Can anyone explain to me the difference (if any) between a Critical Miss and a normal miss? I have never noticed any tangible difference.

I don't really think there is a difference in IWD2. You get it whenever you roll a 1 and it means that whatever you're doing fails. So even your level 567 fighter with 1,000 attack bonus misses a goblin with an AC of 10 when he rolls a 1, even though he could theoretically roll a -1000 and still hit...

I think that in official AD&D rules it has a more significant meaning. I don't know, because all the D&D I know comes from computer games. I think that in Neverwinter Nights critical misses mean some other non-beneficial thing happening to you. If I remember correctly it makes you easier to hit or something.

If I remember correctly, when you do a critical miss your attempt to hit something is so bad that you for example can loose the grip of your weapon and throw it away, hit something else or do other clumsy stuff. At least that's what would have happened in pen and paper D&D...

It also happened in Fallout.

Well, they could make a collection of random effects like dropping your weapon (on the ground or to your inventory), inflicting damage on self, missing the remaining attacks in the round, missing the round etc.

However, there are no such effects in IWD2 to my knowledge and trust me, I've rolled 1 all too often.

Ah, these answers seem to make sense. In IWD2 a critical miss simply means that you will miss no matter how powerful you are.

Critical miss = loose your next attack, right?

Read.

I dont know about 2dn edition (IWD2), but in 3.5 a critical hit effectively equals a +20 on your attack roll and a critical hit a -20.

IWD2 is 3rd edition, bit different there.

IWD1 is 2nd edition. Natural roll of 1 always misses, in PnP fumbles are added. It's all already said.