Critical Hit Conditions Table

1. Blinded
2. Deafened
3. Frightened
4. Prone
5. Restrained
6. Stunned

• For Blinded, the target creature must have discernible eyes or vision sensory organs and the attack must target or affect these organs in some fashion. Recovery costs a bonus action but is otherwise automatic.
• For Deafened, the target creature must have discernible ears or auditory sensory organs and the attack must target or affect these organs in some fashion. Recovery requires an action to make a CON saving throw (DC 15, modified by -5 for each previous recovery attempt).
• For Frightened, the attack must be accompanied by a display of aggression or have some inherent element of spectacle that can be perceived by the target creature. Recovery is automatic if the creature who inflicted the condition is of a smaller size category than the affected creature. Otherwise, recovery requires a WIS saving throw (DC 10 +5 for each size level difference).
• For Prone, the attack must be capable of knocking down the target creature, and the target creature must be capable of falling prone in their current position. Recovery requires standing up (half movement speed).
• For Restrained, the attack must be capable of pinning, debilitating, or otherwise restricting the movement of the target creature. Recovery requires a STR or DEX (DM’s choice) saving throw (DC 10). This saving throw costs 5 feet of movement.
• For Stunned, the target creature must have a nervous system, sensory organs, or similar physiology capable of being disrupted and the attack must target or affect this physiological system or organ(s). Recovery requires a CON saving throw (DC 10).

Adding Some Spice to Crits

The Critical Hit Conditions house rule is implemented primarily to address two separate D&D 5e mechanical shortcomings. The first being that it is possible, no matter how unlikely, for a critical hit to result in a lower damage output than a non-critical hit. As a group, we have decided this should never be the case and critical hits should always, at the very least, do “extra” damage. The second is that 5e doesn’t allow for “called shots” or mechanically interesting attacks based on precision strikes. Other RPG systems have rules to govern this kind of thing, but D&D follows more of a generic whittle-them-down-until-they-stop-moving approach to combat that doesn’t always scratch the exact cinematic itch we’re looking for. To stay in keeping with D&D 5e’s design philosophy of streamlined simplicity over complete simulation, we’ve relegated these kinds of interesting effect attacks to critical hits. This prevents them from being abused via tuning a character build around them while still allowing for an extra bit of excitement and creativity. Ultimately we believe natural 20s, when rolled, should always be a pleasant surprise and a highlight of any combat sequence.

The House Rule in Detail

If you roll a natural 20 on your attack roll, you may roll 1D6 on the Critical Hit Conditions table after rolling your regular damage.

The result of the Conditions table roll determines what possible condition your critical hit may inflict for a minimum of one round. In order to inflict this condition on the target, you must be able to describe how your attack accomplishes the effect. At the DM’s discretion, if your description is accepted as reasonable, the target creature immediately gains the condition rolled/described and takes the normal damage for the attack.

If you cannot describe how the effect would be applied, or if the creature is immune to the condition rolled, or if the DM decides the attempt would not work as described, or you do not wish to inflict the rolled condition or even roll on the table for any reason, instead you may deal Bonus Critical Hit Damage.

Clarifications and Definitions

Natural 20

The Critical Hit Conditions table is only accessible for critical hits rolled via natural 20 on the attack die. This means that class features or abilities that lower the threshold for critical hits (for example, the Fighter class’s Improved Critical feature) do not increase the odds of making a Critical Hit Conditions table roll, although those critical hits do use the Bonus Critical Hit Damage rules.

Player Character Crits vs NPC Crits

The Critical Hit Conditions table is meant to be used by PCs. Monsters in 5e are balanced to be able to inflict conditions based on their flavor and design, adding creatively applied combat prowess to them has the potential to unbalance some encounter designs. The exception to this would be boss fights where the foes tend to be similar to PCs run by the DM. At the DM’s discretion, Legendary creatures (i.e. named creatures with Legendary Resistance and/or Legendary actions may roll on the Critical Hit Conditions table (meeting all other requirements) if their INT is greater than 12.

All other NPCs use the Bonus Critical Hit Damage rule. 

Describing and Adjudicating the Condition

In order for a Critical Hit Conditions roll to take effect, the rule states that the player rolling on the Conditions table must be able to describe how their attack inflicts the rolled condition. It further states that the DM must accept this description as reasonable. To break this down, it’s essentially a way to incentivize creativity in combat, particularly with showy, cinematic effects. Rolling frightened on the Critical Hit Conditions table could be akin to Han Solo yelling and charging at the Storm Troopers, or Wesley/Dread Pirate Roberts standing up and demanding, “Drop. Your. Sword.” Rolling the prone condition could be a quarterstaff that sweeps the legs out from underneath a goblin or a Black Widow-style scissor leg takedown. The key is, the condition should be reasonable in the context of the description.

The DM has final say on this in part because they are arbiter of the target creature’s physiology. An amber golem, for example, cannot be frightened. A player may roll a 3 on the Critical Hit Conditions table after rolling a natural 20 on an attack with their warhammer. But the amber golem is immune to the frightened condition and while the player may not know that, the DM does and would have to rule that the attack cannot inflict the desired condition. Likewise a brain in a jar does not have eyes or ears, therefore rolls of 1 or 2 on the Conditions table would have no effect (even though the creature is not technically immune to those conditions) and the DM should indicate this immediately after the roll.

When it comes to determining the validity of a player’s critical attack description, DMs should avoid over-critiquing the player’s efforts. A player trying to describe how their longsword attack against an amber golem inflicts the blinded condition might say, “I slash at the golem and the sun glints off my adamantine blade into the golem’s eyes.” This may seem a bit silly to some DMs but it is better to reward players for effort than reject their description based on an arbitrary quality standard. This rule is not meant to adjudicate how the players express themselves or judge them, but to provide ruling based on what could be possible in the game world. So, using the previous example, a DM might reject the sun glint premise if the fight were taking place in the Underdark, well away from the sun. The expectation in most cases is that a player should have the opportunity to adjust their description given new or updated information. If the player forgot the fight was taking place indoors, they could try again with a new description or the DM could suggest minor adjustments that would be acceptable. DMs should work with players to resolve the attack in the way that is the most engaging for the player and only reject the Conditions result if the negotiation is affecting the pace of combat resolution.

In some cases it may be that neither player nor DM can quite think of a way for a specific attack to inflict the rolled condition. It may be hard to imagine a way that a critical attack from a guiding bolt spell might inflict the restrained condition in a duel taking place on an open plain. In this case it is better to reject the Conditions table roll and move on.

One key detail that should not be overlooked is that if a Critical Hit Conditions table roll is rejected as not possible or the DM determines the attack does not qualify to apply the rolled condition, the attack then defaults to Bonus Critical Hit Damage. A critical hit is always a good thing, even if that good thing is just a bunch of extra points of damage.

Examples

• A player rolls a natural 20 with their chaos bolt spell. Their regular damage roll is 2D8+1D6 with the D8s determining damage type. The roll is 7 + 7 + 3 for a total of 17 psychic damage and they roll a 5 on the Critical Hit Conditions table indicating the restrained condition. Since it is a psychic attack and the restrained condition is a physical restriction, neither player nor DM can think of a reasonable way for this to work so the DM determines the attack will use Bonus Critical Hit Damage instead.
• A player rolls a natural 20 with their astral unarmed strike attack (which counts as magical) against a ghost. Their roll on the Critical Hit Conditions table is a 4, indicating the prone condition. However, the ghost is immune to being knocked prone, so the DM informs the player they must use the Bonus Critical Hit Damage instead.
• A player rolls a natural 20 with their long bow attack against a gelatinous cube and rolls a 5 on the Critical Hit Conditions table to inflict the restrained condition. The player says, “My arrow flies through the cube and sinks into the floor, pinning it in place.” The DM may reply, “Uh, I think the gelatinous cube can just ooze around the arrow. What if the arrow knocks something more substantial onto the cube?” The player could revise then saying, “Okay, I take careful aim at the stone ceiling and hit a weak spot in the mortar, cracking it loose and dropping a huge chunk of solid stone onto the cube.” The DM may think this is a bit much for the well-maintained stone hallway and counter, “What if the wall has a spring-loaded trap in it instead and your arrow triggers the mechanism by stroke of luck?” The player agrees and the stone wall trap springs and flattens the cube, inflicting the restrained condition in addition to doing the normal longbow damage.

Bonus Critical Hit Damage

Bonus Critical Hit Damage (BCHD) is calculated as the maximum possible damage roll, added to the result of the regular damage roll. This damage is flat, and no additional dice are rolled. This ensures that critical hits always do more damage than a regular attack.

Example

• If an attack with a +2 Maul does 2D6+2 damage, the maximum possible damage roll is 12 (6 + 6), so the BCHD is 12. When the attack is confirmed to succeed, the regular damage is rolled (e.g. 6 + 3 = 9). This amount (9) is added to the BCHD (12) for a total of 21. Finally, any modifiers are applied (21 + 2 = 23).

Condition Duration

The inflicted condition applies until the start of the affected creature’s turn in the next round of combat. At the DMs discretion, the creature may attempt to recover from the condition (see Recovery).

The DM discretion is important here. The DM may determine that, for example, a critical hit with a longbow that pierced a cyclops’ one eye is not recoverable, despite the Blinded condition’s automatic recovery. Likewise, the DM may decide that a critical hit against a creature with a high initiative roll which occurred in the final round of combat does not confer sufficient reward and extend the condition’s duration for another round. When determining whether to use the Critical Hit Conditions table or take the Bonus Critical Hit Damage in a round where the targeted creature’s turn has already passed, a player may request a duration ruling for the next round only before choosing. The DM is not obliged to reveal or even decide whether to extend the condition beyond the next round before the player chooses their critical hit effect.

Recovery

When a creature is affected by a condition from the Critical Hit Conditions table, they may be able to try and recover from that condition on their next (or, at the DM’s discretion, another subsequent) turn. The table condition descriptions include recovery costs. These costs are meant to be reasonable approximations of what it would take a creature to recover from a temporary status affliction, but they are also lightly mechanically balanced against the overall effect of the condition. As an example, the DC for the Deafened recovery is higher than for Stunned primarily because the mechanical effects of Deafened are less impactful in a combat scenario than Stunned. Additionally, recovering from Deafened costs a bonus action while the saving throw for Stunned is “free.” This means that at a base level blinding an opponent with a Critical Hit Condition costs that creature a bonus action; deafening costs the creature an action, and restraining a creature costs them 5 feet of movement.

It should be noted though that all DCs for recovery checks are subject to secret modifiers at the DMs discretion or in some cases where narratively appropriate may be determined to automatically succeed.

Details

• Blinded — Recovering from this condition costs a bonus action to clear debris, blood, or other obfuscating material from the eye(s)/visual sense organs. This recovery automatically succeeds unless the DM determines recovery is not required or would take one or more extra rounds to restore visual acuity. If recovery would take more than one turn, the creature must expend its bonus action on each of those turns (i.e. continue wiping its eyes or otherwise trying to remove the obscuring effect).
• Deafened — To recover from being deafened, the creature must expend an action to make a CON saving throw (DC 15). The DC of this check is reduced by 5 for each previous unsuccessful attempt. The DM may determine this saving throw is not possible or requires successive saves to recover.
• Frightened — If a creature is frightened by a Conditions table roll, recovery is automatic without saving throw, movement loss, or action use provided the character inflicting the condition is smaller than the creature. So, assuming a medium-sized character inflicted the condition, a large, huge, or gargantuan creature would automatically recover from being frightened. However, if the creature is smaller, they must make a WIS saving throw (DC 10) with a DC modifier of +5 for each size category difference. Therefore a small creature would require a WIS saving throw with a DC 15 and a tiny creature would require a WIS saving throw against a DC 20. This saving throw is otherwise free (requiring no movement or action expenditure).
• Prone — Creatures knocked prone by a roll on the Critical Hit Condition table can recover like normal from the prone condition, by standing up using half their available movement, costing no additional actions or requiring additional saving throws.
• Restrained —  When restrained as the result of a Conditions table roll, the affected creature must use 5 feet of their movement and make a STR or DEX saving throw (DC 10). This is meant to represent the effort required to free themselves from whatever is holding them in place (dagger through their clothing stuck in a wall, rock rolled over their leg, etc). The ability score used for this saving throw is up to the DM’s discretion (DEX may be appropriate for a tripwire wrapped around the legs, while STR may be more applicable for ripping a cloak pinned to the floor with a crossbow bolt, as examples). The creature has insufficient movement speed to pay the 5 feet due to some trait or effect other than the restrained condition (for example a creature who is also grappled), they may not attempt this recovery.
• Stunned — Stunned creatures must make a CON saving throw (DC 10) to shake off the effects of the critical hit. This requires no additional movement or action economy cost.

Creatures’ and NPCs’ Critical Hits

Creatures and NPCs cannot benefit from the Critical Hit Conditions table or BCHD. Critical hits from DM-controlled creatures use the standard double damage dice critical hit rules described on page 196 of the Player’s Handbook.

Interactions

The following clarifications describe how this house rule works in context of other rules governing critical hits and dice rolls.

• Advantage — Advantage and disadvantage cannot be used on or applied to the Critical Hit Conditions table roll via any means. Since the conditions on the table are not cumulative (i.e. a roll of 1 for Blinded is not always demonstrably worse than a higher roll), advantage and disadvantage offer no inherent value. The roll can be rerolled however. See Inspiration and/or Wish, below.
• Assassinate — Critical hits rolled from anything other than a natural 20 are eligible for the BCHD, but not the Critical Hit Conditions table. If a critical hit is achieved with a lowered threshold or via any other mechanism, ignore the Critical Hit Conditions table roll and simply calculate BCHD.
• Bonus damage — Bonus damage added to attacks is not calculated as part of the BCHD when determining the max damage. This includes bonuses from magical weapons, ability modifiers, or other features and effects like Song of Victory. These bonuses are added to the regular damage roll and max damage is calculated as the highest possible result on any dice rolled. 
• Brutal Critical — Additional damage dice are rolled and added to the regular damage roll before determining Critical Hit Conditions table results or BCHD. It does not change the calculations for the BCHD (i.e. if a weapon with 1D6 damage is used in a critical hit by a character with Brutal Critical, the maximum possible damage roll is still 6, so the regular damage roll would be 1D6 for the weapon plus 1D6 for the Brutal Critical, and that total would be added to the BCHD of 6 for a total damage output of 8-18 as opposed to 3-18 under the rules as written).
• Chromatic — Chromatic Dragon-Touched Focus from Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons provides a special die-based modifier to certain spells cast under specific conditions. If a spell meeting these conditions is a critical hit, roll the bonus damage on the die as indicated and apply any difference between that die’s max roll and the result to the BCHD calculation. For example, if a caster with  Chromatic casts scorching ray at a target and rolls a 20 on the spell attack, their regular damage would be 2D6 + 1D6 bonus from Chromatic. If the rolls were 3, 4, and 5 on the Chromatic die, the regular damage would be 12 and the BCHD would be 12 (max from 2D6) plus 1 (1D6 max 6 – 5 for the initial roll = 1) for a total of 13 making the total damage for the critical hit 25. This is a specific exception to the typical handling of bonuses, see Bonus damage, above.
• Death Saving Throws — If a critical hit strikes a target creature who is at 0 hit points, ignore the Critical Hit Conditions table; this attack has the effect described in the Player’s Handbook (PHB), page 197.
• Disadvantage — See Advantage, above.
• Improved Critical — Only an attack roll of a natural 20 qualifies for Critical Hit Conditions table rolls. See Assassinate, above.
• Inspiration — While advantage and disadvantage cannot be applied to the Critical Hit Conditions table roll, players can use their Inspiration to reroll the result one time and choose their preferred result.
• Magical weapons — +X weapons apply their bonus to the regular damage roll and are not calculated as part of the BCHD’s max damage. See Bonus damage, above.
• Paralyzed — Any attack that hits a creature with the paralyzed condition is considered a critical hit, but as with Assassinate above, only a roll of a natural 20 is eligible to roll on the Critical Hit Conditions table, so this attack can use the BCHD but not the Conditions table.
• Savage Attack — The additional die roll is added to the regular damage roll before determining Critical Hit Conditions table results or BCHD. It does not change the calculations for the BCHD (see Brutal Critical above for an example).
• Superior Critical — Only an attack roll of a natural 20 qualifies for Critical Hit Conditions table rolls. See Assassinate, above.
• Vicious weapons — The additional damage applied from a vicious magical item when rolling a 20 is added to the regular damage roll but not calculated as part of the BCHD’s max damage. See Bonus damage, above.
• Wish — The wish spell could be used to reroll the 1D6 on the Critical Hit Conditions table, as described in the spell description on page 289 of the PHB and similarly to using Inspiration (see above). However, as with all rolls on the Critical Hit Conditions table, this roll cannot be made with advantage.