:: CRITICAL BLOWS/FUMBLE MOVES

:: Critical Blows/Fumble Moves is a variant rule for the D&D 3e Critical Hits system. It was created with the objective of making the game a little more realistic, without having to slow down its play ability. Overall, you will have to make from one to two additional dice rolls to apply its rules.
If you are not of a mature age or don't like to emphasize the violence in the game, we suggest you to not use these variant rules.

:: To make use of these variant rules, you must start from the official rules, which says that "When you make an attack roll and get a natural 20 (the d20 shows 20), you hit regardless of your target's AC, and you have scored a threat. The hit might be a critical hit (or "crit"). To find out if it's a critical hit, you immediately make a critical roll-another attack roll with the same modifiers as the attack roll you just made. If the critical roll also results in a hit against the target's AC, your original hit is a critical hit." STOP
Well, our variant rules is the exact same system till this point. But from now on, things are a bit different: If you succeed on your critical roll (hit the target's AC a second time), you must then consult the following table, and see what was the severity of your critical blow:

Critical Roll	Critical Severity
1	None (always a miss)
2-3	Massive - As Destroyed, though the damage multiplier bumps one point (x2 to x3 / x3 to x4; etc.) and the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) to avoid immediate death
5-7	Destroyed - Effects lasts until full HP recovery and 1d6 days of rest
8-12	Useless - Effects lasts until fighting is over, plus +2d6 minutes or immediately magical healing
13-19	Numbed - Effects lasts 1 round
20	Massive - As Destroyed, though the damage multiplier bumps one point (x2 to x3 / x3 to x4; etc.) and the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) to avoid immediate death

Why have the better critical severities given to the low scores? Because if you can hit your target's AC with that low score, its because you are most strong and/or experienced than him. (got it?)

:: The Critical Severity will inform you how long the critical effects will affect the target. Now you just have to roll 1d6 to determine what opponent`s specific body part was hit by your critical blow, and apply the Critical Effects (additional effects to the damage of the blow):

d6 Roll	Part of Body Hit
1	Left Arm
2	Right Arm
3	Left Leg
4	Right Leg
5	Midsection (Chest & Stomach)
6	Head

Part of Body Hit	Additional Critical Effects
Arms	Opponent drops the weapon. Opponent will not drop a shield strapped to the arm, but not does not get the AC benefit of shield until the effect ends.
Legs	Opponent must make a Balance skill check (DC Total Points of Damage Inflicted): If he succeeds, he remains standing (on one foot) ; Otherwise, he flops to the ground and any further attempt to strike him will get a +4 bonus. His movement drops to 1/4 of normal. Every time he is hit for more than 2 points of damage, he has to make another Balance check until the effect ends.
Midsection	Opponent has the wind knocked of him and has a hard time defending himself. His movement drops to 1/2 of normal, and his attackers have +2 to hit until the effect ends (This bonus is cumulative with any other attacker bonuses for blindness or bad position).
Head (Roll 1d4)	1 Blindness - Opponent is blinded until the effect ends. Attackers get +2 to hit, loses any positive Dex bonus to AC, has 50% chance to miss in combat, and moves at half speed. 2 Deafness - Opponent hears ringing in his ears until the effect ends. He cannot hear orders or warnings shouted at him, suffers a -4 penalty to initiative checks, and has a 20% chance of spell failure when casting spells with verbal components. 3 Dizziness - Opponent is confused and dizzy. He looses 4 points of Dexterity (-2 ability modifier) until the effect ends. Anytime he is hit in combat for more than 2 points of damage, he must make a Balance skill check to avoid falling down (as the Legs critical effects). 4 KnockOut - Opponent is knocked out by the force of the blow, and will remain stuned (cannot attack, loses any positive Dex bonus to AC, and attackers get +2 to hit) until the effect ends.

Note 1: Some helmets may avoid the head Critical Effects, totally ignoring its additional effects (though not ignoring the normal damage). Because of it, we made that helmet table bellow:

Helmets	Cost	Weight	Head Critical Effects Avoided
Great Helm	35 gp	10 lb.	All
Basinet, Steel Cap	10gp	5 lb.	Deafness, Dizziness
Leather Cap	2 gp	2 lb.	Deafness

Note 2: Berserkers or Enraged opponents are totally immune to any critical effect until their rage ends.
Note 3: Some monsters are obviouslly immune to some effects due to critical blows... Examples are all the undeads, who does not have any organs or nerves, and are totally immune to any critical effect; Or the beholders, who just have too many eyes to suffer blindness with just one blow :o)
You must also consider the size differences between the attacker and the opponent. A dwarf striking a hill giant with his axe can only do a critical blow to the giant`s legs, and so on...

:: Fumble Moves (1 on d20 attack rolls): Fumble moves are much easier to determine than the critical blows, though its much less glorious too... You just have to roll 1d20 again (fumble roll) and consult the table bellow:

Fumble Roll	Fumble Effects
20-15	Loose Grip - No further activity this round (if you had another attacks you will just loose then)
14-11	Slip and Fall - You have fallen ridiculously to the ground, and your opponents will get +4 to hit you this round (No further activity).
10-7	Weapon Flies Away - Incredible inept move make your weapon flies 2d6 feet away to some specific direction (Roll 1d6: 1 Straight Ahead/2 Ahead, Right/3 Behind, Right/4 Straight Behind/5 Behind, Left/6 Ahead, Left).
6-5	Break Weapon - You missed your target badly and stuck your weapon into some hard thing. Roll your normal attack damage, applying it to the weapon itself (consider weapon's Hardness and HP to check if it will break. Page 136 of 3ePH).
4-3	Self Hit - Unbelievable misshandling of your weapon make you hit yourself, roll weapon damage with no strength or specialization bonuses.
2-1	Stumble Over Weapon - Worst move seen in ages. You stumbled and felt hard to the ground, hitting yourself with your own weapon. Roll normal weapon damage. Opponents have +4 to hit you this round.