Pathfinder Critical Fumble Deck [RPG]

If you're one of those gamers vehemently opposed to the entire notion of critical fumbles, this post is not for you.  I've used critical fumble rules throughout the vast majority of my (multiple decades--jeepers!) of gaming and I think they're a blast: they give combat encounters a boost in excitement, unpredictability, last-second salvation (if a monster fumbles), and a much-needed shattering of hubris (if a PC fumbles).  In past years and with past systems, I've used a wide-variety of charts and tables (sometimes homebrewed) to determine the effects of critical fumbles, but for the last several years playing D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder, I've relied on the Pathfinder Critical Fumble Deck.

The strength of this deck is the sheer number of possibilities it offers.  Each of the 52 fumble cards in the deck contains four different effects arranged in the categories of Melee, Ranged, Natural, and Magic.  That's a couple of hundred possibilities, meaning there's far more than the usual "you drop your weapon" sort of thing.  The effects are well thought-out mechanically to fit into the 3.5/Pathfinder systems.  For example, fumbling with a natural bite attack might turn up the "That tastes awful!  You are nauseated for 1d6 rounds" card, while the "Not my pony!" effect for a ranged attack fumble means your shot hits the nearest allied animal!  My favourite category is the one for magic attacks, as the designers had license to do some really crazy and creative things (after all . . . it's magic!).  The only pity is that magical attacks (spells that require attack rolls, etc.) don't come up all that often in most of the games I've played in.

The deck comes with two additional double-sided cards.  The first card is the rules card, which provides three different basic methods for determining how often a critical fumble occurs (my groups use the simple "natural 1" method, because critical fumbles are always fun!) and discusses how to determine saving throws if an effect allows one.  The other card provides some optional rules to increase or decrease the frequency of fumbles, and then introduces a new magical weapon ability ("Sure Grip" which almost eliminates fumbles on a weapon so enchanted) and a new spell ("Fumble", which causes every miss to become a critical fumble threat!).  The designers were smart to explain the different ways the deck could be used so that each group can customize things to their liking.

 As someone who has suffered my share of critical fumbles over the years (as both a player and a GM), the Pathfinder Critical Fumble Deck is something I can recommend highly.