I've been finding critical hits are a bit boring as written, or at least hard to balance in a satisfying way. I've tried having them roll twice as normal, which means they might get a 5 damage "Critical Hit". I also tried letting them add a max roll, but that ended up being too much damage too consistently. So I made this chart to make critical hits feel more significant without relying on crazy damage spikes. So now Critical Hits in my games work as follows:
Roll damage as you would for a non-critical hit. Choose one of the damage dice and replace the number rolled for the max value on that dice. Roll 1d20 on the table to determine the additional Critical Hit Effect.
d20
Critical Hit
1-3
Inspiring Hit. The attacker and any friendly creature that was able to see the attack gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice their proficiency bonus.
4-6
Dazing Hit. Until the end of the target's next turn, whenever it makes an attack roll, or a saving throw, it must subtract a number equal to it's proficiency bonus.
7-9
Follow Through. Until the end of the attacker's next turn, it may add a number equal to it's proficiency bonus whenever it makes an attack roll or a saving throw.
10-12
Crippling Hit. The target's movement speed is halved until the end of it's next turn.
13-14
Knocked Down. If the target is large or smaller, it is knocked prone. If the target is huge or gargantuan, it suffers the effects of a Crippling Hit.
15-16
Exposing Hit. The target's AC is reduced by an amount equal to it's proficiency bonus until the beginning of it's next turn.
18
Damaged Armor. The target's armor, natural armor, or shield takes a cumulative −1 penalty to the AC it offers. Armor reduced to an AC of 10 or a shield that drops to a +0 bonus is rendered unusable until repaired. If the target is not wearing any armor (i.e Mage Armor), it suffers the effect of an Exposing Hit.
19
Massive Hit. At the start of the target's next turn it loses a number of hit points equal to half the damage dealt by the attack.
20
Perfect Hit. The attacker gains an additional action or reaction that must be used immediately.
This is a cool idea. Hopefully it works out. For my table, it would be too cumbersome and confusing, so to remedy critical hits feeling unsatisfying we play Max damage die + roll damage die, resulting in some big numbers when 20s are rolled. My players seem to love it, but it did result in me removing flanking rules and adding cinematic advantage to reduce the frequency of advantage in a 6 player party.
Do you both apply the same to your monsters? The basis of the game is if players can do it so can monsters. Also if you are boosting crit success so much do you also apply crit failure?
Not sure what you mean by critical hits re hard to balance? Critical hits are not meant to be game changing but a nice little boost in combat, much in the same way a nat 20 in roleplay/investigation can give a boost but doesn't mean an automatic success.
Each to there own and good luck with your table but I really try to strip mechanics out of my games not add them in.
Do you both apply the same to your monsters? The basis of the game is if players can do it so can monsters. Also if you are boosting crit success so much do you also apply crit failure?
Not sure what you mean by critical hits re hard to balance? Critical hits are not meant to be game changing but a nice little boost in combat, much in the same way a nat 20 in roleplay/investigation can give a boost but doesn't mean an automatic success.
Each to there own and good luck with your table but I really try to strip mechanics out of my games not add them in.
^^^^^^^This!
Many of those rider mechanics are potentially hard to overcome on their own, let alone with crit damage heaped on top. I could see how adding this rule would exacerbate any balance issue that you are currently experiencing.
Regardless, good luck with your game and have fun! I hope this works out to be the solution you were hoping for.
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I've been finding critical hits are a bit boring as written, or at least hard to balance in a satisfying way. I've tried having them roll twice as normal, which means they might get a 5 damage "Critical Hit". I also tried letting them add a max roll, but that ended up being too much damage too consistently. So I made this chart to make critical hits feel more significant without relying on crazy damage spikes. So now Critical Hits in my games work as follows:
Roll damage as you would for a non-critical hit. Choose one of the damage dice and replace the number rolled for the max value on that dice. Roll 1d20 on the table to determine the additional Critical Hit Effect.
d20
Critical Hit
1-3
Inspiring Hit. The attacker and any friendly creature that was able to see the attack gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice their proficiency bonus.
4-6
Dazing Hit. Until the end of the target's next turn, whenever it makes an attack roll, or a saving throw, it must subtract a number equal to it's proficiency bonus.
You are significantly benefiting your players here you may be guaranteeing a miss which means your monster will have lost a round as well as being hit harder.
7-9
Follow Through. Until the end of the attacker's next turn, it may add a number equal to it's proficiency bonus whenever it makes an attack roll or a saving throw.
10-12
Crippling Hit. The target's movement speed is halved until the end of it's next turn.
13-14
Knocked Down. If the target is large or smaller, it is knocked prone. If the target is huge or gargantuan, it suffers the effects of a Crippling Hit. This may actually make things harder for your players, remember a prone creature is at disadvantage to hit for range attacks.
15-16
Exposing Hit. The target's AC is reduced by an amount equal to it's proficiency bonus until the beginning of it's next turn. This could be massive, and does not scale well, for instance a red dragon has an AC of 19 and a proficiency bonus of +6. If the player went straight after the dragon you are allowing your party a free round a monster that has the AC of a far weaker creature. This is a massive bonus
18
Damaged Armor. The target's armor, natural armor, or shield takes a cumulative −1 penalty to the AC it offers. Armor reduced to an AC of 10 or a shield that drops to a +0 bonus is rendered unusable until repaired. If the target is not wearing any armor (i.e Mage Armor), it suffers the effect of an Exposing Hit.
This is another massive impact over time, which seriously impacts the balance of encounters. Reducing a targets AC by 1 has the potential to instantly make a combat go from deadly to hard with a single lucky hit.
19
Massive Hit. At the start of the target's next turn it loses a number of hit points equal to half the damage dealt by the attack.
Another very unbalanced attack, you are already dealing double damage from the critical hit, this now adds half that damage again allowing for a massive spike. Again this severely unbalances the combat.
20
Perfect Hit. The attacker gains an additional action or reaction that must be used immediately. How will the attacker use a reaction immediately? The reaction trigger has already happened so the attacker cant go again (for instance attack of opportunity) in addition of the attacker now has a second action what are the limits on that, for instance could a second spell be cast, if the attack has occurred as part of a bonus action (for instance a spell effect) do they then get 2 actions that turn, so could they then double dash? Again you are providing a massive opportunity based simply on the luck of a dice roll.
Added some questions/comments into your table
My main issue is just how powerful some of these effects could be in significantly unbalancing a combat, if you consider that genera;;y in a party of 5 you will get a critical hit roughly once every 4 rounds of combat you are providing some very powerful effects here on a fairly regular basis.
In addition as per my initial answer do you apply this table to the monsters as well, if not then you are causing an even bigger unbalance in the game you need to take into account when creating your combat situations.
By all means if you and your players love it do it, but understand that some of the effects as you are running them may well make your BBEG go down very easily.
I can't say I like the table. Any of the things it contains are obviously violations of every rule so far published. The nearest thing I can think of that's anything remotely resembling this is what a Battle Master Fighter can pull off with their Superiority Dice and their Maneuvers, only far more powerful.
For myself, I unsatisfied with Critical Hits, because in any given fight, there will almost always be more lower CR Monsters than player characters, even when there are, it's unlikely that anything other than the final boss will be a lower CR than the player characters.
I like the table, it provides for some interesting mechanics in combat.
I don't think it will balance out damage spikes that crits can normally create as some of the effects add the potential for even more damage to be done. Even imposing attack penalties on the target instead of pure damage done to it could be more crippling to it's combat efficiency.
Geann, you really are from The Land of Confusion...
I can't say I like the table. Any of the things it contains are obviously violations of every rule so far published. The nearest thing I can think of that's anything remotely resembling this is what a Battle Master Fighter can pull off with their Superiority Dice and their Maneuvers, only far more powerful.
For myself, I unsatisfied with Critical Hits, because in any given fight, there will almost always be more lower CR Monsters than player characters, even when there are, it's unlikely that anything other than the final boss will be a lower CR than the player characters.
Your first paragraph is clear you find the table to be too powerful. This is the DM's forum so, this forum is kinda like "homebrew rules modification" or "what what would you do in situation x".
As for your second paragraph, are you saying crits are underwhelming due to them landing on low HP targets where most of the big damage would be wasted? If so, maybe give the optional cleaving rules a try.
Cleaving through Creatures
If your player characters regularly fight hordes of lower-level monsters, consider using this optional rule to help speed up such fights.
When a melee attack reduces an undamaged creature to 0 hit points, any excess damage from that attack might carry over to another creature nearby. The attacker targets another creature within reach and, if the original attack roll can hit it, applies any remaining damage to it. If that creature was undamaged and is likewise reduced to 0 hit points, repeat this process, carrying over the remaining damage until there are no valid targets, or until the damage carried over fails to reduce an undamaged creature to 0 hit points.
A friend of mine said something. When you state an opinion, no matter what, you consider it correct, and thus anyone who tells you otherwise is not correct. I am the Hero who wanders the Land of Confusion. I don't understand why people get upset with me so much. I makes mistakes, I can be incorrect, I'm not good with math and have been known to be unable to count to 3. (That was a mistake on my part)
I don't like the table. It's far too potent.
So far as the Cleaving through Creatures thing? I have difficult with the idea that it could be done to a single creature. There used to be an article called "On Thud and Blunder" that was mostly talking about Conan the Barbarian, and mostly was about people who tried to do that in the real world. It was sort of like the Myth-busters show, but the article was written long before the show came out. A guy put a suit of chain mail on a dead pig or something and tried to cleave thought it. They couldn't do much more than break a few links of the armor.
Usually, low CR creatures are assumed to die once they hit zero. Things that are important to the story make Death Saves, but once a creature hits zero, and they fall Prone. At that point, it doesn't take more than two hits, no matter what damage, to finish them off. So if you like, you could describe that second hit as Cleaving through their neck.
A friend of mine said something. When you state an opinion, no matter what, you consider it correct, and thus anyone who tells you otherwise is not correct. I am the Hero who wanders the Land of Confusion. I don't understand why people get upset with me so much. I makes mistakes, I can be incorrect, I'm not good with math and have been known to be unable to count to 3. (That was a mistake on my part)
I don't like the table. It's far too potent.
So far as the Cleaving through Creatures thing? I have difficult with the idea that it could be done to a single creature. There used to be an article called "On Thud and Blunder" that was mostly talking about Conan the Barbarian, and mostly was about people who tried to do that in the real world. It was sort of like the Myth-busters show, but the article was written long before the show came out. A guy put a suit of chain mail on a dead pig or something and tried to cleave thought it. They couldn't do much more than break a few links of the armor.
Usually, low CR creatures are assumed to die once they hit zero. Things that are important to the story make Death Saves, but once a creature hits zero, and they fall Prone. At that point, it doesn't take more than two hits, no matter what damage, to finish them off. So if you like, you could describe that second hit as Cleaving through their neck.
I am a little confused in previous answers you talk about how every character should be a hero able to do amazing things but you dislike the optional cleaving rule because, in a world where magic is real and a person can hold their breath underwater for anything up to 5-6 mins, you think it is unrealistic?
I apply the rule slightly differently in that I say if over half the damage will be wasted then the player may carry it onto the next creature. This accounts for that “death thrust”.
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Thanks for the feedback everyone, it helped me figure out exactly why I dont like the Crit system.
I have very unfortunate luck when it comes to rolling Nat 20s against my players at the worst possible times.
After the input, I think I'll only use this as a DM for when monsters Crit, and let my players use the max+roll system.
It means that the max damage one of my monster Crits can do is 1.5x, if it rolls a massive hit on the Crit table. Otherwise it's just a maximized normal hit + a Crit effect.
From a narrative standpoint I like having some variety aside from "you get hit real hard". I also really enjoy the rust monsters ability to damage gear, so players have to give some consideration to some backup equipment.
It also needs to be polished and brought more into line with existing mechanics for sure.
OK I assumed your issue was with players not causing enough damage on a crit and this table was for them. I feel you have a bigger problem if your issue is your monsters not causing enough damage on a crit.
As a DM your role is not to try and kill your players, it is not a combative experience, it is to construct a story and tell a narrative. But as a DM you can make things challenging, if you are relying on a nat 20 to add that challenge to an encounter then may I suggest you need to think more about the types, numbers and ways you are using your monsters/enemies.
The other thing is that as a person, we tend to remember the bad and ignore the good when thinking back over situations. For instance in my head I always roll awful initiative in combat for monsters. I recently went back through my DM journal (I record every initiative order of every encounter in it) and was pleasantly surprised to find a fairly even spread of high and low initiatives i have rolled completely undermining my expectation. I imagine that in reality your crit hit damage rolls roughly come in an even spread, if they don't then you need to check the bias of your dice.
I won't go back over this table but I will say reviewing this considering monsters hitting the players, this is a TPK in the making, it might not happen the first combat, or even the 10th, but eventually you will roll a series of dice rolls that just kill your party and then you will have a choice, either fudge the dice to keep them alive (something I hate doing), or accept that your table to make things more fun actually wiped out the party and took their agency away. As a DM you only need to have something like this table land the right way once and your players suffer. Characters can only die once, you can throw monsters at them to die over and over. There is nothing worse as a player and a DM then seeing a TPK because of something you thought would be a cool idea.
In terms of narrative advice, have a read of battle descriptions in fiction, or read fantasy depictions of sword fights. It takes practice but I never simply say, you hit hard, I describe each sword thrust, each jab of a dagger, a critical hit might slip through a chink in the chainmail the dagger driving into the hilt deep into the side of the character/monster, I might add a bit of flavour and have the character grab the monster with one hand, forcing the neck to be revealed as the dagger plunges in. If you haven't watched it then Matt Mercer in critidal role is a great example of ways you can add flavour and colour to combat situations without needing a table to try and give inspiration. Or if you are struggling have a table, dont have any mechanical effects simply use it as a way to roll up where the critical attack hit and how it caused damage to help your description.
Thanks for the feedback everyone, it helped me figure out exactly why I dont like the Crit system.
I have very unfortunate luck when it comes to rolling Nat 20s against my players at the worst possible times.
After the input, I think I'll only use this as a DM for when monsters Crit, and let my players use the max+roll system.
It means that the max damage one of my monster Crits can do is 1.5x, if it rolls a massive hit on the Crit table. Otherwise it's just a maximized normal hit + a Crit effect.
From a narrative standpoint I like having some variety aside from "you get hit real hard". I also really enjoy the rust monsters ability to damage gear, so players have to give some consideration to some backup equipment.
It also needs to be polished and brought more into line with existing mechanics for sure.
Just make sure you understand that increased randomness hurts the PCs. Monsters will, 99% of the time, only ever appear on one fight. PCs will be in every one. Eventually even the most rare occurrence will hit a PC. So, is it fun for the players to have their characters carrying around a spare suit of plate mail? On the other hand, I guess it could be a chance for someone with a blacksmith tool proficiency to get a chance to use it.
Thanks for the feedback everyone, it helped me figure out exactly why I dont like the Crit system.
I have very unfortunate luck when it comes to rolling Nat 20s against my players at the worst possible times.
After the input, I think I'll only use this as a DM for when monsters Crit, and let my players use the max+roll system.
It means that the max damage one of my monster Crits can do is 1.5x, if it rolls a massive hit on the Crit table. Otherwise it's just a maximized normal hit + a Crit effect.
From a narrative standpoint I like having some variety aside from "you get hit real hard". I also really enjoy the rust monsters ability to damage gear, so players have to give some consideration to some backup equipment.
It also needs to be polished and brought more into line with existing mechanics for sure.
I am all for challenging the players with "almost" no-win situations, where they escape by the thinnest of margins. But your Crit hit table is one where some char will be outright killed by a critical hit, eventually. That is a certainty. Not through the players making a dumb decision, but by you throwing some BBEG at them that has high alpha damage, that will be amplified by some crazy amount. That player will be MOST unhappy.
I have always wanted to fire up a 9th level Fiend Warlock BBEG at my players, where most of that Warlock's lair is covered with a Hallow spell that causes Vulnerability to Fire, and then said BBEG blasts off a 5th level Fireball. That means expected Fire damage of 70, or 35 with a save. That also means that any char with 35 or less max HP, that fails the Dex save is "dead dead". With unexpectedly high levels on the dice rolls, that can end up with all chars at 0 HP.
I think many a player would say "what you have created is entirely unreasonable", and they would be right. You have to look at the edge cases of your table, run the math, and then think real hard about what the players' HP are in your group.Sometimes just because you can do something as a DM does not mean you can.
Or a more relevant example your group of 5 level 4 chars are facing an Ogre and an Ogre Bolt Launcher (which are apparently CR 2...LOL). Your Bolt Launcher rolls a Nat 20. You roll well on the 6d10's doing 36 points on the rolls +1 = 37 damage against a Cleric who has 35 HP. You roll a 19 on the Crit table. Cleric is down to 0 HP, and then takes another 18 next turn, which = 2 fails on death saves. Cleric rolls a 9 on their death save on their turn, and bye bye Cleric.
If I were rolling 2x crit damage and rolling on the table that would be absolutely true. I'm not going to roll 2x crit damage though, because that is when I always end up killing my players. I am not rolling extra damage dice when I crit, I'll roll damage as if it were a non-critical hit, then roll on the table instead of rolling extra damage dice. So using your example, I roll 3d10 for a critical hit, then maximize 1 dice (10 + 2d10 +1 for 23 damage). I roll a 19 on the chart, so next turn the cleric takes an additional 11 damage for 35 damage total. The cleric will fall unconscious at the beginning of their next turn, but that gives the rest of the party a chance to heal them, or position themselves to bring the cleric back up, and there is only a 1 in 20 chance that the cleric will take enough damage to fall unconscious. 19/20 times, the cleric survives.
It seems to me that using your example, I am going to kill the cleric in 1 shot 100% of the time with an Ogre Bolt Launcher if I were to roll 2x damage. Which is exactly my issue.
I play the "Critical hits deal maximum damage on the dice, and then roll the dice again and add together" version that I saw on the High Rollers DnD videocast (e.g. crit with a longsword deals 8+1d8+ability modifier & bonuses). It has worked really well so far, and guarantees that a critical hit is always bigger than a normal hit. Monsters use the same rule.
I had a chat with my players recently about it, because now that they're about to hit level 9, that makes for some extremely juicy monster crits. A boss they were fighting last session had 4 attacks, each of which deals 2d8+6 physical and a further 2d8 Thunder damage on a hit, so any crits will deal 24+4d8+6 damage in total, for an average of 48 damage per hit. I was starting to get concerned that as they go up in level their damage dice won't majorly increase while monsters will, and while it's easy for me to give a creature 400+ hit points, the players won't be gaining any bonus health beyond one hit die per level. The players told me that they like the high danger, big stakes impact of critical hits running this way, so we're keeping it.
OK I assumed your issue was with players not causing enough damage on a crit and this table was for them. I feel you have a bigger problem if your issue is your monsters not causing enough damage on a crit.
As a DM your role is not to try and kill your players, it is not a combative experience, it is to construct a story and tell a narrative. But as a DM you can make things challenging, if you are relying on a nat 20 to add that challenge to an encounter then may I suggest you need to think more about the types, numbers and ways you are using your monsters/enemies.
The other thing is that as a person, we tend to remember the bad and ignore the good when thinking back over situations. For instance in my head I always roll awful initiative in combat for monsters. I recently went back through my DM journal (I record every initiative order of every encounter in it) and was pleasantly surprised to find a fairly even spread of high and low initiatives i have rolled completely undermining my expectation. I imagine that in reality your crit hit damage rolls roughly come in an even spread, if they don't then you need to check the bias of your dice.
I won't go back over this table but I will say reviewing this considering monsters hitting the players, this is a TPK in the making, it might not happen the first combat, or even the 10th, but eventually you will roll a series of dice rolls that just kill your party and then you will have a choice, either fudge the dice to keep them alive (something I hate doing), or accept that your table to make things more fun actually wiped out the party and took their agency away. As a DM you only need to have something like this table land the right way once and your players suffer. Characters can only die once, you can throw monsters at them to die over and over. There is nothing worse as a player and a DM then seeing a TPK because of something you thought would be a cool idea.
In terms of narrative advice, have a read of battle descriptions in fiction, or read fantasy depictions of sword fights. It takes practice but I never simply say, you hit hard, I describe each sword thrust, each jab of a dagger, a critical hit might slip through a chink in the chainmail the dagger driving into the hilt deep into the side of the character/monster, I might add a bit of flavour and have the character grab the monster with one hand, forcing the neck to be revealed as the dagger plunges in. If you haven't watched it then Matt Mercer in critidal role is a great example of ways you can add flavour and colour to combat situations without needing a table to try and give inspiration. Or if you are struggling have a table, dont have any mechanical effects simply use it as a way to roll up where the critical attack hit and how it caused damage to help your description.
I don't think I'm making myself clear enough. My problem is that monsters already do too much damage when they crit. A normal crit does 2x damage, which for some monsters can instantly 1-shot kill my players. I am reducing the maximum possible damage I can do on a crit to 1.5x if I roll a nat 20, then a 19 for half damage at the start of the next turn (spread out to give the party a chance to get to the player and heal them, or be ready to bring them back up.)
Most of the time though, the crit will do 1x damage, and apply a buff to the attacker, or debuff to the target. Believe me, the last thing I want to do is throw punishingly difficult challenges at my party, but nor do I want to continue 1-shotting their characters, because they really seem to find that unsatisfying as well. Once again, the feedback is really appreciated.
I play the "Critical hits deal maximum damage on the dice, and then roll the dice again and add together" version that I saw on the High Rollers DnD videocast (e.g. crit with a longsword deals 8+1d8+ability modifier & bonuses). It has worked really well so far, and guarantees that a critical hit is always bigger than a normal hit. Monsters use the same rule.
I had a chat with my players recently about it, because now that they're about to hit level 9, that makes for some extremely juicy monster crits. A boss they were fighting last session had 4 attacks, each of which deals 2d8+6 physical and a further 2d8 Thunder damage on a hit, so any crits will deal 24+4d8+6 damage in total, for an average of 48 damage per hit. I was starting to get concerned that as they go up in level their damage dice won't majorly increase while monsters will, and while it's easy for me to give a creature 400+ hit points, the players won't be gaining any bonus health beyond one hit die per level. The players told me that they like the high danger, big stakes impact of critical hits running this way, so we're keeping it.
Up until now that's the system I've been using as well, and also what I mean when I say I have unfortunately bad luck when it comes to rolling nat 20's against my players. As in I roll a lot of them. At the worst possible moments when I really don't want to deal a massive amount of damage to a character.
I've been finding critical hits are a bit boring as written, or at least hard to balance in a satisfying way. I've tried having them roll twice as normal, which means they might get a 5 damage "Critical Hit". I also tried letting them add a max roll, but that ended up being too much damage too consistently. So I made this chart to make critical hits feel more significant without relying on crazy damage spikes. So now Critical Hits in my games work as follows:
Roll damage as you would for a non-critical hit. Choose one of the damage dice and replace the number rolled for the max value on that dice. Roll 1d20 on the table to determine the additional Critical Hit Effect.
d20
Critical Hit
1-3
Inspiring Hit. The attacker and any friendly creature that was able to see the attack gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice their proficiency bonus.
4-6
Dazing Hit. Until the end of the target's next turn, whenever it makes an attack roll, or a saving throw, it must subtract a number equal to it's proficiency bonus.
You are significantly benefiting your players here you may be guaranteeing a miss which means your monster will have lost a round as well as being hit harder.
I am also significantly benefitting the monster if I roll a 7-9, maybe guaranteeing a hit round or two of hits. The idea was to have a bit of ebb and flow to combat, with defensive and offensive opportunities. The idea is that you get hit so hard that you see stars, or are winded and might want to take a few moments in a defensive posture and get your wits back.
7-9
Follow Through. Until the end of the attacker's next turn, it may add a number equal to it's proficiency bonus whenever it makes an attack roll or a saving throw. The idea is a standard combo attack. For the next few seconds you have your opponent on his heels.
10-12
Crippling Hit. The target's movement speed is halved until the end of it's next turn.
13-14
Knocked Down. If the target is large or smaller, it is knocked prone. If the target is huge or gargantuan, it suffers the effects of a Crippling Hit. This may actually make things harder for your players, remember a prone creature is at disadvantage to hit for range attacks.
I was thinking about that. I might remove this one, since there's no way to ensure it will always be beneficial.
15-16
Exposing Hit. The target's AC is reduced by an amount equal to it's proficiency bonus until the beginning of it's next turn.
This could be massive, and does not scale well, for instance a red dragon has an AC of 19 and a proficiency bonus of +6. If the player went straight after the dragon you are allowing your party a free round a monster that has the AC of a far weaker creature. This is a massive bonus
You're right about that one. I will also remove this one from the table.
18
Damaged Armor. The target's armor, natural armor, or shield takes a cumulative −1 penalty to the AC it offers. Armor reduced to an AC of 10 or a shield that drops to a +0 bonus is rendered unusable until repaired. If the target is not wearing any armor (i.e Mage Armor), it suffers the effect of an Exposing Hit.
This is another massive impact over time, which seriously impacts the balance of encounters. Reducing a targets AC by 1 has the potential to instantly make a combat go from deadly to hard with a single lucky hit.
True, but it also means that by the time the party gets to the end of the dungeon, the fighter's full plate might have a few cracks or dents that seize up a joint. Or maybe he keeps the full plate in the bag of holding and wears a cheaper option with a bit less AC to take on some lesser minions. His shield might break and he switches to a 2 hand weapon instead. I like the element of realism it adds, and every time I run a rust monster my players have a ton of fun dealing with the corrosion effects.
19
Massive Hit. At the start of the target's next turn it loses a number of hit points equal to half the damage dealt by the attack.
Another very unbalanced attack, you are already dealing double damage from the critical hit, this now adds half that damage again allowing for a massive spike. Again this severely unbalances the combat.
I am NOT dealing double damage. Doing too much damage is already my issue. I roll 1x damage, maximize a single dice, and roll on crit effect table. Ex. I roll a nat 20 on an attack that deals 2d10 damage, I will roll 1d10+10 for a maximum of 20 damage, plus an extra 10 at the start of the next turn for 30 total if I roll a 19 on this crit table. Using RAW, I would normally roll 2x damage dice which means I could potentially do 40 damage. The delayed damage is meant to represent some sort of greater injury, like internal bleeding, or a crack in a golem that continues to crumble, for instance.
20
Perfect Hit. The attacker gains an additional action or reaction that must be used immediately. How will the attacker use a reaction immediately? The reaction trigger has already happened so the attacker cant go again (for instance attack of opportunity) in addition of the attacker now has a second action what are the limits on that, for instance could a second spell be cast, if the attack has occurred as part of a bonus action (for instance a spell effect) do they then get 2 actions that turn, so could they then double dash? Again you are providing a massive opportunity based simply on the luck of a dice roll.
This definitely needs some rewording. The idea was basically to allow the attacker to get an additional action to be used before the end of it's turn, but then I thought if it's a crit on an attack of opportunity it would be wasted. It's more or less an action surge. And yes I realize this is a ridiculously OP benefit, but IMO, anyone who rolls 2 nat 20's in a row deserves some recognition lol.
Added some questions/comments into your table
My main issue is just how powerful some of these effects could be in significantly unbalancing a combat, if you consider that genera;;y in a party of 5 you will get a critical hit roughly once every 4 rounds of combat you are providing some very powerful effects here on a fairly regular basis.
In addition as per my initial answer do you apply this table to the monsters as well, if not then you are causing an even bigger unbalance in the game you need to take into account when creating your combat situations.
By all means if you and your players love it do it, but understand that some of the effects as you are running them may well make your BBEG go down very easily.
I am visualizing a Paladin Crit'ing ,or a Hexblade using Eldritch Smite, using their max Alpha damage, then filing their nails the next turn as the Paladin or Hexblade rolled a 19 on that table, as the BBEG dropped dead the following turn, because half the Alpha damage proc's on the next turn as well.
Tried to answer your questions, which were amazingly helpful. I posted this here to get some more experienced opinions on it after all :D. I think the main misunderstanding is that I am not rolling on the table in addition to rolling extra damage dice, I am rolling on this table instead of rolling extra damage dice.
Most of the effects give the players something they have to deal with dynamically, which to me seems more preferable than a 1/20 chance of just removing a character from combat (although the way I roll it's more like a 1/10 chance), at least from my side of the DM screen lol. I imagine my players will still want to roll extra damage dice, but I'll bring it up and let them choose. I'm not the type of DM to force homebrew onto my players.
For the OP, I feel that you are adding in additional layers of complexity to something that doesn't need it, and taking away a lot of the threat and fun of critical hits. It's really fun for players to roll big numbers, and scary when powerful monsters roll them.
Have you killed a lot of characters recently? Character death is a part of D&D. It's not something you should be aiming for, but if it happens, it happens. If you're finding that you're killing characters regularly, it's not down to critical hits: you're just overtaxing them in general. Even if they go down, the character still has death saving throws to make, and there is the Revivify at fairly low levels.
Instead of layering in complexity and taking away the fun of scoring a critical hit (and having them do really random things like giving temporary hit points (???) or reducing enemy movement speed (both of these may have absolutely no impact on the fight) why not just make sure your monsters don't involve rolling a ton of damage dice if you're so worried about it? Weirdly you've allowed on a second roll of 20 for the creature of character to make another attack, which potentially will result in them dealing even more damage than they would have through an extra damage dice roll.
I find that even with dealing full damage dice + roll the dice again, I struggle to bring characters down. Last session I was hitting them with multiattacks that deal an average 24 damage on a normal hit, and making 7 boss attacks per turn plus about 24 additional monster attacks I still couldn't knock them down. If anything I find that characters just won't go down.
For the OP, I feel that you are adding in additional layers of complexity to something that doesn't need it, and taking away a lot of the threat and fun of critical hits. It's really fun for players to roll big numbers, and scary when powerful monsters roll them.
Have you killed a lot of characters recently? Character death is a part of D&D. It's not something you should be aiming for, but if it happens, it happens. If you're finding that you're killing characters regularly, it's not down to critical hits: you're just overtaxing them in general. Even if they go down, the character still has death saving throws to make, and there is the Revivify at fairly low levels.
Instead of layering in complexity and taking away the fun of scoring a critical hit (and having them do really random things like giving temporary hit points (???) or reducing enemy movement speed (both of these may have absolutely no impact on the fight) why not just make sure your monsters don't involve rolling a ton of damage dice if you're so worried about it? Weirdly you've allowed on a second roll of 20 for the creature of character to make another attack, which potentially will result in them dealing even more damage than they would have through an extra damage dice roll.
I find that even with dealing full damage dice + roll the dice again, I struggle to bring characters down. Last session I was hitting them with multiattacks that deal an average 24 damage on a normal hit, and making 7 boss attacks per turn plus about 24 additional monster attacks I still couldn't knock them down. If anything I find that characters just won't go down.
Sometimes an idea seems really good in your head until you bounce it off some other people who know what they are talking about lol. I have definitely also been on the side where I've just been hopelessly overpowered, but mostly I am afraid to throw attacks at anyone other than the tank, and often find myself pretty hampered by having to consider "I can't do that because if I roll a nat 20 it's a near certain TPK". I still like the idea of a critical effect table, but I'm not going to mess with the way my players roll their critical hits, you guys were right about that being a bad idea.
I'll see how the group feels about me using this for creature crits, because I really like the possibilities to add more dramatic narrative to combat, especially when using creatures with no abilities other than basic attacks. My players enjoy curveballs and big dynamic combat encounters, so I am pretty confident they'll be all for it lol. That being said, I've boiled it way down thanks to everyone's advice. The names of each effect are just placeholders for now.
I realize it's unconventional, but there's a few reasons why I am using proficiency as a modifier for Dazed and Frenzy. The first is for those fights where it would normally be impossible for a creature to even land a hit on a players AC, where advantage is meaningless. In theory, it's also a counter balance to magic items that provide bonuses to attack and defense.
On a Critical Hit
Roll damage normally for the attack (without any extra damage dice)
Choose one of the dice and replace the number rolled with the maximum value on that dice
Roll 1d20 and consult table below
Example. Greater Zombie attacks and rolls a natural 20 Attack deals 1d6 + 4 bludgeoning damage and 2d6 necrotic damage. Damage rolls are 3, 3, and 4. Replace one dice for 6, 3, and 4. Attack deals 17 damage (6+4) + 3 + 4
Greater Zombie rolls an 11 on the critical hit table. It gets +3 to attacks and its Undead Fortitude saving throw until the end of its next turn. The zombie goes into a frenzied attack that takes even the heavily armored fighter by surprise. It goes down, but not easily. Apparently whoever this zombie used to be had a mean streak.
OR Greater Zombie rolls a 2 on the critical hit table. It gains 6 temporary hit points and advantage on it's next attack, and so do the 3 skeletons and 4 other zombies drawn to the sound of the fight. The sounds of your living, breathing pain as you reel from the blow seems to rile up the hoard of undead around you like a nest of ants that has just been stepped on.
d20
Critical Hit
1-4
MVP. Your display of prowess bolsters your allies fighting spirit. You and any friendly creatures able to see your attack gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice your proficiency bonus, and gain advantage on the next attack they make before the end of their next turn.
5-8
Dazed. You knock your opponent silly for a few moments. Until the end of the target's next turn its speed is halved, and whenever it makes an attack roll, or a saving throw, it must subtract a number equal to it's proficiency bonus.
9-12
Frenzy. You outmaneuver and overwhelm your opponents. Until the end of your next turn, your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks, and you may add a number equal to your proficiency bonus whenever you make an attack roll or a saving throw.
13-16
Durability Loss. The target's armor or shield takes a cumulative −1 penalty to the AC it offers. Armor reduced to an AC of 10 or a shield that drops to a +0 bonus is rendered unusable until repaired. If the target is not wearing any armor (i.e Mage Armor, Natural Armor), it instead suffers a Grievous Wound.
17-20
Grievous Wound. Your attack causes a grievous wound. At the start of the target's next turn it loses a number of hit points equal to half of the damage dealt by this attack.
I've been finding critical hits are a bit boring as written, or at least hard to balance in a satisfying way. I've tried having them roll twice as normal, which means they might get a 5 damage "Critical Hit". I also tried letting them add a max roll, but that ended up being too much damage too consistently. So I made this chart to make critical hits feel more significant without relying on crazy damage spikes. So now Critical Hits in my games work as follows:
Roll damage as you would for a non-critical hit. Choose one of the damage dice and replace the number rolled for the max value on that dice. Roll 1d20 on the table to determine the additional Critical Hit Effect.
d20
Critical Hit
1-3
Inspiring Hit. The attacker and any friendly creature that was able to see the attack gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice their proficiency bonus.
4-6
Dazing Hit. Until the end of the target's next turn, whenever it makes an attack roll, or a saving throw, it must subtract a number equal to it's proficiency bonus.
7-9
Follow Through. Until the end of the attacker's next turn, it may add a number equal to it's proficiency bonus whenever it makes an attack roll or a saving throw.
10-12
Crippling Hit. The target's movement speed is halved until the end of it's next turn.
13-14
Knocked Down. If the target is large or smaller, it is knocked prone. If the target is huge or gargantuan, it suffers the effects of a Crippling Hit.
15-16
Exposing Hit. The target's AC is reduced by an amount equal to it's proficiency bonus until the beginning of it's next turn.
18
Damaged Armor. The target's armor, natural armor, or shield takes a cumulative −1 penalty to the AC it offers. Armor reduced to an AC of 10 or a shield that drops to a +0 bonus is rendered unusable until repaired. If the target is not wearing any armor (i.e Mage Armor), it suffers the effect of an Exposing Hit.
19
Massive Hit. At the start of the target's next turn it loses a number of hit points equal to half the damage dealt by the attack.
20
Perfect Hit. The attacker gains an additional action or reaction that must be used immediately.
This is a cool idea. Hopefully it works out. For my table, it would be too cumbersome and confusing, so to remedy critical hits feeling unsatisfying we play Max damage die + roll damage die, resulting in some big numbers when 20s are rolled. My players seem to love it, but it did result in me removing flanking rules and adding cinematic advantage to reduce the frequency of advantage in a 6 player party.
Do you both apply the same to your monsters? The basis of the game is if players can do it so can monsters. Also if you are boosting crit success so much do you also apply crit failure?
Not sure what you mean by critical hits re hard to balance? Critical hits are not meant to be game changing but a nice little boost in combat, much in the same way a nat 20 in roleplay/investigation can give a boost but doesn't mean an automatic success.
Each to there own and good luck with your table but I really try to strip mechanics out of my games not add them in.
^^^^^^^This!
Many of those rider mechanics are potentially hard to overcome on their own, let alone with crit damage heaped on top. I could see how adding this rule would exacerbate any balance issue that you are currently experiencing.
Regardless, good luck with your game and have fun! I hope this works out to be the solution you were hoping for.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Added some questions/comments into your table
My main issue is just how powerful some of these effects could be in significantly unbalancing a combat, if you consider that genera;;y in a party of 5 you will get a critical hit roughly once every 4 rounds of combat you are providing some very powerful effects here on a fairly regular basis.
In addition as per my initial answer do you apply this table to the monsters as well, if not then you are causing an even bigger unbalance in the game you need to take into account when creating your combat situations.
By all means if you and your players love it do it, but understand that some of the effects as you are running them may well make your BBEG go down very easily.
I can't say I like the table. Any of the things it contains are obviously violations of every rule so far published. The nearest thing I can think of that's anything remotely resembling this is what a Battle Master Fighter can pull off with their Superiority Dice and their Maneuvers, only far more powerful.
For myself, I unsatisfied with Critical Hits, because in any given fight, there will almost always be more lower CR Monsters than player characters, even when there are, it's unlikely that anything other than the final boss will be a lower CR than the player characters.
<Insert clever signature here>
I like the table, it provides for some interesting mechanics in combat.
I don't think it will balance out damage spikes that crits can normally create as some of the effects add the potential for even more damage to be done. Even imposing attack penalties on the target instead of pure damage done to it could be more crippling to it's combat efficiency.
Geann, you really are from The Land of Confusion...
Your first paragraph is clear you find the table to be too powerful. This is the DM's forum so, this forum is kinda like "homebrew rules modification" or "what what would you do in situation x".
As for your second paragraph, are you saying crits are underwhelming due to them landing on low HP targets where most of the big damage would be wasted? If so, maybe give the optional cleaving rules a try.
A friend of mine said something. When you state an opinion, no matter what, you consider it correct, and thus anyone who tells you otherwise is not correct. I am the Hero who wanders the Land of Confusion. I don't understand why people get upset with me so much. I makes mistakes, I can be incorrect, I'm not good with math and have been known to be unable to count to 3. (That was a mistake on my part)
I don't like the table. It's far too potent.
So far as the Cleaving through Creatures thing? I have difficult with the idea that it could be done to a single creature. There used to be an article called "On Thud and Blunder" that was mostly talking about Conan the Barbarian, and mostly was about people who tried to do that in the real world. It was sort of like the Myth-busters show, but the article was written long before the show came out. A guy put a suit of chain mail on a dead pig or something and tried to cleave thought it. They couldn't do much more than break a few links of the armor.
Usually, low CR creatures are assumed to die once they hit zero. Things that are important to the story make Death Saves, but once a creature hits zero, and they fall Prone. At that point, it doesn't take more than two hits, no matter what damage, to finish them off. So if you like, you could describe that second hit as Cleaving through their neck.
<Insert clever signature here>
I am a little confused in previous answers you talk about how every character should be a hero able to do amazing things but you dislike the optional cleaving rule because, in a world where magic is real and a person can hold their breath underwater for anything up to 5-6 mins, you think it is unrealistic?
I apply the rule slightly differently in that I say if over half the damage will be wasted then the player may carry it onto the next creature. This accounts for that “death thrust”.
It's a slippery slope from this to adapting ICE's open-ended crit tables to 5E...
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Thanks for the feedback everyone, it helped me figure out exactly why I dont like the Crit system.
I have very unfortunate luck when it comes to rolling Nat 20s against my players at the worst possible times.
After the input, I think I'll only use this as a DM for when monsters Crit, and let my players use the max+roll system.
It means that the max damage one of my monster Crits can do is 1.5x, if it rolls a massive hit on the Crit table. Otherwise it's just a maximized normal hit + a Crit effect.
From a narrative standpoint I like having some variety aside from "you get hit real hard". I also really enjoy the rust monsters ability to damage gear, so players have to give some consideration to some backup equipment.
It also needs to be polished and brought more into line with existing mechanics for sure.
OK I assumed your issue was with players not causing enough damage on a crit and this table was for them. I feel you have a bigger problem if your issue is your monsters not causing enough damage on a crit.
As a DM your role is not to try and kill your players, it is not a combative experience, it is to construct a story and tell a narrative. But as a DM you can make things challenging, if you are relying on a nat 20 to add that challenge to an encounter then may I suggest you need to think more about the types, numbers and ways you are using your monsters/enemies.
The other thing is that as a person, we tend to remember the bad and ignore the good when thinking back over situations. For instance in my head I always roll awful initiative in combat for monsters. I recently went back through my DM journal (I record every initiative order of every encounter in it) and was pleasantly surprised to find a fairly even spread of high and low initiatives i have rolled completely undermining my expectation. I imagine that in reality your crit hit damage rolls roughly come in an even spread, if they don't then you need to check the bias of your dice.
I won't go back over this table but I will say reviewing this considering monsters hitting the players, this is a TPK in the making, it might not happen the first combat, or even the 10th, but eventually you will roll a series of dice rolls that just kill your party and then you will have a choice, either fudge the dice to keep them alive (something I hate doing), or accept that your table to make things more fun actually wiped out the party and took their agency away. As a DM you only need to have something like this table land the right way once and your players suffer. Characters can only die once, you can throw monsters at them to die over and over. There is nothing worse as a player and a DM then seeing a TPK because of something you thought would be a cool idea.
In terms of narrative advice, have a read of battle descriptions in fiction, or read fantasy depictions of sword fights. It takes practice but I never simply say, you hit hard, I describe each sword thrust, each jab of a dagger, a critical hit might slip through a chink in the chainmail the dagger driving into the hilt deep into the side of the character/monster, I might add a bit of flavour and have the character grab the monster with one hand, forcing the neck to be revealed as the dagger plunges in. If you haven't watched it then Matt Mercer in critidal role is a great example of ways you can add flavour and colour to combat situations without needing a table to try and give inspiration. Or if you are struggling have a table, dont have any mechanical effects simply use it as a way to roll up where the critical attack hit and how it caused damage to help your description.
Just make sure you understand that increased randomness hurts the PCs. Monsters will, 99% of the time, only ever appear on one fight. PCs will be in every one. Eventually even the most rare occurrence will hit a PC. So, is it fun for the players to have their characters carrying around a spare suit of plate mail? On the other hand, I guess it could be a chance for someone with a blacksmith tool proficiency to get a chance to use it.
If I were rolling 2x crit damage and rolling on the table that would be absolutely true. I'm not going to roll 2x crit damage though, because that is when I always end up killing my players.
I am not rolling extra damage dice when I crit, I'll roll damage as if it were a non-critical hit, then roll on the table instead of rolling extra damage dice. So using your example, I roll 3d10 for a critical hit, then maximize 1 dice (10 + 2d10 +1 for 23 damage). I roll a 19 on the chart, so next turn the cleric takes an additional 11 damage for 35 damage total. The cleric will fall unconscious at the beginning of their next turn, but that gives the rest of the party a chance to heal them, or position themselves to bring the cleric back up, and there is only a 1 in 20 chance that the cleric will take enough damage to fall unconscious. 19/20 times, the cleric survives.
It seems to me that using your example, I am going to kill the cleric in 1 shot 100% of the time with an Ogre Bolt Launcher if I were to roll 2x damage. Which is exactly my issue.
I play the "Critical hits deal maximum damage on the dice, and then roll the dice again and add together" version that I saw on the High Rollers DnD videocast (e.g. crit with a longsword deals 8+1d8+ability modifier & bonuses). It has worked really well so far, and guarantees that a critical hit is always bigger than a normal hit. Monsters use the same rule.
I had a chat with my players recently about it, because now that they're about to hit level 9, that makes for some extremely juicy monster crits. A boss they were fighting last session had 4 attacks, each of which deals 2d8+6 physical and a further 2d8 Thunder damage on a hit, so any crits will deal 24+4d8+6 damage in total, for an average of 48 damage per hit. I was starting to get concerned that as they go up in level their damage dice won't majorly increase while monsters will, and while it's easy for me to give a creature 400+ hit points, the players won't be gaining any bonus health beyond one hit die per level. The players told me that they like the high danger, big stakes impact of critical hits running this way, so we're keeping it.
I don't think I'm making myself clear enough. My problem is that monsters already do too much damage when they crit. A normal crit does 2x damage, which for some monsters can instantly 1-shot kill my players. I am reducing the maximum possible damage I can do on a crit to 1.5x if I roll a nat 20, then a 19 for half damage at the start of the next turn (spread out to give the party a chance to get to the player and heal them, or be ready to bring them back up.)
Most of the time though, the crit will do 1x damage, and apply a buff to the attacker, or debuff to the target. Believe me, the last thing I want to do is throw punishingly difficult challenges at my party, but nor do I want to continue 1-shotting their characters, because they really seem to find that unsatisfying as well. Once again, the feedback is really appreciated.
Up until now that's the system I've been using as well, and also what I mean when I say I have unfortunately bad luck when it comes to rolling nat 20's against my players. As in I roll a lot of them. At the worst possible moments when I really don't want to deal a massive amount of damage to a character.
Tried to answer your questions, which were amazingly helpful. I posted this here to get some more experienced opinions on it after all :D. I think the main misunderstanding is that I am not rolling on the table in addition to rolling extra damage dice, I am rolling on this table instead of rolling extra damage dice.
Most of the effects give the players something they have to deal with dynamically, which to me seems more preferable than a 1/20 chance of just removing a character from combat (although the way I roll it's more like a 1/10 chance), at least from my side of the DM screen lol. I imagine my players will still want to roll extra damage dice, but I'll bring it up and let them choose. I'm not the type of DM to force homebrew onto my players.
For the OP, I feel that you are adding in additional layers of complexity to something that doesn't need it, and taking away a lot of the threat and fun of critical hits. It's really fun for players to roll big numbers, and scary when powerful monsters roll them.
Have you killed a lot of characters recently? Character death is a part of D&D. It's not something you should be aiming for, but if it happens, it happens. If you're finding that you're killing characters regularly, it's not down to critical hits: you're just overtaxing them in general. Even if they go down, the character still has death saving throws to make, and there is the Revivify at fairly low levels.
Instead of layering in complexity and taking away the fun of scoring a critical hit (and having them do really random things like giving temporary hit points (???) or reducing enemy movement speed (both of these may have absolutely no impact on the fight) why not just make sure your monsters don't involve rolling a ton of damage dice if you're so worried about it? Weirdly you've allowed on a second roll of 20 for the creature of character to make another attack, which potentially will result in them dealing even more damage than they would have through an extra damage dice roll.
I find that even with dealing full damage dice + roll the dice again, I struggle to bring characters down. Last session I was hitting them with multiattacks that deal an average 24 damage on a normal hit, and making 7 boss attacks per turn plus about 24 additional monster attacks I still couldn't knock them down. If anything I find that characters just won't go down.
Sometimes an idea seems really good in your head until you bounce it off some other people who know what they are talking about lol. I have definitely also been on the side where I've just been hopelessly overpowered, but mostly I am afraid to throw attacks at anyone other than the tank, and often find myself pretty hampered by having to consider "I can't do that because if I roll a nat 20 it's a near certain TPK". I still like the idea of a critical effect table, but I'm not going to mess with the way my players roll their critical hits, you guys were right about that being a bad idea.
I'll see how the group feels about me using this for creature crits, because I really like the possibilities to add more dramatic narrative to combat, especially when using creatures with no abilities other than basic attacks. My players enjoy curveballs and big dynamic combat encounters, so I am pretty confident they'll be all for it lol. That being said, I've boiled it way down thanks to everyone's advice. The names of each effect are just placeholders for now.
I realize it's unconventional, but there's a few reasons why I am using proficiency as a modifier for Dazed and Frenzy. The first is for those fights where it would normally be impossible for a creature to even land a hit on a players AC, where advantage is meaningless. In theory, it's also a counter balance to magic items that provide bonuses to attack and defense.
On a Critical Hit
Example.
Greater Zombie attacks and rolls a natural 20
Attack deals 1d6 + 4 bludgeoning damage and 2d6 necrotic damage.
Damage rolls are 3, 3, and 4.
Replace one dice for 6, 3, and 4.
Attack deals 17 damage (6+4) + 3 + 4
Greater Zombie rolls an 11 on the critical hit table. It gets +3 to attacks and its Undead Fortitude saving throw until the end of its next turn.
The zombie goes into a frenzied attack that takes even the heavily armored fighter by surprise. It goes down, but not easily. Apparently whoever this zombie used to be had a mean streak.
OR Greater Zombie rolls a 2 on the critical hit table. It gains 6 temporary hit points and advantage on it's next attack, and so do the 3 skeletons and 4 other zombies drawn to the sound of the fight.
The sounds of your living, breathing pain as you reel from the blow seems to rile up the hoard of undead around you like a nest of ants that has just been stepped on.
d20
Critical Hit
1-4
MVP. Your display of prowess bolsters your allies fighting spirit. You and any friendly creatures able to see your attack gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice your proficiency bonus, and gain advantage on the next attack they make before the end of their next turn.
5-8
Dazed. You knock your opponent silly for a few moments. Until the end of the target's next turn its speed is halved, and whenever it makes an attack roll, or a saving throw, it must subtract a number equal to it's proficiency bonus.
9-12
Frenzy. You outmaneuver and overwhelm your opponents. Until the end of your next turn, your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks, and you may add a number equal to your proficiency bonus whenever you make an attack roll or a saving throw.
13-16
Durability Loss. The target's armor or shield takes a cumulative −1 penalty to the AC it offers. Armor reduced to an AC of 10 or a shield that drops to a +0 bonus is rendered unusable until repaired. If the target is not wearing any armor (i.e Mage Armor, Natural Armor), it instead suffers a Grievous Wound.
17-20
Grievous Wound. Your attack causes a grievous wound. At the start of the target's next turn it loses a number of hit points equal to half of the damage dealt by this attack.