Strongly disagree with claim that Crittical Failure in ability checks adds "nothing but grief" ...
- For one, it justifies the very existence of ability check ...
If you cant fail, there is no reason to roll ... nor is situation anyhow tense, and speaking for myself, im not even happy from guaranteed sucesses ... if anything all that rolling animation anoys me.
- For two, there are roleplay reasons ...
Sometimes i simply want to fail, if nothing else, then to just know what will happen ... yes, im aware that i can easily create social illiterate that will fail most rolls, bcs his Charisma will be 8 (or 3 if we get rolled stats) ... but for such argument i ask you to focus on the first word in this sentence: "sometimes". :P
- And for three, (
and this one will be possible little controversial) I dont give a shit.
Yes, i know its not really an argument pro or against, but lets be reasonable for a second ... how often do we critticaly fail? I dont know about you, but i usualy see around 3-5 crittical fails during single EA playtrough ...
That is simply something that in my honest opinion cant really create enough negative responces to be worth atention.
Just my opinion.
When's the last time you failed to tie your shoes?
3 Days ago ...
My shoelaces were wet and frozen from the snow, also those boots wasnt exactly "new" if you know what i mean, so when i pulled them to tie my shoes tight (i dont really like snow in my boots) ... they ripped off.
Ergo i failed.
Also, (still purely subjectively) I find it hurts believability when my charismatic paladin fails to persuade someone with a sound argument that can only fail on a 1. What's the story justification for it not working? Did the paladin accidentaly flip the bird?
You are adding values ...
Quality of argument have none in PC game, since computer is not a DM that adjust your difficiulty if you create something really reasonable ... so ... sory, but it dont really matter how "good" your argument is. :-/
Also you are working with presumation that other side is even willing to accept your argument, or as the matter of fact, even listen to whatever you say ...
There is old joke we say in Czech:
If your wife is mad at you, pat her head and say: "Calm down, you are histerical." She will realize that you are corect and calm imediately.(
Juuust for the record i strongly advice AGAINST trying it. )
See? Its not that hard to fail with completely factual and sound argument, nor is it so hard to make things even worse ... much, much worse.
//Edit:
And remember ... if you remove possibility to fail, just bcs you have enough charisma and ability bonuses for persuation, you can easily end up with other bad extreme:
