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

[doctorbadwolf]

The only time I find crits really making a big difference in the monsters’ favor is at early levels where they can turn a bit that would otherwise only knock a PC out into a kill. That can also happen during mid and late levels if the PC is at low HP when they get critted, but it’s less common. But nonetheless, crits benefit monsters more than they do PCs. That’s not necessarily a problem, but in my opinion it is enough reason to try to keep their impact to a minimum.

I just question the premise. I mean, crits make a big difference on the player side pretty often IME, and the occasion of the enemy happening to crit with an attack that would have downed the PC anyway, turning it into a kill, is really rare.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I just question the premise. I mean, crits make a big difference on the player side pretty often IME, and the occasion of the enemy happening to crit with an attack that would have downed the PC anyway, turning it into a kill, is really rare.

In general, more randomness favors the weaker combatant, which is usually the monsters.

But the way 5e's damage scales at least mitigates and might invert that - monsters generally do a lot less damage than "on-level" pc's so monster crits usually aren't a big deal so much as 'suddenly enough damage to worry about.'

Unless your dm uses angels against you. Those guys hit hard.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In general, more randomness favors the weaker combatant, which is usually the monsters.

But the way 5e's damage scales at least mitigates and might invert that - monsters generally do a lot less damage than "on-level" pc's so monster crits usually aren't a big deal so much as 'suddenly enough damage to worry about.'

Unless your dm uses angels against you. Those guys hit hard.

Yeah, crits don't lead to that much damage with enemies that deal their damage primarily via many attacks, because they add 1 die per crit to the round of damage.

 

[DND_Reborn]

In general, more randomness favors the weaker combatant, which is usually the monsters.

But the way 5e's damage scales at least mitigates and might invert that - monsters generally do a lot less damage than "on-level" pc's so monster crits usually aren't a big deal so much as 'suddenly enough damage to worry about.'

Unless your dm uses angels against you. Those guys hit hard.

IME it is usually the opposite. Of course, we've been facing a lot of hard-hitting foes lately, such as giants and such, which crit for 40+ damage per hit. The only time I see PCs crits really high is for smites and sneak attacks.

 

[Charlaquin]

I just question the premise. I mean, crits make a big difference on the player side pretty often IME, and the occasion of the enemy happening to crit with an attack that would have downed the PC anyway, turning it into a kill, is really rare.

Right, which means the crit rule as-written is working well. Despite the fact that monsters roll crits more often, crits in 5e don’t usually turn the tide of battle in the monsters’ favor. That’s kinda my whole thesis.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Right, which means the crit rule as-written is working well. Despite the fact that monsters roll crits more often, crits in 5e don’t usually turn the tide of battle in the monsters’ favor. That’s kinda my whole thesis.

IME, boosting crit damage doesn't over-favor the monsters, either, but does make them more fun. We max the normal damage dice, and then roll the dice again. This increases the damage average and floor, but keeps the maximum the same, and it definitely doesn't favor the enemies unless we have a lot of enemies that do really heavy single attacks.

 

[Charlaquin]

IME, boosting crit damage doesn't over-favor the monsters, either, but does make them more fun. We max the normal damage dice, and then roll the dice again. This increases the damage average and floor, but keeps the maximum the same, and it definitely doesn't favor the enemies unless we have a lot of enemies that do really heavy single attacks.

Hey, if it works for you, awesome. Don’t let me ruin your fun.