D&D 5E (2014) Spells Without Attack Rolls: Can they Critically Hit?

[Baumi]

I think the fact that you cannot crit is more than compensated by the fact that save-spells can be cast in Close Combat, ignore Cover and many other Effects that give Disadvantage.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I think the fact that you cannot crit is more than compensated by the fact that save-spells can be cast in Close Combat, ignore Cover and many other Effects that give Disadvantage.

Plus, many of them (as others have stated) have what would be called "damage on a miss" in 4e--that is, many saves have a guaranteed "minimum damage value," unless the target has Rogue-like evasion or is just straight-up immune in the first place. Attack spells are all-or-nothing, with the chance to get "beyond all," while save spells are reliable, at the cost of never rising above and beyond their stated values.