A Better Way to Do Critical Hits?

[Tortoise]

I would like to see "Roll a natural 20, do double damage."

The groups I currently participate in use this rule.

 

[Mattachine]

However I do know that in the Fourth Edition, skill is somewhat reflected din criticals. There are some feats to increase your critical range to 19 & 20. Furthermore if you are a poor fighter, and you cannot hit a tough monster normally, then a critical hit is only a hit (which you could not get otherwise). I think that is enough differentiation for now.

Yep, in 4e, a 20 scores a crit, except if you needed to roll a natural 20 to hit in the first place. I like that this system is very simple.

How does skill come in? Feats or abilities that increase damage on a crit, or that allow a crit to be scored on a 19 or 20.

 

[amerigoV]

It makes sense, but I don't think they'll make that the rule. It's brand new and they seem to be looking backward for inspiration.

Well, they could slap in the famous Good Hits, Bad Misses from an old Dragon magazine (1e). That's pretty backwards.

 

[Astrosicebear]

I would like to see a natural 20 is always a hit, no threat rolls, and DM's/player choice of bonus.
Example:

Player: "I am going to step up to the orc on my left and attack it with my axe." rolls 20. "A nat 20!"

DM: 'Awesome, what do you want to happen?"

Player: 'Well, I could just do more damage, but the orc is standing right next to that firepit, since I scored a good hit, I want to force him into the firepit."

DM: 'Ok sounds good, the orc takes damage normally from your axe and also falls backwards into the firepit and is on fire!"


The players would always have the option of choosing to do 2x damage(unless weapons have crit modifiers again).

Obviously, if the request is something silly, like "I scored a crit on my opening attack against a dragon, so I stab it through the heart and I want it to die." The DM has the ability to say no, or downplay the players request. Perhaps in this scenario the player scores a critical hit near the dragon's heart, doing double damage and making the dragon think twice about tangling with this party."

 

[Hassassin]

I would like to see a natural 20 is always a hit, no threat rolls, and DM's/player choice of bonus.
Example:

This idea, which others have mentioned, is good. However, I'd keep the confirmation roll, with a default bonus of max damage requiring no confirmation. Then you could choose between things of various difficulties and use your other skills and abilities.

For example: Tumble DC 15 to roll under the dragon you hit; Climb DC 25 to use your dagger as a hand-hold to get on its back; opposed Strength checks to push it back five or ten feet.

 

[DonTadow]

Yeah, a nat 20 is ingrained in dnd. Again, that's a red button issue for a lot of players.

Confirming though, that can go away. The problem is making sure that crits aren't the enormous game changer they are now. Perhaps a special ability for each weapon that pops on a crit. Make me care about damage type.

 

[kitsune9]

I think to combat hp bloat, crits could be nat 20 for max damage. An add-on to the rule is that you only get crit damage if a nat 20 plus your modifiers hits the AC needed. If not, you only get the automatic hit, not the crit.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I would like to see a natural 20 is always a hit, no threat rolls, and DM's/player choice of bonus.

That is my preference, too. Adapt some of the "combat maneuvers" from Mongoose Runequest II (now "Legends") to provide a few clear results--including a disarm attempt, breaking weapons, etc. Basically, have the stuff that should not be happening all the time in any kind of reasonable fight (e.g. disarming) but certainly can arise under the right circumstances.

Stunts should certainly be one of those choices, however.

If the list of possible maneuvers gets too long, let every character pick two to four that they get for free, and let them purchase more via feats or some other such mechanism. That should cut out most of the analysis paralysis. (Or alternately, adapt from MRQ II again, and make the options limited by weapon type.)

For the simple module, though, I'd prefer no confirmation roll, and then max damage possible on the roll added to the roll. Double damage has historically been too much in some cases, but max damage alone is rather underwhelming. Plus, people like rolling damage. One of the nicer effects of 4E style crits is that something still gets rolled. Max damage possible + roll the normal damage is potentially a reasonable, fast compromise. If nothing else, those that are rolling attacks and damage at the same time aren't wasting anything in their flow. Get a Natural 20 with a given attack, add a fixed amount to your normal roll.

 

[billd91]

I think to combat hp bloat, crits could be nat 20 for max damage. An add-on to the rule is that you only get crit damage if a nat 20 plus your modifiers hits the AC needed. If not, you only get the automatic hit, not the crit.

If they do this, I would also recommend getting rid of all damage dice that are additive in favor of flat-distribution dice. Think of it this way, using 4e weapon damage tables, if I get bumped to max damage with a heavy flail (2d6 damage) I get improved to a 1 in 36 result. If I do the same with a greataxe (1d12), my improvement is significantly less dramatic going to a result that was 3x more likely anyway.

 

[kitsune9]

If they do this, I would also recommend getting rid of all damage dice that are additive in favor of flat-distribution dice.

Good idea. That works for me too. What about a dagger compared to the axe though?