Building Bhakashal - Combat and Weapon Criticals

Ahhh, critical hits. Gygax suggested avoiding them, one of the areas where I disagree with him, not for game design reasons, there are lots of good game design reasons to dislike criticals, but for overinterpreting what the players want. Gygax reasoned that players don’t want the nitty gritty of combat, broken bones, graphic descriptions of violence, that sort of thing.

So he kept it abstract as much as possible. And I will say this, abstracted combat is actually pretty smart from a game design perspective, as it speeds up combat considerably.

But it also loses something. One of the most pervasive disconnects I see around fantasy TTRPGs is combat, many “just want to get through it”, for them, combat rules are just unnecessary crunch, and a sort of hyper-efficiency sets in. 

Bhakashal is not about that. Combat has to be exciting, cinematic, visceral and DEADLY. That’s the sweet spot. I want combat to be AVOIDED where possible as it is so deadly, but when it is on…

IT 

IS 

ON 

So repeated rounds of “roll initiative”, “roll to hit”, “roll damage” are not on the table.

There are a few ways in which Bhakashal archives this, the hit point rules, the lack of encounter balance, described damage, and lasting combat effects when the target is in a low HP range (e.g. save or broken bones, etc).

But I wanted more than that. I want combat to include more than just hits and misses. To deliver that, many D&D style games use d20 results of 20 and 1 to deliver criticals, often just a 2x damage on a d20. That’s fine, and for decades that’s how I ran it.

However, the concerns are well known, one, it was class independent, so fighters were no better at it than anyone else, a “no no” in a class based system IMO. Two, it was a fixed percentage of the time, and 5% comes up a lot  in regular combat, particularly when it is irrespective of the combatants. 

It was also pretty deadly when it happened to the players. 

So I looked at other systems, and found other options, and mused, Warhammer Fantasy Role Play got my attention, for example, though the crits were pretty intense. Again, I found some interesting things, but no system that exactly fit my preferences.

Then, in my home game, someone was running a monk. The “roll-over” mechanic for stunning got my attention. It was dead easy to use, the player tells me their “to hit” roll, I check to see if they exceed the required to hit by 5. As they will often have bonuses, I usually check this while they are adding their hit bonuses to the roll. 

One thing I want is to tie things to class, the more things that are tied to class, the more class choice matters, I want player choices to matter in the game. So tying criticals to roll-overs does this, your class determines your likelihood of success. Then it occurred to me that I could make the required roll-over vary by class, so rather than having everyone require a roll-over of X, it would be related to your class.

Then it occurred to me that AD&D had a lot of scattered weapon related actions that were not part of a unified mechanic (set against charge, dismounting, disarming). So why not fold these into “roll-overs” as well. Simple, easy to understand and it would jazz up combat a lot.

So then I came up with two kinds of criticals, “combat effects” which trigger on a roll-over, and weapon criticals, which trigger on the same but are specific to particular weapons. You can’t take both, only one or the other. 

I experimented a lot with this one. First I had all non-fighter classes halve their damage if they got a critical hit, but that was deeply unpopular and meant they were rarely used by non-fighters. Then I required a lower roll over for the martial classes, exceeding the natural to hit roll by a smaller amount for martial PCs, to give them an advantage.  But I found this triggered critical effects too often for the martial classes. Eventually I decided to use the same roll-over for all classes: exceed the required to hit by 5, unmodified. Since fighter types have lower required to hit rolls, they trigger criticals more often.  It’s also easier to remember a flat “exceed by 5” for everyone. A result with a roll-over of 5 or more does regular damage and gets a critical effect.

Given the “to hit” progression for the classes, criticals will be triggered the most often by fighter types and thieves (thieves as they level faster). That’s exactly what I wanted, these are combat effects, and those are the classes who are the best at combat. 

Finally, rather than doing more damage or having a “fumble” on a 1, which several of my groups dislike, I decided on damage to the weapon of the attacker (on a 1) or the armor / AC of the target on a 20.

Combat Effects - Bhakashal

When a PC, Monster or NPC exceeds their unmodified d20 “to hit” roll by 5 they can choose an additional effect from the table. Monsters/NPCs/Animals- ref can choose or roll.

Combat Effects Table

1. Opponent’s Weapon Jammed/Stuck - one action to remove/fix, +2 to hit them while doing so

2. Numbing Blow - to the opponent's weapon arm / limb - lose the next two actions with that limb

3. Opponent Disarmed - weapon knocked out of melee range, 1 action to retrieve

5. Opponent’s Weapon Snatched - mercenaries and spiders get a bonus attack/action with the weapon

6. Opponent Object Snatched - object from opponent removed (purse, potion bottle, etc.)

7. Knock Down Opponent - opponent -2 to hit, 2 point AC, 1 action to get back on feet     

8. Opponent Dodged on Lunge - attack of opportunity at opponent’s back as they pass, +2 to hit   

9. Knock Back Opponent - attacker may break off with no attack of opportunity against them               

10. Knock Back Opponent Into Surface / Object - 2-4 hp additional damage

11. Blow Exposes Weak Spot - Next attack against them ignores armor

12. Opponent Temporarily Blinded - next two attacks are randomized btw all in melee range

13. Opponent Temporarily Winded - next two attacks do half damage if successful               

14. Opponent Disoriented By Blow - opponent loses next attack                               

15. Opponent Stunned - Opponent is AC 10 against next attack                                         

16. Opponent Knocked Into Another Combatant - both have 4 point initiative penalty on next attack

17. Extra Unarmed Attack - Opponent set up for free punch/kick/head butt attack             

18. Set-Up Ally - next attack against opponent from an ally is +4 to hit                         

19. Extra Attack - attacker gets one extra attack that round                                                 

20. Extra Damage - attacker’s base damage doubled

Natural 1 - Weapon Damaged: - 1 to hit until repaired

Natural 20 - Armor Damaged/Target Damaged: 1 point of AC penalty until repaired/healed

Notes: 

1. Fighters, Paladins, Rangers and Monks get a saving throw versus breath weapon to avoid any combat effect.

2. When the table says “next attack”, if the opponent who suffers the impact of the critical lost initiative and has not yet acted for that round, their action for that round is lost. If they have already acted that round (e.g. they won initiative), then their action for the next combat round is lost.

3. If a PC wants to propose a combat maneuver that is not on this list, treat it like a critical and calibrate its effects to be similar to what is already on the table. If it is popular, add it to the table as an option. 

****

Many groups will just go for the 2x damage or extra attacks every time, and that’s fine. Some groups aren’t interested in finessing combat moves like this, the roll-over mechanic will ensure that 2x criticals happen, but not too often, and mostly for fighters. I have 6 current groups, 3 use these rules, 3 use the standard 20 is double damage, 1 produces a negative effect (e.g. drop weapon). 

They also allow tactical coordination. Say the party thief gets a critical against the opponent, and the party fighter, who does considerably more damage, is in range. Then you can choose option 15, opponent is stunned, AC 10 for next attack. Then the fighter swoops in and hits hard, thanks to your opponent being AC 10.

You still do damage on your roll, but why just double it if the fighter can come in and have a good chance of doing even more, and maybe even rolling a critical as well?

When attacking lower level opponents you can get a “critical spiral” where each hit can be used to trigger another attack, and you can get quite the run. That’s fun.

There are other situationals. If you have a spell caster as an opponent, blinding them for 2 attacks means that they can’t target with spells for 2 rounds. Sure, damage might be a better option, but if you don’t kill them, removing spell casting for two rounds is pretty useful. Many of the critical effects are lasting effects that impact more than the current combat round.

Option 16 only gives an initiative penalty, but it hits two targets, so it is situationally useful. 

There are attacks of opportunity in Bhakashal, but you can use a combat effect to withdraw without penalty, so for example, a PC could attack their foe intending to break off from combat with their first critical, once they roll it, they choose option 9, knock back their opponent, and flee without being attacked.

I’ve been tweaking this table for about a year now, and after the first little while the PCs went beyond taking another attack or doubling damage, and started to do flourishes as they gave advantages, or because they were fun to role play out. 

Just one example, the party thief in my Wednesday group has started to use criticals to get result 18, “set up ally” while fighting in tandem with one of the party fighters. He hits and sets up the target for a more devastating blow from the fighter. Because the roll-over uses the natural roll, the benefits from the criticals don’t generally make further criticals more likely, but they can make hitting and damage more likely. 

The system builds slowly, as it requires natural to hit rolls, at low levels you don’t see it as often. But it does grow and becomes part of their combat tactics (and, of course, part of their enemies’ tactics). If you don’t like the pacing, e.g. you want these effects more often, you can just trigger them on a roll with bonuses rather than a natural roll. I don’t, as it then becomes TOO common IMO, but that will address frequency concerns.

So that’s the system for in combat criticals, importantly ANY class can trigger one, but fighter-types are better at it. When I first set up the table it was “Fighters choose their results, other classes roll” but in addition to slowing things up the other players wanted to choose their results too. That’s when I realized the system was working, they WANTED to use it.

Weapons

Weapons are given a number of “critical effects”, triggered on the same roll-over. I like this as it means that class matters. Yes, everyone can do it, but martial characters will do it more often. And choice of weapon matters, as different weapons trigger different criticals, as opposed to the combat effects, which are chosen by the players. Here are the critical options that apply to various weapons (there are around 100 weapons available in Bhakashal and a bit more than half of them have one or more critical effects). I want there to be options for the players, and weapon choice has always been a core part of the D&D combat experience. All of the critical effects listed below happen when the attacker achieves a “roll-over” critical with the weapon.

Critical Hit Effects*

Charge – Weapon does 2x damage if used from a charging mount.

Dismount – Weapon dismounts a rider. 

Dual Wield – This weapon is assumed to be used for blocking and gives a 1 point AC bonus, when a critical hit is made with the primary weapon, this weapon automatically hits.

Entangle (chain, chigiriki, combat sash, kusari-gama, kyoketsu-shogi, lasso, whip) – Weapon entangles target, 1 round to disentangle, additional critical hit to maintain the entangle for another round or to dismount, drag or pull over. 

Entangle (large net) - 2 point AC penalty, victim - only thrusting weapons, all attacks -2, entanglement for [(2-4)-dex bonus] rounds.

Entangle (small net) - 2 point AC penalty, victim - only thrusting weapons, all attacks -2, entanglement for [(2-3)-dex bonus] rounds.

Remain – Weapon stays imbedded in opponent, does minimum dice damage each round until removed (e.g. arrow does 1hp per round).

Set Against Charge – weapon does double damage on a critical when set against a charging opponent.

Sweep – victim falls prone and loses next attack, next attack against them is +4 to hit 

Vault – Weapon allows a vault of up to 20’ forward or 10’ up, or to knock down opponent, lose next attack, +4 to hit against them.

* Fighters, Paladins, Rangers and Monks get a saving throw versus paralyzation to avoid all critical effects.

Here are a few examples of weapon criticals

Quarterstaff - Set Against Charge/Sweep/Vault

So now the humble quarterstaff has some juice, it can be set against charge from attacking opponents (and the longest weapon strikes first on charge), it can be used to sweep and knock over an opponent, and it can be used to vault over or up.

Chain - Entangle (ChainAC3/HP8)

A battle chain can be used to entangle opponents, which can restrain their weapon arm, bind their arms, or be used to drag them off a mount, to the ground, or behind the attacker. 

Crossbow, Light - Remain - Most missile weapons now have a “Remain” critical, in this case if a remain critical was scored the bolt would stay in the target and do 2 hp per round until it was removed. Makes missile fire a bit sexier. Some melee weapons (shorter ones) also get this critical effect.

Disarming is on the combat effects list, because disarming is really just hitting the weapon out of your hands, which any weapon can in principle achieve, but I decided to give a few weapons the ability to disarm on a regular strike (not a roll-over) because of their design (e.g. a protrusion to grab weapons, tines to put around weapon that can be twisted out of your hand, etc.): hook-fauchard, jitte, nunchaku, ranseur, sai, spetum, three piece rod and trident.

And most of the traditional pole arms have dismounting and set against charge as criticals, as mounted warriors are very dangerous, so dismounting and set against charge are exciting and tactically useful responses.

In addition, pole arms give their wielder a 1 point AC bonus against opponents with shorter weapons, and if set up behind a front line, attackers charging that line hit the pole arms first (longest weapon strikes first) and the pole arm wielders get a 7 point AC bonus against frontal attacks. I wanted some simulation of the value of polearms beyond damage, here they are good for dismounting, disarming, attacking from the back rank and keeping opponents at a distance.

I have also subsumed dual wielding to a critical attack. If you use two weapons, you get a 1 point AC bonus from the second weapon, and if you roll a critical hit with the main, you get an automatic hit from the secondary weapon that round as the critical effect. Otherwise the second weapon does not attack. I have also expanded the list of weapons you can dual wield with to anything short and light enough, this includes: 

Hand Axe, Club, Dagger, Horseman's Flail, Gunsen, War Hammer, Jitte, Kama, Nunchaku, Sai, Sword-Short, Sword - Wakizashi, Tui-fa  

So there are many more options for dual wielding than before. There are no penalties to dual wielding, but you only get to use the second weapon to do damage on a critical, so it means that the martial classes will be better at dual wielding than other classes, but dual-wielding won't become the default.

I have also imported a number of non-Western weapons to the table, which expands the flavor of combat considerably. 

A year of play testing these rules, tweaking options along the way, has shown me how well this can work at the table. Roll-over criticals are easy to adjudicate, indeed, as the fight goes on the players can usually back-engineer the AC of their targets, and thus know when they have rolled a critical.

The only fine tuning I would suggest is whether or not to require an unmodified roll to trigger a critical. I would recommend this, as by mid levels the bonuses have accumulated for the martial classes to the point, when combined with situational bonuses, that these will be triggered a lot. But individual tastes vary, if you want a LOT more criticals, just allow a modified roll for the roll-over instead. 

Just be ready to see a lot of PCs suffer critical effects!