Sparked by a conversation in the Rules and Mechanics forum, I thought I'd put my idea for critical fails/misses during combat here. I don't like to post homebrew ideas there as I feel that's more dedicated to actual rulings/official play. Let me know what you think of the ideas below. That being said, let's get into it:
The question: What do you do when in combat somebody misses their target or rolls a natural 1? Does it hit an unintended target standing close by?
The official rule: they miss, nothing extraordinary happens. (source) The variant rule: they miss, nothing extraordinary happens. However, for a ranged target if there is an obstruction (NPC, PC, etc.) the target gets a cover bonus to AC (+2 or +5 based on half/full cover). If your attack roll misses the main target, but is high enough to beat the AC of the obstruction, the obstruction is hit instead. (source)
Homebrew rule of the DM I currently play with: If you roll a natural 1, you roll your attack die again. If the reroll is a 10 or lower something bad happens, severity depending on how bad the roll was (there is no written scale for this, she does it on the feel of the game). It might be a dropped weapon, it might be damage to someone standing close by, it might be falling prone, it might be a combination of the aforementioned. If the reroll is higher than a 10 but not a natural 20, nothing happens, it was a normal miss. If the reroll is a natural 20, you can reroll your original attack again. --I also want to point out she has a similar rule for rolling a nat 20, not only do your roll your crit damage, but based on your 2nd roll something extraordinary may happen like the target might drop their weapon, get knocked prone, etc.
Homebrew Rule I came up with based on the above: If you roll a natural 1, the DM rolls a d4 and you roll your attack die again. The d4 determines the direction of your miss (up, down, left, right, or something similar). The reroll is taken as an attack roll against the target in determined by the d4. (alternatively roll a d10 assigning 1-8 to each square around the target, and on a 9 or 10 reroll)
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I like the idea of "punishment" for really bad rolls, which is why I would pitch this rule to a group I would DM. I prefer my rule to the one in the game I'm currently playing because my "issue" with the current homebrew of the DM I'm playing with is that it isn't a tangible, measureable variant on what the "bad thing" that happens is. Some days it seems she decides the fighter threw his weapon 15 feet away, other days he cleaved into the cleric standing next to him on the same valued die reroll. That's the problem with any roll that is solely up to the DM's discretion.
The idea per-se is something I played with myself in the past few years of DMing, and most of the times I just roll 1d8+1, 1 being front and 8 being upper-left corner, but with 1 not being a possible outcome due to the +1, as it would still be the intended Target 98% of the time, and 9 being at my own discretion. The attack roll is made again and the attack then follows normal rules with the new (unintended) target.
I haven't really used it much as my players either do not roll 1s in combat very often or do not find themselves clustered too much, but the times it came up was welcomed with a laugh and a slightly worried look (again it happened very rarely).
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I have a black and a white dice, whenever anyone rolls a 1 they both get rolled. Basically, subtract the black roll from the white roll.
18+ something incredibly unexpected just went in their favour. Maybe the fighter swings his sword too hard, the goblin dodges it, causing them both to fall to the floor. As he falls, the fighter accidentally loses the sword causing it to end up dropping so it stands the goblin. Or maybe that mages firebolt went wayward but set a curtain on fire which has fallen over an enemy, causing them to be trapped under a burning curtain.
13+ something bad happens, but some luck minimises it. The fighter loses his footing but maybe grabs out and ends up dragging the goblin over. They both end up prone with the goblin being underneath.
5+ the player fumbles but it caused another NPC to laugh or be distracted. Maybe the experienced veteran guard laughs at your rogue tripping over whilst attempting to stab his colleague, causing an opening.
Roughly 0, the attack just misses, no major consequences.
-5 unlucky. The player loses their footing giving attackers advantage to hit them. A ranged attack will hit a nearby ally.maybe they injure themself slightly
-10. The roller is put into a bad situation. They have fallen prone, dropped their weapon or maybe their arrow/spell ricocheted off a wall into an ally causing them to be stunned.
-19. This just never happens. However, my PC's fear this more than anything. This is reserved for your most Final Destination type bad luck. You miss an spell and it causes a huge chain of events causing a massive cave in and all characters take 10d6 damage.
Sparked by a conversation in the Rules and Mechanics forum, I thought I'd put my idea for critical fails/misses during combat here. I don't like to post homebrew ideas there as I feel that's more dedicated to actual rulings/official play. Let me know what you think of the ideas below. That being said, let's get into it:
The question: What do you do when in combat somebody misses their target or rolls a natural 1? Does it hit an unintended target standing close by?
The official rule: they miss, nothing extraordinary happens. (source)
The variant rule: they miss, nothing extraordinary happens. However, for a ranged target if there is an obstruction (NPC, PC, etc.) the target gets a cover bonus to AC (+2 or +5 based on half/full cover). If your attack roll misses the main target, but is high enough to beat the AC of the obstruction, the obstruction is hit instead. (source)
Homebrew rule of the DM I currently play with: If you roll a natural 1, you roll your attack die again.
If the reroll is a 10 or lower something bad happens, severity depending on how bad the roll was (there is no written scale for this, she does it on the feel of the game). It might be a dropped weapon, it might be damage to someone standing close by, it might be falling prone, it might be a combination of the aforementioned.
If the reroll is higher than a 10 but not a natural 20, nothing happens, it was a normal miss.
If the reroll is a natural 20, you can reroll your original attack again.
--I also want to point out she has a similar rule for rolling a nat 20, not only do your roll your crit damage, but based on your 2nd roll something extraordinary may happen like the target might drop their weapon, get knocked prone, etc.
Homebrew Rule I came up with based on the above: If you roll a natural 1, the DM rolls a d4 and you roll your attack die again. The d4 determines the direction of your miss (up, down, left, right, or something similar). The reroll is taken as an attack roll against the target in determined by the d4. (alternatively roll a d10 assigning 1-8 to each square around the target, and on a 9 or 10 reroll)
-----
I like the idea of "punishment" for really bad rolls, which is why I would pitch this rule to a group I would DM. I prefer my rule to the one in the game I'm currently playing because my "issue" with the current homebrew of the DM I'm playing with is that it isn't a tangible, measureable variant on what the "bad thing" that happens is. Some days it seems she decides the fighter threw his weapon 15 feet away, other days he cleaved into the cleric standing next to him on the same valued die reroll. That's the problem with any roll that is solely up to the DM's discretion.
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
The idea per-se is something I played with myself in the past few years of DMing, and most of the times I just roll 1d8+1, 1 being front and 8 being upper-left corner, but with 1 not being a possible outcome due to the +1, as it would still be the intended Target 98% of the time, and 9 being at my own discretion. The attack roll is made again and the attack then follows normal rules with the new (unintended) target.
I haven't really used it much as my players either do not roll 1s in combat very often or do not find themselves clustered too much, but the times it came up was welcomed with a laugh and a slightly worried look (again it happened very rarely).
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I have a black and a white dice, whenever anyone rolls a 1 they both get rolled. Basically, subtract the black roll from the white roll.
18+ something incredibly unexpected just went in their favour. Maybe the fighter swings his sword too hard, the goblin dodges it, causing them both to fall to the floor. As he falls, the fighter accidentally loses the sword causing it to end up dropping so it stands the goblin. Or maybe that mages firebolt went wayward but set a curtain on fire which has fallen over an enemy, causing them to be trapped under a burning curtain.
13+ something bad happens, but some luck minimises it. The fighter loses his footing but maybe grabs out and ends up dragging the goblin over. They both end up prone with the goblin being underneath.
5+ the player fumbles but it caused another NPC to laugh or be distracted. Maybe the experienced veteran guard laughs at your rogue tripping over whilst attempting to stab his colleague, causing an opening.
Roughly 0, the attack just misses, no major consequences.
-5 unlucky. The player loses their footing giving attackers advantage to hit them. A ranged attack will hit a nearby ally.maybe they injure themself slightly
-10. The roller is put into a bad situation. They have fallen prone, dropped their weapon or maybe their arrow/spell ricocheted off a wall into an ally causing them to be stunned.
-19. This just never happens. However, my PC's fear this more than anything. This is reserved for your most Final Destination type bad luck. You miss an spell and it causes a huge chain of events causing a massive cave in and all characters take 10d6 damage.