D&D (2024) Just make critical do double damage. Period.

[Lazvon]

Except my wife, the rest of my players are young kids. They know, take the dice sides, divide by 2 and add .5 is the average roll.

So for the player, they roll their damage dice, and decide if they want to roll a second set (add another XdN) or just double what they rolled. They do the math and if over the average they just double it and if half or less, they roll a second set.

This works for players a couple years younger and older than 10. The youngest take a little while sometime, but faster all the time.

Example for 2d6: if 7 or less, roll another 2d6; if 8 or higher a double it.

Monsters I basically decide on the fly based how the party is doing. If party is struggling I will probably double the low rolls, and if exceptional (greater than 67% of average), will roll additional instead of doubling.

Can’t remember if official rule or not, but for 1/2 damage from saves - do same kind of stuff: round down for party, round up for monsters… and might fudge and round down if they are eating my monsters for that encounter.

 

[Hussar]

I have to admit, I prefer the max damage on a crit option. It just works. Simple and straightforward.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Critical hits should always be an event, and few things suck worse than getting a critical and then rolling one extra point of damage. Plus, the current rule is needlessly complicated. Just double all the damage from the attack, including bonuses. The math on it is complicated because there are a ton of variables, but in general we are only talking about a 2-3% DPR increase to classes that make a lot of attack rolls, so there actually won't be a huge impact on overall balance, and I think the fun factor plus design elegance make the change worth it.

Thoughts?

critical should be an event in my opinion. I am also thinking it should only be on a 20, and if they need different weapons to have critical distinctions, put that on the damage and effect end not on the critical range. Something special about a 20 result (and it is a flat 5 percent of the time)

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Honestly, one of the crunchy bits I miss the most from 3.x was the critical hit system. I want special weapons that crit for triple damage. I want enchantments that threaten a crit on a 19. I want damage that is actually deadly and swings out of control sometimes.

The oversimplified crit system is one of the reasons 5e combat is too safe. I say, bring back the drama.

exactly.

This + the new masteries would really make weapon choice matter. Or it could be similar to the weapon properties of 4e.

or if its too complicated, just give those for Warriors.

 

[mellored]

I would prefer doing something that's not damage.

Like a critical hit from a dragon would swallow someone.
Wolves would knock you prone and adjacent ally wolf can attack.
Orcs could get temporary hit points.
Ect...

 

[Lazvon]

I do plan to switch them to Rolemaster when they get older. Then actual descriptions depending on type and severity of critical hits… and a magic system that makes sense… and actual will power contests with sentient items… an “initiative” system that different actions have different costs and are adjust for people who are quicker or slower and not just for who attacks first in the very first round and after is just a rotation no matter how “fast” they are… and of course no real stat to show they can shimmy shake really well (Dex) versus Quickness to show how fast… and… and… and…

But they do give up all the cool dice shapes for just %tile.

 

[Krachek]

I prefer +5, +10, +15, … as you level up.
+5 damage is quite enough at level 1.
+10 damage is an honest boost at level 5.
Max it at +20 or so.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I am getting used to the way my current DM is running crits. I am a forever DM who is finally getting to play for a while, so I am finally getting some good player-side personal perspective for this alternative style.

Rather than roll all damage dice twice, we just Max all damage dice once, then roll those all those dice once. We apply the modifiers once.

1. No matter what, a crit is impactful and feels nice because we never roll double low numbers. It has higher than average results compared to doubling dice so the larger hit has a better shot at dropping an enemy. This makes crits more exciting and more often be the reason why someone won a fight. Enhances the Nat 20 excitement.
2. We roll the same number of dice whether we crit or not, so we don't need more dice. It removes the slowing aspect of play where we are picking through our dice hoards to find the right number of extra dice. Or if we have only one set, having to reroll a bunch of the same dice over and over. This also makes "special ability" re-rolls easier to track as we're not confused as to what is causing a particular re-roll.
3. I like it better than just doing max damage, because I like rolling at least some math rocks.
4. It's fast and keeps the fight moving at a good pace.

 

[jasper]

This so much. I hate "Crits on 20" as a DM, and despite my warning about not being in their favor, my players absolutely LOVE them, so they stay.
Max damage is a good compromise to make sure things don't swing out of control.

Strong party during Bad Business at Parnast. DDAL05-12 Ogre. 20 pts. Instant kill on the first level Sorcerer and first level rogue. Deaths saves on 1st level barbarian. Deaths saves on the level 2 pcs. If you double max damage instant kill for any of the mixed party of 2 1st and 3 2nd levels.
Boss battle for this module is 3 orcs, 3 goblins, an ogre and Boss Ac 16 HP 55 eye of grummish. So max damage would not be a good idea always. As it was I dropped the boss.

 

[Clint_L]

So I threw out a casual suggestion that was not exactly original, and in exchange got a lot of great ideas and points. I feel like I got a lot more than I paid for! @James Gasik in particular offers a lot to chew on. I still think my (again, wholly unoriginal) suggestion is better than status quo, but nearly so good as many of the other ideas that are being floated.

In terms of reward schedules, I do think that critical successes should feel impactful. I also think that critical failures should be hard-coded into the game. You folks are offering much better ideas than I did for how to make that impact felt, while @James Gasik reminds us that, as always, the design consequences might be more than we initially assume (e.g. the impact of this rule change on the DM end of things).