Critical Hits for D&D 4e
Not really exciting…
Recently, one of the Players in my D&D 4e campaign wanted to discuss his impressions of the experience of the new combat system. Prior to his moving to D&D 4e, this Player that had been gaming in several long-running 3.5 Edition campaigns. And while overall, he was enjoying the D&D 4e experience, there were a couple things that he felt were lacking. Specifically, the Critical Hit system as defined in the D&D 4e Player’s Handbook (on page 278).
Player: “…it’s not really exciting.”
DM: “But you get to do maximum damage if you roll a critical hit…”
Player: “So what? You can do maximum damage just by hitting normally and then rolling max… which is like, one in six or one in eight, for most weapon based attacks… that’s not really exciting.”
DM: “Yeah, I got that… but you don’t have to make a second roll to confirm your critical like you did in 3.5”
Player: “True, but at least if you did confirm a crit you got to do double damage… now that was exciting!”
DM: “Uh huh, really exciting if you’re scoring the crit, but it’s hard to judge the threat level of an encounter if my NPCs and monsters can do double damage a lot.”
Player: “So?”
DM: “Think of it this way – in a standard encounter with minions out on the table, I could be rolling fifty to one-hundred percent more attacks than the Players are. ”
Player: “Ok… so?”
DM: “So the NPCs and monsters have a greater chance to crit. And if you increase their chance to crit and give them the chance at double damage, you could easily make a combat much more lethal to the Heroes… is that really exciting?
Player: “Well, technically, it is more exciting… but maybe not in a good way. But there has to be a way to make crits better than just max damage though…”
DM: “Let me think about it…”
And so I did think about it, because my Player was correct. Rolling a 20 on an attack roll is somewhat rare, and in previous editions of D&D, was a moment of excitement around the table. Critical Hits felt heroic and momentous, and reducing them to a maximum damage roll somewhat cheapens the experience.
Back in an old Dragon Magazine (Issue #39), there was a very creative Critical Hits and Misses article. For those DMs and Players unfamiliar with the previous editions of D&D, in addition to Critical Hits, there were also Critical Misses were (called “fumbles”) and happened when a natural 1 was rolled on a d20 attack roll. And these fumbles had the chance to hurt the attacker himself rather than his foe, or even a member of his own party. Now while this chart was very creative and fun to play with, it was also fairly lethal, and could result in everything from permanent maimings and lost limbs, to chest wounds and decapitations resulting in instant death – regardless of how much or how little damage was rolled!
Clearly, the idea of instantly decapitating a dragon sounds like lots of fun, but forcing the Characters to deal with sucking chest wounds and the loss of limbs on a weekly basis is not going to enhance the long-term playability of your campaign. From a heroic adventure standpoint, Critical Hits should be a bit more potent than just maximum damage, but also should not cause permanent debilitation and death.
A good middle ground between simple maximum damage and permanent maimings (or death!), is to make Critical Hits momentarily debilitating, for perhaps just a round or two. This elevates a Critical Hit beyond a mundane maximum damage roll, and gives it an epic combat feel. What follows is a chart that can be used each time a Critical Hit is scored, by rolling the d20 again and assigning the Combat Effect in addition to the normal maximum damage effect. Each Combat Effect has also been given some Flavor to be read out, and is differentiated by the type of foe attacked by the critical hit.
Critical Hits Chart
(Assign Maximum Damage + Combat Effect as listed below)
| d20 |
Combat Effect & Flavor |
| 1 |
No extra effect PC Flavor: “Your attack strikes true with great force, wounding your foe!” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy’s attack hits with great force, wounding you!” |
| 2-4 |
Weakened for 1 round PC Flavor: “Your assault strikes your foe’s arm (or claw or snout) with a nerve jarring crack.” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy strikes your weapon (casting) arm, and it droops numbly to your side.” |
| 5-6 |
Weakened until Save PC Flavor: “Your beating knocks the wind from your enemy and leaves him gasping.” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy beats the wind from you, leaving you gasping and weak.” |
| 7-9 |
Slowed for 1 round PC Flavor: “Your attack rakes the legs of your foe, staggering them for a moment.” NPC Flavor: “Your foe rakes your legs with a cruel blow, staggering you for a moment.” |
| 10-11 |
Slowed until Save PC Flavor: “Your strike tears at your foes legs, leaving them limping.” NPC Flavor: “Your assailant tears your legs with a mean blow, leaving you limping.” |
| 12-14 |
Knocked Prone PC Flavor: “Your brutal attack pummels your enemy flat on the ground.” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy brutally pummels you, and you are dashed to the ground.” |
| 15-16 |
Dazed for 1 round PC Flavor: “You strike your enemy full in the face, leaving them blinking and reeling.” NPC Flavor: “You foe strikes you viciously in the face, and you are left reeling and dazed.” |
| 17 |
Dazed until Save PC Flavor: “You batter your enemy about the head and shoulder, and they reel in dismay.” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy batters you about the head and shoulders, and you reel in dismay.” |
| 18-19 |
Stunned for 1 round PC Flavor: “Your assault bashes you enemy, and delivers his skull a resounding blow.” NPC Flavor: “Your enemy bashes you squarely on the head with stunning force.” |
| 20 |
Stunned until Save PC Flavor: “Your attack batters your foe’s skull with a horrendous crack, agonizing him.” NPC Flavor: “Your foe batters your skull with a horrendous crack, and you reel in agony.” |
The Flavor examples should cover most types of NPCs and monsters, as well as most types of Players, but feel free to ad lib additional Flavor descriptions as you see fit. If you have any suggestions on how to make this chart better, your playtest comments would be most welcome.
So until next blog, I wish you Happy Gaming!
About The Author
[...] Hits Article 4th Edition, House Rule Add comments Random Image Found this today and thought it worthy of posting to spread the knowledge. As a general rule I like the way 4th Edition does critical hits [...]