D&D 5E Mitigating Critical Hit Devastation

[tom.zunder]

Don't use criticals.

 

[Blue]

Actually in 5e all dice are doubled for crits. The one die thing was in the playtest but didn't make the final rules.

I stand corrected. Thanks for catching my mistake!

 

[Lerysh]

How about a Constitution Save with a DC of 8 + Enemy's attack bonus (which winds up being Str + Prof. usually). So a crit from an orc with +5 to hit would be DC 13 con save to avoid the critical damage.

This of course leads to people who already have a lot of HP avoiding the most critical hits, since they have the best Con saves, but it would give those with Con 10 at least a chance to avoid the damage.

The real problem is D&D 5E is pretty deadly at levels 1-3. A single critical can down you at level 1, and a crit while you have 2 HP left can flat kill you, no death saves. An alternate way to deal with it is just eliminate the massive damage rule to dying, so if you get crit to oblivion you still have death saves to keep a PC from dying or one heal away from being back up.

 

[Tormyr]

Way back in May, I made a medium water elemental that crit the halfling rogue when she had wandered off while everyone was resting. It took her straight from full hp to insta-death. I asked the player if he wanted to continue the character or make a new one. He decided that he still wanted to explore her story, so I had the Tiefling wizard discover that her signature trinket, a stone that cast Light when a command word was spoken, had Infernal script written all over it. When the words were read, it brought her back to life. The Paladin had issues with this, and the rogue has been branded with a mark on her back shoulder blade that says "Chosen" in Infernal. The rogue only just found out about this (that she died and now has a tattoo) in last weeks session.

What I am getting at is: why nerf critical hits? If one of the PCs insta-dies from a big crit while at a low level, why not offer up an in-game way of dealing with the character death?

 

[aramis erak]

How about a Constitution Save with a DC of 8 + Enemy's attack bonus (which winds up being Str + Prof. usually). So a crit from an orc with +5 to hit would be DC 13 con save to avoid the critical damage.

This of course leads to people who already have a lot of HP avoiding the most critical hits, since they have the best Con saves, but it would give those with Con 10 at least a chance to avoid the damage.

The real problem is D&D 5E is pretty deadly at levels 1-3. A single critical can down you at level 1, and a crit while you have 2 HP left can flat kill you, no death saves. An alternate way to deal with it is just eliminate the massive damage rule to dying, so if you get crit to oblivion you still have death saves to keep a PC from dying or one heal away from being back up.

Or mitigate it... the number of death saves failed is the number of damage points left after dropping to 0 divided by the maximum HP of the being hit. So -MaxHP = 1 death save, -2x MaxHP=2 death saves, and -3x MaxHP = dead outright.

I think, for when I run a home game, I may make it -MaxHP is no failed death saves, but save vs 15's, and -2x maxHP is cleaved in twain.

 

[Lerysh]

So you are in more danger of dying without aid if you get UberCrit. I like it. After about 5th level, -2x MaxHP is like... 100 hp. If you are taking 100hp in a single hit you are most assuridly dead (assuming you had 1 hp to start, so more like 150). Even a Wizard with +1 Con, about the least amount of HP you can have, Has 7+5+5+5+5 at 5th level, 27 HP, so from fine to -2x MaxHP is 81 in a single shot. That should probably kill a mage.

Like I said, the problem is Level 1 is pretty damn deadly with the -Max HP = Dead rule. That wizard has 7, so under RAW being hit for 14 from full is dead, being hit for 8 from 1 HP is dead. That can easily happen.

 

[Celebrim]

Don't use criticals.

This is the correct answer.

Unfortunately I have found that its a non-starter, so even at my table, there are criticals. Ever since they've been introduced, players have loved them - even though that is entirely irrational. Humans like to gamble. What are you going to do? So I do my best to manage them.

Critical hits are the equivalent of 'die no save'. In fact, they are probably worse than die no save because they involve no choice on the part of the players. People who dislike die no save, and save or die, but who love criticals always crack me up.

The way I handle critical hit mitigation is ensure that on the whole, players get far more out of criticals than monsters (and build that assumption into my game system) to counteract the problem that it matters more if a player receives a critical hit than if a monster does. It's never game over just because a monster dies unexpectedly. Additionally, I have a concept called 'Destiny Points' that are meant to protect against critical and fumbled saving throws. Specifically, a player can spend a destiny point to convert a critical hit into a normal blow.

I'm a big fan of mitigating bad luck. If I didn't have bad luck mitigation, I'd try to remove critical hits from the game rules.

I've been in the current campaign for about 4 years. There have been 9 PC deaths in that time. There would have been 3 additional PC deaths if there wasn't the critical mitigation with destiny points rule. There would have been 2 additional deaths if there was not the fumbled saving throw mitigation with destiny points rule. There would have been 3 additional deaths if there was not the 'Divine Intervention' rule (2 of those were for the same character that had specifically spent resources in chargen on having the gods love them so that otherwise rare divine intervention would be more likely). There would have been 1 additional death if it was not for the fact that there is not a path for 'raise dead' (in a very limited way) using the Heal Skill (and taking a feat that adds additional skill uses for Heal).

On the other hand, there would have been 8 fewer deaths if players had really learned the lesson to never split the party. Some problems can't and maybe shouldn't be mitigated by the rules.

 

[Gothnog]

Taking away the critical removes the excitement of rolling that iconic "20" and I don't recommend anything the removes fun. That being said, you could come up with a critical chart that adjusts the damage a bit. So, they get a critical, and then roll a d100. Toward the low end, something cool happens, like the character getting pushed back or maybe some equipment is damaged, but no extra damage. As they go up, a crit might inflict bleeding, but not rolling damage die twice. Then at the top you have double damage and the awesome hits, including instant death with a 100. This way, you can keep the excitement of the natural 20, but make it less likely to get the quick kill.

I personally prefer a more lethal combat system, but this would let you fine tune it for your personal style.

 

[Meliath1742]

I've instituted a house rule that delays the instant death by a round. This gives other party members a chance to stabilize the felled character before his turn comes back around. If they don't get to him/her in time they die. I still reserve the right as GM to declare a true instant death if I feel the situation warrants it.

 

[Joe Liker]

One way to mitigate crits without bending the rules even a little bit is to have the fight occur in a situation where the baddies have disadvantage to their attacks, such as drow or goblins fighting in daylight.

You can also use waves of enemies, or stupid enemies, and maybe give players ample opportunity to retreat if their hp gets down into the instant-death danger zone. If they choose not to retreat, the problem is with the players, not the rules.

Granted, you can't go easy on them for the whole campaign, but is instant death from a crit really all that prevalent after level 1 (maybe 2)?

As a player, I would absolutely hate to have my own crits mitigated in any way. I'd much rather face the possibility of dying to lucky DM rolls.