Dungeon Masters, Do Not Add Insult To Injury (Without Consent)

There is this bizarre need that many dungeons masters have to take any bad situation, and make it worse for their players. A missed swing in combat is never just a miss; it always makes you do something disadvantageous, like screw up your footing, or damage your weapon. And if you roll a 1, hoo boy, that's when the real knives come out! That's when the blade your fighter depends on suddenly snaps, when the rogue stabs themselves in the thigh, or when the wizard scorches their fingers and takes a Dex penalty. All because a die happened to hit on that 5% chance.

If you roll a lot of these, you may as well commit seppuku.

I dedicated an entire category to this kind of DM in my recent article 5 Bad Dungeon Masters You'll Meet Throughout Your Gaming Career; the Punisher. A DM for whom, unless that natural one ends in disaster for the player who rolled it (or at the very least the potential for disaster), they feel like they're being too generous. As if, somehow, they allowed a player to break a rule without being punished for the act of trying to do something, but having uncooperative dice.

Let's be crystal clear, here. If your game already has critical fumbles built into its existing mechanics, that's fine. If you can point to the page in the rule book with the chart and effects, then you're just playing the game as it exists. On the other hand, if you feel the need to add fumble rules to your game, whether it's with the Paizo Critical Fumble deck or just with a random chart you made up yourself, then I would ask why you're doing that? How does this enhance your game, and how do you deal with the fact that it punishes your players a lot more than it punishes your villains?

But I Run It Fair; PCs and NPCs Both!

Equal isn't the same as fair in this case, because the burden is going to fall a lot harder on the players than it will on your monsters.

Because that 5% chance has a longer-lasting effect on players than on you.

While it's true that you and the players are both rolling D20s, and that you may even roll substantially more than the players do (and thus you will have to deal with more critical fumbles on average), the important point is that you have a never-ending stream of characters. The players have only one, and those characters have limited resources that can be easily wrecked by pure bad luck, quickly shifting their chances of progressing the story.

Take one of the most common crit fumble rulings ever; the broken weapon. Your sword snaps, your bowstring breaks, what have you, but your main weapon is now either crippled or useless because you had a particularly bad roll.

Now, say this happened to a monster you were running. Oh no, the goblin's sword broke, or the giant's club snapped in half. Is that monster totally out of options? Probably not. Chances are good they have some kind of back-up option like natural attacks, or they have additional weapons on their person. And even if they don't (say your PCs were ambushed by footpads in a city chase), did you expect those NPCs to survive the fight anyway? Probably not. In fact, a majority of the characters who get involved in combat on your side of the line are meant to get defeated. Even if it's a big boss, like the minotaur in the middle of the maze, or that necromancer you've been saving for a big fight, do you honestly want those characters to win? Especially if it means they kill the PCs, meaning that now everyone has to start over again?

You want your fights to be a challenge, because that's what makes winning all the sweeter. But critical fumbles don't make things more challenging; they turn combat into a disheartening slog.

Let's take that same broken weapon situation from the PC perspective. Your paladin charges in, sword held high, and when he brings it down, oops, it breaks. That's bad enough at low levels, but what about when your party has enchanted gear? Does it break just as easily as common steel? Or does it just impose a negative while you wield it until it's repaired? Either way, that character may not have a back-up option in the same sense that the monsters do. Sure he can punch with a gauntlet, draw his knife, or shield bash, but you took away their main fighting option for no reason other than hey, you rolled the 1 big guy, you should have known better. And that is going to last for the rest of the dungeon, which may consist of dozens of fights, in addition to the big, climactic battle.

There is no scenario where this kind of action feels like a challenge, instead of a slog. The archer's bowstring breaks, so now they have to take an entire round or two of combat to re-string their bow (assuming they even have a spare bowstring on hand). The rogue slips in spilled blood and goes down prone while surrounded by ogres who now all get bonuses to hit them. The barbarian loses their grip, and their ax goes flying, making them a sitting duck until they get it back. These feel like dick moves on the DM's part because players are being punished for trying to do something. Even if their strategy is sound, and their tactics are good, that natural 1 doesn't just make them fail; it slaps them across the face for even trying.

Aside from the fact that it feels like random punishment (because let's face it, you're being punished based on a random die roll), there's also the question of resources. How many weapons do you expect your warriors to carry because they know any die roll could break one? How many spare bowstrings do you expect bowmen or crossbowmen to have? And if we look at the more serious crit fumbles, what do you do if a party gets crippled (lost eyes, reduced stats, etc., etc.) due to bad rolls, and is now unable to be a legitimate threat to the big boss? Or they have to blow potent healing resources that were meant to carry them through, but instead they're out of bullets less than halfway through the night?

Why Add Insult To Injury?

Rolling a natural 1 is already a punishment in and of itself. Whatever you were trying to do, there's a pretty good chance it isn't going to work. You failed, and your action had no serious impact... that's disheartening enough. You don't need to randomly have your future effectiveness penalized as a result.

Hey, you shouldn't have rolled a 1 on your polymorph. No, I don't know how you'll undo it, either.

If you want to make your players feel challenged, then don't give them random negatives. Instead, bring your A-game when it comes to your own strategy and tactics. Engage them, and provide opportunities for them to succeed or fail not because of a quirk of fate, but because they came up with a plan and executed it well (or because they failed to anticipate your plan, and had to scramble to counter it).

When you lose in a game of chess, you lose because the other person out-played you, you made mistakes, or some combination of both. No one is ever in the middle of a strategic game, then suddenly loses the ability to move their queen because they rolled a 1, and considers that a refreshing challenge. It's just a pain in the ass, and it does more to harm PCs than it ever will your villains in the long run.

But If You're Going To Do It Anyway...

With all of that said, if you are hell-bent on using your 5th Edition critical fumble deck fresh from Critical Hit Publishing, far be it from me to tell you how to run your game. However, there is something that you should definitely do that will stop roughly half of the problems you find with introducing critical fumble rules to games where none exist.

Get your players' consent first.

Seriously, consent makes all the difference.

If you're going to be adding a rules set to the game that is not actually in the core rules, don't just assume that everyone at the table is cool with it. Ask your table, preferably during Session 0, if they want to use critical fumble rules at all, and if yes, if they want to use charts, or a deck, or whatever your preferred tool is. Another good question to ask is if they only want temporary negatives like one-round drawbacks, or do they also want the serious stuff that can shatter their equipment, give them permanent negatives, etc. Some folks who'd be okay with the former may balk at the latter, after all.

You need to be prepared for either a yes or no answer. Because if everyone is on board with those critical fumbles (even if, in the end, they do them more harm than good on average), then shine on you mad bastards! On the other hand, if there are players who don't like the odds of using critical fumble rules, or who are outright against the idea, then you might want to save that deck for another day. Because everyone has to play the same game, and what do you gain from bringing in additional house rules that your players don't want?

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How To Keep A Positive Attitude At The Table (Even When You're Rolling 1's)

There is no experience like being at the table when the group is rolling hot. Swords are swinging, spells are flying, and the heroes are experiencing some of their finest moments. When that happens the excitement is fully-tapped, and even if you're not at center stage it's impossible not to feel the thrill as the story unfolds in front of you. Then there are those other times. The times when the fighter just can't get through the damage reduction, or the sorcerer's spells keep fizzling against the demon lord's resistance. The rogue's usually nimble tongue makes a diplomatic mis-step, or the ranger ends up getting hopelessly lost.

Artist's Rendition

These things happen. The key is that when they happen to you, you need to rise above them in order to keep the game going strong, even if the story isn't going the way you'd like it to go.

Moods Are Infectious

Have you ever been at work, and one guy on your team is just being shitty? He drags his feet, complains about everything he's being asked to do, and as soon as attention is no longer on him he goes back to messing with his phone? Even if you were having a good day, and positive things were happening, that attitude will eat through your defenses like acid until you start losing your energy as well.

People with shitty attitudes are vampires, is what I'm saying.

The same thing happens at the table. Dave's been swinging heavy with his fighter's mace, but when the party comes up against a lieutenant bad guy with DR 10/piercing, suddenly Dave loses his enthusiasm. He keeps going for a few rounds, but instead of switching to a dagger or a spear, he just keeps hammering away with his blunt weapon trying to do enough damage to make a dent. After a couple of rounds he tunes out of the game, talking about something out of character to another player, sending a text to his girlfriend, and only looks up once you've called his name three times. He rolls a d20, and maybe he hits, or maybe he doesn't. Either way his enthusiasm for the game is clearly gone, and that doldrums can infect the rest of the table. Even if the druid is owning the minions, keeping them off of the party, and the cleric is rolling maximum numbers on all of her healing, Dave's attitude is an anchor that can drown everyone.

So, the key is to make sure that, even when you're feeling discouraged, that you keep pushing forward.

How Do I Do That?

Well, the first key is to make sure that you come to the table with a plethora of options to hand. While every character is going to have something they're best at, players need to look for the gaps in their characters' skill sets, and fill them. That way even if your character's main trick is ineffective in a given situation (say, trying to fight ghosts with a non-magical sword), you can still do something to contribute (like pouring holy water over the specter).

Glad I invested in that goblet of endless holy water!

Even if you plan for every possible contingency, though, you're going to have those nights where luck just prevents you from doing what you want to. And if you fail often enough, it's going to take its toll on your mood. That's why instead of viewing the game as a simple pass/fail, you need to create a third option; the dramatic telling.

The Dramatic Telling: For DMs AND Players

I mentioned some of this in my post How To Roleplay During Combat, but I'd like to add some clarification via example.

Let's go back to Dave. He learned his lesson about carrying different weapons, but the party finds itself going up against a werewolf. Dave isn't carrying silver, but he gives it his best shot. He smashes his mace into the monster's jaws, cracking bone and knocking out two teeth. Even as he watches, though, the beast's flesh knits itself closed, re-aligning what was destroyed as it focuses its eyes on the man who struck it.

Now it's my turn.

Now, mechanically speaking, Dave did 12 damage in that blow. After the damage reduction, it only took 2. But how much less discouraged would a player feel knowing that he did something significantly cooler-looking than 2 damage, even if that's what gets marked down on the damage counter after his turn?

But what about when you miss? After all, even when you hit, you're still doing something.

All right, let's wind it back a bit. Let's say Dave swung, but his numbers just didn't add up. The DM should compare the attack against the enemy, and craft an appropriate response. For example, did Dave get close enough that it was only the monster's natural armor that saved it? Then the DM should tell the fighter that his blow struck home, but it glanced off the monster's thick fur and heavy, bony skull. What if Dave rolled lower, say, not even high enough to hit the werewolf's touch AC? In that case the description should be about how the monster jerked aside with animal quickness, or how it dropped down to all fours as the weapon whistled just above its back.

Neither of these descriptions actually changes the result of what's happening, which is that the fighter missed. However, by acknowledging that the player is doing something, and by crafting an appropriate response you are more likely to keep that player tuned in to what's happening. The reason is because you aren't just saying, "all right, Dave failed, who's next?" Instead, you're incorporating both successes and failures into the game's narrative.

And before you get the idea that this is all on the DM, players are not off the hook for this.

So, across the table is Steve. Steve is playing a grenadier alchemist, and his big schtick is his bombs. But it's one of those nights where Steve's dice just will not cooperate. He throws a bomb, and not only does he miss, but he misses badly. Natural 1 kind of badly. Instead of slumping back in his chair and gesturing for the next person to go, though, Steve adds details to his action. Maybe his alchemist grunts, saying something like "Goddamn wind shear!" to explain his lack of accuracy. Maybe the alchemist, jazzed on adrenaline and mutagen, is having a nasty reaction, and his hand is shaking. He is creating an explanation for why a mid-level, battle-hardened veteran didn't get the job done this round.

Once Steve contributes his bit, the DM should feel free to add onto it. Perhaps the bomb explodes behind the werewolf instead of striking it, dealing it minor splash damage. The wolf howls, backlit by the gout of fire, and murder shines in its eyes as it glances toward the alchemist. Action resolved, they move on to the next player's turn.

Keep The Story Going

The easiest way to avoid dropping out of the game is to contribute to the story in some, important way. How you do it is up to you, but finding that niche can be what keeps your enthusiasm up.

Impress me.

Let's go to the third member of the table: Debbie. Debbie decided to play a swashbuckler, and though her attacks are swift and deadly, she's just not hitting the big boss's AC tonight. On the other hand, he's having the same problem hitting her. So, while her flashing blade isn't drawing any blood, she could turn this stalemate into a vibrant battle scene, as she deflects the werewolf's teeth with the rim of her buckler, using the hulking creature's own momentum against him by guiding his claws away with her slender sword.

You can even add good story if you're on the wrong end of a beating. Tammy decided to try out the warpriest, but despite her high defensive stats, the DM is just laying into her. Tammy could describe how her devout priest of Gorum reacts to being hurt. Does she bellow in defiance? Spit blood on the floor and keep fighting? Do her eyes go dead as she keeps coming after the werewolf, showing no fear, or pain, or emotion as blood leaks from the rents in her armor?

If you've kept your RP focused only on one area, you might want to mine these others as well. If nothing else, it will help members of a TPK feel like they died nobly, and heroically, instead of just being backhanded by a plastic die and some unfortunate math.

I hope you enjoyed this piece, and if you want to make sure you don't miss out on further installments of Improved Initiative then plug your email into the box on the right, or follow me at Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. If you want to keep this blog going, toss some bread into my jar by going to my Patreon page to become a patron today!

It's Not Your Imagination... Your Dice Really Are Rolling More 1's

We've all sat around a table and listened to that frustrated player who just can't catch a break. Whether it's Warhammer or Pathfinder sooner or later someone will bemoan that no matter what they do all they can roll is 1's.

Goddammit... not again.

You aren't imagining it, according to this study. If you're using the wrong dice you really are rolling more 1's than anything else.

Wait, What?

This study was conducted by an engineer that teaches at ASU. As a man with access to minions in the form of students, and an evil laboratory where all like table wobble and incidental dice collision can be controlled for he decided to try and improve his Warhammer 40K game with science. The study used groups of 36 dice, including the red and white GW dice, square dice with pips, dice from Chessex, and Las Vegas Casino dice. There were 144,000 total rolls that had to be conducted and recorded individually.

Has he ever considered it's because his space marines suck?

What the study found was that if you use Chessex or GW dice then you're looking at about a 29% chance of rolling a one. The Las Vegas dice averaged a 16.6% chance of rolling a 1, which is what they should have averaged. The square dice with pips on them came out to roughly a 19% chance of rolling a 1.

So let me ask you... do you feel lucky?

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Playing By The Book: Some Pathfinder Rules Players Keep Forgetting

The entire purpose of creating a rules system for a roleplaying game is so that all players are on the same page, so to speak. A unified system that describes the world ensures that all players (and more importantly all of the monsters and villains) are running on the same engine. No one gets helped or hindered. While the person running a game reserves the right to change or disallow anything in the book, that's a power that should be reserved for when a genuine problem is being created by a rule in question.

This is the first installment in what has become an occasional, ongoing series. The full list of installments, calling attention to more than 25 often-overlooked rules, includes:

- Playing By The Book: Some Pathfinder Rules That Players Keep Forgetting
- MORE Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- Even MORE Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- Still More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- 5 More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting

Also, I've recently begun a new series of character conversions entitled Gotham Knights. If you're interested you can check out my Batman character build right here, and the accompanying Robin character build right here.

Stay tuned for more!

#1: Natural 20s Aren't Always Automatic Successes

A natural Mu on the other hand trumps everything.

The fabled natural 20 and the dreaded natural 1 are the yin and yang of d20 RPGs everywhere. It's often one of the first things a player learns; a 20 means success, and a 1 means failure.

Or do they?

Not according to the rules. A natural 20 is always a hit in combat, and it's always a critical threat. A natural 20 is also an automatic save on any saving throw. The opposite is true of a natural 1 in both of these cases. Those are the only two incidents where the rule of automatic success and automatic failure are mentioned; this 5% chance to succeed or fail despite the rules and all logic doesn't apply to initiative, skill checks, or any other use of a 20-sided die (even though a storyteller may decree that they do).

The logic here is pretty sensical, really. A gunslinger or ranger who has tuned his or her nerves to a fever pitch to sense ambushes should logically go before the wizard who always has his nose in a book, even if by chance he happened to notice a sound or a flash of metal. A bard who's spent a lifetime mastering the art of song can have a bad day, but under no circumstances should random chance decree that the singer's voice just cracks and falls apart like an apprentice song-smith.

Also, critical fumbles are not a part of Pathfinder; they're a relic from the days of 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons. Once again if a DM decrees that a natural 1 gives players penalties then that is his or her call. However, there is nowhere in the book that says players have to roll a second time to confirm a natural 1, and that if the character fails to hit the weapon breaks, the character cuts herself, etc., etc. A natural 1 in combat is simply a miss, and the round goes on.

#2: Unless It Says So, You Can't Stack It

Competence bonus connected to the morale bonus, connected to the...

Bonuses are the bread and butter of making a character more effective. Magic bonuses, trait bonuses, competence bonuses, luck bonuses, alchemical bonuses, and the list goes on and on. With so many to choose from it's quite possible to build some impressive number castles, but it's easy for some players to forget that unless the book gives you express permission you can never stack bonuses of the same type, even if they're from different sources.

Here's a good example: shadow armor provides a +5 competence bonus to the wearer's stealth, and so does the cloak of the bat. Even if a character wears both of these items, because they each offer a competence bonus the player can only apply the highest.

While that might sound limiting, it often isn't. For instance, a barbarian's rage gives him a +4 morale bonus to strength and constitution. The spell bless grants a +1 morale bonus to attack. Because the one is specifically for a stat, and the other is to attacking, both still apply, even though said barbarian is likely attacking using his strength. As someone who has seen what happens when stacking rules are ignored, I can fully support this one being remembered.

As a side note, untyped bonuses and dodge bonuses are the only ones that stack without express permission. Lastly, concealment percentages don't stack. If you're in pitch blackness in a smoke cloud, you still have only a single 50% miss chance according to page 197 in the Core Rulebook.

#3: You Can Hold a Spell Charge

You can hold it until you touch something... well, anything, really.

Casting spells in combat is one of those skills that adventuring magicians and clerics tend to learn on the fly. Casting magic defensively is par for the course, but when it comes to touch spells it's important to remember that you can cast the spell as a standard action, move, and then deliver the touch as a free action. Not only that, but if you miss with your initial touch then you can still hold the charge and try next round. Rules for this are in the Core Rulebook, page 185 and 186.

It's important to remember that you can only hold one charge at a time, and that if you touch anyone or anything that it goes off. Remember that in the event that someone grapples you while you have shocking grasp ready to go off.

#4: You Can Punch People in The Face With Spells

An accurate representation of what it looks like before you're punched by a wizard.

When the magus was released in Ultimate Magic players everywhere were left shouting, cheering that finally they could combine an attack with a spell.

I hate to burst your bubble, but you always could. Provided you had the ability to deliver an unarmed attack.

Page 186 of the Core Rulebook states that a caster may choose to make an unarmed strike against an opponent to deliver a touch spell. The strike follows all of the same rules for punching an opponent (it's no longer a touch attack), and if you land the blow you deal unarmed strike damage plus the spell. If you miss, the spell is still held. Sure it's not that impressive... unless your spellcaster has the ability to stack other types of damage onto an unarmed attack. Multi-class monks never looked so appealing, and now you have a definite use for the draconic sorcerer's claws.

#5: 'Aid Another' Saves Parties

Seriously, you need a +2 just to open your frigging canteen?

We've all been in one of those combats. At least one player is frustrated because his character isn't spec'd for the kind of fight you're in, and no matter what he does he just can't get a moment in the spotlight. The next time that player throws up his hands, direct him to page 197 of the Core Rulebook and point out the aid another action.

Players seem to forget that this rule exists a lot, and thus keep banging their heads against the wall by taking actions that simply won't work. In short if you and an ally are engaged in melee with a single opponent you can take a standard action and attack an AC of 10. If you succeed you are hampering the opponent in some way which provides a bonus to your ally in the form of either a +2 to hit or a +2 to armor class against the opponent's next attack against them (provided it comes before your next turn).

There are two main reasons players don't use this action. The first is that they don't know it exists. The second, and this is really more prevalent in my experience, is that most players want to be the hero. They want to cast the spell or swing the sword that brings down the foe so they can revel in the glory that follows. It's important to remember that the party who stays together slays together, and that if concerted effort is made to use strategic moves, rather than hoping for that 5% chance of a natural 20, combats are going to end a lot more quickly a lot more often.


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