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<blockquote data-quote="OB1" data-source="post: 8755345" data-attributes="member: 6796241">The rarity and randomness of it is exactly the problem.&nbsp; Across 100,000 tables every week those rare outcomes are going to occur at some of them. I had it happen in the game I ran last weekend, where in the first round of combat, my monsters had 3 Nat20s on 5 attacks.&nbsp; I'd rather monsters up their offensive power in general, providing a more consistent challenge.&nbsp; Take the Astral Elf Warriors from BAM.&nbsp; They get two longsword attacks (1d8+1) and add on radiant damage (3d6) on every hit.&nbsp; With 2 attacks, they're dealing 31 points of damage a round.&nbsp; If they crit on both attacks in the first round, that's suddenly 60 points of damage caused by nothing but pure dumb luck.&nbsp; Two things here.&nbsp; First, players have been nerfed as well, since only weapon and unarmed strike damage now doubles (no sneak attack, smite, or spell crits).&nbsp; So really, the balance of the new rule is a slight power bump to martial classes (which many people believe was needed).&nbsp; Second, what kind of skillful play can a player use to avoid crits?&nbsp; They are completely random.&nbsp; And unlike a video game, there is no save point to go back to if the party is wiped out from a random run of bad luck in the first round of combat before they even get a chance to act.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="OB1, post: 8755345, member: 6796241"] The rarity and randomness of it is exactly the problem. Across 100,000 tables every week those rare outcomes are going to occur at some of them. I had it happen in the game I ran last weekend, where in the first round of combat, my monsters had 3 Nat20s on 5 attacks. I'd rather monsters up their offensive power in general, providing a more consistent challenge. Take the Astral Elf Warriors from BAM. They get two longsword attacks (1d8+1) and add on radiant damage (3d6) on every hit. With 2 attacks, they're dealing 31 points of damage a round. If they crit on both attacks in the first round, that's suddenly 60 points of damage caused by nothing but pure dumb luck. Two things here. First, players have been nerfed as well, since only weapon and unarmed strike damage now doubles (no sneak attack, smite, or spell crits). So really, the balance of the new rule is a slight power bump to martial classes (which many people believe was needed). Second, what kind of skillful play can a player use to avoid crits? They are completely random. And unlike a video game, there is no save point to go back to if the party is wiped out from a random run of bad luck in the first round of combat before they even get a chance to act. [/QUOTE]

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