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

[shadowoflameth]

This is the only part of the playtest that I hate. If it is made a rule, it will be ignored and therefore take up book space with useless material. The expressed reason is that crits can unpredictably kill low level characters. This problem is a rare occurrence and does not need a complex nerf bat solution. Crits are fun. Big numbers are fun. They are fun for rogues and fun for wizards. The drama created when a monster does it is usually fun too. The recharge solution is unusable. It would take every single monster or at least every encounter having something like that. No. Keep it simple, bring back minions who in a prior edition did predictable damage and revisit the death mechanic. What we used to call 'Massive Damage' caused death with no saves. Make it a threshold that can occur occasionally like say, half of maximum, but let it cause death at the end of your next turn. I would propose that only deliberately designed instant death effects should cause truly instant death.

 

[CM]

Fine, but I want monsters to have more and better special attacks.

 

[shadowoflameth]

Fine, but I want monsters to have more and better special attacks.

Agree, instant death isn't fun but more monsters having something special attacks or better attacks would make them a more immersive threat than they are now. CRs also need some work. 5E has few templates. I would like to see them return. A little variance in a pack of orcs or kobolds can make it more interesting.

 

[shadowoflameth]

I can agree that inspiration on a crit would be an interesting benefit. That assumes though that inspiration becomes a mainstream rule as well as the crit change. There's no guarantee that both will happen. I concur that Smite should just be reliable and not be expended on a miss but it it's a critical hit, it makes sense that everything that depended on that hit should be part of the critical effect. Plus, bigger numbers are fun. There's no reason not to make inspiration an optional rule in my book, then all players and DMs could have their big handfuls of dice and the DM could award inspiration as well.

 

[Nefermandias]

This thread is literally the first time I’ve ever heard anyone complain about the existence of crits in D&D. Those of you who want them removed have made good arguments, I understand your point, but I can’t help but cock my head to one side and say, “What? This is a problem?”

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. It does seem like the newer batch of players are more risk averse, which I say with no disdain, I’d argue my generation was more risk adverse than the gaming generation that came before mine. I certainly have no interest in some of the meat grinders that classic adventures of the past were.

More and more I keep thinking D&D isn’t for me anymore. And that’s okay, things change and the audience today is different from what it was in 1992. But this just feels like another nail in the coffin for me.

Adventures now are all about cooking contests and doing homework for magic school. Exciting, heh?

 

[Reynard]

Adventures now are all about cooking contests and doing homework for magic school. Exciting, heh?

Drama is possible no matter the task as long as there are tools to elevate that task. teh problem is D&D traditionally puts all the tools into combat, so other tasks -- cooking, negotiating, exploring the wilderness -- are boring slogs composed of DM fiat and/or skill checks. D&D is fully capable of creating exciting cooking contests if it embraces tools that are meant to make anything exciting by creating stakes for the players and characters -- like combat does.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Drama is possible no matter the task as long as there are tools to elevate that task. teh problem is D&D traditionally puts all the tools into combat, so other tasks -- cooking, negotiating, exploring the wilderness -- are boring slogs composed of DM fiat and/or skill checks. D&D is fully capable of creating exciting cooking contests if it embraces tools that are meant to make anything exciting by creating stakes for the players and characters -- like combat does.

To do that with noncombat tasks would seem to me to require narrative mechanics, which are a bridge too far for me. Would love to be proven wrong here.

 

[Nefermandias]

Drama is possible no matter the task as long as there are tools to elevate that task. teh problem is D&D traditionally puts all the tools into combat, so other tasks -- cooking, negotiating, exploring the wilderness -- are boring slogs composed of DM fiat and/or skill checks. D&D is fully capable of creating exciting cooking contests if it embraces tools that are meant to make anything exciting by creating stakes for the players and characters -- like combat does.

Or we could maybe just not make whole modules about going around a big city doing mundane chores. Idk...

 

[CleverNickName]

Or we could maybe just not make whole modules about going around a big city doing mundane chores. Idk...

That would be almost as bad as having nothing but back-to-back combat scenes, day in and day out. Almost.

IMO the game needs all three tiers of play, in equal measure.

 

[Nefermandias]

That would be almost as bad as having nothing but back-to-back combat scenes, day in and day out. Almost.

IMO the game needs all three tiers of play, in equal measure.

That's right, the game needs all three pillars of play. Meaningful exploration and social interactions are equally important.
That's not the same as spending a whole adventure dicking around the town, though.