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BECMI Fumble Tables

by Anarion_Elendili

So I like the idea that sometimes things go sideways, despite the best of intentions.

I found Havard's 5e thread about this, as well as links therein, and I am thinking something similar-ish: Weapon dropped, potential hit on an ally or self, maybe even weapon broken (I would not do this with a magical weapon for sure), slipping / overcommiting / falling. I have not yet a ready-made list, but something like that.

A good point in the above thread was that the more attacks you have, the likelier you are to fumble, if it is a flat chance per attack. A solution offered was that you could fumble only on your first strike, which is rather clean and simple. The downside is that it still makes the 36th level grandmaster fumble 5% of the time.

So I was thinking doing a confirmation roll: roll an attack vs. AC 0, and if you hit, it was just a miss, move on. I.e. roll a 'saving throw' vs. your THAC0. Only if you miss that confirmation roll, do you go to the Fumble Table. I might make an exception if you are shooting into the melee: any roll of 1 means roll an attack roll vs. the ally, since that frankly makes sense.

Very rough idea of a Fumble Table:

1d20 Fumble result
01-04 Potentially hit a nearby (or close to the line of fire, if a missile weapon) ally or yourself. Roll to hit normally but with +4 to hit and they do not get the shield nor Dexterity bonus, as they are not expecting the attack.
05-08 Throw the weapon away from you. Cheap-quality weapons break. Bows and crossbows break the string, needing 3 round to fix.
09-12 Drop the weapon, but it is within reach. With bows and crossbows, you spill your quiver instead (roll 1d6: you have either that many arrows left, or your previous amount minus the roll, whichever is less).
13-16 Slip and fall onto the ground. You need one round to get up (you can use your movement for this), but you have -2 to hit while enemies have +2 to hit you.
17-20 You are overextended. Enemies have +2 to hit you until the start of your next turn.