D&D 5E Replacing Crits wwith Exploding Dice

[MechaPilot]

Basically what it says on the tin. What do you think of replacing critical hits on the d20 with exploding* damage dice?

*For those unfamiliar with the term, it means if you roll the highest number possible on the damage die, you get to add another die. If that additional die is the maximum possible roll, then you add another die until you fail to roll the highest number on the die.

 

[Shiroiken]

Basically what it says on the tin. What do you think of replacing critical hits on the d20 with exploding* damage dice?

*For those unfamiliar with the term, it means if you roll the highest number possible on the damage die, you get to add another die. If that additional die is the maximum possible roll, then you add another die until you fail to roll the highest number on the die.

This isn't a bad idea, but it then completely separates the attack to a pass/fail, which some players don't like. Other may like it more. Oddly, this may help 1d4 weapons out a lot due to the higher probability of re-rolls. It might also help the 1d12 weapons over the 2d6 weapons, but I'm not math savvy enough to know if that's true or not.

A similar idea I used during the playtest (and suggested on every report) involved exploding attack rolls. Basically, if you roll a 20, you automatically hit for max weapon damage and make another attack roll; if the roll hits, you roll for damage again. If you roll multiple 20s in a row (unlikely, but possible), you add max weapon damage again, and continue with another attack roll. It allows for the weakest of creatures/characters to theoretically slay anything, even if the probability is very, very low, which helped "balance" story/scripted deaths against something that couldn't possibly deal enough damage by RAW.

 

[mrpopstar]

Lose the opportunity for an attack to hit regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC in exchange for exploding damage?

Sounds fun, but I'd be interested in some math.

 

[mrpopstar]

This isn't a bad idea, but it then completely separates the attack to a pass/fail, which some players don't like. Other may like it more. Oddly, this may help 1d4 weapons out a lot due to the higher probability of re-rolls. It might also help the 1d12 weapons over the 2d6 weapons, but I'm not math savvy enough to know if that's true or not.

A similar idea I used during the playtest (and suggested on every report) involved exploding attack rolls. Basically, if you roll a 20, you automatically hit for max weapon damage and make another attack roll; if the roll hits, you roll for damage again. If you roll multiple 20s in a row (unlikely, but possible), you add max weapon damage again, and continue with another attack roll. It allows for the weakest of creatures/characters to theoretically slay anything, even if the probability is very, very low, which helped "balance" story/scripted deaths against something that couldn't possibly deal enough damage by RAW.

Exploding attack rolls is also fun!

I'm not a huge fan of the added dice on a crit thing in the basic rules. Definitely prefer the ease of max damage.

 

[jaelis]

I'm for it only if you literally have dice that explode.

 

[FrogReaver]

I would limit it to just the initial damage roll having the chance for exploding dice. You don't get exploding dice on the exploding dice roll. It would slightly up DPR and would make lower levels more deadly. It's more likely a monster gets exploding dice than crits.

Also, how would things like divine smite and rogue sneak attack be affected? Is it just the weapon die that matters? Does it affect all other dice or just weapon dice? I think it would be difficult to add into 5e as is due to those kinds of effects and figuring out how to balance them with it. Or don't worry about balance and just see how things pan out. Let the players know up front how everything works mechanically and go from there.

 

[MNblockhead]

We use Nord Game's Critical Hit Decks. I like it better than both RAW and exploding die approaches as it is different each time.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Exploding attack rolls is also fun!

I'm not a huge fan of the added dice on a crit thing in the basic rules. Definitely prefer the ease of max damage.

The basic rules allow for a phenomenon we call "critiful"... When you roll lower on a crit than you would on an average hit. So disappointing!

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

 

[Iry]

Slows the game down.

Not by a lot, but every extra roll adds up.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Basically what it says on the tin. What do you think of replacing critical hits on the d20 with exploding* damage dice?

*For those unfamiliar with the term, it means if you roll the highest number possible on the damage die, you get to add another die. If that additional die is the maximum possible roll, then you add another die until you fail to roll the highest number on the die.

I'm assuming you mean replacing crits with exploding damage dice on all damage rolls.

This wonderful blog shows that an exploding fair die deals n/(n-1) times as much damage, where n is the number of sides.

In the games I've played, the exclamation point is used to indicate an exploding die.

1d4 = 2.5 avg
1d4 /w crits = 2.5 * 0.95 + 2.5 * 2 * 0.05 = 2.625 avg
1d4! = 2.5 * 4/3 = 3.33 avg
Result: +0.705 (+26%)

1d6 = 3.5 avg
1d6 /w crits = 3.5 * 0.95 + 3.5 * 2 * 0.05 = 3.675 avg
1d6! = 3.5 * 6/5 = 4.2 avg
Result: +0.525 (+14%)

1d8 = 4.5 avg
1d8 /w crits = 4.5 * 0.95 + 4.5 *2 * 0.05 = 4.725 avg
1d8! = 4.5 * 8/7 = 5.14 avg
Result: +0.415 (+8.8%)

1d10 = 5.5 avg
1d10 /w crits = 5.5 * 0.95 + 5.5 * 2 * 0.05 = 5.775 avg
1d10! = 5.5 * 10/9 = 6.11 avg
Result: +0.335 (+5.8%)

1d12 = 6.5 avg
1d12 /w crits = 6.5 * 0.95 + 6.5 * 2 * 0.05 = 6.825 avg
1d12! = 6.5 * 12/11 = 7.09 avg
Result: +0.265 (+3.9%)

2d6 = 1d6 + 1d6 = 7 avg
2d6 /w crits = 1d6 crit + 1d6 crit = 7.35 avg
2d6! = 1d6! + 1d6! = 8.4 avg
Result: +1.05 (+14%)

And, with Great Weapon Fighting Style, which is complicated because the dice stop being fair:

1d12 /w GWF = 7.33 avg
1d12 /w GWF & crits = 7.33 * 0.95 + 7.33 * 2 * 0.05 = 7.70 avg
1d12! /w GWF ~= 8.1 avg (calculated with a script and a pseudorandom number generator at 100,000 samples)
Result: ~+0.40 (+5.2%) (~+1.6 over base 1d12)

2d6 /w GWF = 8.33 avg
2d6 /w GWF & crits = 8.33 * 0.95 + 8.33 * 2 * 0.05 = 8.75 avg
2d6! /w GWF ~= 10.7 avg (calculated with a script and a pseudorandom number generator at 100,000 samples)
Result: ~+1.95 (+22%) (~+3.7 over base 2d6)

I'm assuming here that exploded dice can also be re-rolled on a 1 or a 2 (i.e., if you explode a die and then roll a 1 or a 2 on it, you can reroll that die once), and that re-rolls can still explode (i.e., if you reroll a 1 into a 6, it explodes). It'd be somewhat less significant if they don't do these things, but it will be less across the board. This is as powerful as you can make GWF and exploding dice, however, so it's a good upper bound.

You'd have to figure out what to do with abilities that use the crit rule (Great Weapon Master, Half-Orc and Barbarian bonus damage dice, Champion Fighter increased crit range, etc.).

You'd also have to decide if you want spells and sneak attack to explode.

Actual bottom line is that there's not much change, except 2d6 weapons look much better than 1d12 weapons.