D&D 5E Critical Hits and damage - What do you do?

[DND_Reborn]

yes. But it "crits" 25% of the time. Whereas a d10 only crits 10% of the time. It's about appearances and the feeling, not the actual numbers. Criting even 10% of the time is way too often for me. Its not special.

The odds are closer than you'd think really in many cases, you simply don't realize it.

Let's say you hit 60 percent of the time (typically for 5E), or 12 out of 20. One of those 12 times you hit, is the natural 20 "crit", so odds are 1 in 12 (or so). If you have d10 weapon, odds are 1 in 10 obviously--not far from 1 in 12.

If it is a hard target to hit, say you need a 16 or better, you chances of hitting are 5 in 20, and 20% of those hits will be crits. Again, not far off from the 1 in 4 on the d4's 25%.

Trust me, rolling maximum on damage still feels exciting and "special".

A nice side effect is it makes lower damage die weapons more appealing for certain features/builds because you are more likely to crit.

Now, look at your damage when you crit with a d10 weapon: it becomes 2d10. So, you might to 2 or 20, but someplace around 11, which is good, better than maximum of 10!

Considering my system your damage must be 10 for the crit to happen, and for simplicity's sake let's just say the average after that is 6, making your critical damage average of 16, so 5 points better than the RAW 2d10 average of 11.

Anyway, it isn't for everyone, which is fine, but everyone I've known who's actually tried it for a few sessions loves it. Of course, I suppose if people tried it and don't like it, they might not say anything LOL!

I makes more sense, and removes that annoying "you can only hit on a 20, but it is automatically a crit" issue.

But hey, your game, you do you and have fun--that's all that matter really in the end.

 

[LordEntrails]

The odds are closer than you'd think really in many cases, you simply don't realize it.

I am well aware of the statistics. But thanks.

Trust me, rolling maximum on damage still feels exciting and "special".

For you. Not for me.

But hey, your game, you do you and have fun--that's all that matter really in the end.

Thanks, we do.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I am well aware of the statistics. But thanks.

For you. Not for me.

Thanks, we do.

Wow, way to sound rude and condescending... nice to know.

 

[cbwjm]

We do standard doing of dice. DM offered max damage + extra dice (so a longsword deals 8 + 1d8 + other modifiers), but we ended up going back to the standard because dndbeyond sorts out critical for us.

 

[hawkeyefan]

We max the base weapon damage and then roll extra dice, then add modifiers. This doesn’t raise the ceiling of damage, but raises the floor to at least max base damage +1.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I used to do max base damage and then roll the dice, but I've gotten tired of having to explain that to everyone every time we do it. We just double dice, per RAW, or do a free for all of me doubling dice per RAW and everyone else doubling the results of the dice (which just seems like harder math to get streakier results, but some people make these decisions at times when they don't own enough dice).

 

[Slit518]

For Critical Hits I do this: I max one set of the attacks's damage dice, so for example if it is a Dagger or Great Sword or Firebolt or whatever, they max one set of the damage.
Then, once they do that, I have them roll an additional set with any bonus damage modifiers added.
That way on a Greatsword attack for example the attacker isn't left doing (on a rare chance) 4 + other damage modifiers (usually Strength between 3-5) damage on their Critical Hit just from using double dice.