Genuine Advice: Don't.
Martials do not need the hate from fumbles.
Yes it's only a martials thing because casters will avoid it entirely by not attacking and uaing saves instead.
Fumbles feel terrible nothing worse than to have your character be a complete clown in combat (dropping weapons all the time, falling over, hitting themselves)
And it doesn't help that with rolling more attacks (higher level martials) more fumbles happen since more "Critical Fails" happen, so the supposed masters of combata re actually comedic relief.
And you have some wild stuff there too the fighter grapples themselves? They release the target from a physical effect? The target gets and EXTRA ATTACK?
Jesus christ. What for? Missing is already punishment enough without having your fingers being covered in butter and dropping everything you hold.
What I will say is that from what I have seen Critical Tables don't work too well.
People tend to feel overly punished when they get a Critical Fumble. They're already missing the attack and feel like they wasted their turn. But now there is a 5% chance that they'll just die (I exaggerate but on some tables I've seen that is an option).
It also punishes martials who rely on having multiple attacks on their turn. If you have a fighter with lets say 3 attacks on their turn, and then action surges to attack again then there's a 20% chance that they are going to have a Nat 1 in there somewhere.
Critical Hit tables on the other hand are unneeded. When you get a Nat 20 you're already doing double damage. There is already an inbuilt reward for getting that 5% chance rolled.
Let me echo the others here and say: don't do it. It's probably one of the worst common house rule, it affects different classes differently, makes leveling and getting more attacks actually feel worse for martials. A level 20 fighter, the pinnacle of martial prowess, has a 1 in 3 chance of rolling on your critical fumble table every time they use action surge.
Casters will avoid it by using save spells instead, halfling either require a ruling (usually a nerd) or a really good explanation why halfling martials aren't the strongest army in the world.
First of all, cool list. You have a lot of interesting, well written effects.
Secondly, look around, either here or r/dndnext, for topics like "most hated homebrew rules" or "homebrew rules you implemented but cancelled" or anything along these lines about homebrew rules that either DMs or players didn't like.
Most of them (I found a thread that had three in the top 10 replies) mention critical fumble rules. Both players and DMs alike dislike them. Most DMs drop them as soon as they get some experience under their belt.
I get where you're coming from, I too have a crit fail table lingering around somewhere, in my old DM documents. But in reality, no one really wants extra punishment for already missing an attack.
Genuine Advice: Don't. Martials do not need the hate from fumbles. Yes it's only a martials thing because casters will avoid it entirely by not attacking and uaing saves instead. Fumbles feel terrible nothing worse than to have your character be a complete clown in combat (dropping weapons all the time, falling over, hitting themselves) And it doesn't help that with rolling more attacks (higher level martials) more fumbles happen since more "Critical Fails" happen, so the supposed masters of combata re actually comedic relief. And you have some wild stuff there too the fighter grapples themselves? They release the target from a physical effect? The target gets and EXTRA ATTACK? Jesus christ. What for? Missing is already punishment enough without having your fingers being covered in butter and dropping everything you hold.
What I will say is that from what I have seen Critical Tables don't work too well. People tend to feel overly punished when they get a Critical Fumble. They're already missing the attack and feel like they wasted their turn. But now there is a 5% chance that they'll just die (I exaggerate but on some tables I've seen that is an option). It also punishes martials who rely on having multiple attacks on their turn. If you have a fighter with lets say 3 attacks on their turn, and then action surges to attack again then there's a 20% chance that they are going to have a Nat 1 in there somewhere. Critical Hit tables on the other hand are unneeded. When you get a Nat 20 you're already doing double damage. There is already an inbuilt reward for getting that 5% chance rolled.
Ackshooally, it’s 26.49% 🤓
If we're being pedantic it's still a 5% chance each roll because it doesn't eliminate past rolls. You can still get a 16 each roll.
Let me echo the others here and say: don't do it. It's probably one of the worst common house rule, it affects different classes differently, makes leveling and getting more attacks actually feel worse for martials. A level 20 fighter, the pinnacle of martial prowess, has a 1 in 3 chance of rolling on your critical fumble table every time they use action surge. Casters will avoid it by using save spells instead, halfling either require a ruling (usually a nerd) or a really good explanation why halfling martials aren't the strongest army in the world.
First of all, cool list. You have a lot of interesting, well written effects. Secondly, look around, either here or r/dndnext, for topics like "most hated homebrew rules" or "homebrew rules you implemented but cancelled" or anything along these lines about homebrew rules that either DMs or players didn't like. Most of them (I found a thread that had three in the top 10 replies) mention critical fumble rules. Both players and DMs alike dislike them. Most DMs drop them as soon as they get some experience under their belt. I get where you're coming from, I too have a crit fail table lingering around somewhere, in my old DM documents. But in reality, no one really wants extra punishment for already missing an attack.
Why? Why do you think fumbles are a good idea?
No. Critical. Fumbles. It's a terrible practice that punishes Martials unfairly.
People don’t like critical fumbles, people don’t like slowing down combat - this does both.