D&D (2024) DM's no longer getting crits on PC's

[GMforPowergamers]

The retired adventurer owning an inn is a trope. Where they fail is when they don't picture the hero as a 19 years-old retiree.

I promise you even with all the dumb things I did between 17 and 25, I can guarantee if I made 'adventurer money' I would have retired in a second.

 

[Reynard]

If the problem is that some random mook might end a character’s narrative, maybe the problem is really all the meaningless fights in D&D.

Alternatively the problem might be expecting a particular narrative for your character in a game where random die rolls control outcomes. I mean, even if you took out crits and even if you had fewer fights, you can still have some random mook end your narrative.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It plays fine as I've been doing that for a few years now. It's pretty rare for DCs to be unattainable without a 20 already. Bounded accuracy sees to that. Those few other times it's a hail mary that comes through.

Okay.

I’m not taking anyones word for it, when we experience the game so differently. We will see how it plays for us.

 

[Aldarc]

I think that this makes the game easier to run from a DM perspective. I can roll the basic damage quickly or use flat damage and then move back to the PCs, which is where the focus should be.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I kinda love it. I did not think I would, but if they give me more interesting powers in exchange of a 5% chance of adding some extra damage die, I'm a-ok with this.

No crit on spell and damage ridder is also pretty cool, if the class that used to big damage spikes are compensated (assassin, mainly. Paladin can go suck an egg, they're still top even if they cant wait for a crit to spam all their damned slots in a single nova of 1 billion damage!)

I even start to like flat damage, with the addition that I get to choose if my epic BBEG use the maximum damage instead of the average!

Auto-success/fail on nat 20/1 is also pretty cool, given that I decide when my players roll or not. So its not like there's a chance that it will break that modicum of verisimilitude remaining in my games.

In exchange of all that, the game runs smoother and I dont have to come with a convoluted story to justify bringing a new character in play mid-dungeon because a random skeleton crit-ed a weakened character between two short-rests. I'm winning on all fronts.

 

[Shiroiken]

Absolutely terrible IMO, unless they significantly ramp up the damage for monsters.

Crits are never about character choices or skill anyway. Its just a dice roll. Dice don't play the game.

Without dice it's no longer a game. It becomes a bunch of people sitting around telling a story, making it just an RP.

 

[James Gasik]

Well, optional rule, not house rule. If they don't at the very least provide crits/no crits(whichever way they ultimately go) for the DM in the options section of the DMG, I'm going to be very disappointed. It's too big a thing to just drop and leave at that.

As for my group, I haven't asked them but I can guarantee you that to a man they will want to keep crits on the DM side of things intact.

Which means it doesn't matter what the rulebooks say, now does it?

 

[FrozenNorth]

While I like to also use the same rules for crits and such, it should be noted the PF2e has a different system for crits, you need to roll 10 above the target number for something to be a crit so in some cases, a crit simply won't be able to happen.

That is not a very accurate representation of PF2’s system.

If you roll 10 above the DC, the hit is a crit, AND a roll of 20 counts as one degree of success better than than the roll, so the only way a 20 is not a crit is if a roll of 20 would be a miss (which is highly unlikely).

This is compounded by the fact that crits in PF2 double total damage, not just dice.

The net effect is that crits are more frequent, not less. If the party is fighting a lone monster, that monster is often critting on 15% of their attacks, and even more against less armored characters.

 

[Maxperson]

Which means it doesn't matter what the rulebooks say, now does it?

I'm looking at this from a broader viewpoint. The game really should have both in there, even if one is optional in the DMG rather than the PHB.

 

[jgsugden]

Under the playtest rules we have, what will you do when a monster attacks a paralyzed creature?

For example: A cleric casts hold person on a PC and the PC fails the save, then a soldier fighting with the cleric rolls a hit with an attack on the paralyzed target ... double die roll or not?