D&D 5E Can a Critical Hit miss?

Check out the rules for unseen attackers and Targets on PHB194

You can miss with a "successful" attack roll.

Personally I would have handled the situation like this:
hidden enemies shoot at PC1
PC2 automatically sees the enemies
enemies take their move action and hide*
End of enemies turn

PC2 can shoot at where she saw the bolts come from, where the enemies are no longer and will therefor miss regardless of the roll
OR she can spend her action searching for the enemies (calling for a perception roll), she could then point them out to other PC's but not attack as her action has been used to search. Since the enemies hide roll is vs passive perception I would not allow a free roll to spot the (re)hidden enemies.

*Hiding is typically an action, so the enemies would need a bonus action hide (like cunning action) or have won initiative effectively giving them two turns before the PCs (turn 1 with surprise and turn 2 going first).

DM Dave1 said:

Scenario: Party is proceeding down a wooded path at night with torches. Heavy foliage lines the path, which is 30 feet wide. Noise off the side of the path up ahead draws their attention. PC#1 goes up to check it out, is asked to roll Perception and fails. Crossbow bolts are fired out of the dark, heavy foliage and strike PC#1. PC#2 asks if she saw the spot from where the bolts were shot. DM asks for Perception roll and there is a success. PC#2 fires her bow into that exact spot, rolling a natural 20. Unbeknownst to anyone in the party, after firing the crossbow bolts, the two enemies were able to stealth away from that spot (rolled higher on Stealth than any of the party member's Passive Perception).

How do you, as DM, rule that Crit?

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I can tell you how I'd rule this situation, but first I would need to ask, what caused the noise that drew their attention?

Wiseblood said:

@ Mistwell & Shiroiken this would be true if the PC were capable of seeing the enemies and the enemies were firing at characters that they could see.

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You are no longer hidden if you attack someone even if the attack misses (unless you have the Skulker feat).

Perception is not sight. You perceive a target if it is not hidden, even if you cannot see it. This is why invisibility doesn't itself automatically make you hidden. You can hear them, see movement in the trees, perhaps smell them, notice the displacement of their presence in their surroundings, footprints, blocking of light, etc.. Regardless the moment they attack they are revealed. If they want to hide again, they need to move first while being perceived into another area of concealment/cover and then they can make another hide check.

At least, that's the rules. I'd argue they are wise ones. As soon as you start letting creatures attack and auto-hide due to existing cover and make them immune to being perceived, players will start massively abusing that when they can. It's not a particularly good path to go down, in my opinion. It's pretty clean and simple that when you attack you're no longer hidden.

Hriston said:

I can tell you how I'd rule this situation, but first I would need to ask, what caused the noise that drew their attention?

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An unrelated elephant standing in the moonlight.

iserith said:

An unrelated elephant standing in the moonlight.

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That may be true for all I can tell from [MENTION=6921763]DM Dave1[/MENTION]'s account.

It doesn't matter how you arrive at the situation, if the player attacks where the enemy isn't they aren't going to hit no matter what the dice roll.

Of course the exception would be some kind of AoE.

jaelis said:

Trying to attack a hidden enemy is one of the few situations where I would. Otherwise you reveal right away that they guessed the wrong spot.

Another example would be casting firebolt against a creature the players did not know was immune to fire.

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Is it fun to roll a 20 and miss?

Firebolt hits it just doesn't do damage. That is different.

1st off, you are using torches. That would suggest that you do not have darkvision.

Torch dim illumination is 40ft.

You said you were shot from the dark, that means that attacked could be 41ft from you and would benefit from insvisibility.

You saw the direction of the bolt, but if the attackers moved even 5 ft from the spot they have shot you, you would have missed 100%.

Even if you were succesfull with perception to pinpoint the location by sound alone, you would still attack with disadvantage as you do not see the target.

DM Dave1 said:

Scenario: Party is proceeding down a wooded path at night with torches. Heavy foliage lines the path, which is 30 feet wide. Noise off the side of the path up ahead draws their attention. PC#1 goes up to check it out, is asked to roll Perception and fails. Crossbow bolts are fired out of the dark, heavy foliage and strike PC#1. PC#2 asks if she saw the spot from where the bolts were shot. DM asks for Perception roll and there is a success. PC#2 fires her bow into that exact spot, rolling a natural 20. Unbeknownst to anyone in the party, after firing the crossbow bolts, the two enemies were able to stealth away from that spot (rolled higher on Stealth than any of the party member's Passive Perception).

How do you, as DM, rule that Crit?

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She crits the foliage.

So there is an agreement to be made that a critical hit at the wrong target is a miss.

The OPs example is a hidden target, but you could also apply this to an invisible target the same way a mirror image hit destroys and illation but does not hit the player or NPC using it.

I think the only questionable action here is the what exactly did the player said vs what was the players intent and how would the players character approach that task.

Example 1: "what exactly did the player said"
Player: says I search the dresser (player rolls a natural 20 + 2 for check)
GM: How do you search?
Player: I don't know I open drawers and check for false bottoms
GM: You find nothing
(there is a key strapped to the back of the dresser DC 10 to find but the player didn't say they checked the back of the dresser to GM calls it an automatic failure)

Example 2: "what was the players intent and how would the players character approach that task"
Player: says I search the dresser (player rolls a natural 20 + 2 for check)
GM: You a key strapped to the back of the dresser
(there is a key strapped to the back of the dresser DC 10 , the GM assumes the Players character searches for the whole dresser because the PC is experienced in searching while the Players is not, and the PC finds it)

Player said do I see where the arrow came from not do I see who shot it.

I think its bad GMing but people have different styles.