Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Marakul 11-22-04, 06:15 PM	Right now I am playing 3,5 edition and am missing those cool nasty things from 2 e - The Critical Hits Charts. So my party and me tried converting them to 3,5 e. We did this in two ways and are looking forward to hearing your comments before using any of them. Version 1: When the critical hits is scored and confirmed damage is rolled normally as with any other critical hit(x2, x3 or whatever depending on weapon). After that character suffering the critical hit needs to roll a fortitude save difficulty equal to damage dealt or suffer an effect from a critical hit chart. Version 2: If you threat a critical a character suffering the critical needs to roll fortitude save difficulta 20 or roll on critical hit chart. After that you roll to confirm the critical and roll damage as usual.
Kaya Kenobi 11-22-04, 08:28 PM	Here's my variants of crits: You roll a critical threat, and reroll and hit, it's a soft crit, do not multiply strength. You roll a critical threat, and reroll and it's in the critical threat range, multiply strength with the damage. You roll 2 natural 20s, it's automatically max damage with strength multiplied. On 2 natural 20s, reroll again, if you once again roll a 20 the target is dead. There's my chart. ;)
Carpe DM 11-23-04, 06:01 PM	If you really want to make it nasty, you could make critical hits do Constitution damage instead of actual HP damage. No multiplier though, just pure damage. Drop their Con to 0 and they die. Yay! Or you could use a varient of this: x2 = 1 crit point x3 = 2 crit points x4 = 3 crit points Now, you can use a crit point as usual to add the physical damage of the attack on top of itself (ie: the normal damage is 1d6+2, you can use one crit point to make it 1d6+2+1d6+2 or add three crit points to make it 1d6+2+1d6+2+1d6+2+1d6+2). Or you can use a crit point to deal 1d6 points of ability score damage divided however you choose among whatever ability scores you want. So if your attack deals 1d6+2 and it's a x3 multiplier, you could do 3d6+6 damage, or 2d6+4 damage and 1d6 ability damage, or 1d6+2 damage and 2d6 ability damage. You could come up with other uses for crit points too, such as the target being stunned for 1d4 rounds per crit point used for stunning, and the Fort DC to resist the stun is equal to your initial attack roll. Each round they fail the save the DC decreases by 2. So if you used 2 crit points for this, and your total initial attack roll was 26, they would have 2d4 rounds of stun with a Fort DC of 26 the first round, 24 the second, 22 the third, and so forth. Or you could go really cinematic with it, and let a player spend a crit point to add stacked combat move effects...such as one crit point gives you a Trip move added to your attack, or a crit point gives you a Bull Rush move added to your attack. So if you used two crit points you would do your damage plus a trip attempt plus a bull rush attempt. Which means if you were totally successful your opponent would end up laying on his back five feet away with a bleeding wound, thinking "WTF just happened?!"
General Dorsey 11-24-04, 10:14 AM	I've been trying to use the 2nd edition crit rules as well, but we haven't implemented them yet. When we do, here is a brief breakdown: 1) If an attacker successfully rolls a critical hit, the target must make a Reflex or Fortitude save (whichever is higher) DC 5 + critical damage dealt or a specific injury occurs. 2) Critical hits automatically inflict the appropriate critical damage. However, any effects beyond this can be avoided by a successful Reflex or Fortitude saving throw (DC 5 + critical damage dealt). For example, the critical roll may indicate an arm injury with minor bleeding, but if the victim makes his saving throw, no arm injury actually takes place. The character only suffers critical damage from the hit. Obviously, this could be sufficient to mortally wound or kill a character anyway. Some monsters are naturally resistant to the effects of certain critical injuries. Creatures such as constructs, undead, or elementals don't have any discernable anatomy and therefore ignore any such effects. A monster like a hydra can lose a head without being instantly slain. However, these injuries can still be important because it might affect the way a monster moves or attacks. A skeleton that's had a leg knocked off can't move at its full rate, even if it is less troubled by the injury than a living person would be. Creatures immune to critical hits still must succeed at the saving throw to avoid the effects of the critical hit. For example, if a vampire is critically hit by Krusk with his battle axe, he will not suffer triple damage. However, if he also fails his Reflex save then he may end up losing an arm or a leg. He will not suffer the effects of bleeding, but walking will prove to be difficult at best. 3) There are some changes or 3.5 updates I implemented: Knockdowns: If a critical hit calls for a knockdown, the victim is still entitled to a Reflex saving throw (DC 5 + critical damage dealt) to avoid falling down. Armor and Shield Damage: Some critical hits call for possible damage to a creature's armor or shield. If the victim of the hit has no armor at that location, the blow is usually assumed to have more severe effects than if the character was protected. If the creature struck does have a shield or armor to deflect the blow, it may be damaged if the chart calls for it. First of all, the victim gets his normal saving throw roll to avoid the effects of the critical hit; if the roll is successful, there is no special effect for the hit. If the roll fails, his armor or shield takes damage as if sundered. A damaged shield is useless. If armor is damaged, only the location struck is useless, and it no longer contributes to the overall AC of the suit. Damaged armor has it’s AC dropped by –1 per critical multiplier. For example, a rapier would reduce the protection by –2, while a battle axe would reduce it by –3. A paladin with the Spirited Charge feat while using a lance would reduce it by –5. Damaged equipment can be repaired by a Craft check or by magical means. 4) To stop most of the bleeding, you need a Heal check DC 15. To stop the bleeding from an Injured result you'll need to hit DC 20.
keyunp 11-24-04, 04:16 PM	Carpe DM > I like your crit point idea. I know one of my players would just love the cinematic concept. If you have any more ideas for it, please post them.
Kaya Kenobi 11-25-04, 04:54 PM	Armor and Shield Damage: Some critical hits call for possible damage to a creature's armor or shield. If the victim of the hit has no armor at that location, the blow is usually assumed to have more severe effects than if the character was protected. I actually use Sunder in this case.. :D