Variant Rule: Automatic Miss Confirmation
It's always bugged me that all characters have at least a 5% chance to miss on any given attack roll. Worse, the more skilled a character is, the more attacks he has per round; the more attacks he has per round, the greater the chance he'll mess at least one of them up.
The DMG proposes a variant rule that gives an attacker a bonus of +10 on a natural 20, and a penalty of -10 on a natural 1. This bugs me, too, having such a steady distribution between 2 and 19, and then blowing up on a 1 or 20.
Actually, I'm cool with the automatic hit on a 20, but wouldn't mind a better solution to the automatic miss problem than the DMG's variant rule. This got me thinking, and I've come up with what may be the foundation for a decent rule. I'm sure it will need some tweaking, but here's my initial thought:
I think the penalty to the second attack roll may need to be tweaked, and, further, may need to be variable rather than fixed. Any thoughts?
The DMG proposes a variant rule that gives an attacker a bonus of +10 on a natural 20, and a penalty of -10 on a natural 1. This bugs me, too, having such a steady distribution between 2 and 19, and then blowing up on a 1 or 20.
Actually, I'm cool with the automatic hit on a 20, but wouldn't mind a better solution to the automatic miss problem than the DMG's variant rule. This got me thinking, and I've come up with what may be the foundation for a decent rule. I'm sure it will need some tweaking, but here's my initial thought:
VARIANT: AUTOMATIC MISSES
When you make an attack roll and get a natural 1, immediately make another attack roll with the same modifier, but also apply a -10 penalty. On this second attack roll, treat a natural 1 as an automatic failure. If the second attack roll is successful, treat your original roll as a 1, and apply any attack roll modifiers. If the second roll is a failure, you have missed your opponent.
Example: Bob's character, Tordek, has an attack bonus of +16. He tries to attack an orc with an armor class of 13. Bob rolls his d20, and gets a natural 1, so he makes a second roll. On this second roll, Bob gets a 9, which is a success (9+16-10=15 vs. AC 13), so his original attack roll stands as a 1. Applying his modifiers, his final attack roll result is 17 (1+16=17 vs. AC 13), so Tordek hits the orc.
If Bob had rolled, say, a 6 on his second attack roll, the result would have been a failure (6+16-10=12 vs. AC 13), and Tordek would have missed the orc.
I think the penalty to the second attack roll may need to be tweaked, and, further, may need to be variable rather than fixed. Any thoughts?

2 Comments:
Do you have the appropriate deity handy for anyone who loses everything on their computer from accessing your Blogosphere of Annihilation?
I agree about the automatic miss, but I don't know if adding another die roll is the answer.
Since frontline warriors are the ones who are hurt the most by automatic miss, why not let them ignore the rule completely? Let's say any class with the "good" BAB completely ignores automic misses on attacks.
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