Critical Rolls

Critical Hits

Whenever a character rolls a natural 20 on a d20 for a contested roll in combat, they may choose to deal damage to their choice of their opponents equipped gear before doing normal damage. This is true whether or not they were the one that initiated the contested roll. Dealing damage to their weapon, armor, or shield will reduce it’s Tier by 1 until it can be repaired after the battle. The damage to the gear happens before the damage to the player is calculated. For long fights this may be a useful tactic to reduce the effectiveness of an opponent.

A player that rolls a natural 20 may still lose the contested roll.

Critical Failure

Whenever a character rolls a natural 1 on a d20 for a contested roll in combat, that player must chose to reduce their equipped Shield or weapon’s Tier by 1 until it can be repaired after the battle.

When dual wielding and using 2d20 & choosing the higher, if you roll a 1 on one of the dice but not the other, you did not have a critical failure (unless you chose the 1 for the roll).

Crits with Natural Armor & Natural Weapons

Crit effects can be applied to natural armor & weapons for the few races & monsters that have it. It would lower the bonus for their natural gear until it is healed. Crit effects cannot reduce the natural armor or weapon bonus below T0 (Tier Zero).

Natural armor may not be the target of a Critical hit if they have worn armor covering it until the worn armor is reduced to T0.

Similarly, damage to natural weapons may only be chosen if all equipped weapons or shields are at T0, absent, or destroyed.

A character rolling a critical hit may still apply damage to a T0 natural weapon to deal additional damage (10 damage) to the character directly, ignoring armor, before normal damage is applied.

Switching weapons (& all other free actions) cannot be done once dice are thrown until all damage has been calculated. Including crit damage to gear.

“Even Split” Crit Rule

For long fights, such as tank vs tank battles where no damage is able to occur, the GM may apply an “even split” rule to expedite the game-play. The “even split” rule applies automatic 1’s & 20’s to both characters involved by a number selected by GM. Then it is ran for a few more rounds to see if the effect changed the game-play. If nothing changes, the GM may call for another “even split”.

No damage is done to either character when the GM invokes a “even split” unless it is declared against an unarmed opponent’s weapons (their hands) or an opponent with T0 Natural weapons. Any character may switch weapons at any point while the process of of an “even split” is being applied.

If the GM calls “even split 5’s”, then both characters get to apply 5 critical hits & 5 critical failures to their own weapons & their opponent’s gear. This would technically have occurred over dozens of rounds & GM story telling should describe it as such. By the end, you may end up with two former “combat turtles” in rags, punching each other to death.