So last night in our campaign we faced a cloaker and it attached itself to the player's shoulder area, it coudn't attach itself to his face because it did have advantage but he has the alert feat which makes it so he can't get advantage as long as he is awake, so the player tried and failed to remove with a str check on one of his turns and waits for the 2nd turn to come around and decided to attack and rolled Nat 1, would he hit himself because of Nat 1 or just rule it a miss? How would you play it out?
automatic fails and success for the d20 only happen on weapon and spell attacks or death saves.
Skill checks and dc saving throws do not. This is because someone so great at something could still do a simple task with a low dc that they would have failed at a lower level. A 10 or 12 dc is quite easy to roll at level 5 with more profiency, more asi or feats, and maybe expertise. But st level one they would struggle to do its successfuly.
if he decides to try to hit the creature. Just ask him how and with what? That way when you decide what kind of roll you need for outcome the pc would have already been these questions and not knowing if he wants to punch it, swing a sword at his face towards the creature, or try something else. The details before the dice check request helps make the results balanced. PCs or killerDms would punish or take advantage of the results in some way because they didn’t like the roll of he dice from their attempt at what has already been engaged.
so since you didn’t ask details first. I would just go with ruling it as whatever he had last in his hands is what he swung at the creature before the nat 1 attack roll.
you said a strength check to pull it off first round, so I would assume he was using both hands. Making him drop everything. If he did it one hand last round I would have made the skill check at disadvantage or if the creature was getting a save roll it would be at advantage. But since he was prob bare handed, I would do a punch motion or something. You could punish him according to what you think is fair for the attempt at hand. Like he missed and slapped himself in the face for 1 dmg or if you want punched himself in the face for 1+his str modifier unless they were a barb or monk(class traits).
RAW he just misses. A nat 1 in combat is only a guaranteed miss, there are no "severity tables." You can, however, choose that a nat 1 in combat means something if you really want to.
I have always taken a roll of a NAT 1 as a great chance for fun, for both the DM and the players. This could something simple (like in this scenario) where you say the player stabs at the creature, rolls a NAT 1, and thus he misses and grazes his neck taking one damage. Or perhaps he misses he creature and the blade cuts off half of his long dwarven beard, thus he suffers a -1 on his next charisma check as he hasn't had time to re-groom his beard yet. You could even play with the idea that after the NAT 1 the player fumbled his attacked so bad he dropped the dagger and would have to spend his action (next turn) to pick it back up.
A roll of a NAT 1 is a prime opportunity for the DM to be creative, go "off book" (away from the rules), and insert some fun into the session! Just remember that whatever you do, it should put a smile on your players faces, it should not be made to feel as a punishment.
So last night in our campaign we faced a cloaker and it attached itself to the player's shoulder area, it coudn't attach itself to his face because it did have advantage but he has the alert feat which makes it so he can't get advantage as long as he is awake, so the player tried and failed to remove with a str check on one of his turns and waits for the 2nd turn to come around and decided to attack and rolled Nat 1, would he hit himself because of Nat 1 or just rule it a miss? How would you play it out?
Is he swinging at it?
automatic fails and success for the d20 only happen on weapon and spell attacks or death saves.
Skill checks and dc saving throws do not. This is because someone so great at something could still do a simple task with a low dc that they would have failed at a lower level. A 10 or 12 dc is quite easy to roll at level 5 with more profiency, more asi or feats, and maybe expertise. But st level one they would struggle to do its successfuly.
if he decides to try to hit the creature. Just ask him how and with what? That way when you decide what kind of roll you need for outcome the pc would have already been these questions and not knowing if he wants to punch it, swing a sword at his face towards the creature, or try something else. The details before the dice check request helps make the results balanced. PCs or killerDms would punish or take advantage of the results in some way because they didn’t like the roll of he dice from their attempt at what has already been engaged.
so since you didn’t ask details first. I would just go with ruling it as whatever he had last in his hands is what he swung at the creature before the nat 1 attack roll.
you said a strength check to pull it off first round, so I would assume he was using both hands. Making him drop everything. If he did it one hand last round I would have made the skill check at disadvantage or if the creature was getting a save roll it would be at advantage. But since he was prob bare handed, I would do a punch motion or something. You could punish him according to what you think is fair for the attempt at hand. Like he missed and slapped himself in the face for 1 dmg or if you want punched himself in the face for 1+his str modifier unless they were a barb or monk(class traits).
Sorry for the wall of text. Just posting examples of what I mean to help explain my reasoning.
Oh no don't be sorry for wall of text, I forgot to include that he took out his short sword and tried stabbing it when he rolled the Nat 1.
RAW he just misses. A nat 1 in combat is only a guaranteed miss, there are no "severity tables." You can, however, choose that a nat 1 in combat means something if you really want to.
I have always taken a roll of a NAT 1 as a great chance for fun, for both the DM and the players. This could something simple (like in this scenario) where you say the player stabs at the creature, rolls a NAT 1, and thus he misses and grazes his neck taking one damage. Or perhaps he misses he creature and the blade cuts off half of his long dwarven beard, thus he suffers a -1 on his next charisma check as he hasn't had time to re-groom his beard yet. You could even play with the idea that after the NAT 1 the player fumbled his attacked so bad he dropped the dagger and would have to spend his action (next turn) to pick it back up.
A roll of a NAT 1 is a prime opportunity for the DM to be creative, go "off book" (away from the rules), and insert some fun into the session! Just remember that whatever you do, it should put a smile on your players faces, it should not be made to feel as a punishment.
Thanks all, that's what I was looking for, and wanted to make sure I didn't miss an opportunity that I somehow forgot to do something.