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What's your favorite Critical Hit house rule for D&D?
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[@SmiffterDFTBA]

One thing I use for martials to make them feel more impactful is give the crit some kind of status effect for the next turn. Maybe the fighter slashes across the dragons face in an epic swipe and effectively blinds the dragon until the start of the fighters next turn

[@myakuza4366]

personnally I give monks a ki point when they crit

[@Nortarachanges]

Yo! I’ve been doing that and not really considering it something extra for some reason. Just makes sense to do. Also “mark” that enemy as more likely to run away than stay and fight until dead

[@brycedecker7142]

Pathfinder be like:

[@carloscaro9121]

It's always fun watching 5e players reinvent Pathfinder 2e.

[@brycedecker7142]

@@carloscaro9121 can’t blame them tho. Took me like 6 months of blatantly copying pathfinder into my 5e game before I final had the bright idea to just switch systems.

[@FoxyGekkerson]

I love the Perkins Crit because it guarantees that the minimum damage output from a critical hit is always higher than the maximum damage output of a non-critical hit from the same attack.

[@rainbowskin3379]

But it compounds the issue of some weapons being better. Some weapons just inherently have a higher average damage due to statistics, but the Perkins crit makes this even more apparent.

[@filthycasual8187]

@@rainbowskin3379 As someone who's primarily playing an OSR with a few smaller 5E systems homebrewed in, I don't have the problem of some weapons being better than others because all weapon attacks do 1d6 damage. I might use the Perkins Crit.

[@MannyBrum]

@@rainbowskin3379 Are you talking about 1d12 vs 2d6 or something like 1d4 vs 1d8? I don't see how weapons doing different amounts of damage is bad either way though.

[@Shalakor]

@@rainbowskin3379 And all weapons deal less damage than a Fireball.

[@OctopusWilson]

Yeah it does seem to make idk I guess narrative sense? To make a "critical hit" inherently do more damage than regular hit possibly could

[@ericlorenzen4795]

Love that last one with inspiration. Dms forget to hand those out and this keeps it showing up regularly so you aren't scared to use it.

[@sixoffcenter80]

Yeah I get that inspiration was originally to encourage roleplaying, but I think I prefer it as a gameified resource that is less in the DM's control. DMs can just give out advantage in the moment for good roleplaying.

[@oystersaucee_]

​@@sixoffcenter80 thats usually how it works in my games, theyre rewarded for rp then save that reward (typically) for combat encounters

[@haravikk]

I think inspiration is a nice thing to hand out for natural 1's as well, so you can feel like your character is inspired to try harder. I might also do it if a player has a run of bad rolls (that aren't 1's) to try and help them break it.

[@TheBucketOfTruth]

I think the OneD&D playtest had a thing like this

[@RaethFennec]

I play online, and give inspiration to my players for showing up on time ready to play. They never hesitate to use it, even for attack rolls if they really felt like it was a cool narrative moment for them to hit or finish an enemy off, so the power level of handing it out is far lower than campaigns where it's rare and hoarded for desperate moments.

[@wither_klng2881]

I like how in ours, instead of rolling two dice, we just double the one dice, but we also explain what the attack did and the DM will choose a permanent or temporary effect on the struck creature

[@tranquility1991]

I've never heard the term "Perkins critical," but my table has been using that house rule for years.

[@Mark-ki7ic]

Mine too

[@georgercop]

It just makes sense to me. I recently did hit a crit in a "double the damage roll" game, and I rolled a 2 on a d8, totalling 4 (final damage of 8 with my STR mod added). Felt kind of crappy that I rolled a natural 20, scoring a critical hit and doing less damage than I could have done on just a normal hit if I rolled, like, a 7 on the damage die. Does feel like crits can just lose their impact in cases like those =/

[@Trumpeter42]

Same. I just stole it from Call of Cthulhu, haha! 😂

[@HealsLFW]

I "created" the same crit rule at my table years ago as well. This is the first time I've heard it attributed to Perkins. 🤔

[@demonicdonut22]

He most likely uses it and it got attributed to him due to his popularity. I've always heard it referred to as "Explosice Criticals"

[@thomaswilliams2350]

We use a critical hit/miss chart that was published back in the day in Dragon magazine #39, July 1980. It's a percentile roll offering everything from instant death to double damage and weapon fumbles, etc.

[@christopherzapata4970]

I remember that chart! I only saw it a few times, from players that were much older than me, but I loved the idea.

[@BrazenBadger]

Fun fact: that "Perkins Critical" was actually the rule as written in 4th edition (with the additional weapon dice of damage added on for magical armaments). Combining that rule with 5e "advantage" rules can make for some very happy rogues if you apply it to sneak attack damage die as well.

[@DazzleCamo]

There was no 4th edition it went straight from 3.5 to 5. /S

[@jovianarsenic6893]

In the time ive been playing, i've learned that rvery good homebrew rule for 5e was there in 4e

[@Dragowolf_Rising]

​@@jovianarsenic6893"Good" is subjective but no edition is all good or all bad.

[@jovianarsenic6893]

@@Dragowolf_Rising Not saying 4e was perfect or all good, just that a lot of the ideas lost in the transition that are being rediscovered now are good

[@leandronc]

@@jovianarsenic6893 4e was great in my book. 5e used a lot of its ideas, just repackaged them a bit to appear less "gamey" (the main criticism against 4e, I think).

[@shadowbear123]

That last one is great! Personally, I like doubling any damage modifier added to the roll on top of doubling the dice. Yes, spellcasters might still lose out on bad crits with this (unless they get a special ability), but for martials it *guarantees* the damage will be more than if they didn't crit Plus, it's applicable to both pcs AND npcs without having to worry about how it scales at higher levels, for those who like to use the same ruling for both sides. Some of those damage dice npcs get later are... intense... and doing something like maximizing and rolling on top of it is murder for pcs

[@challs3080]

I give out inspiration on Nat 20s and Nat 1s. I also have little inspiration cards as a physical reminder. This way they get used every session!

[@DannyboyO1]

That's... pretty smart.

[@Awes0m3n3s5]

I might try this, Im the worst at giving out inspiration (I just forget)

[@gildedbear5355]

love the idea of inspiration for nat 1s. "yeah, that sucked, but at least you learned what NOT to do next time!"

[@DominoPivot]

That kinda encourages crit fishing and creates a feedback loop though. Some characters have features that lets them attack multiple times per turn (extra attack, eldritch blast), occasionally reroll a d20 (luck, elven accuracy, magical guidance) or count 19's as crits, so they would get advantage way more often as a result. Meanwhile the inspiration on nat 1s is kinda stepping over the halfling's luck feature.

[@Awes0m3n3s5]

@@DominoPivot okay, dont use it then, you didnt understand it anyways

[@QueArres]

We have a Called Shot table that we use in the Wild West campaign that we're playing. Players can make a called shot to a specific area with a penalty to the attack roll (ranging from -2 to -10, depending on the location), or roll for a random location on a critical hit. Depending on where the hit lands, it can incur additional effects, from additional damage to penalties to speed or particular checks. Targeting hands is a great way to get targets to drop items, and it really fits well with the flavor of a Western.

[@DoctorPepperSpray]

When my table scores a crit, they roll once and then decide if they want to double that roll or roll a second time.

[@jhonedwardmoramora4672]

Double it and pass it onto the next person

[@sapphireclawe]

​@@jhonedwardmoramora4672 Gonna do this for a campaign

[@doms.6701]

So they can still get 2 damage of a crit? 😂 Ya, I'd leave the game. But also why i never play, only GM

[@sapphireclawe]

@@doms.6701 I've heard of people doing a "crit die" which is labeled with different body parts, and there's a one in six chance of instant death upon a crit due to decapitation.

[@hellfrozenphoenix13]

​@@doms.6701i personally like the chaos. Its still chance, but its a bit more fair than RAW.

[@bence0302bence]

A long time ago we used the maximum damage crit rule, but we thought it ended up being too powerful (especially for some spells), so we settled on taking the average roll on top of your damage. We found this great because it's consistent but impactful. iirc the Monster Manual recommends this to the DMs for the monsters!

[@SwissStrawberry]

we use a min crit rule: if your weapon has a d6, you will at least deal 6+1dmg. if you have a d8 it is min 8+1. if you roll better (like a 8 and a 2 on a d8 crit), you take the better result. So crits always do more dmg than normal hits and feel good even if you roll bad

[@doms.6701]

Sounds like a complicated version of the first method. Just give them the max die and roll the other. Why have extra rolling

[@tattoodude8946]

@@SwissStrawberry I like this idea - and you can bump it to +2, +3 or whatever you want until it feels right. We are using the Perkin's Rule right now but I can see it dealing way too much damage for my PCs - especially my ranger who just received an Oathbow (and also does psychic damage every round and has hunter's mark... and sharpshooter)! I also never applied it to enemies to avoid the TPK situation you described above. PCs use the Perkin's rule - NPCs and monsters (essentially the DM - me) uses the traditional roll twice model.

[@WindsorMason]

​@@tattoodude8946what was the TPK scenario? The comment is gone.:(

[@mr.pineapple3447]

​@@doms.6701Because some people just like rolling dice tbh haha. I honestly would use the perkins crit, but I want to roll a solid chunky handful of dice goddamnit!

[@DominoPivot]

​@@doms.6701 I don't like how Perkins' method makes crits more powerful, but I have to agree with you, the method described here just turns all rolls below average into the average. You're rolling twice as many dice yet the roll matters half as much because you're likely going to deal the average damage anyway. Might as well just skip the damage roll altogether and say crits just deal max damage (no dice doubling involved). That way a crit is never OP but also never underwhelming, and gameplay is sped up by crits instead of slowed down. I think taking risks and rolling many dice is fun for players though, so I'd probably stick with the vanilla rules for player crits and use my highcrit variant only for monsters so I have less things to roll as a DM and lower chances of killing a player without warning.

[@conflictmallet575]

Never heard it called the Perkins Crit before. We call it Massive Crits. It ensures that crits always do more damage than a normal attack. I also hand out inspiration for any rolled nat 1's and 20's that you use.

[@feltron]

In older versions when one would have to confirm the crit, a rule we used was if you roll another natural 20 it would increase the multiplier and one would continue to roll until they missed the nat 20. Highest we saw was a ×4 multiplier.

[@tugrequired]

As a Pathfinder player, I've played with cascading Crits for years. If you roll a nat 20 on your confirmation roll, you double the extra dice from the crit and roll again. Repeat until you stop rolling nat 20s

[@B00Radl33]

I've seen a dire bat one shot a level 3 paladin by rolling two crits in a row, kinda like this.

[@christopherzapata4970]

I believe that confirming crits was either 4e or a house rule. I can confirm that it was not a rule in 1e or 2e, basic or advanced.

[@feltron]

@@christopherzapata4970 I think we were playing 3.5

[@christopherzapata4970]

@feltron Could be. I played two or three sessions of 3rd, no 3.5, no 4. I've played lots of any editions not mentioned.

[@owenpk5735]

My table's rule is that you roll double the dice, but to make sure its still special, you also get a special effect like disarming them or forcing them to one knee

[@mpeterll]

I'd never heard of those methods before, but I did use an open-ended crit roll. Each time a 20 is rolled, you roll another attack. It rarely makes a difference but we did over the years have some triple hits and I remember one quad hit. Note that on the subsequent rolls, it was only a nat 2o that got rerolled, regardless of the initial crit-range.

[@can-i-go-now]

I've done that method then I had the unicorn roll by kept rolling crits... I had 3 critical roll of fireball which when it hit goblins with explosive I wiped out the entire room in one hit.

[@mpeterll]

@@can-i-go-now You don't roll to hit with wide-area spells, so that makes no sense at all.

[@classarank7youtubeherokeyb63]

Pathfinder does this. We had one quintuple roll.

[@erickingsepp]

I *love* the idea of other players getting inspiration from watching a critical hit. It makes total narrative sense! Going to use it.

[@Somanyheadphones]

We use a variation of the Perkins Crit. Only the first die is maxed. The "first die" is typically just the largest die you would have normally rolled for damage. The rest of the doubled dice are rolled. This prevents crits from being absolutely insane for spells with buckets of dice or sneak attacks at higher levels

[@klauthor]

I like to make crits "narrative". A critical fire attack might set enemies on fire, frost may slow them or freeze them. If a fighter crits for way more damage than necessary to finish an enemy, I might let them cleave through and just damage an adjacent foe. Sometimes, if I can't think of a more specific thing to apply, if circumstances don't allow or a player hasn't got a direction they want to take it, I just describe a crit as particularly brutal and demoralize all foes that saw it. I feel like crits not having a "set rule" but rather just always do something cool and rule-bendy makes them feel special. It entices players to describe more in-depth too, if they want to influence what the crit does, for example.

[@Tony-nt5zd]

When I was running 5E I used the Perkins Crit, though I never knew it by that name. These days I have exploding dice and difference bonus to damage in my OSR game (ex: the AC is 14 and you get a 17, you get +3 damage), which is a bit more fun to us than simple nat 20 crits.

[@hildir6507]

The inspiration bit is a rule ive been using for the better part of a year now and it adds to the team's camaraderie, cool to see that its always been an option for other people. Another fun house rule we use we call "glancing blows" - if your attack roll is equal to the target's AC you deal half damage to it instead of the attack being a miss.

[@conlon4332]

I thought equal to AC was normally just a hit?

[@angelinsilence]

We do the Perkins crit - although at my table it’s referred to as a “crunchy crit”

[@quickglove6461]

Same here, surprisingly

[@malachimalachii]

I like the Perkin's crit, that's my favorite, but I like the inspirational crit too, that has so much RP potential!

[@trollsmyth]

I'd never heard of it described as the Perkin's Crit, but that's the one I've been using.

[@ThePizzaMan_]

I like the "role damage as if it had advantage then double the result" rule 👍

[@DonsArtnGames]

My tables have used the Perkins Crit since I've been with them... Didn't know it had a name. I will be stealing the inspirational crit idea though.

[@Runsten_]

I use a variant of Perkins' Crit where you roll double the dice, but you can maximize one die of your choice. So for 2d6 you get 6 + 3d6 (Max + rest of the dice rolled twice). This makes it so that crits with few dice will always have "oomph", but huge number of dice won't go out of the roof. So a crit on a 1d12 will always be impactful with the guaranteed 12 base damage, but a 5th level smite won't deal a 56 + 7d8 damage (assuming 1d8 weapon). Perkins' Crit works nicely when the number of dice being doubled is low, but gives an escalating boost to attacks with a lot of dice. This design is meant to maintain the power with low number of dice while fixing the issue with multiple dice spiking in damage.

[@xylemicarious]

^I really like this one! It's one of the few I've seen that would work for PF2e as well as 5e lol, most of those I've been reading here would TPK the PCs as soon as they fought a boss haha

[@Planeswalker-Pt]

A couple of my groups do deadly crits instead of doubling the dice, you get max damage plus the normal Roll. So if your attack does 2 D6 damage, on a crit it would do 12 damage +2 D6 critical damage plus the other modifiers. But in the very rare chance you roll 2 natural 20s (Weatherby advantage or disadvantage) you don’t roll damage, you do maximum damage so in the attack above would just be 24 damage plus the other modifiers.

[@Phoenix_StageCombatDirector]

These are called the Three Dragons rules, named after the seattle-based Academy that hosts tons of D&D camps and uses these as house rules: 4 options. 1. Normal vanilla crit. (Though I’m going to add the observed Inspiration to this; that’s a great idea!). Appeals to the RAW-is-Fun crowd. 2. Lucky Shot: Max your normal damage dice. Ex: Swinging a maul? It hits for 12 plus STR. In this case, your nat 20 represents getting a nice deep cut/targeting a mean spot. 3. Extra Attack: You roll the normal damage roll, and then roll another attack that also gets normal damage- the Nat 20 in this case represents getting the first hit in so quick that you have time for a backslash/second shot. Plays into the element /game mechanic of chance, which some players really like, and those with good damage LOVE it. 4. ”Go For Broke”: this one is ALL about taking chances: You trade your crit for a crapshoot; roll to attack again. If you miss, it counts as a 1. But if you hit, you double all the damage dice AND take max damage for all of them too: For rogues Sneak Attacking, this can be Amazing. This Nat 20 represents that Hail Mary type attack, the one that throws you off balance for the CHANCE of devastating damage / a fight-ending attack. Very popular: players will literally chant “GoForBroke” hoping their comrade with convert their Nat 20 to this version. :)

[@TaberIV]

I often just allow something narrative to happen on a natural 1 or 20. On a 20 you might be able to disarm or trip an opponent, and if an opponent rolled a 1 maybe they fell out a window lol.

[@Concord003]

That's a good and interesting and engaging approach. Thank you for the tip.

[@DominoPivot]

I like flavoring the description to justify the damage of the crit but... those are perhaps not great examples since disarming and shoving already have pretty clear rules in D&D x)

[@Ninjamanhammer]

Do you only do nat 20s for the players and nat 1s for enemies, or do you do nat 20s for enemies and nat 1 for players too?

[@coltonstewart8698]

I use that first one, but i heard of it being called "crunchy crits" I really like that. It also saves on some math

[@Dae27_]

How I do it is when someone gets a crit I ask them to describe how the attack happens and then apply a debuff to the enemy depending on how they say it happened Examples someone says they run up and slash the enemy across the face Enemy is now blinded Or they run up and hit him in the balls with a club Enemy is knocked prone

[@OctopusWilson]

It does mean that you are kinda letting the player decide what kind of debuff they want to put on the enemy. Not necessarily a bad thing but it can be a huge buff to a player who really wants to take advantage of it

[@Dae27_]

@@OctopusWilson it does let them take advantage of it but that makes it even better, it creates some really cool/memorable moments, it’s lets the play think ‘ok this creature is very reliant on __ factor to do some things’ and lets them think of how to describe their attack to counter it. It lets them see a fast creature that keeps attacking with hit and run tactics, so they slash at their legs to reduce their speed a bit, or see that the enemy wizard is using a lot of spells with vocal components and shoot for their mouth to make it more difficult for them to use such spells. It does give the players a chance to abuse it but that’s what makes it more fun. It gives them an extra incentive to pay attention to the enemies and what they do so on the small chance they roll a crit they can specifically counter that one enemy

[@OctopusWilson]

@@Dae27_ Hell yeah! Its a big buff but to a generally unreliable random event so it's not that unbalanced. I guess worse case it can leave spellcasters out of the fun a bit but they get enought toys to play with as is usually

[@feitocomfruta]

I remember hearing about a storytelling Crit where regardless of score, the player narrated that made it so memorable, and it became a canon “local legend”. Good for RP-leaning and collaborative world building tables

[@Vaxtris]

I myself would use the Perkins Crit. Make the critical hit feel like a critical hit.

[@zactolson3938]

An interesting wrinkle that we use at my table is that each character gets an extra background feature, called either "inspired by failure" or "inspired by success". This allows more "character" in these critical rules.

[@alalessia]

Never been this early and now I'll have to come back later to see what cool house rules others have to offer xD

[@jacksondipietro4899]

I ask my players to describe how they hit the monster, and based on there description I assign a negative condition like prone or there now blind.

[@jacksondipietro4899]

Oops meant to post that in the actual comment

[@trublgrl]

I love the "Inspiration-from-Crit" idea! So often, cooperation in combat comes down to "Who is the most hurt enemy? Can I get to him without an opportunity attack?" Any way to involve each other in our combat improves the game for me!

[@nrais76]

The only one of those I would consider is the inspiration. Anything that makes crits do more damage should rightfully also apply to the bad guys. The PCs are exposed to more potential crits than any other entity in the game - after all, they're in every fight, unlike the monsters. So anything which makes crits deadlier actually increases risk to the PCs. This isn't necessarily too big in 5e - although it can be - but, in older editions this could wreak significant statistical havoc with anything which resembling game balance.

[@declanmacpherson7939]

Minimum of the normal max damage. I’ve tried so many different methods and this is the most stable by far. The Perkin’s Crit does not check out when the numbers get really big. It’s fine if you want crits with smites or sneak attack to do >20 damage ABOVE AVERAGE for a normal crit at modestly high levels. That just made combat way too swingy for me, so I started ruling that crits do, at minimum, the maximum damage that a normal such attack could do. You still roll twice as many dice, so a 1d8 hit would roll 2d8, but if you roll snake eyes on those d8s, you’re at least always doing 8 damage. Every crit now has potential to be as big as it normally could be, without busting out the math ceiling and without ever falling flat! My players love it! Works great from both sides of the screen!

[@analyticsystem4094]

In my campaign, I wanted crits to feel like a nova type of attack so when you get a critical hit you roll 1d6 in addition to your normal damage die. On a 1-4 you get an extra damage die, on a 5 you get x2 damage and on a 6 you get triple damage.

[@BahamutDX]

We use a crit table - we roll a D100 and determine on that list what additional effects the hit has. This can go from "You feel inspired and nothing happens" up to "You deal 3 times that damage and your target suffers one permanent scar" etc. Thats really cool because the players really feel rewarded for that. And yes, theres always the chance that you deal minimal damage and roll low on the D100, but theres also the chance that you just kill the encounter completely, nocking it prone, steal their weapon etc.

[@dolly4359]

Nat 20s at my table equals Max Damage x2. No extra rolls for damage are needed.

[@Ninjamanhammer]

Does it count for enemies too?

[@dolly4359]

@@Ninjamanhammer yes, but not when the players are below level 4. It's pretty much an auto kill if I did that.

[@Ninjamanhammer]

@@dolly4359 It pretty much still is. A CR 1 bugbear will deal 34 damage, while a 14 con level 4 fighter will have 36 hit points.

[@dolly4359]

@@Ninjamanhammer details, besides, nat 20s are rare at my table.

[@Ninjamanhammer]

@@dolly4359 About 1 in 20 :P

[@leoluster6403]

I’ve had many instances with critting on Initiative so what I’ve done historically is offer an extra Action, Bonus Action, OR Movement. Players love this and it makes Nat 20s on Initiative feel valuable.

[@relariis_the_paradox]

I keep the doubling of damage the same, but I let my players choose whether they want to double the damage they rolled (if it's high) or roll an extra set of dice (if it's low), and if both were bad, reroll ones

[@BerryNerdCorner]

My DM has a crit table that we roll on for both 20s AND 1s, using a d100. For 20s, the minimum effect is double damage, and the max is insta-kill (which we’ve seen twice. It’s amazing). For 1s, we might stumble and lose our turn, fall prone, lose our weapon, attack an ally, or something of the like. It’s a fun rule, because we all get to chant “TABLE! TABLE! TABLE!” whenever someone crits.

[@sephirothii13]

we use a crit chart for both Nat 20 and Nat 1

[@HuchiaZ]

At our table I split it by weapon type. Melee weapons are max plus rolled, traditional ranged are double rolled and modifiers, and firearms double rolled and will hit the next nearest thing behind the target for half the total. The real trick for firearms is that they always have at least two dice of damage, so with a crit you will have 4 dice instead of 2 at minimum. Their drawback is namely special ammo scarcity. Using the old d8 this works out to an average of 17.5 for melee, 14 for ranged, and 23+11.5 for firearms.

[@SilverionX]

There are critical tables from an old Swedish RPG I played in my youth that had some amazing (d100) critical tables. You'd take the damage, roll a d20 or d100, can't remember, and apply whatever effect you got. The higher the number the more gruesome the effect, including involuntary rearrangement of the enemies nether regions, severing a main artery or straight up decapitation. Even funnier were the critical miss tables which had results like "you slip on an invisible turtle" or "in your excitement, you swallow your own tongue, start taking suffocation damage until you get help". It's been over 20 years but I still remember a few. I could translate and use them, if I ran an English speaking campaign.

[@Lamefoureyes]

In our group, rolling more dice is more fun so we roll double the number of dice. Helps keep things normally distributed. Love the inspiration though, thats a great touch

[@playitbyear5312]

I love Perkin’s rule personally. It’s effective, powerful, and still variable. I’ve also implemented a rule that involves inspiration as well and that is that a player may, upon rolling a critical, expend one of their inspiration points to simply do max damage doubled.

[@CaTastrophy427]

I've encountered a few. My favorite of the bunch was having each damage die rolled be upgraded two tiers - as in, instead of a d4, roll a d8 (skipping over d6). Critting a d12 roll leads to rolling a d20 as with a d10. Crit an attack that is 1d10 + 2d4? Roll 1d20 + 2d8, doubling your theoretical max damage but not changing the minimum. After one player got more or less minimum damage on all three of the crits he got in one session, a second house rule was added allowing you to, once per die, reroll any individual dice that rolled at least 2 less than the max of the original die - can reroll a d8 if you roll 2 or less, a d10 if you roll 4 or less, d20 if you roll 8 or less (10 or less if it was originally a d12), take the higher roll for those dice. The latter house rule was later taken to another table that used just the regular old "roll two sets and add them together". There, it became a reroll on any dice that totaled to at least 2 less than the max of a single die. If rolling multiple naturally, you pair the highest of the first set with the highest of the second set, second highest with second highest, etc. Rerolls are, again, take the higher result. Any pairs that're low like that get rerolled. d4 can only be rerolled if you get a pair of 1s, d6 can be rerolled with a 1 and a 3 or two 2s... you get the idea. It worked pretty well. I've had another fun rule working around minimum rolls for crits: Instead of doubling the dice, add +1 of each type rolled, however, any dice that roll 1/3 or less of the max of that type are kept but also rerolled, and this can happen as many times as you're unlucky enough to encounter. As in, you crit a 2d12 attack. Instead of rolling 4d12, you roll 3d12, but any that roll 4 or lower add another d12 to the mix. Roll 2, 4, and 9? Total of 15, but also roll 2d12 more. 3 and a 7, now you're at 25 and still have to roll another d12. Oh, a 1? 26, roll again. Full 12 this time? 38 damage from a 2d12 attack, because you got unlucky. Most I've seen was base 8d6 turning into 37d6, something like 80 damage from the dice alone.

[@enagonius]

I do the Perkinsfinder critical: you just double the damage dice on a natural 20 as per RAW; but on any hit (critical or not) if your final modified roll surpasses the enemy's AC by 10 or more then your damage dice are maximized - on a critical that also meets this criteria you maximize the dice just once and then roll the doubled dice you gain because of the nat 20.

[@MashProperties]

one of our dm's uses a d100 table. it's great! a 1 might break a bowstring, a 20 might be double damage, might be max, might break the targets leg leaving them unable to walk, might be an instakill

[@Coldheart322]

I love how often I see 4e style house rules in 5e. Crits in 4e deal maximum rolled damage, then add the crit effect of the magic weapon, which is normally +1d6 damage per enchantment bonus. Some weapons deal more crit damage, or deal more to specific enemies. Some even have ongoing damage or have some other effect like teleporting them around. So much more interesting then 5e.

[@TAP7a]

Our DM's house rule: double all dice (including all effects like Brutal Critical) *and* modifiers, and ALSO make dice exploding (on rolling max value, add it to the total and reroll). Most criticals, especially beyond level 5, feel pretty damn good, but occasionally you get a chain of two or three extra dice - it doesn't matter whether they make much of a difference (like it could be the difference between doing 20, 24 and 28 damage, which against HP pools of 200 don't *really* matter), the pure hype of resolving the exploding dice and seeing it hit max more than once makes the crit feel super special and exciting

[@themythicbladesofpeace2905]

Critical hit that we do is double everything. So you double your dice and then double your attack modifier. It works out really well, and our group has been doing it for our 4 year campaign. Really easy to do

[@VentusTheBest]

When someone makes a critical hit, I use a homebrew rule that let the players add their Ability Modifier used to make attack roll. For example, if a fighter attacks using his Strenght based weapon like a Greatsword, when he scores a critical hit he adds his Str Mod again in the damage roll. The same goes to casters, so, if a wizard makes a critical hit using spells like Shocking Grasp, Chill Touch, Ray of Frost, etc., he can add his Int Mod to the damage roll for every critical hit.

[@SatrnOne]

The Perkins crit is what my table usually uses. I love the critical inspiration, though. Just imagining the look on my Bard's face as the rogue does a perfect knife flip before burying it in a bugbear's neck 😮

[@juddperson6110]

We don't use this in my current group, but it was in my last: Weapon does 1d8 damage, and you roll a crit. Roll 2d8, then drop the lowest and replace it with an 8. Similar to what Ginny explains, but you basically roll the "extra" damage with advantage. Made for absolutely devastating crits.

[@TrueKoalaKnight]

We play Pathfinder 2e. So by default we don't roll twice, we roll once add all bonuses and penalties THEN we double the total. Since crits can happen when rolling a natural 20 or exceeding the target's DC by 10, they happen far more often. So we really don't need to house rule it. However, that is in and of itself a house rule that can be applied to D&D. Just roll damage, add your modifiers, then double that total. Hell, I'd be surprised if some people aren't already doing it that way.

[@michelerota8804]

I usually ghive the player the choice of forgoing the double damage and describing how they wanna play out the attack ( a crushing blow, or a swift slash to the feet, more creative the better) and i apply a condition or malus based on the description, Keep the palyers engaged and make them think a little bit out of the numbers box 🎁📯

[@leokjackson]

I started using the Perkins Crit earlier this year in the years-long campaign I run, and the response has been resoundingly positive. I can’t imagine running another game without it. Every crit *feels* like a crit when the minimum damage you do is higher than the maximum damage you otherwise could have done. The “double the higher roll” sounds cool, but I worry you’d still end up with crits that don’t feel like crits if both rolls are no good. The Inspirational Crit sounds awesome, and I think I’ll try it out in addition to the Perkins, but only if the situation merits it - perhaps someone who has rolled poorly all session gets a crit and others get excited over it, or a player crits using a spell or ability another player recently acquired, showing them “how good it can be” to use it. I don’t think every crit is the same, and using this sparingly gives the especially inspiring ones a real bonus.

[@richardzikeiii6131]

I used type based bonus effects. I made a table to stealth roll to see how severe the bonus effects are and tell the players things like "your brutal blow crushed the orcs arm. He drops his weapon from the now visibly broken arm hangs limply by his side". In this example I disarmed the enemy, put it at disadvantage on actions, and now it has lasting damage that all players could use to identify (this orc managed to escape but was found later by the now higher level party to get revenge over a NPC death)

[@filuo9058]

The one that I like the most is the inspirational crit. I like it because it's more group focus. It's also because I feel that inspiration aren't used enough in my dnd games.

[@ShinGallon]

Our group's crit house rule is roll one of the dice and add it to the max of a normal damage role, IE if the crit is 2D6 you automatically get 6 for one of the dice then add what you roll on the other D6. That way at minimum you're doing more damage than a maxed normal attack.

[@Donny-G]

Really like the inspiration idea and it can go in so many creative directions

[@JesterMotley]

At my games criticals are a chance for weird stuff to happen. I have a player roll a second d20, and use that to judge the severity of what happens... A crit fail with a high severity might be the string on a bow breaks, or a weapon slips from their hands. A crit success might mean the characters manage to break the enemy's shield, or one of their fangs off. Tripping, stumbling a square right or left, breaking a bone (rendering a limb useless for the combat or til healed), cutting a boot lace... All of those things that happen in 'real' or hollywood fight scenes that just make things epic... One such encounter was a crit success followed by a 1 on the severity... The player got full damage but also got sprayed by the blood... as the character was very fussy, it became a roleplaying moment that eventually became a running theme among the players. These events add so much flavor, and fun, and give characters reasons to have things like an extra bow-string on their character sheets. Or even to find a magic unbreaking bow-string after having one to many snap on them.

[@enumaelish8247]

I use a rule where HP is treated as stamina rather than life, and characters and enemies never actually get hurt unless they are critically hit or downed. So critical hits are how you can injure an enemy (break an arm, leg, poke an eye out, that kind of stuff) and everything else is just people getting tired. It's also a pretty neat way to justify how characters get beaten nearly to death and just sleep it off in 8 hours.

[@Just_a-guy]

"you drop from the space and take 77 points of "im tired" dmg for being bored during the flight". "Adult red dragon just landed in front of you and used his breath attack, you failed save and are sweating like crazy from this point blank fire coming right at you so mark of 68 point of your stamina"

[@enumaelish8247]

@@Just_a-guy More like you drop from space and die, and failed saves are treated as critсs, so you get injured.

[@CubeFrog]

Been using the Perkins Crit rule without knowing it was called that for ages. Really gives the rogues some added OOMPH.

[@robbeltran5108]

I use a house rule called "Compound Critical", which can be applied to anything requiring a D20 success roll, such as attacks, saves, skills, etc. The player makes a d20 roll, and if it's a natural 20, it's an automatic success. The player then makes a subsequent "confirmation" d20 roll, and if it is a successful result, it's a critical hit with an individual damage roll for each damage modifier (x2, x3, etc.) with a minimum damage of the damage maximum damage for a x1 damage roll +1 per damage modifier (minimum with x2 modifier = max damage roll +1). If the confirmation roll fails, then the roll is merely an automatic success with no additional effects. Now comes the "compound" part of the rule. If the subsequent roll is also a natural 20, the critical hit can "compound", which results in the player gaining 1 point towards inspiration to be used at the moment or saved for the future, and will roll a for another "confirmation" s20 roll, and if it's successful, it will result in an increase in the damage modifier (x2 becomes x3, etc) and therefore another damage roll to be added to the total and an additional +1 to the minimum damage. If this confirmation roll is also a d20, then the critical hit can be compounded yet again by rolling an additional confirmation roll. This process can repeat for as long as natural 20's are rolled, thus potentially compounding the result repeatedly and increasing the damage modifier by x1 for each successful result and gaining an additional point of inspiration to be applied at the moment or saved for later. The compounding will stop when the confirmation roll results in any result not a natural 20. Additionally, a natural on on a confirmation roll will result in an automatic fail of the critical regardless of any bonuses that may have applied to it. Inspiration cannot be used to elevate a confirmation roll to a natural 20 in any circumstance.

[@dinofunkTV]

cypher system uses an interesting mix of the perkins crit and the inspiration one. players can choose to take a +4 to their damage, or receive a “major effect”, which is essentially a very good thing happening for them. scaring away lesser enemies, stunning or disarming your target, inspiring your allies, etc.

[@CorbiniteVids]

Worth noting that doubling the dice is a house rule too, for perspective. It's just one that's gotten so common that everyone forgets. Rules as written you just add a single die. So a damage roll of 2d6 becomes 3d6 instead of 4d6

[@varthalgamekiin4931]

Crits cause scarring. The players describe the hit and the DM decides on some kind of disadvantage to place on the target. Same goes for players being the target. Obviously the barbarians, fighters and paladins are going to end up covered in scars if the campaign goes on for a while and they can keep a record of all their scars and how they got them. "This gash on my shoulder was from a dragon's talon. Almost took my head off." Or "This burn on my chest was from an archmage who shot lightning at me. Damn near killed me on the spot." Brilliant character building and gives them more roleplay options.

[@claude-alexandretrudeau1830]

I wanted to implement "injury crits". Basically, when you score a critical hit, you decide what lasting injury you inflict. Bleeding, loss of an eye, fingers cut off. Just no decapitation, unless you reduce the target's HP to 0. None of my friends wanted it, because we always go by the rule that states that whatever the players can do, the enemies can do as well. So, we just use the Perkins crit. First time I heard "roll twice, double highest. Neat.

[@maxmurray6680]

I use a combo of crunchy Perkins (perkins plus double modifiers) and condition crits,player gets to choose a location and effector the crit, eg head can be blindness/deafness/stunned, leg can be a movement reduction, arm can be disarm weapon, so on and so forth. Basically choose extra damage, or normal crit and a condition (that has to make sense for the creature type you're fighting). One cool thing about this is you can accidentally work out condition immunities, attempt to stun a creature only to piss it off 🤷‍♂️

[@GoTrespassing]

My party received weapon upgrades after their first bounty mission that mostly augment crits. On crits the barbarian’s axe applies a bleed, the paladin’s hammer can knock enemies 5’ in any direction, and the ranger’s staff poisons. The only exception is our gunslinger fighter. His already overpowered laser rifle received a handy bayonet since he carries no other weapons!

[@classarank7youtubeherokeyb63]

It’s more for skill checks, but we often use a rule from cyberpunk. On a crit, you roll a d10. 1-5 is a normal crit and doesn’t do anything extra. 6-7, 8-9, and 10 each represent increasing rewards. 6-7 is usually minor, and just means some extra benefits. About as good a result as you could reasonably expect. Your investigation not only turned up a solid lead, but you probably also found some hidden valuables. For combat it may mean extra damage. 8-9 is better. You not only made it across the rickety bridge, but you saved your buddy from his bad roll too. If it was a saving throw against a spell, you probably avoided damage altogether. 10 is the highest and is intentionally game-breaking. By pure coincidence, you happen to have studied these specific ruins and know exactly what they are and where to expect traps. You not only avoided damage from the fireball spell, but you swatted it away like an action hero. You slashed the bad guy’s tendon and he’s down an arm. It also works for crit failures.

[@Circuitman02]

I used to do “double crits” and “triple crits” (if the roll to confirm a crit was also a crit). I stopped when the water elemental double crit and one-shot the monk. In my defense, I was still new to DM’ing and it took me a while to realize that was a house rule (I was taught VERY poorly) and I had a tenuous grasp at best of things like “game balance”. I learned a big lesson in that moment

[@jakelambert4259]

A house rule my first DM used was “double the dice and max the damage”, so it would usually be a decently high amount of damage, which felt good! In my own game, crits will feel even more damage due to a homebrew rule added to armour replacing AC, splitting it into evasion and Defence. (Evasion is standard roll to hit, but Defence is a number that gets subtracted from the total damage you take on a turn) My games crits would work as follows “Max the dice, add modifiers, subtracted by the foe’s Defence, multiplied by 3” So for example, a 1d10 weapon with +5 Str, against a foe with 5 Def. ((10+5)-5)x3 is 30 damage dealt!

[@richarddeleeuw2414]

I'm using a 'double the dice' crit. Where the additional damage (proficiency etc.) Is not doubled. In addition, every attack roll on a nat 20 (or nat 1) rolls a D6 on a custom 'effect' table, to determine something extra. The bonus effect depends on the type of attack or spell. Each table has a 'no bonus feature', a few 'minor' effects like' shoving an enemy back with a high powerfull bludg. Hit, or moving 1 spot 'up in the initiative order'. And 1 major one. Like: your spell didn't consume a spellslot, or you get a free action. For fumbles (nat 1's) i kept the results pretty simple. Like having a slippert weapon handle (no longer add proficiency to rolls until you spend a action wiping it). Panicking to instantly end your turn. For wizard there are things like not being able to cast the same spell for that combat, or knocking yourself prone with feedback. So far, things are pretty fun. And lead to cool situations. But we have no fighters or monks spamming 6 attacks per turn. It may get unbalanced then. Also, i'm a pretty friendly DM who isn't very focussed on abusing my players mishaps...

[@Reanimatedself]

I made up a house rule for our d20 nats after introducing my family to the game. We like faster combat so we come up with house rules to help speed it along. My nat 20 rule is called flourish. If you roll a natural 20 you get to either roll again for max damage plus the second roll or describe an action you want to try to do such as as cut off a creatures arm. I give it a difficulty rating appropriate to the action and they roll again. If they succeed, they get to describe in detail how they stab out a monsters eye, decapitate it, etc. This gives my players a chance to shine with unique and fun actions and encourages them to role play a bit. Otherwise they still end up doing damage. It’s a win win and has not broken a single encounter.

[@axelminus]

We do normal damage rolls, but added with a positive effect e.g. Disarming, or tripping (determined via dice roll). But with a crit fail the same effects can apply to you

[@zaccaustin]

I use the rule in Level Up: Advanced 5th edition: "When you score a critical hit, you double the attack’s damage against the target (including static modifiers). A critical hit can be turned into a regular hit by sacrificing an equipped shield, or choosing to suffer fatigue.

[@briankelly1240]

'rule of cool' for my table. Usually means the roller gets to describe exactly how they succeed, often resulting in fun finisher moves on an enemy!

[@paintcanyork4100]

I like to add a choice attack with the double damage. Like going for the eyes to inflict blindness or targeting the legs to knock them prone

[@Logan_Baron]

I've used the Perkins Crit rule before I ever heard his name. Though I've also allowed Players to choose a special effect of their choosing instead (or in addition to depending on the effect they want). Or let them do some combat feat that they are able to do so many times a day at that moment without spending it, or without spending the points they would otherwise require.

[@NeflewitzInc]

When I ran 5e a lot my table loved having Double Max Damage crits. That means that you maximize all the dice for the attack, and then double that number, and any modifiers that would have gone into the damage as well. It's absolutely brutal and I've lost more than one boss to it, but the door swings both ways and my players have learned to fear monsters getting criticals. Overall, for something that happens only 5% of rolls, it went from a disappointing occurrence to a table of excitement and suspense.

[@Parker_Bedford]

Something that I have wanted to put into practice but have yet to try is giving crits special lasting effects; perhaps piercing weapon crits deal deep cut damage that cannot be healed until the creature finishes a long rest, slashing crits inflict a nerfed Bleeding status effect (maybe it only deals d4s) and bludgeoning impairs the creature’s movement by 5ft until they finish a long rest.

[@spicysand5085]

I'm a massive fan of Crunchy Crits. The gist of it is that anytime any creature rolls a critical hit, roll the d20 again. This new roll is looked up on a table to control how the crit works. If you roll around 10 its a vanilla crit, if you roll a nat 1 you lose the crit and roll damage normally, and to top it off if you crit ON the crit it does Double Max damage dice (24 dmg on 2d6). In addition to modifying the damage, most numbers on this table will also apply status effects to the victim depending on the damage type, for example Thunder damage concussing the victim and giving them disadvantage for the next couple turns.

[@Midrealm_DM]

I implemented a deck of 'critical hit' cards that describe additional effects on the target such as bleeding, disadvantage, fear, AC reduction, knockdown, etc. The cards have different effects based on attack type making weapon choice/damage type feel more like it matters.

[@kiwismoothie2914]

The gm of a current campaign im in has an entire critical hits chart. You can choose the effect of the hit depending on what type of attack or weapon you used. Got a crit once and used it to give myself another action, so i could heal myself. Other effects include but are not limited to: launching the creature in the air, forcing them prone, and chipping away at the creature’s hit point maximum.

[@moonink3d420]

I run crits as being "double the total damage". This includes: all dice rolled (yes including sneak attack, smites, and secondary damage values), ability score modifiers and any extra damage values from the weapon being magical and such. This results in crits feeling very chunky if rolled well; it also puts my players into a complete panic because this rule applies to enemies too.

[@PhoenixM13]

When I run D&D I use max dice roll plus double modifier. So for 1d12+4 it is 12+8 damage. I also use critical success and failure for saving throws against spell damage where a 20 means you only take 1/3 but a 1 means you suffer an additional effect.

[@JVHorvath1]

i use the tiered critical hit house rule sometimes. i use game rules for 5th for normal games. but if i know a game is going to drag on for longer than the normal meeting time, then the first nat 20 is damage x2; second nat 20 is damage x3; 3rd is damage x2 to two separate targets within 5ft of each other; 4th is damage x3 to two separate targets within 5ft of each other; 5th is an insta kill. 6th and beyond is back to normal crit kills

[@jacobsargent5367]

I use the "take the maximum, add the rolled damage" version. This ensures that crits are always bigger and cooler than normal hits, and the added danger of having a bad guy occasionally deal like 50 damage to someone makes combat feel more chaotic and impactful.

[@masonthemetalhead]

I use these secondary effect cards that are meant for Pathfinder, they give you 4 options based on what damage type you are doing (piercing bludgeoning, slashing magic) and they give the target a random effect and an amout of Damage dice multipliers. So a crit could say " Thunder Struck! You deal Double damage and the creature is stunned for 1d4 rounds. If the effect is pathfinder specific I just say the closed dnd ruling possible.

[@hotshame7279]

I use the 'Perkins Crit' but I was introduced to the concept by High Rollers so I've always called it the 'High Rollers Crit'

[@jameshall2223]

I do a custom version that is similar to 2 of these. They roll double dice but the lower roll becomes max damage. The higher roll becomes a choice. They can deal that much extra damage or sacrifice that damage to inflict a a status like knocking the enemy prone, disadvantage on x until their next turn, pushing them in any direction, etc.

[@1rotzy]

I'm watching Brett Ultimus in his World of Io campaigns, and he is using the inspiration rule, but his players just never used it. So, he created abilities that use inspiration. More eldritch blast blasts, more dice on a sneak attack, the works. He's now changed it so that if you have inspiration, you basically have a legendary action.