D&D 5E Critical Hits: Why not x2 damage?

[jodyjohnson]

Changing the way criticals work is a very common house rule. Always has been.

If your group wants a variation at your table, there is really no compelling reason not to house rule it. There are reasons not to, they just can't over-rule what your preference is.

 

[evilbob]

As someone on this board once told me: they were never going to write a crit rule that made everyone happy.

Like others suggested, I agree you should just do whatever makes the most sense to you. I didn't even realize that we've apparently been playing our own house rule so long that I didn't know it wasn't core.

 

[Lanefan]

Our table rule (definitely not streamlined, but it's fun if the players like to roll dice) is to roll a d10 on a roll of ... 20:

20/1-7: Normal 20, roll 2 dmg dice
20/8: Max dmg + roll 1 dmg die
20/9: Max dmg x 2
20/10: Max dmg x 3

Other than effects (8 = everything x2, 9 = x3, 0 = x4) this is exactly the roll sequence I've been using for about 30 years now.

1/4-10: Nothing
1/2-3: Minor botch (weapon stuck in tree, damaged weapon -1, etc.)
1/1: Major botch (broken weapon, hit the wrong person, etc.)

For fumbles after a 1/20 we use a d6, roll '1' and you've fumbled somehow - anything from dropped weapon to given foe a free attack to skewered an ally to all kinds of things; most of which are relatively minor. This is the rule used by the first campaign I ever played in, and it's one of the very few rules there or here that has never changed since.

Lanefan

 

[Athinar]

The wizard cast blur and haste on the Fighter and sent her into a crowd of mooks..

I love to read things like this,

Haste - Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Blur - Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

shows me that some people don't read the spells

our group, every one reads the spells before each casting

 

[Mercule]

I love to read things like this,

Haste - Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Blur - Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

shows me that some people don't read the spells

our group, every one reads the spells before each casting

I love reading things like this. Shows me that some people are more concerned with showing how smart they are than being helpful.

The party has a wizard and a sorcerer. One cast each. I just didn't break it down in my first post. They actually spent a ridiculous amount of time reviewing all the "concentration" and similar issues before acting on their plan.

 

[ad_hoc]

I'm kinda surprised that crits are still in the game in 5e. I read an article years ago about crits and the gist of it was that crits, while fun, ultimately work against the players. The thinking goes that since the player character will be on the receiving end of a huge number of attacks in his lifetime, sooner or later, he's bound to get critted and killed, which is really no fun for anyone.

It's not such a big deal to apply a critical when the player is attacking someone else, but if it applies to NPCs and monsters, too, then it's just an inevitable disaster waiting to happen.

I guess one solution to that problem is to keep them in the game (since they are fun and players seem to like them) but don't make them so powerful that they are likely to kill a high-level character.

They do raise the tension by creating an uncertainty about the amount of danger the PCs are in while keeping the outcome of that rare.

 

[Athinar]

The party has a wizard and a sorcerer. One cast each.

you should have written it to show you had 2 spell casters, I would not have made the commit

Reviewing "concentration" is good thing for all to do, most don't do the concentration camp training for 5.0

 

[Mercule]

you should have written it to show you had 2 spell casters, I would not have made the commit

Reviewing "concentration" is good thing for all to do, most don't do the concentration camp training for 5.0

Do you have a point, or are you the badwrongfun police?

 

[Athinar]

I am the Chief of badwrongfun police or is that chef of the badwrongfun police

 

[AtomicPope]

It seems to me the reason for doubling dice is it takes care of some of the problems from 3e, making 5e a system that focuses on class levels:
* Limited Class features that apply after a hit tend to use Dice making class levels more important (Barb Crit, Smite, Sneak Attack, etc)
* Regular class features that serve as damage adders (Rage, Dueling) increase base damage but always apply
* Static bonuses mean less to a single hit's and more to the Extra Attack class feature

These little tidbits make class levels more important and Stats become less important (no doubling Str/Dex bonus). Improving base damage is better for multi-attacks but eliminating their effect on critical hits means they're not always better than a power or ability that only lands once. Doubling dice also makes for more powerful magic items, and not just more reliable magic items. Again, looking at the differences between 3e and 5e we can see how magic items have changed. In 3e it was WAY more important to have stat-boosting magic than a magic weapon beyond +1 Improved Crit. Why? Because the way critical hits were added up. Improving stats was the easiest way to improve both base damage and critical damage, not to mention hit reliably. Now improving stats really isn't as important as class features or weapon effects. A +0 Flaming sword is really powerful in ways that it wouldn't be in a 3e game (bounded accuracy, crits only double dice).