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

[glass]

I liked the 4e version where crits did maximum possible damage. Simple enough even for the math impaired, so quick in play.

Max normal damage, plus a little bit in the form of dice usually (magic weapons added a die per plus, and heavy-crit weapons added an extra die or two whether magical or not). It is my preferred model - the max damage means crits are reliably significant without getting too ridiculous, and the extra dice mean there is still a bit of variability and the feeling of rolling.

 

[soviet]

The max damage plus dice thing is bad design. Players never remember the correct extra dice to roll so play slows down at the most exciting moment for a few extra points of damage. Either embrace the consistency (max damage) or embrace the randomness (roll normally and double it).

 

[Gorck]

I am 95% against Nat 1 fumble rules. Every time we ever tried it, the game became ridiculous Keystone Cops-like. Player Characters make more rolls on screen than any other character. You know how often they are dropping their swords, or blasting their allies with all the Nat 1s they roll? Not very dignified or serious in the heroism.

While it is not usually my cup o' tea, I would consider it as an optional rule specifically for a comedy game where the heroes get a lot of opportunities to look incompetent, or if the players like to roll with the ridiculous. Like a Guardians of the Galaxy-style game where players mock each other for failing, as fumbles make them fail ridiculously as often as they critically succeed.

That said, I am ok with it as an option to opt into, but not a main core rule.

I don't play with critical fumbles at my table, but I just had a though that I might consider implementing: Natural 1's are only an automatic miss, unless the player rolled with disadvantage, in which case they become a Critical Fumble.

 

[Lanefan]

If you're going for that sort of sliding scale, isn't it easier just to roll double the damage dice? A low roll gives you that "nothing (much) extra", a high roll is "fasten your seat belts", and there's no need to worry about extra tables, sliding scales, or things like that.

Merely rolling double the damage dice doesn't, even at max, get anywhere near "fasten your seat belts" in the way I mean it.

I'm talking triple or quad the total damage, or some major combat-altering effect e.g. the foe is permanently hobbled or disabled - stuff like that. For some specific classes vs some specific opponents, maybe even an outright kill.

But also note the intent is that these sort of things would happen far less frequently than 1-in-20.

 

[Lanefan]

I don't play with critical fumbles at my table, but I just had a though that I might consider implementing: Natural 1's are only an automatic miss, unless the player rolled with disadvantage, in which case they become a Critical Fumble.

Another thought: any time you're attacking at a penalty, e.g. there's an opposing Bane or Prayer effect in place, it could force you to fumble on a bad roll as part of that effect.

 

[Stalker0]

If I was going to do critical fumbles (and I don't want to personally) I would say it only happens on disadvantage and you roll a 1 (and if you want them especially rare make it a double 1).

That way it adds to the reality that your already straining against conditions to even make this work in the first place. Doing that and then failing spectacularly feels more narratively plausible than just any old d20 roll.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I don't play with critical fumbles at my table, but I just had a though that I might consider implementing: Natural 1's are only an automatic miss, unless the player rolled with disadvantage, in which case they become a Critical Fumble.

That is something I would like for the aforementioned comedy style of play. Not all the time, but an added risk for shooting your shot against the odds.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Again, critical fumbles would be good to use as quick, disadvantageous actions against the players.

To use some examples: Gnolls have a bite attack that is only really useful in very select situations. Why not, on a fumble, allow a Gnoll to use their reaction to take a single bite attack at a target? With a Kobold, they could hamstring someone or simply poke them in the foot, penalizing the target's next move. Goblins could use a fumble to make an immediate reaction move away, making them extra slippery.

There are a bunch of quick, characterful stuff you can set to be reactions against fumbles. Not only would it liven up combat and make things a bit more difficult for players, but it could also be used to reinforce the flavor of certain kinds of enemies.

 

[CleverNickName]

I would remove nat 20 as Crit hit damage.

Rather have crit double damage if you beat AC by 10,
triple damage if you beat AC by 15,
and quad damage if you beat AC by 20,

I ran a one-shot back in early 2020, before the world changed, and we tested out the "exploding dice" rule for critical hits. It worked pretty well. In a nutshell:

• A roll of 20 on the attack roll was still an automatic hit regardless of the target's Armor Class, and that's plenty powerful on its own. It felt anticlimactic, though, so I allowed the character to also do a little minor stunt, like trade places with an adjacent friend/foe, for free as part of that attack roll.
• However, a "critical hit" was any hit that rolled maximum damage. If that happened, the "exploding" rules kicked in...you got to roll that weapon damage a second time and add it to the total. If that was also maximum damage, you got to do it again, and again, and again.
• Bonuses and extra damage dice from things like flaming weapons and sneak attack didn't get rolled again....it was just the weapon's damage that "exploded" like this.

This impacted combat in a number of ways, but the biggest deal was how much more powerful it made daggers, sickles, slings, whips, and other d4 weapons. These weapons had a 25% chance to crit with every single hit, compared to the greataxe's 8% chance or the greatsword's 3% chance...they still didn't do as much damage in the long run, but they could be a lot more exciting--especially if they "exploded" multiple times.

And if you happened to have a special effect or class feature that triggered on a critical hit, you would get to use that feature 5x as often.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I'd do something like:

Normal hit: once per round, if you roll the max damage, roll another die of the same size.

Critical hit: roll 1 your normal weapon damage die then roll another, if you roll a maximum damage, roll the die again, without any limit. <- it favors the barbarian who roll a bunch of die on a crit, giving them more chance to roll max damage and add a stupid number of damage die on a crit.