D&D 5E A Calculated Critical (Unbalanced... probably)

[ElPsyCongroo]

What if Advantage conferred a Crit? An attack that has Advantage is that much more likely to bring you down, HP being the abstract thing that it is, this could be translated as being that much harder to avoid a decapitating strike whilst restrained by entangling vines, or being that much harder to avoid a stab to the jugular when you can't see.

 

[BookTenTiger]

It would definitely make things more deadly!

 

[BookTenTiger]

Thinking about this further...

If you want a similar effect, but not as deadly, you could grant "advantage" on damage. When you have Advantage on an attack, you also roll damage twice and take the highest. It would give a boost to damage without breaking the existing limits.

If you want to keep this idea but have ways of surviving, you could allow characters to sacrifice equipped armor or weapons to halve the damage. So when the Wizard gets hit for 35 damage from an orc with advantage, they could sacrifice their equipped spell focus and take half damage. It would still provide big consequences, but also give ways out of dying.

I honestly think this would be a fun house rule to try out!

 

[ElPsyCongroo]

Thinking about this further...

If you want a similar effect, but not as deadly, you could grant "advantage" on damage. When you have Advantage on an attack, you also roll damage twice and take the highest. It would give a boost to damage without breaking the existing limits.

If you want to keep this idea but have ways of surviving, you could allow characters to sacrifice equipped armor or weapons to halve the damage. So when the Wizard gets hit for 35 damage from an orc with advantage, they could sacrifice their equipped spell focus and take half damage. It would still provide big consequences, but also give ways out of dying.

I honestly think this would be a fun house rule to try out!

Taking the highest damage die would definitely keep it balanced with the idea of advantage. Would disadvantage also make you take the lower of the die rolled? At least that would keep it consistent.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

It would make Faerie Fire the GOAT.

 

[DND_Reborn]

What if Advantage conferred a Crit? An attack that has Advantage is that much more likely to bring you down, HP being the abstract thing that it is, this could be translated as being that much harder to avoid a decapitating strike whilst restrained by entangling vines, or being that much harder to avoid a stab to the jugular when you can't see.

So... a bit confused, and I need to clarify.

Are you suggesting that having advantage on an attack confers advantage on the damage roll instead of double damage dice?

FWIW, we do critical damage instead of critical hits. In other words, if you roll maximum on a damage die, you roll another damage die. The d20 attack roll no longer has anything to do with it. It works well, we all love it, and it makes more sense from a design perspective to us.

 

[ElPsyCongroo]

So... a bit confused, and I need to clarify.

Are you suggesting that having advantage on an attack confers advantage on the damage roll instead of double damage dice?

FWIW, we do critical damage instead of critical hits. In other words, if you roll maximum on a damage die, you roll another damage die. The d20 attack roll no longer has anything to do with it. It works well, we all love it, and it makes more sense from a design perspective to us.

Exploding dice would be great, I'm seriously considering using that rule

 

[DND_Reborn]

Exploding dice would be great, I'm seriously considering using that rule

I highly recommend it. We also allow healing to explode (including potions).

FYI it also includes smite, sneak attack, spells (like fireball), etc., not just weapons.

 

[Rabulias]

What if Advantage conferred a Crit? An attack that has Advantage is that much more likely to bring you down, HP being the abstract thing that it is, this could be translated as being that much harder to avoid a decapitating strike whilst restrained by entangling vines, or being that much harder to avoid a stab to the jugular when you can't see.

Just having advantage grant a critical hit would be too much, IMO. Though, there might be some room here for something like "When you attack with advantage, a Critical Hit may occur. If both d20s roll 18 or higher, you have scored a Critical Hit." Change the threshold of 18 to whatever number suits your taste. Someone has worked out the probabilities of this somewhere already, I am sure, but I don't have it at hand right now.

 

[DND_Reborn]

FWIW, when you have advantage your chances of scoring a critical hit are already increased from 5% to 9.75%

But, getting 18 or higher on BOTH dice is only 2.25%, worse than the default 5% for a natural 20.

Now, what might work would be when you have advantage you score a critical on 19 or higher on EITHER die. This increases the odds of a critical hit to 19%, which is pretty high and makes trying to get advantage even more desirable.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend it as I think it is too high, but for someone who wants it...