What happens when you roll a 1 for an attack roll in Dungeons & Dragons? Well according to the official 5th Edition rules, not too much.
“If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC.” (p.194 of the Player’s Handbook).
So you automatically miss, no matter what your attack roll modifier is and no matter how easy a target your opponent is, but nothing bad happens to mirror the powerful effects of scoring a critical hit when you roll a 20 (when you do double damage to your foe, and – at the DM’s discretion – also roll on the Lingering Injuries table – p.272 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide).
That’s a bit boring frankly speaking! As far as I’m concerned a “critical fumble” blasts open the door of opportunity for something funny, unexpected or challenging to happen to both PCs and NPCs/Monsters, and every DM worth his salt will want to seize this opportunity to spice up a combat. Making up details on the fly can be challenging (a DM has plenty to think about as it is!) and can even make PCs feel victimised if they bear the brunt of an ad hoc ruling – leading to tedious arguments and/or an unhappy player. But, by having a clear table that applies to 1s rolled on attacks by both players and monsters, not only can you depend on some interesting outcomes for your D&D combats… but hey you can blame it all on the dice!

Dammit, not again…
So without further ado, here is Hipsters & Dragons very own homebrew critical fumbles chart for melee weapons (with separate charts for both thrown and fired range weapons underneath). Just buy me a beer sometime!
UPDATE. I’ve polished up these tables, added charts for natural weapons and spell attacks and published on the DMs Guild in a lovely printable PDF. If you’d like to donate a dollar to the cause, even better!
Critical Fumbles Table (Melee Weapons)
Roll a d20…
1-2. Weapon Break. The force of your blow, or parrying that of your opponent’s, causes your weapon to snap in two. (For magical weapons roll an additional d10, on a 1 they break).
3-4. Goodbye Fair Blade! Roll an Strength / Athletics check DC 15, or your weapon flies d12 feet out of your hand in a random direction. If you have any movement and a bonus action left you can go and pick it up. In doing so you provoke an opportunity attack from anyone in the area, starting with your most immediate opponent. (Otherwise you could simply draw a second weapon, if you have one, using a bonus action).
5-6. Wild Swing. You overextend yourself going for the kill. Your opponent gains advantage on their next attack roll.
7. Stuck Weapon. Your weapon gets stuck in your opponent’s shield, armour, hide, or else in a tree or wall, or the ground. Roll a Strength check to see if you can free it using a bonus action. The DC is 8 + your strength modifier.
8. Ooops! You hit an unintended foe in combat. Randomise all combatants within 5 feet and roll a second attack roll, if you beat their armour class roll damage as if they were your intended target. (Discount sneak attack damage for Rogues).
9. Self Inflicted wound. You manage to slice yourself with your own blade, roll normal damage and half it. (Applies to combatants using slashing weapons and flails only. Other weapon types roll again. Discount sneak attack damage for Rogues).
10-14. Slip Up. You lose your footing. Roll Dexterity / Acrobatics check (DC 15) or fall prone. Your turn has ended and melee attacks have advantage on you (see p.292 of PH for conditions of being prone).
15. Pulled Muscle (Arms). Roll a Constitution Saving Throw DC 15 or the strain of your attack causes you to pull a muscle in your upper body. You have disadvantage in attack rolls and ability checks requiring upper body strength until you have completed three long rests, or received magical healing.
16. Pulled Muscle (Legs). Roll a Constitution Saving Throw DC 15 or the strain of combat causes you to pull a muscle in your leg. Your movement is halved, and you lose your Dex modifier to AC and initiative, and you have disadvantage on any ability checks that require lower body strength, until you have completed three long rests, or received magical healing.
17-18. Loss of Nerve. Man your opponent looks tough. Make a Wisdom Saving Throw with a base DC of 10 modified by +2 for every hit dice higher than you your opponent has (or -2 for every hit dice less). On a fail you are frightened (see p.292 of Player’s Handbook). After one turn you can attempt the saving throw again.
19. Broken Item. In the hurly burly of combat, something fragile – like a magic potion – you’re carrying breaks. Randomise fragile objects you have in your possession and roll to determine which. (Note, better to do this when the combat is over).
20. A Little Accident. Either through fear, excitement or simply needing to go, you soil yourself. 75% chance it’s only pee.
Critical Misses Table (Shooting Range Weapons)
Roll a d20…
1-2. Weapon Break. Your bow shaft or a mechanism in your crossbow breaks and is now useless. (For magical weapons roll an additional d10, on a 1 they break).
3-5. String Break. Your bowstring snaps. Assuming you have a spare string, it requires 1 minute to replace it.
6-8. Loose String. Your string comes loose. You lose this attack. Starting next turn you can make a sleight of hand check DC 15 to fix it. Each attempt takes one turn.
9-16. Ooops! You hit an unintended random target. Randomise all combatants within 10 feet (for a short range attack, or 30 feet for a long range attack) and roll a second attack roll, if you beat their armour class roll damage as if they were your intended target (discount sneak attack damage for Rogues).
17-18. Ammo Accident. Your quiver spills (50% strap broken, 50% you tilt it over by accident), and the remainder of your arrows / bolts fall to the floor. If you remain still you can use a bonus action to pick up one a round and still fire using your action. Otherwise you can use an action to pick up 2d8 and put them back in your quiver.
19. Pulled Muscle (Upper Body). Roll a Constitution Saving Throw DC 15 or the strain of your attack causes you to pull a muscle in your upper body. You have disadvantage in attack rolls and ability checks requiring upper body strength until you have completed three long rests, or received magical healing.
20. Slip Up. You lose your footing. Roll Dexterity / Acrobatics (DC 15) or fall prone. Your turn has ended and melee attacks have advantage on you (see p.292 of PH for conditions of being prone).
Critical Misses Table (Thrown Range Weapons)
Roll a d10.
1. Weapon Break. The impact of your weapon hitting a tree, the ground, a shield etc. causes it to break. It is now useless. (For magical weapons roll an additional d10, on a 1 they break).
2. Pulled Muscle (Arms). Roll a Constitution Saving Throw DC 15 or the strain of your attack causes you to pull a muscle in your upper body. You have disadvantage in attack rolls and ability checks requiring upper body strength until you have completed three long rests, or received magical healing.
3-4. Slip Up. You lose your footing. Roll Dexterity / Acrobatics (DC 15) or fall prone. Your turn has ended and melee attacks have advantage on you (see p.292 of PH for conditions of being prone).
5-9. Ooops! You hit an unintended random target. Randomise all combatants within 10 feet (for a short range attack, or 30 feet for a long range attack) and roll a second attack roll, if you beat their armour class roll damage as if they were your intended target (discount sneak attack damage for Rogues).
10. WTF? You launch a comically bad projectile attack nowhere near your intended opponent – it flies into a huge empty space (or at DM’s discretion a distant unintended target) taking your self confidence with it. Roll wisdom saving throw DC 15, or suffer disadvantage to attack rolls until you next score a hit on an opponent.
Critical Fumbles for High Level Characters. Once your PCs have two or three attacks a round, they might start rolling an incongruous number of fumbles, especially for heroes of their ability. Whilst being a higher level should also make passing some saving throws / skills checks easier, as well as reduce the chance of weapon breaks (as most high level characters fight with magical weapons), if you feel it’s necessary you could bring in a new rule. Starting at Level 5 you could give them a fumble saving throw where if they roll their level or below on a d20 they suffer no adverse effects. That way extremely high level characters will rarely fumble. Or you could rule that only if they roll a 1 on their first attack of their round do they have to consult this table. Rolling a 1 on any other attack and it’s just an automatic miss.
Like this? I’ve got a few other homebrew rules that you might like as well. If you have a chance to play test any of them do let me know in the comments. Would love to hear from you…
Update, what happens when a monster with natural weapons, such as bite, claw or tail attack, rolls a 1? Here we go….
Critical Misses Table (Natural Weapons)
Roll a d10.
1-2. Ouch! The attacker snaps one or several teeth / claws on its target’s weapon or armour, or nearby surface. They receive 1d3 hp of damage, and furthermore they must subtract the result of the same d3 roll from damage done from this attack from now on. (Ignore for tail attacks).
3-5. Wild Swing. The attacker overextends itself going for the kill. Their intended target gains advantage on their next attack roll.
6-7. Slip Up. The attacker loses its footing. Roll Dexterity / Acrobatics check (DC 15) or fall prone. Their turn has ended and melee attacks have advantage on you (see p.292 of PH for conditions of being prone). Creatures with more than two legs are immune to this effect.
8-10. Loss of Nerve. The attacker is scared. They must make a Wisdom Saving Throw with a base DC of 10 modified by +2 for every hit dice higher the target of the attack has vs. the attacker (or -2 for every hit dice less). On a fail they are frightened (see p.292 of Player’s Handbook). After one turn they can attempt the saving throw again. Creatures that inspire fear are immune to this effect (unless their target also inspires fear).

Now available on the DMs Guild…
>>> Download these tables in a handy and printable PDF form <<<
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Michelle
This is a pretty good table to use and a lot more efficient than looking at one of those percentage tables, and I like that you have it organized by type of weapon. I will most definitely be using this for my future games. However your comment about the latest edition of D&D having a crit fail just being an automatic miss and nothing else irked me a bit. If a DM is a good DM and has looked at tips on how to make the game more fun or challenging or what have you, they would know that a crit fail could be more than just an automatic miss. I think they left it bland intentionally so it leaves it open for more creativity among DMs. D&D leaves a lot of things open for more creativity and whatnot. If a DM wants to streamline game play they could just have it be a miss, or if they’re a more dramatic DM they can roll on the tables above or do something completely different.
duncan
Hmmm, I’m not so sure Michelle. I think they left it bland because it’s a bit of a minefield. A lot of players don’t like critical misses because once you get 3 or 4 attacks around they start to happen all the time, so they feel penalised by having so many attacks, and constantly fumbling, instead of feeling powerful. Also it’s almost impossible to write a one critical misses table that makes sense in every context… which is why I ended up with several tables. In general 5e is all about elegant solutions… and where they can’t find one, they just pass on it. So in a sense I’m agreeing with you, as yes they left it to the DM, but not so much to inspire creativity I believe, but because there isn’t an elegant solution to mirror the critical hit.
Kraegan
Michelle is correct. D&D 5e is written to return the control of the game to the DM. That’s what “house rules” are for. If a player doesn’t like something, they can simply find a new house. Last I checked, the populations of players looking to play far outnumbered DMs.
BigB
Hello, Love the tables. However, one criticism: it does not take 15 minutes to string a bow. An experienced bowman can string a bow in seconds (see youtube, how to string an English Longbow). I would have it cost an action in the following round.
duncan
Hi BigB.
Thanks for the comment. Yeah I saw some of those videos, but they seem to focus on how to string a bow having already fastened one end of the string. However if your bow string breaks, as in this situation, you would have to remove the broken one, get a replacement string out of your backpack, even assuming you had one which had been measured out properly, then fasten it on two ends.
I was trying gauge how long that might take using such videos, and maybe I overcooked it a bit, but doesn’t seem like something you could do in combat. Imagine being attacked while you were doing this:
Having looked into this some more, I think 1 minute to restring a bow, assuming you have a spare bow string handy, would be reasonable.
Will update the post!
Cheers!
Fighter
Let’s say a fighter has 2 attacks per round. A typical D&D has maybe 1 or 2 combats per session with each lasting 3-4 rounds.
This means, that just in combat, your fighter has (2*(((1+2)/2)+((3+4)/2))) or 10 rolls per gaming session, that’s a 50% of getting some really nasty things happen. So every other session this guy is being punished, not just for rolling a 1 and failing, but also for ROLLING A 1.
7 rolls on your effects persist after combat and some through 3 long rests.
This means that you have a 17.5% of having something happen to you character where is persistently modifies how your character will play (e.g. minus his big weapon, key item, or lower ability checks).
All in all, you have a 52.5% chance of always having some sort of detrimental condition on your character at all times. Brutal, doesn’t sound like fun to me.
duncan
One fumble every other session is hardly the end of the world (although others would argue that there are more combats per session than 1.5). Meanwhile your maths is wildly misrepresentative at the end of your statement.
There are 5 dice rolls out of 20 that can leave you with an effect that lasts outside of combat, arguably 6 if you include the self inflicted wound, which will cure on a short rest. The two worst effects don’t take place if you pass a DC 15 con saving throw, which is at worst a 50/50 chance for a fighter. And then they also heal up from any magical healing… the three long rests being just a nod to realism that will hardly ever come into play.
Having a 15-50 gp weapon break in a game where people amass fortunes is hardly a disaster and will be quickly replaced.
Using my table a front line fighter needs a second weapon basically, and that’s it – no need for the drama. Medieval weapons broke all the time btw, so again this is a nod to realism.
If your table prefers a style of D&D where the unspoken understanding is that PCs are essentially unkillable, and they moan at the first tiny sign of adversity, it’s true that critical fumbles are not for you…
eric
hear hear
Krink
I love how you are punishing martial classes like the fighter or the monk even more, when they are already by far weaker than the spellcaster classes at medium to high level. You are just encouraging spellcasters to use even less attack roll based spells, while a high level fighter generally will suffer several negative effects from his attacks every session.
Marcotic
Agreed.
duncan
Guess you missed the bit of the post where I specifically talk about the issue of fumbles and additional attacks.
I don’t really agree that martial classes are much weaker than spellcasters, when optimised correctly. There are not many feats that help spellcasters but plenty that make martial classes ridiculously strong.
MEV
I love this actually. If I were in a game with people that moaned about anything negative happening to their character, I would probably play with someone else. I modified slightly for my low level players but, this is a cool fumble chart to refer to if you want to be immersive and not just essentially skip turns. Thanks!
Francis Tapon
Fabulous idea! I agree that 5e tries to keep things simple, but your solution is too complicated because it has multiple tables and rolls within rolls.
For those seeking a middle ground, here’s my proposal:
– Have ONE table that everyone uses, including monsters.
– Use a d12 (to give this rarely-used dice something to do).
Roll D12
1 Shit in your pants
2 Piss in your pants
3-4 Fling weapon 10 ft away / Spell misses by 10 ft / Snaps a tooth/claw & cause 1d4 less damage until healed/Long Rest
5 Self-harm: Strike yourself / Spell backfires
6-7 Accidentally strike someone else
8-10 Fall: Opponent gains advantage on next attack
11 Pull a muscle: requiring a Short Rest or Magical Healing; otherwise, move is halved and lose Dex bonus
12 Frightened (p 292 PH)
– The DM should modify this table when dealing with powerful characters.
– I eliminated breaking weapons because that could be too devasting.
– Requiring 3 Long Rests to recover from a pulled muscle is extreme. Keep it simple by just requiring a Short Rest. Not all pulled muscles are severe.
– Use your creativity: flinging a crossbow 10 feet away could happen if the character has a loose grip and trips over his footing
– Removing Saving Throws is risky, but it speeds up the game and is fine as long as the consequence is not dire.
DMs will modify this table to suit their goals, but I hope it causes laughs while not bogging the game with too many rolls/tables.
Thanks for the idea!
Mark
Thanks to this idea of “critical fumbles,” I’m now playing with a DM who uses them on skill checks despite the fact that critical failures and critical misses are for combat only per the DMG. The result is that, as much as I like the DM personally, I’m strongly considering leaving his games. Lots of people think they’re game designers who aren’t.