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

[Xeviat]

You have a paralyzed target say from hold monster or hold person, all those melee attacks are criticals when they hit. So instead of the fighter getting 3 attacks that do 4d6+15 (greatsword, 20 str, gwf feat) you would get 3 attacks that did 4d6+45 each, more if they had buffs, magic weapon, or other things that add static bonus.

Ugh ... 15 x 2 is 30. I'd probably not double GWFing's damage bonus, so my thoughts would be 4d6+20; it's a boon to Fighters, but a minor bonus to rogues, less of a bonus to paladins, rangers, and warlocks ...

 

[Flamestrike]

We houserule it; max damage plus the extra die. This way you never get a critical hit that does less than max damage +1.

Nothing worse than getting a crit and then rolling two dice and seeing a pair of snake-eyes.

Good lord. Rogues and Paladins must be laughing all the way to the bank!

A smite with a 4th level spell and a longsword becomes 40+5d8+strength

 

[hawkeyefan]

Good lord. Rogues and Paladins must be laughing all the way to the bank!

A smite with a 4th level spell and a longsword becomes 40+5d8+strength

Nah, we just max the basic weapon die. Any other extra dice are doubled, as normal. It's honestly just to avoid the situation where your crit in this round does less than your regular hit last round, due to low rolls on the crit damage.

So in a case where a rogue is crits on a sneak attack, it'd be 10 plus 3d6 for sneak attack plus an extra 4d6 for bonus weapon/sneak attack damage. RAW would be 1d6 plus 4 plus 7d6. .

 

[Lanefan]

Nah, we just max the basic weapon die. Any other extra dice are doubled, as normal. It's honestly just to avoid the situation where your crit in this round does less than your regular hit last round, due to low rolls on the crit damage.

So in a case where a rogue is crits on a sneak attack, it'd be 10 plus 3d6 for sneak attack plus an extra 4d6 for bonus weapon/sneak attack damage. RAW would be 1d6 plus 4 plus 7d6. .

We just multiply everything and have done with it. It's quick, easy, and allows for the occasional spectacular event when something that already has a multiplier gets multiplied again. There's even one not-all-that-contrived instance I can think of where a hit could have three different multipliers: a Thief (multiple damage on a backstrike) rolling a critical on said backstrike (multiple damage) against a creature affected by the "slayer" weapon she's wielding (double damage). By "slayer" weapon, think Giantslayer, Dragonslayer, etc.; they exist in my game to affect all sorts of creatures and-or classes e.g. Wizardslayer, Orcslayer, etc.

Note that where a weapon has a "rider die" e.g. +d6 cold damage, that die is never multiplied.

As a mental exercise one boring day I once worked out the theoretical maximum damage any character in any of my games could inflict on a single blow; the winner was a situation just like this and the result was, I think, 640 points of damage.

Lan-"the one-swing damage record in my current campaign is 112 points, inflicted by the unlikeliest of characters against a Giant she had no real business fighting at all"-efan

 

[Flamestrike]

Yeah, I'm just doubling the lot.

It's quicker and helps the martials out (GWM/ SS/ Dueling/ Str/ Dex to damage).

 

[Horwath]

I like the current mechanics. double all dices for damage and add any modifier once.
I would also add critical damage cannot be lower than maximum normal damage.
I.E. if you attack with greatsword for 2d6+4 damage, critical damage is 4d6+4 but minimum damage dealt is 16 before any damage reduction features.

that way critical hit always hurts but maximum does not go over the top...usually

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Not a fan of crits would rather a crit just be a max damage hit.

 

[Ranthalan]

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 1 or 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

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.)

 

[SheckyS]

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.

 

[dmnqwk]

While I enjoy critical hits I agree that they don't really serve to help the PC much, other than being a bit of fun. It's a shame they didn't change critical hits to deal maximum damage instead of rolling, which would simulate the "double" without requiring extra dice that ultimately confuse a lot of newer players.

Instead of doing 6d6 and getting an average of 21 you end up getting 36 guaranteed which is powerful enough to excite players without allowing for the situation where you roll 12d6 and get 12.