D&D 5E Rolling a 20 always hits

[The Crimson Binome]

Actually, isn't it a natural 20 always crits?

I completely forgot about that, and honestly, that's something which might actually prevent me from playing this game. I mean, that's a way bigger deal to me than either damage-on-a-miss or overnight healing or anything like that.

When a natural 20 always crits, that essentially says that someone who can only be hit by a 20 - because they're supposed to be super tough - is actually far weaker because every hit they take is a crit.

It's easy enough to house rule that a 20 is only a crit if it would otherwise also be a hit, and otherwise it's just a hit, but still.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

I completely forgot about that, and honestly, that's something which might actually prevent me from playing this game. I mean, that's a way bigger deal to me than either damage-on-a-miss or overnight healing or anything like that.

When a natural 20 always crits, that essentially says that someone who can only be hit by a 20 - because they're supposed to be super tough - is actually far weaker because every hit they take is a crit.

It's easy enough to house rule that a 20 is only a crit if it would otherwise also be a hit, and otherwise it's just a hit, but still.

I think the always-crit rule combined with some people only being able to be hit on a 20 was intended to replicate movies where the hero only gets one hit, but the hit is lethal.

Then again, they could have just borrowed the idea from Numenera and similar games without borrowing the full set of mechanics...

 

[SkidAce]

IMO...if you need a 20, you don't crit with a 20.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I think the always-crit rule combined with some people only being able to be hit on a 20 was intended to replicate movies where the hero only gets one hit, but the hit is lethal.

Then again, they could have just borrowed the idea from Numenera and similar games without borrowing the full set of mechanics...

I think it was an unintended interaction which they left in for the sake of simplicity, even if it's not fun for the all-powerful tank to always go down from a single hit.

What did Numenera do differently?

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

I think it was an unintended interaction which they left in for the sake of simplicity, even if it's not fun for the all-powerful tank to always go down from a single hit.

What did Numenera do differently?

Within Numenera, a crit can be a couple numbers below 20, and extra damage applied a couple numbers below that. But, a crit isn't always damage; sometimes, you get to attack again, or you knock your opponent back or down, or you stun them, or...

You get the idea.

 

[TerraDave]

I completely forgot about that, and honestly, that's something which might actually prevent me from playing this game. I mean, that's a way bigger deal to me than either damage-on-a-miss or overnight healing or anything like that.

When a natural 20 always crits, that essentially says that someone who can only be hit by a 20 - because they're supposed to be super tough - is actually far weaker because every hit they take is a crit.

It's easy enough to house rule that a 20 is only a crit if it would otherwise also be a hit, and otherwise it's just a hit, but still.

It is pretty easy to house rule...

IMO...if you need a 20, you don't crit with a 20.

And this would be one.

Within Numenera, a crit can be a couple numbers below 20, and extra damage applied a couple numbers below that. But, a crit isn't always damage; sometimes, you get to attack again, or you knock your opponent back or down, or you stun them, or...

You get the idea.

I think Dragon Age (?) also does the maneuver on a crit thing.

 

[BryonD]

IMO...if you need a 20, you don't crit with a 20.

Yeah, but in 5E it will be very very rare to need to roll a 20.

 

[77IM]

This rule is just a helpful speedup: if you roll a 1 or a 20, you can skip all the to-hit math and go right to damage.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This rule is just a helpful speedup: if you roll a 1 or a 20, you can skip all the to-hit math and go right to damage.

Precisely this. It's great because it means 10% of the time (1 or 20) you don't even have to think about the math. This is particularly good for players who make not know the AC of the target they're attacking, so may not know what they need to roll otherwise. It always cheers them up to get a 20, too.

It's a good rule.

 

[delericho]

IMO...if you need a 20, you don't crit with a 20.

That was almost (but not quite) the rule in 4e - there, a nat-20 was a crit unless the 20 by itself wouldn't have been enough to hit.

(That is, if you were attacking AC 26 with a +6 bonus then a nat-20 would hit and crit; if you were attacking AC 27 then a nat-20 would just be a hit.)

Personally, though, I think they're wise to ditch that bit, as it was just a nuisance. The benefit of being able to jump straight to the crit outweighs the drawback, IMO. YMMV, of course.