Monday, January 15, 2018

Pathfinder Critical Hit Deck [RPG]


I've used the Critical Hit Deck in several hundred sessions of D&D 3.5/Pathfinder, and it's one of those little things that adds a lot to the game.  Simply put, the deck is a lot of fun and makes a mundane crit into something memorable.  With the deck, a critical hit doesn't just do extra damage anymore: it might make the opponent blind, start to bleed, fall down, or any of about two hundred other things!  Each card in the 52-card deck has four critical hit effects on it, categorized by damage type (Blugeoning, Piercing, Slashing, or "Magic" for spells delivered with attack rolls).  A fun bludgeoning effect might be "To Your Thinky Bits" which does double-damage and 1 Int bleed, while a magic effect might be "Vampiric Magic" that heals the caster the same amount of damage that the attacking spell delivers the target!  I've found the effects to be well-balanced and reasonable within the mechanics of Pathfinder, and there aren't any effects that are permanent that don't allow for a saving throw.  The deck also comes with two double-sided cards with instructions and optional rules that change how often players and the GM draw cards.  If it sounds at all appealing, it's worth trying out for a couple of sessions--I'm pretty sure you'll be glad you did.


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