D&D 5E Critical hit allows called shot?

[Sleepy Walker]

I've played where if you narrate what your character is trying to do with the attack and then get a crit, it pretty much happens so long as the creature does not die early. Saying you chop off its head, getting a crit, only chops the head off if it was going to die anyways or some other factors are in play. Other debilitating effects are on the table, though permeant ones may or may not occur, since PCs are also game for these effects.

Once the attack is rolled the player may not go back and decide to attack a specific limb or something. Not stating intention leaves it up to the DM to decide what happens.

 

[jasper]

I like the idea of that. If I did it I would keep it for PCs only, not monsters. Other than maybe a few major enemies or long time foes of the party in major encounters.

How about this? Pc do injury to foes. Foes either do max damage or 3x damage to pcs.

 

[Mistwell]

I'm sure I'm not the first to have this idea but a quick search of the forum didn't lead to any matches, so here goes...

Thinking about called shots lead me to the idea that a critical hit should allow the attacker to say what their hit does.

For example a critical hit on a cyclops might wreck its eye giving it disadvantage on attacks (because it can't see).

Or for a multi-limbed creature it might sever one of its limbs.

Of course monsters with crits against PCs would have a similar opportunity, though I might make it more broken limbs/blinding etc giving some disadvantage on movement or attacks.

Double damage by itself (especially when a combat is just starting out) can seem a bit underwhelming, perhaps this is too much?

I agree I've felt double damage dice feels a bit underwhelming at times. As long as the foes also get to do this, I think it would be a fun variant. I would take a quick inventory of what spells heal this sort of special damage in your game though. Do you need a lesser restoration to heal a lost eye? Just any healing? Greater restoration? Something else?

 

[Oofta]

I had a DM that did something like this ... except a little more extreme. Every time anyone (PC or creature) got a critical he'd roll a d6 to see what happened. My front-line fighter type died pretty much every game session from getting his head chopped off. I didn't last long with that DM.

So if you make the crit effect too good it really changes the feel of the game and not necessarily in a good way. In addition, some builds simply get far more critical hits than others. In addition as others stated, you don't want to stomp on other classes features

I don't think it's necessary, but I'd limit the effectiveness. Crit a cyclops? He has to wipe the blood from his eyes, he's blinded for the next attack. A tentacle creature that has multiple attacks? The first attack is at disadvantage but fine after that and so on.

People for some reason think critical hits are as rare as purple unicorns, but some builds will get them every couple of rounds on average. Not only will a critical hit system slow down the game, but it will overwhelmingly reward those who get multiple attacks.

 

[robus]

I agree I've felt double damage dice feels a bit underwhelming at times. As long as the foes also get to do this, I think it would be a fun variant. I would take a quick inventory of what spells heal this sort of special damage in your game though. Do you need a lesser restoration to heal a lost eye? Just any healing? Greater restoration? Something else?

Yeah it just seems like a debilitating wound should be inflicted. Oofta’s idea that the cyclops gets disadvantage on its next attack is a goid one. That could also be applied to the PCs too without upsetting them too much.

So a new proposal - crit means the player gets to describe some cool injury or effect on the monster and the monster has disadvantage on its attack until the end of its turn as it deals with the injury...