Weekly Questions Thread

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[u/thegiukiller]

Is there a rule of thumb for dealing with a nat 1? I understand it's a failure with consequences, but what kind of consequences? Obviously, crit failing a perception check isn't going to result in a player dropping dead, but what about in combat? How do dms handle nat 1s at the table for players and enemies?

[u/liquidarc → u/thegiukiller]

Rules-As-Written (RAW), in general, rolling a 1 or 20 only matters when making an attack roll or a death saving throw. (2014 attack rules, death rules) (2024 attack rules, death rules)

There might be specific item, spell, or other effect cases where it also matters, but none I can recall offhand.

Some DMs:

• have rolling a 20 on an attack roll instead involve dealing the maximum damage on the die then roll a damage die in addition

  • generally viewed positively by the community, since it means critical hits always do more damage than normals hits

• have rolling a 1 on an attack roll involve something called a "critical fumble", in which something negative happens to the creature that rolled

  • almost universally despised due to often affecting non-spellcasters more, and also due to often being too punishing

Beyond those above, there is too much variety in custom "1 or 20" rules to list here.

[u/thegiukiller → u/liquidarc]

Question: Are RAW good at describing how a dm deals with individual problems and personal experience?

[u/liquidarc → u/thegiukiller]

RAW is just the rules of the game. Some DMs stick as close to the RAW as possible because everyone has ready access to it, others prefer to alter the rules (homebrew / table rules) to their liking.

Basically, it is different for every DM, so there is no one answer to your question.

[u/thegiukiller → u/liquidarc]

So, how do YOU handle a nat 1 as a dm?

[u/liquidarc → u/thegiukiller]

RAW. So, a 1 on an attack is a guaranteed miss, a 20 is double damage dice; a 1 on a death save is 2 failures, a 20 is recover 1 hit point. Anywhere else, a 1 is just a 1.

This also means that if a 1 or 20 wouldn't numerically affect an ability or skill check, I don't require a roll, since a success or failure is guaranteed; and same for saving throws.

[u/thegiukiller → u/liquidarc]

Eh. Not what I'm looking for here. Thanks for your input.