D&D 5E Mitigating Critical Hit Devastation

[Syntallah]

Any rule that works for the PC's will also work against them. I bet your players aren't complaining when they roll high on their crits against enemies.

5e is a very swingy edition. Mitigating crits isn't really the right answer to that "problem" in my opinion. What you might want to do instead is simply make crits more stable and use average damage rounded up instead of rolling. So a d8 would do 5 points of damage on a crit, not 1-8 damage.

Oh, you are correct, and any rule adopted will apply to both sides of the screen...

 

[Croesus]

I'd suggest a simpler solution: on a crit, all the dice are maxed, but no additional dice are rolled. You'll still get significant damage, but unlikely to auto-kill PC's unless they are low level and already seriously wounded.

 

[Elric]

I'd suggest a simpler solution: on a crit, all the dice are maxed, but no additional dice are rolled. You'll still get significant damage, but unlikely to auto-kill PC's unless they are low level and already seriously wounded.

How about: for monsters, when they critical hit give them average damage on either all of the dice (if you don't typically roll for damage for monsters), or average damage on just the bonus dice (if you do typically roll for damage for monsters).

For PCs criticals are unchanged. This makes criticals by monsters a bit less swingy and saves time as well.

 

[Blue]

I'd suggest a simpler solution: on a crit, all the dice are maxed, but no additional dice are rolled. You'll still get significant damage, but unlikely to auto-kill PC's unless they are low level and already seriously wounded.

But right now crits are jsut one die - making it all dice will give a boost to the two dice weapons like Greatsword. Those get a small bump all the time but aren't as good in a crit. I'd say make it one die max. If you really want to, make it "lowest die max", so you don't bother rolling for most weapons and even with the two dice weapons it always feels sizable.

On the other hand, I'd argue swinginess is good. For the one die weapons, max vs. two dice isn't a huge change in average but it is a big change in max. Yes, that means more PCs drop because there are simply more monster attack rolls usually, though PCs usually have much more access to healers and aren't out then. But also there's more chance for that amazing kill. Both of those - more perceived risk and greater chance of awesome move - make better sessions and better stories afterwards. You never tell stories that "my DPR was 11.3 in that fight!", you tell stories about how the lucky crit killed the boss and brought you to victory.

 

[fjw70]

But right now crits are jsut one die

Actually in 5e all dice are doubled for crits. The one die thing was in the playtest but didn't make the final rules.

 

[Crothian]

Is this a problem with the critical rules or is it a problem with the dying rules?

If you don't want characters to die then don't let them die. Come up with some kind of other penalty. Go Flatliners on the PCs. Be creative and just use other consequences besides rolling up a new character.

 

[MarkB]

I'd introduce a mechanic that allows PCs to mitigate the problem, at a cost. Off the top of my head:

"If an attack that drops a PC to zero hit points would kill them outright due to the amount of damage dealt, they can spend one hit die to prevent this. Doing so leaves the character unconscious and dying, and they are considered to have already failed one Death saving throw."

 

[Rune]

I think this is really a problem you're having with the expectations of lethality in the system.

What I would do is put the agency in your players' hands and not have to worry about it at all:

Any time a PC drops to 0 hp, they may immediately spend any number of HD to regain hp.

Simple, effective, and nothing you need to keep track of or do.

Edit= Oh, wow! MarkB said almost the exact same thing yesterday! Huh.

 

[Nebulous]

A couple of weeks ago, I rolled three critical hits in one night, two of them resulting in a PC death (the third was against the raging barbarian who made it through). This caught my players by surprise as we had very few deaths in all of our 4E playing time, and brought to the fore something that has been bothering me since 5E's release: a 20 is always a critical hit, no matter the skill > AC involved. To assuage the mob, I told them I was exploring ways to mitigate the critical hit:

- 3E's Threat / Confirm mechanic; simple and effective, but the DM does most of the work since I roll more dice than the players in any given night
- an Armor Check concept [ (d20 +(AC - 10)) vs a static DC ] that somebody on these boards mentioned (forgive me, I don't remember who). I like this one because I roll a 20/critical , and the player rolls a defensive roll giving some interaction to the situation.

The problem is, I don't have the math skills to compare these two mechanics. Is one clearly better than the other? Are they about the same? If you were DMing for a group that wanted such a mechanic, which would you choose?

Thanks for any insight..!

I'm contemplating a house rule to let the character survive, but dying, and suffer 1 Constitution point loss and an in-game description of the lasting wound.

 

[Syntallah]

Is this a problem with the critical rules or is it a problem with the dying rules?

If you don't want characters to die then don't let them die. Come up with some kind of other penalty. Go Flatliners on the PCs. Be creative and just use other consequences besides rolling up a new character.

Definitely a problem with the critical rules. Neither I, nor my players have a problem with PC death... except when it's really no fault of their own and they can literally do nothing about it. I personally don't like the fact that a 20 is always a critical, but I understand the temporal streamlining nature of the rule change.

Now, with that being said, I do have a huge problem with the whole Death Save mechanic. Hated it in 4E and it was my first House Rule in 5E. There is absolutely nothing heroic or cool about rolling a d20 every round after you are damaged to 0hp, and just hoping for that 55% chance to not die. Bookwormy wizard with Con of 8? 55% to save. Beefy Fighter of countless battles and wounds with Con of 20? 55% to save. B#!!$&t. I did keep the Death Save, but it is a Constitution Check [DC 10], and at three failures the PC does not die, but suffers a Significant Injury (from a Dragon Magazine article a ways back). Players love it, but boy do they really hate those cards! The tension is awesome when they have those two failures and it's their turn....