The idea of having critical hits not only on 20 has its own merits and we discussed about it a little in the "Six 20 between 19 and 21" article.
Today we want to introduce a new perspective. As we all know armor in the OSR/D&D/d20 system has the only function of bettering the Armor Class and to make the character harder to hit.
With this article we want to introduce more differences between armored and unarmored characters.
Simple System
The system is very simple, if the attack hit and the unmodified roll is in the Critical Range than a critical hit is scored
| Armor Type | Critical Range |
|---|---|
| None | 16-20 |
| Leather | 18-20 |
| Chain | 19-20 |
| Plate | 20 |
Monster need to be assigned an Armor Type equivalence, usually normal animals have leather, fantastic monster Chain, ancient dragons, golems and other strong monster plate.
Alternatively if you want to be more precise you can assign a Critical Range to each monster based on his description.
The system is similar to the simple system but give a critical range for character w/out HELMET, if the character wear an helmet than the critical range is the same of the previous table. As the previous system this is very simple, if the attack hit and the unmodified roll is in the Critical Range than a critical hit is scored
| Armor Type | Critical Range |
|---|---|
| None | 15-20 |
| Leather | 17-20 |
| Chain | 18-20 |
| Plate | 19-20 |
Critical Hits
The effects of critical hits can be managed in various ways, from simpler to more complex:
- double damage dice (e.g. 1d8 become 2d8)
- additional damage based on the kind of weapon
- Blunt/Slash: roll a second damage dice (e.g. 1d8 become 2d8)
- Piercing: add maximum result of dice (e.g. 1d8 become 1d8+8)
- additional damage dice based on the kind of weapon
- Blunt: +1d6
- Slashing: +1d8
- Piercing: +1d12
- use critical table
- use critical table differentiated by weapon
- use critical table differentiated by weapon and armor
