DISCLAIMER: Click-bait title aside, just wanted to put this out there for DMs and PCs alike as it's worked really well so far in the first 10 sessions of my newest campaign.
Nat-1s in combat are automatic misses. For some DMs and PCs that's enough of a punishment when your modifiers may have made that a hit otherwise...for others, not so much. Critical fumble tables have a bad reputation for the majority of players, DM/PC alike, but some people like the added threat of an "Anti-Crit."
Solution? Enter what my table has been calling "Retaliations" or "Counter Attacks." I haven't seen this elsewhere, so I hope this isn't old news...
Retaliation: A creature may spend its reaction whenever anothercreaturewithin 5ft rolls a 1 on the die of an attack rollagainst it. The creature spending its reaction may make onemelee attack against the provoking creature.
That's it! Simple, clean, and easy to remember. Bolded key ruling details for clarity. See TL;DR for plain English description.
Pros:
Costs a resource from the enemy and prompts both the DM and PCs to make a genuine, sometimes tough decision.
Fixes critical fumble tables being overly abusive to fighters and the like as creatures can only use this ability once per round and it only affects the attacked unit.
Allows monsters and PCs to occasionally weaponize their reaction in a different way or at all if their class/race/stat-block has no good options for it.
Adds flavor to combat if that's your thing - We often describe it as "over-reaching on a strike and opening yourself up" or better yet "your opponent sees your strike coming, predicting its location, and parries away your blow, piercing your defenses"
Cons:
More combat rules, actions, and options can be overwhelming for some or annoying for others. That's totally fair.
It's obviously not RAW, so won't appeal to those kinds of tables/games.
TL;DR
If someone rolls a Nat-1 on an attack roll (DM or PC), the attacked creature can make one melee attack against it using its reaction.
Its your game do what you want. However, crit fumbles is just a way to punish players who play martial classes who get multiple attacks a round thus more chances to fumble than non martial classes.
If you wanted to make it fair keep it as written if you get 1 attack then if you get multiple attacks there is a follow up confirmation roll before you fumble.
Wasn’t looking for advice on how to “Fix it.” Thanks for your thoughts though! Mostly just looking to share a really fun mechanic my table’s been using to spice up combat and add spontaneous dramatic moments.
I hope others give it try at their tables too because it’s been quite a hit.
I've found the best thing to do is to use what I call the idiot fumble rule,
1. If you are doing something you proficiency in and the action is not obviously flawed in some way, no crit fail
2. If you are doing something where you have no proficiency or are doing something stupid, crit fails happen
3. There is no table or set rules for the consequences of the nat 1, any action which is sufficiently stupid will have an obvious negative out come, a wizard will easily drop a greatsword if they try to attack with it, shooting an arrow when your comrade is down range will result in the comrade being shot, etc.
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DISCLAIMER: Click-bait title aside, just wanted to put this out there for DMs and PCs alike as it's worked really well so far in the first 10 sessions of my newest campaign.
Nat-1s in combat are automatic misses. For some DMs and PCs that's enough of a punishment when your modifiers may have made that a hit otherwise...for others, not so much. Critical fumble tables have a bad reputation for the majority of players, DM/PC alike, but some people like the added threat of an "Anti-Crit."
Solution? Enter what my table has been calling "Retaliations" or "Counter Attacks." I haven't seen this elsewhere, so I hope this isn't old news...
Retaliation: A creature may spend its reaction whenever another creature within 5ft rolls a 1 on the die of an attack roll against it. The creature spending its reaction may make one melee attack against the provoking creature.
That's it! Simple, clean, and easy to remember. Bolded key ruling details for clarity. See TL;DR for plain English description.
Pros:
Costs a resource from the enemy and prompts both the DM and PCs to make a genuine, sometimes tough decision.
Fixes critical fumble tables being overly abusive to fighters and the like as creatures can only use this ability once per round and it only affects the attacked unit.
Allows monsters and PCs to occasionally weaponize their reaction in a different way or at all if their class/race/stat-block has no good options for it.
Adds flavor to combat if that's your thing - We often describe it as "over-reaching on a strike and opening yourself up" or better yet "your opponent sees your strike coming, predicting its location, and parries away your blow, piercing your defenses"
Cons:
More combat rules, actions, and options can be overwhelming for some or annoying for others. That's totally fair.
It's obviously not RAW, so won't appeal to those kinds of tables/games.
TL;DR
If someone rolls a Nat-1 on an attack roll (DM or PC), the attacked creature can make one melee attack against it using its reaction.
Its your game do what you want. However, crit fumbles is just a way to punish players who play martial classes who get multiple attacks a round thus more chances to fumble than non martial classes.
If you wanted to make it fair keep it as written if you get 1 attack then if you get multiple attacks there is a follow up confirmation roll before you fumble.
Wasn’t looking for advice on how to “Fix it.” Thanks for your thoughts though! Mostly just looking to share a really fun mechanic my table’s been using to spice up combat and add spontaneous dramatic moments.
I hope others give it try at their tables too because it’s been quite a hit.
I like it better than normal crit 1 rules I have read.
I've found the best thing to do is to use what I call the idiot fumble rule,
1. If you are doing something you proficiency in and the action is not obviously flawed in some way, no crit fail
2. If you are doing something where you have no proficiency or are doing something stupid, crit fails happen
3. There is no table or set rules for the consequences of the nat 1, any action which is sufficiently stupid will have an obvious negative out come, a wizard will easily drop a greatsword if they try to attack with it, shooting an arrow when your comrade is down range will result in the comrade being shot, etc.