D&D 5E Mitigating Critical Hit Devastation

[Rune]

Why not allow PCs to spend HD any time they are crit to mitigate damage from the crit?

Puts agency in the players' hands, removes your problem (as long as a PC still has at least one HD), and doesn't mess with expectations of PC damage output (like adjusting the crit rules would).

Edited to add:

Also more reliable as damage mitigation than adding a threat confirmation roll, which, much of the time, won't mitigate any damage at all.

 

[KarinsDad]

I'd be very wary of throwing hobgoblins et al. at a level one party, even though they are CR 1/2, as they can deal so much damage (as soon as they're not alone).

(Bearing in mind the bit in the Basic DMG about monsters that "might deal enough damage with a single action to overwhelm PCs of a lower level.")

It must be nice to have such nice DMs. At level 3, our DM threw 12 foes at the 6 of us, 4 of whom were 5th level (2 attacks per round, 2 of whom were in plate armor), and the other 8 were pretty close to our level and had special abilities like knocking PCs prone, pack tactics, etc.

 

[KarinsDad]

Why not allow PCs to spend HD any time they are crit to mitigate damage from the crit?

Puts agency in the players' hands, removes your problem (as long as a PC still has at least one HD), and doesn't mess with expectations of PC damage output (like adjusting the crit rules would).

This sounds ok if the PC will go unconscious with the crit, but not on normal crits where the PC is still conscious. More of a last ditch effort thing than an every third encounter one.

 

[Rune]

This sounds ok if the PC will go unconscious with the crit, but not on normal crits where the PC is still conscious. More of a last ditch effort thing than an every third encounter one.

Depends on the feel you want to go for, I guess. I could see it both ways.

 

[KarinsDad]

Depends on the feel you want to go for, I guess. I could see it both ways.

In the case where it can be done all of the time, it totally mitigates any real risk at all on days where the PCs are only having one or two encounters since there is no reason for a player to not ever use this ability.

The only reason to not use this ability every single time is if the PCs have a Bard in the group where Song of Rest adds to the daily healing (or the party has some other way of boosting the healing done with healing dice during a short rest). Otherwise, it would be used every single time and it no longer becomes a choice for the players, rather it becomes effectively an automatic.

Having seen the Battle Master Fighter in play using parry, having every PC doing this on all of the early day criticals just seems to make those first few encounters of the day more trivial (by saving healing spells, by the threat of a critical being nonexistent, etc.).

 

[Meliath1742]

I'm considering changing the instant death to a "delayed" death. Instead of dying outright, the character goes into the death saves with 2 failures. This would of course require quick actions from the group to ensure the third roll isn't required...or face the consequences. You could further increase the impending doom factor by ruling that only magical healing (not a skill check) will stabilize the character from these types of grievous wounds. Of course there are still instant deaths from such things as falling off a tall cliff or being turned into ash from a dragons breath. GM's call trumps all rules in these cases.

 

[Astrosicebear]

It must be nice to have such nice DMs. At level 3, our DM threw 12 foes at the 6 of us, 4 of whom were 5th level (2 attacks per round, 2 of whom were in plate armor), and the other 8 were pretty close to our level and had special abilities like knocking PCs prone, pack tactics, etc.

LOL 12 foes? No way you should have survived.

3 CR 2 berserkers is a deadly encounter for a party of 6 at lvl3. CR can be mistaken easily with level, but they are not the same. Either the DM wanted to kill you, or realized his mistake and fudged out the wazoo, or the monsters were actually much less in CR than you imagined. Even 12 CR1/8s is a MEDIUM encounter for your party.

 

[KarinsDad]

LOL 12 foes? No way you should have survived.

3 CR 2 berserkers is a deadly encounter for a party of 6 at lvl3. CR can be mistaken easily with level, but they are not the same. Either the DM wanted to kill you, or realized his mistake and fudged out the wazoo, or the monsters were actually much less in CR than you imagined. Even 12 CR1/8s is a MEDIUM encounter for your party.

Yup. Fog Cloud helped a lot (seriously helped against the two 5th level ranged attackers). Web helped. Sleep helped. Having a Battle Master Fighter with parry and the Heavy Armor Mastery feat helped. Having 5 PCs out of 6 being able to cast spells helped. We did use up most of our resources (including a few healing potions). But, the main advantage that PCs have over NPCs is a) spells, and b) healing. It's always been that way. When outnumbered 2 to 1, the big guns come out quick.

And no, the DM fudged nothing. In fact, she screwed up and had one of the enemy warhorses in plate armor both disengage and trample in the same round.

 

[Rune]

In the case where it can be done all of the time, it totally mitigates any real risk at all on days where the PCs are only having one or two encounters since there is no reason for a player to not ever use this ability.

That's certainly one way it could play out. Of course, it also frees the DM to throw stuff that's just a little crazier at the players during those 1 to 2 encounters.

The only reason to not use this ability every single time is if the PCs have a Bard in the group where Song of Rest adds to the daily healing (or the party has some other way of boosting the healing done with healing dice during a short rest). Otherwise, it would be used every single time and it no longer becomes a choice for the players, rather it becomes effectively an automatic.

Two points: 1--It's still a resource being spent, so...not seeing a problem with that. 2--I'm not so sure that a player wouldn't rather heal the damage from the seven (or so) hits that didn't crit rather than hold out for the one that does.

Having seen the Battle Master Fighter in play using parry, having every PC doing this on all of the early day criticals just seems to make those first few encounters of the day more trivial (by saving healing spells, by the threat of a critical being nonexistent, etc.).

Considering this is a thread about doing just that...

Well, like I said before, its a question of feel. I could see either variation being fun.

 

[KarinsDad]

That's certainly one way it could play out. Of course, it also frees the DM to throw stuff that's just a little crazier at the players during those 1 to 2 encounters.

It mitigates the swingyness, but does not make fights any easier. Many fights, criticals might rarely come into play. So making tougher early encounters just means that the PCs are going to have to throw out more resources earlier in the day and then have fewer encounters that day.

Two points: 1--It's still a resource being spent, so...not seeing a problem with that. 2--I'm not so sure that a player wouldn't rather heal the damage from the seven (or so) hits that didn't crit rather than hold out for the one that does.

Point 1: Yes, but it is a resource that would be spent anyway. PCs have x amount of healing in a given day. If the PCs can use short rest healing outside of a short rest, all it means is that heal spells will typically be used for non-crit damage. The entire "Oh shoot, I just got critted. I hope the Cleric can heal me before something else hits me." threat is totally gone, at least for the early encounters. What good is the threat of unconsciousness if the PCs can negate the biggest single attack heavy hitter rule towards unconsciousness (criticals) in the game? In fact, why even have criticals at that point. Just an exercise in dice rolling.

Point 2: A player might if push comes to shove. The can use hit dice house rule for any critical is only really helpful in the first few encounters a day at low level when those resources would be used anyway. But a player would almost never save hit dice if criticaled in the first or second encounter. It doesn't make sense to do so. The player would just be using that exact same resource after the encounter anyway, so why not use it now? Any other source of healing might not be required by this particular PC, so it makes sense to save all other sources of healing that can be used on any PC for when it is required.

Considering this is a thread about doing just that...

And your suggestion modified by the caveat of only if the PC would go unconscious (or even only if the PC would die), would handle that without having to drastically change the effects of all criticals.

Well, like I said before, its a question of feel. I could see either variation being fun.

If you say so. I think that it fundamentally changes the entire concept and feel of criticals if players can willy nilly negate them. Criticals would not ever be threatening again (shy of once hit dice are exhausted).