D&D 5E Do you play without Critical Hits?

[Nebulous]

That said, a crit from a wraith can be a pretty hard blow. You do double damage and the damage you do reduces the character's max hit points. I got a PC kill off one of those.

I nearly killed a full strength PC in ToA like that. If he hadn't had an Aid spell active it would have been instakill.

 

[Charlaquin]

I nearly killed a full strength PC in ToA like that. If he hadn't had an Aid spell active it would have been instakill.

Many a 1st level PC has died to the specter in Death House this way. Heck, you don’t even need to roll a crit for that, just a high roll on the damage die, especially against a squishy caster.

 

[Umbran]

The 5e games I'm playing in use standard critical hits.

To be honest, they haven't seemed to impact the game much. If they were removed, we'd probably not notice they were gone.

 

[Charlaquin]

The 5e games I'm playing in use standard critical hits.

To be honest, they haven't seemed to impact the game much. If they were removed, we'd probably not notice they were gone.

This is as it should be in my opinion. The point of crits is to satisfy the player’s expectation that rolling the highest possible result on the die should make something special happen. But, a 5% chance to drastically increase damage can make the game undesirably swingy, generally in favor of the monsters. So, a crit rule that feels fun (such as getting to roll double the damage dice!) but doesn’t hugely impact balance is a good crit rule.

 

[GlassJaw]

I agree. It would be cooler if a crit stunned an opponent, knocked them prone, or something else.

Totally agree. Something else I’ve been experimenting with. 5E got rid of a lot of effects that made weapons cool and different.

It would also be cool to give a player a choice depending on their weapon: extra damage or a status effect. Like a greatclub or maul could knock an opponent prone or push it back instead of bonus damage.

 

[EscherEnigma]

I play without critical hits.

Not because our table doesn't use the rule, I just don't roll 20s except on shananigan skill checks.

 

[DND_Reborn]

If you're looking for something to do with weapon properties, here are our house-rules for them are below. In particular, bludgeoning weapons gain the Stun property, piercing weapons gain the Skewer property, and slashing weapons gain the Wound property.

 

[cmad1977]

I don’t play with critical fails.

Critical hits are pretty much by the book.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I play without critical hits.

Not because our table doesn't use the rule, I just don't roll 20s except on shananigan skill checks.

What would a critical shenanigan look like?

 

[EscherEnigma]

What would a critical shenanigan look like?

A few weeks back the party was going into some sewers to look for were-rats.

One of the PCs (let's call him D) thought he could play his pipes of haunting (or something like that) to scare them, making them reveal themselves. (No, D's player didn't double-check how the item worked before he enacted this plan.) My ranger (who we will call T), who has proficiency in the panpipes, pulls out his own set to play an accompaniment. Saves and rolls go out, the rest of the party is freaking out because the pipes are horrifying them, but since T made his save and rolled a 20 on his own performance check, the GM decided it was a hauntingly beautiful melody. Which, tragically, only lasted six seconds because the now terrified warlock was trying to banish D back to the astral plane (D was a gith, you see). So T throws D over his shoulder and double-times it down a side passage to break line of sight.

Naturally, the were-rats were out of range of the whole thing.

Hence: shenanigans.