that.
especially considering at high lvls when a fighters makin 3-4 attacks a turn he's more likely to roll a 1 per combat than before and spend to much time working around that. Suddenly my high end fighter just cant seem to hold his weapon!
That's the point. The 1 is no punishment so you spend your entire fighter career without ever having anything bad happen. Never slice too far through a copse only to chip your sword on a rock below. I get it. Sometimes you get a flat tire while driving on brand new rubber!
The system seems fine as it stands. It encourages some creative thinking and that's always good. I don't see much in the way of abuses that could be managed.
There are a few things to note though. For one, "crit fail" has a limited meaning. Rolling a 1 on a d20 when attacking in combat just means that you miss. No other effects. Skill checks are never subject to critical failure. There is already a Feat for luck, and Halflings are born lucky. In addition there is the Inspiration system, which allows a point to be awarded so that in a check, including a hit check, you roll twice and take the best one. You still might miss, but the odds are much better. Bards give Inspiration of a different kind, but they do not stack, so if there's a Bard about you can save your point for later and use the Bard one.
About the only other time I can think of when Crit Fails happen is when making Death Checks, and I don't think your system applies to them.
The system seems fine as it stands. It encourages some creative thinking and that's always good. I don't see much in the way of abuses that could be managed.
There are a few things to note though. For one, "crit fail" has a limited meaning. Rolling a 1 on a d20 when attacking in combat just means that you miss. No other effects. Skill checks are never subject to critical failure. There is already a Feat for luck, and Halflings are born lucky. In addition there is the Inspiration system, which allows a point to be awarded so that in a check, including a hit check, you roll twice and take the best one. You still might miss, but the odds are much better. Bards give Inspiration of a different kind, but they do not stack, so if there's a Bard about you can save your point for later and use the Bard one.
About the only other time I can think of when Crit Fails happen is when making Death Checks, and I don't think your system applies to them.
I second this. The 1 being a critical failure is thing that RAW only applies to death saving throws (2 failures instead of one) and maybe attack rolls (miss no matter how low enemy armor class is or how high your attack roll is). 1’s being a critical failure any worse is just a house rule, albeit a very common one, so this system seems to be, in effect, a house rule to counter a house rule. To me this seems unnecessary because you could do away with the “1’s are critical failure house rule” by simply not using it instead of making a new system to justify not using it.
That said, it sounds like you have put a lot of thought into this and it seems fun and balanced. If you and your table want to use it, that is awesome! Have fun playing!
p.s. sorry for the over-use of exclamation points
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
To add more to this, critical fumble on attack rolls is a rule that penalises meleers over casters. There are already so many reasons why spellcasting is better than hitting a target with a weapon, we don't need to add more.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Luck represents a characters innate ability to seemingly be in the right place at the right time or avoid scenarios others would have encountered. This trait attempts to offset the 1 in 20 chance of a critical failure roll in Dungeons and Dragons which is ironically just as likely at level one as it is at level 30. Here is how it works with over 25 years of play testing...
New characters roll 4d4 at character creation and re-roll ones so they start with an 8-16 luck score. With each new level they will add a d4 to their luck score. In addition during game play, for all Attack rolls, Skill checks and Saving throws, each 20 adds a luck and each 1 deducts a luck from their score.
The character uses luck to potentially counter the negative effects of a critical fail. However, the character must petition the DM with an in game scenario and explanation of how they were LUCKY. Once the DM accepts the scenario, the player rolls d100 and is successful if they roll their LUCK roll or less on the die.
A few classic examples:
During a battle a character fires an arrow and misses. Later in the battle a character throws a dagger at a target 30 ft away and rolls a 1 on the d20. (Critical Fail) The player has a 19 luck, so he deducts one from his luck making it 18 and then the player says, :I want to make a luck roll." DM says, "Ok, tell us what happened." The player says, " As I chucked the dagger across the battlefield, it collided mid-air with the arrow fired by the teammate earlier in the round and both fell to the ground harmlessly." After the DM accept this as a possible "LUCKY" event. The player now rolls the d100 and needs to get an 18 or less for the luck to actually happen.
During a guild invasion the rogue fails a stealth check with roll of 1 on the d20. (Critical Fail) as he creeps along the roof eave. The Player says, " The shingle I stepped on made an audible squeek. However, someone in the room below dropped a glass and shattered it at same moment and the sound was not heard. The DM says, "No" (Because he knows no one is in the room below) So the player says," Then the shingle slid off the roof and would have been heard by the guard standing near but it landed in hay right as the guard coughed out loud, thereby going unnoticed. The DM accepts the scenario and the player fails the luck roll. The shingle falls and lands on the guards shoulder, he looks up immediately and runs into the building.
As you can see, early in the game it will not affect much and will rarely be successful but when it is, the party will cheer the lucky happenstance and move on. However, later in the game when a 15th level character rolls a critical fail in battle, he/she will be able to counter most of these with the use of luck. This is a great tool to ensure the players are in character and paying attention and they own the individual situations.
Notes:
A whole mechanic based around circumventing a punishment critical fail system? I'd just rather not play with punishment crit fails myself.. rolling a 1 is already punishing enough, I don't see the need to add a "you stab your friend" or a "you throw your sword" ontop of that.
especially considering at high lvls when a fighters makin 3-4 attacks a turn he's more likely to roll a 1 per combat than before and spend to much time working around that. Suddenly my high end fighter just cant seem to hold his weapon!
That's the point. The 1 is no punishment so you spend your entire fighter career without ever having anything bad happen. Never slice too far through a copse only to chip your sword on a rock below. I get it. Sometimes you get a flat tire while driving on brand new rubber!
The system seems fine as it stands. It encourages some creative thinking and that's always good. I don't see much in the way of abuses that could be managed.
There are a few things to note though. For one, "crit fail" has a limited meaning. Rolling a 1 on a d20 when attacking in combat just means that you miss. No other effects. Skill checks are never subject to critical failure. There is already a Feat for luck, and Halflings are born lucky. In addition there is the Inspiration system, which allows a point to be awarded so that in a check, including a hit check, you roll twice and take the best one. You still might miss, but the odds are much better. Bards give Inspiration of a different kind, but they do not stack, so if there's a Bard about you can save your point for later and use the Bard one.
About the only other time I can think of when Crit Fails happen is when making Death Checks, and I don't think your system applies to them.
<Insert clever signature here>
I second this. The 1 being a critical failure is thing that RAW only applies to death saving throws (2 failures instead of one) and maybe attack rolls (miss no matter how low enemy armor class is or how high your attack roll is). 1’s being a critical failure any worse is just a house rule, albeit a very common one, so this system seems to be, in effect, a house rule to counter a house rule. To me this seems unnecessary because you could do away with the “1’s are critical failure house rule” by simply not using it instead of making a new system to justify not using it.
That said, it sounds like you have put a lot of thought into this and it seems fun and balanced. If you and your table want to use it, that is awesome! Have fun playing!
p.s. sorry for the over-use of exclamation points
Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
All of the rules in the game involving dice rolls is about luck.
And there are features already present that increase your chances for a favorable result.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
To add more to this, critical fumble on attack rolls is a rule that penalises meleers over casters. There are already so many reasons why spellcasting is better than hitting a target with a weapon, we don't need to add more.