Critical Failure (D&D)

[Yurro]

Once upon a time, me a my group was playing a game themed around killing dragons. So me playing a lvl 15 Dragonborn of Bahamut [once human] Paladin/Fighter/Vassal of Bahamut (prestige for the good dragon god basically), and my best friend of the group a Half-ogre Barbarian. During the game the group got split into 3 groups, Me and my friend being one, the 2 girls with a male pixie the second, and a group of misc players that weren't there all the time. To spare the time, I'll just explain that the girls stole a pirate boat, and dumped me and my friend on an island. We later get off through me flying (I chose the wing aspect for my Dragonborn) carrying the barbarian in a bag of holding.

We eventually get to the mainland and come upon a castle. Inside after exploring we find a wyrmling white dragon in a cage. After interrogating it, the baby breaths its breath weapon of cold. One failed Reflex save later, my character determines that this wyrmling isn't worth mercy. Making an attack through the bars with my sword, I roll a natural 1. The Dm says that the dragon was able to grab the sword and yank it out of my hands. Felling more like being funny (and truthfully metagaming through my knowledge on dragon hit dice numbers) attack using a Smite Evil on a punch. Again I roll a 1, and this time have my arm stuck in the bars. Again I make another attempt, and again I fail with a similar result with my other arm. Now that I'm effectively stuck the dragon takes the liberty to breath another blast of cold, with an obvious fail. All in all, some how I survive and both me and my friend killed the dragon. We both laughed about it afterwords, but I have to say this is my greatest fail ever.

[zenzybar]

My three players were fighting with another group of 3 NPCs against this massive humanoid beast. The beast blindly swung in two of my players' direction (clearic and rouge) and i had them roll to escape it being hit by it's massive club.
The cleric rolled a 1 and I was like "damn. you know what would be funny, if he rolls a. . ." and the rouge rolls a 1 right as i finish the sentence. Both get hit, swept off their feet from the force and land against a wall on the other side of the room in dying condition.

[Dirk45]

during our first adventure our druid was annoyed that he had to waste a heal spell on our tank instead of himself. So the idiot, (He is CN by the way) says, "I want to punch someone, I don't care." So there were four party members so I rolled a d4 and it landed on a 1, (the number I assigned to the druid) I then rolled for damage, and said, "Elden, you throw a punch, which curves around and hits you in the face knocking you unconscious. You are now knocked out."

[Archaix_the_Ghast v2]

My dwarf bard swinging his greataxe got a fumble. He rolled a 12 on damage, plus 3 for strength.

15 damage to a level 1 bard. I swung back and cracked myself in the back of the skull with the axe, causing me to immediately pass out dead.

Also he was charging into an ogre 3 CR higher than he was at the time.

[MrKobra]

When my campaign gets started I'm gonna have many stories to tell.

[Silvia Crow]

Group of three fighting a rat swarm. Halfling Spirit Shaman fumbled an attack roll on a rat in my space. Rolled high on the fumble table. Managed to smack my Warlock in the head, stunning her, smack themselves in the head, stunning themself, and then dropping their quarterstaff.

Earlier (I think this was a fumble. Or just part of the crazy-stupid magic of Diskworld) the Halfling tries to cast something. Spell goes wonky, and instead of brambles springing up everywhere, it starts raining billiard balls. THe Halfling tries to dodge, and runs face first into a falling pool table, knocking them out.

[Nasrin the Barbarian]

Let's see...my barbarian rolled a natural one on an intimidate check (my party always makes me growl when I use intimidate or any similar ability). So instead of intimidating the enemey spellcaster...
DM: Your growl has the enemy aroused.

stressed

[Valin the Evil Hedgehog]

*Casts True Resurrection.*

[Charmscale]

I didn't actually play in this game, but my boyfriend DMed it.
The party's rogue critical failed an appraise check to determine the worth of the loot they had just gotten from killing some enemies, and the DM decided to tell him that the most valuble item was their foe's body. So the rogue sticks it in his bag of holding and takes it back to town. When he tries to sell it, naturally, no one wants to buy. So, unpreturbed, he decides to cook it into trail rations, and sell it that way. This is, of course, illegal, so he gets a visit from the town guard. He gets a few very nice bluff and diplomacy rolls, and the guards get a few poor rolls, but just as it starts to look like he will talk his way out of trouble, he decides it would be a good idea to pickpocket a guard. Naturally, he rolls a one. lol

[twilightwyrm]

There are a few that come to mind.

DM (Me now): Alright you're trying to find out more about the local elven community. Roll a gather information check.
Half-Elf Ranger: *Roll a 1* On crap.
DM: *Rolls* You end up accidentally insulting two or three elven women. You take 4 point of nonlethal damage when one punches you in the face.

Me (Elf Barbarian): I'm gonna attempt another gather information check to find out more about the city's various influential people. (I failed the last two tries, but managed to avoid too much notice) *Rolls a 1* Oh come on! *Face palm*
DM:...Alright you spend the next *rolls* five hours talking...to a tree.
Me:...*More face palming*
(I proceeded to roll more natural 1s in that session than I have in any other session)

DM (Same Campaign): Alright, you've all successfully crossed the burning hands trap and get ahead to the corner. There is a room beyond. All three of you make spot checks.
Me: *Rolls a 1* God d@mnit!...
Friend 1 (Halfling Rogue): *Rolls a 1* What the hell?
Me: Alright man you better not roll a 1.
Friend 1: Yeah seriously, that would suck.
Friend 2 (Human wizard): *Rolls a 1* Seriously? *Face palm* Wait! I'll roll for my toad *Rolls a 6 or 7* Well geez. At least he can see something...
DM:...Oh my god...Alright, well apparently none of you were actually looking down the hall, and in fact the only way the wizard actually knows there is something down the hall is because his familiar tells him. You had to all roll 1s on your spot checks didn't you?
(That was the most epic fail our group has yet to experience)

[twilightwyrm]

Brasten

Adult-Material

Now no one plays elves in my parties because they can't be revived.

I hope that's a House Rule there. sad

I don't believe in Critical Miss/Fumble rolls. It's bad enough when a PC fails a Save on 1, no need to compound it. Do you lot (people who use this house rule) use a confirmation of system for the critical fumble like you do for critical hits?

I can tell you what the worst Natural 1 was in my group has been. Our Super-Tank fighter had is Fortified armor Dispelled (suppressed) and then got hit by a Devastating Critical[Epic, Feat]. He could have only failed the fortitude save on 1, and that's what he rolled. Super-Tank became Dead-and-Gone-Super-Tank in under 12 seconds of combat. He was revived later, after the much more chaotic final battle.

No, but the crit. fumbles aren't generally that bad. In combat you just make a reflex save to keep a hold on your weapon, nothing happens on saving throw, and skill checks just get some minor hilariousness. (As a DM myself, this never amounts to anything more than perhaps some nonlethal damage)

[Brasten]

twilightwyrm

No, but the crit. fumbles aren't generally that bad. In combat you just make a reflex save to keep a hold on your weapon, nothing happens on saving throw, and skill checks just get some minor hilariousness. (As a DM myself, this never amounts to anything more than perhaps some nonlethal damage)

Seriously? You decided to quote/reply to a post made basically 3 years ago?

However I still feel that if one is going to use a Critical miss in a combat roll it should also require a confirmation roll of some kind.

Skill checks in the 3e (3.0, 3.5, Pathfinder) do not Critical succeed or fail. Only To Hit rolls and Saving throws, those are the only two.

[Valin the Evil Hedgehog]

I'm glad my drow Clergyblade of death decides to revive this thread. Clergyblade= Duskblade/Cleric.

[twilightwyrm]

Brasten

twilightwyrm

No, but the crit. fumbles aren't generally that bad. In combat you just make a reflex save to keep a hold on your weapon, nothing happens on saving throw, and skill checks just get some minor hilariousness. (As a DM myself, this never amounts to anything more than perhaps some nonlethal damage)

Seriously? You decided to quote/reply to a post made basically 3 years ago?

However I still feel that if one is going to use a Critical miss in a combat roll it should also require a confirmation roll of some kind.

Skill checks in the 3e (3.0, 3.5, Pathfinder) do not Critical succeed or fail. Only To Hit rolls and Saving throws, those are the only two.

Wasn't looking at the date actually... sweatdrop

Yeah, hence why nothing terribly bad happens as a result.

[Evilweirdo 0]

ramiel.sheep.of.lightning

You can't technically crit fail on skill checks, but by golly, it makes the game so much more entertaining
-ramiel

I've been trying to tell my party that for forever!!! They stink with skills too, and never use the actual skill rules (rogue rolls 20 on climb, climbs at insane speed; says nat 20 initiative goes first always, etc.).