How Far Should A Nat 20 Take You?

>>53080230
Critical success on Ability checks is a meme, that shit should be exclusive to combat.

>>53080271
To double down because I have autistic passion about this, I hate hearing silly stories where someone does godlike shit on a 20 out of combat. We get it haha whimsy and fun but ffs if you actually follow the rules it's nothing special and ninety percent of those Nat twenty stories are dumb bullshit.

Now if you're talking stuff like Cyberpunk 2020, where a max roll means you get to keep rolling, that's good shit. But I'm not gonna say "dont play dnd" because I'm not a system elitist.

>>53080230
>>53080271
In most games it IS exclusive to combat attack rolls. Even then, often times it's still a critical threat, not an automatic success.

I don't want to say that people are having badwrongfun, but critical successes on things like save, skill checks, etc, are really, really stupid and ruin everything in favor of lolsorandumb shit. Every time. Without exception.

>>53080230
No, you can only succeed a critical success in things that are physically achievable.

My group had a joke about this saying "I'm gonna jump up and down until I roll a 20 and leap to the moon"

But the joke being that you can't physically jump to the moon unless you could jump 238,900 miles already. A critical success only applies to things that are actually possible for someone to do.

>i want to jump this long ass clif
>natural 20
>kek i did it ,right gm?

Fuck you

>>53080230
in 5e the rules are simple
nat 20s are a crit during attack rolls. this is the only time a 20 has any special significance.

a crit equates to a successful AC check and rolling 1 extra die roll.

That's it. Nothing more.

if a player rolls a 20 on a skill check where 20+skill bonus could actually pass it, it's fun to give them a little bonus, like "your strength check to kick open the blocked door splinters the entire thing off in a crunch of wood." Adds a little color to mundane rolls.

>>53083413
I agree with this. There is no reason not to spice 1s and 20s up a little.
For example, the last session I played had me trying to climb a large gate, which I failed. My character then claimed it was slick with some kind of oil to save face. Then the party Rogue rolled a 1 on perception about the gate and the DM went: yeah, he is right, you are pretty certain it's covered in some kind of oil. Now sure, he could have said: you don't notice anything special, but I just find it fun this way.

>>53083473
What reason is there to spice up a 1 or a 20? They aren't meaningfully different from any other number on a d20

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>>53080230
Why make someone roll if there's no way they'll succeed?

>>53080230
Nat 20 is a meme.
At best, it should be your character operating at peak capacity.
Forget the fact that it's a 20, and compare it to the target number.

>>53084244
Not that anon, but I find that it's easier to engage your players as a DM when you can add a little extra fluff to your descriptions, but if you do it too often it gets old and rambly. Putting some extra pizzazz on 1s and 20s keeps it from getting bland or obnoxious, while adding to the excitement/dread players feel when they roll. As long as you don't make characters look incompetent when they're just unlucky, players seem to enjoy it.

>>53080230
>Crossing a 50 foot ravine.
You get across safe and secure. Everything else is flavor.
>Summoning a god when you have no affiliation with them.
You caught them in a good mood, and they're of a mind to hear you out. Keeping them that way is another matter.
>Lying to a cosmic being.
You, by sheer chance, happened to tell a lie that meshes with some other information the being is privy to, lending your claim weight. Be careful not to unknowingly contradict that knowledge lest your story unravel.
>Aiming for a guy on horseback riding in the horizon.
Assuming your weapon is physically capable of hitting him; you wing him, maybe, or spook the horse with a near miss.

>>53084812
i almost threw up

>>53084313
>Tenth Post Best Post
You're slipping /tg/.

>>53080230
>I understand physical feats, within reason. I'm talking achieving DC: Impossible Without Assistance From Deities shit here.
Kudos for specifying this.
Not everyone noticed.
Let's look at your examples:

>Crossing a 50 foot ravine.
Nope, don't bother rolling.

>Summoning a god when you have no affiliation with them.
Unless it's the God of Chaos or Whimsy, or you're doing something worth a God's notice, never gonna happen.

>Lying to a cosmic being.
Rolling makes sense if the players have no way of knowing if the being can detect the lies of mortals.
The answer to that question decides on if a 20 does anything.
Cosmic beings vary.
"If someone asks you if you are a god, you say YES!"

>Aiming for a guy on horseback riding in the horizon.
If it's in range of the weapon, so it's possible but unlikely in the extreme, roll a couple twenties and we'll see how lucky you are.

>Why would a natural 20 even matter?
It is the upper limit to the range of what's possible. If the event being rolled for is technically possible by the one attempting it, like blowing up the Death Star with your eyes closed without the Force, the GM can allow the roll, perhaps with adjustments such as rolling four twenties in a row, if they are feeling generous.
Blind luck happens.
If it is outright impossible, and they know it, no roll should occur.

>>53080230
If you have to think about this stuff, you have a shitty group.

>>53086695
>You have a shitty group
You don't choose your friends anon

>>53086764
Choosing your friends is exactly what you do.

>>53086764
Yes you can. You can also choose your group. Surprisingly enough, you can have both a group to play with and friends separate from that. It's not difficult.

It is always more impressive and immersive for a nat 20 to cause you to succeed at your task through skill or good fortune in a believable way.

>"You rolled a 20 on your check to pick the lock? Alright. This is a model you've seen before, and you know exactly how to position you picks."

>"Nat 20 on your climb check? The stiff breeze that's been blowing all day seems to be dying down as you make your way up the cliff face, and you come across a great set of footholds your companions missed. You scale the face two rounds quicker than them."

Nat20 memery is the province of disgusting Reddit normie HAHAHAIMSONERDY trash.

>>53084244
>What reason is there to spice up a 1 or a 20? They aren't meaningfully different from any other number on a d20
It's fun

>>53086695
It hurts because two of the team members are absolute douchebags, one is a well meaning but stubborn and needs to have the last word cockhead, and the fourth is an actually incredibly amazing, sweet guy, and because he's really into the game I've been trying to keep in the group so they don't totally fuck up the experience for him

>>53084313
I don't think you understand. Some groups will end up blaming you for railroading, or just being a straight up dick if you don't let them have their lolrandumb fun, which is exactly what happened last time I dm'ed.

>tabletop n chill night
>fighting gnolls in a cave
>roll nat 20
>everyone goes silent and outside the storm dies down as the universe stands in awe of my feat
>NAT FUCKING 20
>dm begins screeching like a chimp and jumps onto the table as the rest bray like donkeys and dance around me in a trance
>my character jumps right out of our imaginations to congratulate me as i begin ascending to godhood and fly up and past the cosmos into realms no mere mortal could ever comprehend
>have one infinite moment of bliss and transcendence before we go back to killing gnolls

That was a fun night.

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They shouldn't roll if it's not possible even with a 20, and they shouldn't roll if their skill modifier alone would pass it.
It's up to the DM's discretion if a 1 or a 20 on a skill check merits extra flavor text. I personally enjoy stuff like "(20 to jump a gap) A slight tailwind picks up behind you, and you land gracefully on the other side" and "(1 to break a door) You... miss the door and tackle the wall. Doesn't go very well."
Don't let players roll for things you don't want to fail or succeed. If they roll anyway, well, that was clearly fidgeting, because there's no roll here in the game.

>>53086835
Yeah, I used to watch a blog that was people submitting neat things from their games (e.g. a Dragonborn freezes some water on the ground with his ice breath and the gnoll leader chasing him slips on it). Unfortunately, most of the recent stuff is
>Me and my buddies were playing D&D and we come across a locked door.
>Ranger: I'm gonna break it down! *rolls a 20*
>DM: lol all the doors in the dungeon explode becuz u hit this 1 so hard
>Everyone: lolololololol
>And it's been a meme in our group ever since!

Dragon unrelated.

>>53086953
Find a new group that matches your playstyle and respects you and your decisions.

You can't crit on ability checks.

>>53086835

>nat 20 is reddit shit

You know that this dates back to the beginning and even old farts who played the original dnd did it ri-

>insults reddit like that means anything

Of course you aren't old enough to know that.

>>53084244
>Why have fun?

>>53080230
Nat 20's SHOULD always succeed, because if the player can't succeed no matter what they roll, the option to roll shouldn't be presented to them. Don't let them do stupid shit like the wizard with 6 strength leaping 100 feet in the air or getting shot by crossbow bolts 20 times and taking no damage, because that is an impossible feat, no matter what they roll.

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>>53088959
>getting shot by crossbow bolts 20 times and taking no damage
Note, though, that if he *does* somehow out-AC 20 crossbow attacks, that's just poor marksmanship. It's generally a bad idea to take away combat rolls unless it's impossible to miss.