Skill Percentages

In our adventures, the PC's have the ability to advance their skill, magic, and weapon percentages well above the standard 100%. When PC's break this 100% barrier it becomes necessary to develop a system whereby their higher percentages will have meaning. Thus we developed different levels of "Critical Hits" depending on the PC's percentage.

For example, say that a PC has a dodge percentage of 250%. In normal Runequest rules, in order for that PC to deliver a "Critical Hit", they would need to roll 13% or lower (250 x .05) to achieve a critical hit. Of course, if their percentage were lower at 100%, their chance for a critical hit would be 5%. A critical hit percentage is obtained by multiplying the skill percentage by 5% or .05. So, a percentage mulitplied by .05, then becomes what we call a 1st Critical Hit.

Now, we take this further. It is possible to obtain a 2nd Critical Hit or better, depending on the PC's percentage. A 2nd Critical hit is 5% of the 1st Critical percentage. So, a PC having a 250%, would need a 13% for a 1st Critical, and a 1% for a 2nd Critical (13 x .05, rounding up). Now when a PC gets a 2nd Critical Hit, that means that his weapon does double maximum damage, plus his max modifier.

Now, with 250%, this PC has a 13% 1st Critical, a 1% 2nd Critical, and no chance for a 3rd Critical. Why? Because to get a 3rd critical, you take his 2nd Critical percentage of 1% and multiply that by .05 to get the percentage. This number comes out to be 0.03125. Now remember you round up if its 5 or higher, down if its 4 or lower. So the '3' in 0.03125 would need to be a 5 in order to round up to 1%. Thus, the PC has no chance of getting a 3rd Critical until his percentage increases past 250%.

Here's a summary:

1st Critical - Max Damage plus modifier. (5% of original %)
2nd Critical - Double Max Damage plus modifier. (5% of 1st critical %)
3rd Critical - Triple Max Damage plus modifer. (5% of 2nd critical %)
4th Critical - Quadruple Max Damage plus modifier. (5% of 3rd critical %)
5th Critical - Quintuple Max Damage plus modier. (5% of 4th critical %)

And so on ... as high as the percentage will allow you to go.

So, say a PC attacks with a dagger at 75,000%. A dagger does 1D4+2 damage and let's say that the PC has a damage modifier of 6D6. That's quite high. These are his chances:

1st Critical - 3,750% (99% still Fumbles) Damage: 6 + 36
2nd Critical - 188% (99% still Fumbles) Damage: 12 + 36
3rd Critical - 9% (99% still Fumbles) Damage: 18 + 36
4th Critical - 1% (99% still Fumbles) Damage: 24 + 36
5th Critical - No chance.

For further explanation please take a look at the critical hit table.