D&D 5E Questioning Nat 20's: Opposing Skills Checks.

[iserith]

For those of you house ruling, does a Natty 20 on Initiative mean the PC or monsters always goes first even if others have a higher result?

 

[Justice and Rule]

For those of you house ruling, does a Natty 20 on Initiative mean the PC or monsters always goes first even if others have a higher result?

I would say yes for a PC, no for an NPC.

 

[jmartkdr2]

For those of you house ruling, does a Natty 20 on Initiative mean the PC or monsters always goes first even if others have a higher result?

If I were going that route, I'd probably have it be a tiebreaker: my nat 20+0 goes before you're 18+2.

But really I'd want a better sub-rule for opposed checks than "nat 20 always wins" (counts as 25 or 30 maybe) and apply that to initiative, since it's also a contested ability check.

(Outside of contested checks, it's a really minor change - if a nat 20 doesn't pick the lock, you probably shouldn't have let them roll in the first place. The houserule just means you'll accept the error in their favor.)

For nat 1's auto-failing saving throws, the only edge case I'd worry about is concentration saves for people with Warcaster and a big Con Save mod. I'd probably add a bullet to Warcaster that you don't auto-fail concentration on a 1 with the feat.

 

[Weiley31]

I think your decision was absolutely solid. It helps that the Ranger went along with it, but as far as a command decision I think you justified it perfectly well.

Yeah my bud, who is playing the Ranger, is cool like that.