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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eyes of Nine" data-source="post: 8736949" data-attributes="member: 99786">The first AP I heard of 5e the GM and a few (maybe 4?) players were playing Phandelver. Spoilers to follow about the very first encounter.[spoiler] In that module, the very first encounter is an ambush by some goblins. In the AP one of the goblins got a critical hit on the cleric or the mage and dropped him. Very soon thereafter, the rest of the party gets dropped, and as the wizard is running away gets an arrow in the back. TPK. All because of that first monster crit. [/spoiler]TPK is very much on the table at those early levels in any game, imho (except maybe not in Witchlight or other non-combat games). And one monster crit can definitely turn the tide and send an early 1st level encounter into TPK territory.However, I have noticed that by 3rd level when all characters have their subclass; and definitely by 5th level when spellcasters get access to 3rd level spells - at that point PCs are pretty super-heroic, and you'd really need to send them into a pretty high CR encounter or they would have to be pretty depleted to get a TPK.On the other hand, my players learned how to navigate through the world when they were little 1st level fragiliings. Which means they tend to be overly tentative. I mean, TPK is not my goal; but sometimes I'd wish more action and less faffing.So, I'm willing to try no crits for monsters and then if it's not working, maybe I'll just add it up to PC level 3 or so. Or maybe CR1 monsters and below can't crit, but higher CR monsters can. No matter, can always house rule something.</blockquote>

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