Spell misfire-backfire-fumble

[SethFahad]

I'm 100% certain I've seen a table in a book with varius fumbles for failed spellcasting (roll d20 or d%, not sure), but I can't remember where!

Any ideas, some help there if you please...someone...anybody...:smalleek:

[SethFahad]

Come on guys! :smallfrown:

[Roc Ness]

I'd help, but I don't know...

EDIT: If you want magic item mishaps its probably in the DMG or something

[HP McLuvin]

You may wish to check out Paizo's Game Mastery critical fumble deck. Each card contains a fumble for melee, ranged, and magic...while you're at it, you may wish to check out the companion critical hits deck.
Both should be available at your friendly neighborhood gaming shop, or you can order them from Paizo directly.
Critical Fumble Deck (http://paizo.com/gameMastery/itemPacks/v5748btpy7zdm)
Critical Hit Deck (http://paizo.com/gameMastery/itemPacks/v5748btpy872f)

[Claudius Maximus]

What system are you talking about? If you narrow it down, perhaps someone could find the table in question. Do you know what company made the book, or for what game?

Edit: You could use the scroll mishap (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/scrolls.htm#scrollMishaps) rules, I guess.

[SethFahad]

What system are you talking about? If you narrow it down, perhaps someone could find the table in question. Do you know what company made the book, or for what game?

Edit: You could use the scroll mishap (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/scrolls.htm#scrollMishaps) rules, I guess.

I believe it was official 3.x book...

[Zaq]

The closest I can think of off the top of my head would be a table of those weird planar traits that screw with magic. There are some in Manual of the Planes and maybe in the Planar Handbook (not 100% certain on that one)... I don't know if that's what you're after, but it's a percentage-based way of screwing with magic.

They might also be in the Planes section of the DMG. I don't remember, and I don't have it open.

[Kyouhen]

Try a Wild Mage style solution. If the spell backfires it goes off as a Rod of Wonder. Congrats, your disintegrate spell just turned the BBEG invisible.

[olentu]

Yeah it might be the wild magic planar trait.

[warrl]

Try a Wild Mage style solution. If the spell backfires it goes off as a Rod of Wonder. Congrats, your disintegrate spell just turned the BBEG invisible.

This brings out what I don't like about the fumble rule: the player KNOWS he fumbled.

I'd prefer if the crit/fumble rule was based on rolling *just* what it took to hit (including a natural 20 for targets, and maybe skill checks, you'd otherwise have no chance to hit). Then the DM rolls a die behind his screen to choose between fumble, normal miss, normal hit, crit.

So you fire a disintegrate spell and the BBEG disappears. Success! Oops, maybe not...

Or consider a knowledge check... if you fumble, you remember stuff that's misleading. But you don't know you fumbled, so you trust it, as you would in real life... or maybe, on a success OR fumble, there's another role for how confident you are that you're remembering correctly, varying from "You think you sorta remember overhearing someone in a bar somewhere saying..." to "You are absolutely certain that this particular highly respected authority on the subject said/wrote...". (The result of the confidence check would be unrelated to the truth-value of the knowledge.)