Making Natural 20 super fun

[buddhafrog]

I think a lot of people agree with Moxcamel (with a name like that, who wouldn't?). My games only have 2~4 players (small ESL classes that play D&D once/week), so they crit less. Maybe running a game of 5 or 6 PC's might make me agree with you.

However in practice, I haven't seen any significant problems. Like I wrote, the one time the PC got a 20-20 "instant kill" on the cyclops, I just added another encounter that they weren't expecting - but the player got his D&D story of a lifetime. Most d20's add minor effects, some 1d5 damage, etc - but the potential for a more powerful bonus is only on the highest Bonus Rolls, around 15% of every crit.

I do use critical fails, but give the PC's a saving throw. The failing outcome is usually not too terrible and directly tied into the story. Again, it doesn't happen too often but adds that moment of drama and tension at the table. I agree, you don't want your hero tripping over his shoes every other battle - and often a failed natural one is not a ranger breaking his bow (impossible) but "the arrow bounced off the enemy's shield and struck the ally who was in melee combat with him" (1d6 damage). Look at Jack Sparrow - he f'd up all the time during battle, but his heroawesomeness allowed him to compensate. Difficult battles are not always clean nor pretty.

 

[marli]

i have a compensation. minions suck up 50% of crits.

 

[GamblersNim]

For natural 20s I just ask the player to decide on something awesome happening as a fringe benefit and say yea or nay depending on how ridiculous it is.

 

[Saeviomagy]

At our table, we find that when a critical goes in, the huge amounts of damage that tend to be caused are enough to make it special.

In fact, the only things I might do to crits are make the following changes:

1. You fail the first save against an effect that was caused by a power that rolled a critical. This one is for those classes and subclasses that don't focus on big hitting. Note that it doesn't let you use a coup-de-grace to get the benefit (or other auto-crit powers) because that might be too good.

2. Monsters get +1d6 damage on a crit per tier. Including minions. We find that monster crits are pretty disappointing, especially when one person gets crit by a monster and then someone else gets hit for the exact same amount. That goes double for minions critting for the exact same amount they normally hit for.