Two weeks ago we presented the first part of what was meant to be a three part series on critical hits. The idea with Critical Hits Revisited was to bring back some of the kitschy critical hit charts of old and make them compatible with 5e. What I didn’t expect, and totally surprised me, was the overwhelming positive response – it was the single most viewed day the Sterling Vermin Adventuring Co. blog has ever seen!
With all that interest I decided that it was better to make the next update to the Critical Hits Revisited system include all damage types so interested readers could implement it in their next game. While I expect and hope to get feedback on balance between critical charts and improvement in phrasing from the Sterling Vermin readers, this update includes everything you’ll need to run Critical Hits Revisited in your campaign this weekend!
Excellent, can’t wait to try it in an adventure; just one thing for the piercing rolls both 7-8 (Stabbed!) and 9-11 (Great Hit) are “Roll your damage dice twice and add them together.”. Is that intentional?
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Hi Adam! Yes, that is intentional. The piercing critical hit chart is a bit more straightforward than other critical hit charts. As a result of that it duplicates a good result at a wider numerical range low on the chart.
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How do you see this interacting with an effect that negates critical hits? Because I can see my players agreeing to this only on the condition that Adamantine Armor be readily available.
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Well, any content you add to a game should be implemented in a way that makes the game more fun for you and your players. I definitely didn’t write these rules with the assumption that players would be immune to their effects but if it’s what you and everyone else at the table wants to do, go for it. It will make PCs more powerful but you can dance around that by upping the CR of encounters.
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Excellent work, we are using this in our campaign for sure!
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Looks like fun!
I wouldn’t say no to a print-friendly version.
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What would a print friendly version look like? No art & just black and white?
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White pages, no art, no textures, that kind of thing. Something that could be printed and not suck the life out of a printer cartridge.
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I love this! I plan on implementing it in my next game. Do you plan on writing one for critical failures/fumbles?
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Hey, I really like what you did here, and I come here to ask you permition to translate this material to portuguese and post on the website of my campaing http://d-dnaroca.webnode.com/ I’m waiting for your answer. Thank you for the good job.
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Hi Rafael,
Go for it! If you could please include a link to http://www.sterlingvermin.com in whatever you put together, I’d appreciate it! Thanks for translating!
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I found these to be the best ones yet. Are you working on a Critical Fumble sheet as well?
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Hey just a heads up to you guys after going through this:
There is a slight mistake in the Insanity chart, under #15-Mute. It says “Whenever you wish to speak allowed” when it should say “Whenever you wish to speak aloud”. Figured you guys might want to know 🙂
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Oh man, this chart rules!!! I love how you have brought back that 3e feel of THREE 20s is death. I agree Sean… this chart would be perfect if you had a fumble sheet as a companion 😎
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Love this. Just one question, what happens with creatures that are immune to certain damage types? Can you leave someone deformed if they’re resistant/immune to acid damage? Can you interfere with a devil’s fire immunity with “Burnt to a Crisp!”?
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I’d say Immunity to a given damage type provides you with complete perfection against the critical effects as well.
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