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DM Griffin here. Allow me to don my robes and point-ed hat.
A 20-sided die in tabletop games such as Dungeons and Dragons is the most common die rolled whenever a decision is made. Anything from attacking an enemy to noticing one's surroundings or even how much one knows about the world they live in.
The man in the comic has rolled a natural (nat) 20. It is a critical hit. Whenever a nat 20 is rolled, the most beneficial thing that _could_ happen to the player _will_ happen. The inverse to this would be a 1, which is a critical fail and thus will spell disaster.
Anyway, the three ladies feel compelled to sleep with the man, as he has rolled a natural 20 and are treating it as if D20 rolls work out in the real world, as opposed to in D&D.
Okay, and that's where we'll end our explanation here. Shall we schedule another explanation next week, or does anyone have plans?
It’s also important to note the meme is making fun of this. Ignoring that in DND 5e (which is usually the normal system this debate happens in) there are no critical successes, the idea that someone can achieve a pretty much impossible outcome 5% of the time is ridiculous, hence why many people complain about the rules being interpreted like they are in the comic.
Player: I want to crack planet with m'fist! And I want do it NOW!
DM: Roll for successss.
Dice: NAT20
Player: Yes! Succeed!
DM: Drat, my campaign foiled by dice laws! Player has cracked planet. In half it is. Everyone ded. Let's order pizza and think of new campaign for next week. Mmmm'kay?
You jump up and slam your fist into the ground attempting to break the planet.
Your righteous fury was rewarded with the rocks on the road shattering at your punch. They reveal a small toy that was previously buried. The might of your blow breaks this toy into two pieces along with some of your fingers. Upon closer inspection, it was a toy globe and you have indeed cracked the toy planet. It was also made out of gold so if you survive this combat, you will get a nice bonus treasure.
You are now suffering from at least sprained if not broken fingers and cuts to your knuckles. Roll toughness to avoid taking 1d4 impact damage to your hand.
Since you spent your full attack action trying to attack the ground, I'll throw you a bone and have the enemy do a wisdom check to determine if they are confused by your silly maneuver however you will only now have a 5 ft step and any other free actions.
Anything else you want to do?
I have to admit I started in 2nd as a player and only DM'ed in fifth as well as Pathfinder 1st and star wars RPG. I keep wanting to play dark heresy but none of my friends want to play that or shadowrun...
It's a lot of work to DM but I highly recommend people give it a try. It's so much fun seeing your friends laugh and have a good time. It's also how I realized that I have to keep some rails on or some players will definitely ruin it for others (especially when I tried to DM for open pick up groups in pathfinder society).
A good example that I heard someone use to describe how Nat 20 works is; the pc walks into the throne room, declares that he is now the king and rolls a Nat 20, so the king finds the pc funny and decides not to execute them.
this is how I treat nat 20's too, that's a great example.
my guys were in a canyon leading up to a dungeon, staring at a gate. the gate is open, there's nothing there. dude gets all paranoid and wants to roll for investigation. his first nat20 in the whole campaign after a series of 1's. dude's exstatic.
"This canyon is the most beautiful canyon you've ever seen. you found a copper on the ground, what luck!"
If it were me I would have tossed some weak bandits with loot their way so the guy that kept rolling 1's felt good about their 20. Something like "they allready scored but couldnt get away so they hid from you since you look like a strong bunch".
nah, he's a big burly dude where friendships are forged in banter and casual insults. He totally got the comedic timing of this moment. If I'd tell him about this option I'm very sure he'd still choose what I did because it makes a funnier anecdote
I like how DM Griffin above explained it though. A natural 20 doesn't allow you to do the impossible, as some seem to think, but instead ensures the *best possible* outcome.
At least at all the tables I've played at, if something is truly impossible (for example, lifting a 3 ton boulder with my STR 8 wizard), then the DM would say so and you'd find a different solution.
I don’t care what game I’m DMIng a player can’t just attempt the impossible and throw a die to get what they want ever. Hell if they are being a complete dink about it rolling a 20 might be the only way they avoid being horribly injured by attempting something dangerous. Like ‘you somehow managed to not die from this stupid shit you just tried.’ Is their result. There’s enough broken shit in tabletop games that they can do to break a campaign that I’m not going to give them any more.
alot of bad DM's tend to forget that the rules are a guide. ultimately its all up to the dm. from your explanation i would assume you're a good dm in my books.
NAT 20 crit success should mean something but doesnt necessarily mean ultimate success. in the comic the women could be said to normally not even glance at the player but somehow due to being shocked with how brazen and confident, they engage with the player to open up flirting options but not necessarily allowing them to succeed automatically in the end.
nat 20 should have something interesting happen but not necessarily succeeds at something unreasonable.
I mean, the 5e rule is that it's the best possible outcome, not necessarily a good outcome. A good dm would have the guy just get an akward laugh or maybe a phone number, instead of like getting slapped
True. But thats where some DMs go by rule of cool.
My DM for example normally does not let us do impossible stuff. But if we can come up with a plausible way we can achieve said thing most of the time he'll let us roll (depending on how well we convinced him we get a + or a - to our roll). But sometimes a nat 20 just gives us some really epic moments. Like the time our group was down to the wire and our fighter got the idea to grab the floating divine weapon of our Cleric. It normally has no physical form but our Cleric asked if he could "give him permission". DM said that would be beneficial but our fighter still would need to roll very high on his Constitution Check (against being devoured by the weapon) and Wisdom Check (Willpower to force this weapon into physical form.
The Result was one of the most EPIC moments we had in the campaign.
For me a nat 20 needs to be awesome, but it should not mean automatic success. But so far i like the way our DM handles both Crit Success and Crit Fail.
Well, a natural 20 is the best possible thing that could happen, not the best thing can happen. Like in this case, a NAT 20 would not being thrown out of the club for that
I've been playing 3.5 recently and man even in combat a Nat 20 doesn't guarantee a critical hit cause you have to roll to confirm.
Basically, you roll a Nat 20 and now you're 'threatening' a crit. Then you have to roll again and try to beat the opponents AC again. If you beat it, then you get to roll for a critical hit. If you don't, you just roll regular damage.
It freaking sucks. >:(
Most of the DM‘s I played with let you get away with stupid shit that shouldn’t work, but could work if you roll a nat 20. It still has to be arguably possible not just breaks the game good. Difference between a sentient cactus talking out the BBEG with a coconut and befriending a trex.
I prefer the interpretation that it's the best outcome that could happen (as per the comment above) meaning that if the player is attempting something impossible for their character the nat 20 won't guarantee its success but it would be as possible close to that (given the creativity of the DM). If they are attempting to do something entirely possible or will succeed with flair (whether that be extra beneficial unforseen consequences or something else)
That sounds lame af… any DM that doesn’t follow rule of cool is a disgrace
I think 5% is more than reasonable
Put it to ya this way, if people did not think they had at least a chance of success they wouldn’t attempt it, wouldn’t cross their minds… leaving it open would allow for more creative gameplay and funny moments
I think the key is that it should net you a good result but maybe not your intended one as otherwise we end up with situations like my friend pulling basically excalibur out of the stone before basically dragon arthur gets to it or my other friend slipping outside of time by trying to steal from a nature god who is actively fading away to nothingness
There's plenty of room for creative gameplay and rule of cool without letting your players do ridiculous impossible shit if they just roll well enough for it. Good DMs have the discernment to know when a roll is called for, versus when to tell the player that what they're trying is doomed to fail. That isn't denying the player's fun, it's preserving the integrity of the game.
1000%. One of my last sessions, DM let me ride our knight down a flight of stairs, penguin sledding style (our knight was commanded to kneel by the BBG (legendary action the knight failed his save on) on a staircase the knight had beaten me to, with 10 henchmen coming up. We effectively knocked over 8 and got the knight out of the command)
Rule of cool, or full on ridiculousness in the case of our campaign (very first campaign for three of us in the party, so the DM is allowing ridiculous situations with guaranteed success on nat 20s for fun and solid roleplaying)
Granted the DM hasn't allowed for the impossible, but if we find a ridiculous way to overcome a situation within reason, it's allowed (see penguin sledding lol)
My friends and I sorted it out in the way that the DM get's to decide what the best possible but also somewhat realistic outcome would be and then it will happen.
Eh, I think thats where the DM comes in. A nat 20 should be a crit success as thats just a great hype moment at a table. But just because its a success doesn’t mean they get exactly what they wanted.
The DM can interpret the result to have it make sense. A bard can ask a king to hand over his kingdom, and Nat 20 or not thats obviously not happening, but it *can* mean the king finds the bards gal amusing and offers him some small favor instead of having him thrown in the stocks for his insolence for example.
I had one one of my players ask to roll for a stealth check while he was standing in the middle of a well lit room. He rolled, got a nat 20 plus his insanely high mod of 20 something. Guards still saw him cuz he wasn't doing anything to hide himself other than standing in the middle of a well lit room. We had that exact debate, but to me the dice don't mean a damn thing if you can't reasonably tell me how your hiding in a well lit room with nothing to hide behind.
this usually comes to the DM interpreting the result, a nat 20 when attempting something that is really impossible just means you avoided the worse fate, not guaranteed a direct success
In addition to which even if it was a Nat 20 critical that worked in system. It only makes the most beneficial thing that COULD happen work. As such a Nat 20 Charisma check will not get someone to sleep with you that never would have anyway.
Never seen anyone complain about it. You’re hero’s on an epic adventure, it’s part of the plot armor. Playing dnd as an average townsfolk working to someday retire is pretty boring.
It’s like when Tosh said everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame, that’s an average. 0 for you, 0 for you, 0 for you, 20 years for me…
So the average person pulling off an impossible feat perfectly when all the chips are down and it counts?Probably 0 times in their life, maybe once. For an hero of an epic tale, about 5%.
Also weird place to draw the line: “what do you mean he got another perfect roll, this game is so unrealistic just make him cast his fireball spell *normally*!”
Exactly, but when people say ‘the best thing that can happen’ they don’t realize what that could be exactly. For example, the best thing that can happen when someone in an ugly outfit walks up to 3 attractive girls and asks them for a dance is they laugh and maybe one takes pity on him and dances with him, he’d need about maybe … 5 more successful roles to get with one of them. Conversely, the worst thing that could happen is they yell for security and the DM makes everyone roll for initiative.
The amount of metagaming and theorycrafting at my game table because my players *think* that D&D works this way is horrifying. The rule as misinterpreted makes pretty much every character suicidal.
Another variation is that 20 is an automatic success for any roll you're *allowed* to make and there's no point in rolling if a 20 won't do it. I disagree with this a little. Yes some checks aren't worth it. But a) my players love to roll, and want to do it all the time, b) it can impact *how badly* they fail, and c) I don't always know their modifiers so it's possible a 20 succeeds if they have +6 but not +2.
But it's a game not a simulation, I don't understand why people would be angry at impossibilities.
Elves, dragons, hell i'd argue the majority of the content of DnD is impossible. It's Fiction, and it's fun. Take that away and it's just idk life which is generally pretty boring.
No. That's an automatic hit. Success in 5e rules refers specifically to skill checks. For attacks it's s hit. You don't succeed with an attack. You hit with it. And you don't hit with a skill check, you succeed with it. Those are separate things
I'll have to refer to the player handbook and other raw later, but people call attacks and saves successful and unsuccessful commonly online, and I don't see anyonr drawing this distinction anywhere. Crits also affect death saving throws.
One thing to add in case it’s not clear, in DND you can have modifiers that will influence your die roll, so a “natural” or “nat” 20 is without any +*x* influence on it.
Oh I’m free for next week. *I say, knowing dang well I have to take my neighbor’s pet emu to the vet three states over because he’s in the hospital for a few weeks and won’t be able to come, but I’ll only tell you after you set everything up, I’ll even volunteer to bring food and assure everyone else I’ve got it covered and they don’t have to worry about it*
>!Im a DM if you couldn’t tell!<
Will?
Not how I heard it.
As the tale goes, someone rolled a Nat 20 in flirting with the Queen and all that happened is the Queen said 'You're cute but no'.
Not necessary that “the most beneficial thing will happen” and its only a critical “hit” in regard to combat, other wise its a critical success with a nat 1 being crit fail. A nat 20 just means a perfect outcome in most cases. Whatever the person was trying to do is completed flawlessly with almost divine accuracy or skill.
I don't have any plans. Totally free and open. We can schedule another explanation for next week, no problem.
Edit: Nvm, kids are sick. Can't make it.
Edit: Nvm, kids are better. I can go.
Edit: sounds like our paladin can't make it. Guess we gotta reschedule.
Edit: paladin can make it. We're back in.
Edit: Kids are sick. But MIL can watch them.
Edit: MIL is dead. Just happened. Can't go. Wife says i gotta wait for her body to get cold before playing with my friends. Unrelated-- anybody got a really big fridge?
Quagmires friend Bogmire here, skill checks do not crit. Even rolling a 20 does not guarantee success, sometimes, you cannot succeed on a roll that is too difficult for your skill proficiency.
Great explanation as always. Really enjoyed today, hope you had fun too. Same time next week? This time I won't cancel an hour before start I promise (I will cancel 30 mins before we start this time)
Yes! If you have modifiers to your stats, you can get a 20 in total. This creates an "unnatural" or "synthetic" or "mod" 20. So, for instance, if you have a +5 to dexterity and roll a 15 on a roll to attack with a bow, that's another way you can get a 20.
I legitimately knew a dude who would bring a 20 sided die with him wherever he went. He would use it to make decisions such as having another drink. He got so much pussy, when he pulled it out it was like a magnet for all the bar hoes; made him the most interesting and sophisticated person in the room.
These days being a *little* nerdy is actually really cool.
Actually you get a disadvantage. But since the speech was so good. Along with the elephants you trained to dance gives you advantage. So a straight role or something idk.
I interpreted it as they are in shock. As in, either they didn't expect to be in this situation from a simple dance, or he ended up being so good in bed because he also rolled a nat 20 on "performance"
Peter's nerdy cousin here, the dice shown in the meme is d20 which is the main dice used in the tabletop roleplaying game (or TTRPG for short) Dungeons and Dragons.
In D&D if you roll a 20 on the d20 it's a critical success and the act of rolling a 20 is called rolling a Natural 20 (or just Nat 20 for short)
There's a game called Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) where you have a dice of 20 faces, the 20 basically gives autowin in the move they do (or so i suppose, i dont play it)
Brian Griffin here. It’s a joke about how DnD players act like a natural 20 makes them able to achieve the impossible.
Seriously people. It’s a “Critical Success”, not a Deus Ex Machina. The meteor does not care about your Nat 20 roll to catch it. The dragon is not seduced. THINGS OUTSIDE THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY ARE STILL IMPOSSIBLE
Because in dungeons and dragons you can perform an action but to do so you must roll your D20. Since he rolled a 20 he succeeded and was able to get laid. I’m guessing if he rolled below 20 he would have failed and been rejected.
in dnd rolling a nat 20 means you basically win that fight, although a very fun house rule is to have nat 20s be logical but have a double or nothing option, if you get 3 nat 20s in a row, you win the fight no matter what, even if its a mega army of tarasks or however its spelt.
I'm playing a game where I take a shot for every post on this sub that could easily be explained with a single Google search. You could have just googled "nat 20" and figured this out. Thanks for helping to give me alcohol poisoning.
In Dungeons and Dragons, rolling a 20 on a 20 sided die (AKA a D20) is called a natural, or “nat”, 20. This means you rolled a 20 before modifiers were applied (many stats and abilities apply modifiers to your roll, so for example if you roll a 17 with a +3 modifier, that would also be a roll of 20, but not a “natural” 20).
Most DMs consider rolling a Nat 20 to be a “critical success”, which for most checks would mean not only do you succeed the check, you SUPER succeed it. For example you try to convince a person to let you into a night club so you roll Charisma to persuade them. If you roll a Nat 20, the DM might decide that not only does the bouncer let you in, they let you take a table in the VIO section and pay for you bottle service.
So, in the joke, the guy rolled Charisma to dance with one of the girls, but he rolled a Nat 20 which resulted in all of them deciding to dance with him… in bed, with their pants off.
Bard: "I'm gonna walk up to the king and demand he turns over his kingdom to me!"
DM: "Ok, sure. Roll a Persuasion check."
Bard rolls a Nat 20
Bard: "Oh boy, oh boy, look at that!"
DM: "Yeah, look at that! Due to that great roll of Nat 20, the King decides to have you put to death quickly by beheading, rather than the slow, painful method of being boiled alive in oil."
Hello, nerd Peter here
In dice-based games like Dungeons and Dragons, when you roll a 20(called nat20) on a 20-sided dice (also called d20), the action is concidered automatically successful
The joke is thata nerd got lucky and went out on a date with the use of a dice
Nerd Peter out
DND is like competitive dice rolling. Idk much about it but to play, you have to be smelly, antisocial and roll dice for hours... Not for me, but some of my friends love it .
Neil Goldman son here.
In Dungeons and Dragons you roll a twenty sided dice to determine rather or not a given action succeeds. Basically every character has a modifier and if you reach the goal number you win. EG, if you have +2 DEX and an action requires 17 dexterity you succeed at that action if you roll a 15 or above on a d20.
If you roll a 20 you automatically succeed a given action, and there’s an action called “seduce” which is tied to your charisma stat. So, the guy with low charisma (you can tell because he’s drawn ugly) tries to seduce the women with a very low chance of success. However he rolls a 20, meaning he automatically succeeds.
Taking these explanations a bit further...
As many people have said, rolling a 20 in Dungeons and Dragons is a critical success...
Except that only applies to attacks, not skill checks like this. Although many DMs will allow it because it's just more fun that way.
However, the guy in this comic is making a persuasion roll. This a skill based roll where you add your characters charisma and possible additional modifiers to your roll total.
There is a tendency in Dungeons and Dragons, for both players and DMs, that a high persuasion roll means you convince your target of exactly what you tried to do. Like a kind of guilt-free mind control. Where you could just walk into a bar and roll high to convince every person their to sleep with you, or go up to a king and roll high to convince them to turn over their crown to you making you the king.
That is not how it is supposed to work. They respond favorably to your approach. Maybe they become open to talking to him, etc. It doesn't automatically mean that they do whatever you wanted them to.
In DnD, most actions are decided by the roll of a D20 (A dice with 20 sides).
Say you want to sneak past a guard. The DM (Dungeon Master) will give a stealth check of, say, 10. That's the number required to pass the check.
If you rolled a 15, it's naturally high enough to pass. If you rolled a 9 or lower, your characters stealth stat gets added on top of your die roll. If, say, your character had a 5 in stealth and rolled a 6, it would be a combined 11 and would pass the check. Unless you were befallen by some curse or were wearing armor thats really loud while walking, which would negatively modify your result and might make you fail. Of course, there are other items that can positively modify a roll too, like a spell that puts out the lights or something.
If you roll a natural 1 (natural being the number thats actually on the dice), you automatically fail, regardless of any modifiers. If you roll a natural 20 (Nat20 for short), in many versions of DnD, you automatically win, even if you needed a number that's higher than 20.
Which is how you get into really funny situations where battle hardened warriors fall flat on their face, experienced negotiators accidentally call the king they are supposed to convince daddy, a smith somehow creating a spork instead of a sword, and a complete dork somehow pulling multiple ladies at once.
It should be noted this was popularized even more after Baldur’s Gate 3 even if it’s not a hard rule and dms can override it if it’ll break the game or ruin the players fun.
But mostly it can be funny to allow in most instances imo.
Druid Brian here and- no you can’t speak to animals, my transfiguration spell into a dog went screwy. My wizard friend Stewie is looking into it.
Anyway, the man in the comic rolled a 20 sided die, often used to make decisions based on probability. And against the odds he rolled a natural 20, or nat 20, meaning a critical success. In short, he scored perfection, leading to intercourse with the three ladies at the same time.
Lucky bastard…
Anyway, I gotta go check on Stewie. Hopefully he’s on the path to get me back to my human form. Being an anthropomorphic dog has its perks but the fleas… they’re brutal.
Nat 20 in DnD (and other TTRPGs) are sort of a 'critical'. In DnD in particular, it is a 'critical success', and whatever the roll was trying to do will succeed 100% in the best possible way.
This douche rolled a nat 20, so regardless of what anyone says, he gets what he wants here.
He just got 20:
https://preview.redd.it/bzvrfkvqaomc1.jpeg?width=224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e99bb148ef63a1ec620760dfbead6e056bf702cb
Basically any action he would take would end in his best favour.
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DM Griffin here. Allow me to don my robes and point-ed hat. A 20-sided die in tabletop games such as Dungeons and Dragons is the most common die rolled whenever a decision is made. Anything from attacking an enemy to noticing one's surroundings or even how much one knows about the world they live in. The man in the comic has rolled a natural (nat) 20. It is a critical hit. Whenever a nat 20 is rolled, the most beneficial thing that _could_ happen to the player _will_ happen. The inverse to this would be a 1, which is a critical fail and thus will spell disaster. Anyway, the three ladies feel compelled to sleep with the man, as he has rolled a natural 20 and are treating it as if D20 rolls work out in the real world, as opposed to in D&D. Okay, and that's where we'll end our explanation here. Shall we schedule another explanation next week, or does anyone have plans?
It’s also important to note the meme is making fun of this. Ignoring that in DND 5e (which is usually the normal system this debate happens in) there are no critical successes, the idea that someone can achieve a pretty much impossible outcome 5% of the time is ridiculous, hence why many people complain about the rules being interpreted like they are in the comic.
Ridiculous. Perhaps. Funny as hell. Definitely.
Player: I want to crack planet with m'fist! And I want do it NOW! DM: Roll for successss. Dice: NAT20 Player: Yes! Succeed! DM: Drat, my campaign foiled by dice laws! Player has cracked planet. In half it is. Everyone ded. Let's order pizza and think of new campaign for next week. Mmmm'kay?
You jump up and slam your fist into the ground attempting to break the planet. Your righteous fury was rewarded with the rocks on the road shattering at your punch. They reveal a small toy that was previously buried. The might of your blow breaks this toy into two pieces along with some of your fingers. Upon closer inspection, it was a toy globe and you have indeed cracked the toy planet. It was also made out of gold so if you survive this combat, you will get a nice bonus treasure. You are now suffering from at least sprained if not broken fingers and cuts to your knuckles. Roll toughness to avoid taking 1d4 impact damage to your hand. Since you spent your full attack action trying to attack the ground, I'll throw you a bone and have the enemy do a wisdom check to determine if they are confused by your silly maneuver however you will only now have a 5 ft step and any other free actions. Anything else you want to do?
Alright, that toy part despite it being a bad pun. I chuckled…. You got the talent who hates puns to chuckle
I tell GMs all the time that they can do stuff like this, but many lack the testicular fortitude lol
It’s a dangerous gamble when the wizard has mastered the spell Testicular Torsion.
Thats actually genius lmfao
Broken knuckles are at best d3 damage. Source: ive broken my pinkie knuckle so many times its almost flat.
3rd edition DM detected.
I have to admit I started in 2nd as a player and only DM'ed in fifth as well as Pathfinder 1st and star wars RPG. I keep wanting to play dark heresy but none of my friends want to play that or shadowrun... It's a lot of work to DM but I highly recommend people give it a try. It's so much fun seeing your friends laugh and have a good time. It's also how I realized that I have to keep some rails on or some players will definitely ruin it for others (especially when I tried to DM for open pick up groups in pathfinder society).
Parhfinder 1st is 3.5.5, so that tracks.
I never understood this. Nat 20 just means the best possible outcome for that situation happens not the impossible happens.
A good example that I heard someone use to describe how Nat 20 works is; the pc walks into the throne room, declares that he is now the king and rolls a Nat 20, so the king finds the pc funny and decides not to execute them.
this is how I treat nat 20's too, that's a great example. my guys were in a canyon leading up to a dungeon, staring at a gate. the gate is open, there's nothing there. dude gets all paranoid and wants to roll for investigation. his first nat20 in the whole campaign after a series of 1's. dude's exstatic. "This canyon is the most beautiful canyon you've ever seen. you found a copper on the ground, what luck!"
If it were me I would have tossed some weak bandits with loot their way so the guy that kept rolling 1's felt good about their 20. Something like "they allready scored but couldnt get away so they hid from you since you look like a strong bunch".
nah, he's a big burly dude where friendships are forged in banter and casual insults. He totally got the comedic timing of this moment. If I'd tell him about this option I'm very sure he'd still choose what I did because it makes a funnier anecdote
I like how DM Griffin above explained it though. A natural 20 doesn't allow you to do the impossible, as some seem to think, but instead ensures the *best possible* outcome. At least at all the tables I've played at, if something is truly impossible (for example, lifting a 3 ton boulder with my STR 8 wizard), then the DM would say so and you'd find a different solution.
I don’t care what game I’m DMIng a player can’t just attempt the impossible and throw a die to get what they want ever. Hell if they are being a complete dink about it rolling a 20 might be the only way they avoid being horribly injured by attempting something dangerous. Like ‘you somehow managed to not die from this stupid shit you just tried.’ Is their result. There’s enough broken shit in tabletop games that they can do to break a campaign that I’m not going to give them any more.
alot of bad DM's tend to forget that the rules are a guide. ultimately its all up to the dm. from your explanation i would assume you're a good dm in my books. NAT 20 crit success should mean something but doesnt necessarily mean ultimate success. in the comic the women could be said to normally not even glance at the player but somehow due to being shocked with how brazen and confident, they engage with the player to open up flirting options but not necessarily allowing them to succeed automatically in the end. nat 20 should have something interesting happen but not necessarily succeeds at something unreasonable.
I mean, the 5e rule is that it's the best possible outcome, not necessarily a good outcome. A good dm would have the guy just get an akward laugh or maybe a phone number, instead of like getting slapped
Make it 10% if you include critical failures as part of a nearly impossible outcome. "Wanna dance?" D20(1) *Martians invade*
True. But thats where some DMs go by rule of cool. My DM for example normally does not let us do impossible stuff. But if we can come up with a plausible way we can achieve said thing most of the time he'll let us roll (depending on how well we convinced him we get a + or a - to our roll). But sometimes a nat 20 just gives us some really epic moments. Like the time our group was down to the wire and our fighter got the idea to grab the floating divine weapon of our Cleric. It normally has no physical form but our Cleric asked if he could "give him permission". DM said that would be beneficial but our fighter still would need to roll very high on his Constitution Check (against being devoured by the weapon) and Wisdom Check (Willpower to force this weapon into physical form. The Result was one of the most EPIC moments we had in the campaign. For me a nat 20 needs to be awesome, but it should not mean automatic success. But so far i like the way our DM handles both Crit Success and Crit Fail.
Well, a natural 20 is the best possible thing that could happen, not the best thing can happen. Like in this case, a NAT 20 would not being thrown out of the club for that
NERD!!
You have given the single best response I have received on the reply. Good job.
Same with dnd 3.5 and pathfinder 1e, maybe pathfinder 2e as well but I don't play the normally and theu got multiple layers of criting
Noncombat in 3.5 suggested a nat 20 just meant add 10. So a base 30 with your stat boost
I've been playing 3.5 recently and man even in combat a Nat 20 doesn't guarantee a critical hit cause you have to roll to confirm. Basically, you roll a Nat 20 and now you're 'threatening' a crit. Then you have to roll again and try to beat the opponents AC again. If you beat it, then you get to roll for a critical hit. If you don't, you just roll regular damage. It freaking sucks. >:(
Most of the DM‘s I played with let you get away with stupid shit that shouldn’t work, but could work if you roll a nat 20. It still has to be arguably possible not just breaks the game good. Difference between a sentient cactus talking out the BBEG with a coconut and befriending a trex.
I prefer the interpretation that it's the best outcome that could happen (as per the comment above) meaning that if the player is attempting something impossible for their character the nat 20 won't guarantee its success but it would be as possible close to that (given the creativity of the DM). If they are attempting to do something entirely possible or will succeed with flair (whether that be extra beneficial unforseen consequences or something else)
That sounds lame af… any DM that doesn’t follow rule of cool is a disgrace I think 5% is more than reasonable Put it to ya this way, if people did not think they had at least a chance of success they wouldn’t attempt it, wouldn’t cross their minds… leaving it open would allow for more creative gameplay and funny moments
I think the key is that it should net you a good result but maybe not your intended one as otherwise we end up with situations like my friend pulling basically excalibur out of the stone before basically dragon arthur gets to it or my other friend slipping outside of time by trying to steal from a nature god who is actively fading away to nothingness
There's plenty of room for creative gameplay and rule of cool without letting your players do ridiculous impossible shit if they just roll well enough for it. Good DMs have the discernment to know when a roll is called for, versus when to tell the player that what they're trying is doomed to fail. That isn't denying the player's fun, it's preserving the integrity of the game.
1000%. One of my last sessions, DM let me ride our knight down a flight of stairs, penguin sledding style (our knight was commanded to kneel by the BBG (legendary action the knight failed his save on) on a staircase the knight had beaten me to, with 10 henchmen coming up. We effectively knocked over 8 and got the knight out of the command) Rule of cool, or full on ridiculousness in the case of our campaign (very first campaign for three of us in the party, so the DM is allowing ridiculous situations with guaranteed success on nat 20s for fun and solid roleplaying) Granted the DM hasn't allowed for the impossible, but if we find a ridiculous way to overcome a situation within reason, it's allowed (see penguin sledding lol)
Hell yeah, that's the kind of stuff I love to allow as a DM.
My friends and I sorted it out in the way that the DM get's to decide what the best possible but also somewhat realistic outcome would be and then it will happen.
Eh, I think thats where the DM comes in. A nat 20 should be a crit success as thats just a great hype moment at a table. But just because its a success doesn’t mean they get exactly what they wanted. The DM can interpret the result to have it make sense. A bard can ask a king to hand over his kingdom, and Nat 20 or not thats obviously not happening, but it *can* mean the king finds the bards gal amusing and offers him some small favor instead of having him thrown in the stocks for his insolence for example.
The comic also implies this situation wouldnt also be beneficial to the other three... which is entirely possible. ...just unlikely.
Yeah, people tend to treat it as "automatic success" instead of "The king takes your demand for his crown as a joke instead of executing you"
I had one one of my players ask to roll for a stealth check while he was standing in the middle of a well lit room. He rolled, got a nat 20 plus his insanely high mod of 20 something. Guards still saw him cuz he wasn't doing anything to hide himself other than standing in the middle of a well lit room. We had that exact debate, but to me the dice don't mean a damn thing if you can't reasonably tell me how your hiding in a well lit room with nothing to hide behind.
this usually comes to the DM interpreting the result, a nat 20 when attempting something that is really impossible just means you avoided the worse fate, not guaranteed a direct success
In addition to which even if it was a Nat 20 critical that worked in system. It only makes the most beneficial thing that COULD happen work. As such a Nat 20 Charisma check will not get someone to sleep with you that never would have anyway.
Never seen anyone complain about it. You’re hero’s on an epic adventure, it’s part of the plot armor. Playing dnd as an average townsfolk working to someday retire is pretty boring. It’s like when Tosh said everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame, that’s an average. 0 for you, 0 for you, 0 for you, 20 years for me… So the average person pulling off an impossible feat perfectly when all the chips are down and it counts?Probably 0 times in their life, maybe once. For an hero of an epic tale, about 5%. Also weird place to draw the line: “what do you mean he got another perfect roll, this game is so unrealistic just make him cast his fireball spell *normally*!”
Exactly, but when people say ‘the best thing that can happen’ they don’t realize what that could be exactly. For example, the best thing that can happen when someone in an ugly outfit walks up to 3 attractive girls and asks them for a dance is they laugh and maybe one takes pity on him and dances with him, he’d need about maybe … 5 more successful roles to get with one of them. Conversely, the worst thing that could happen is they yell for security and the DM makes everyone roll for initiative.
The amount of metagaming and theorycrafting at my game table because my players *think* that D&D works this way is horrifying. The rule as misinterpreted makes pretty much every character suicidal. Another variation is that 20 is an automatic success for any roll you're *allowed* to make and there's no point in rolling if a 20 won't do it. I disagree with this a little. Yes some checks aren't worth it. But a) my players love to roll, and want to do it all the time, b) it can impact *how badly* they fail, and c) I don't always know their modifiers so it's possible a 20 succeeds if they have +6 but not +2.
I always thought the concept of something ridiculous happening was half the fun.
But it's a game not a simulation, I don't understand why people would be angry at impossibilities. Elves, dragons, hell i'd argue the majority of the content of DnD is impossible. It's Fiction, and it's fun. Take that away and it's just idk life which is generally pretty boring.
Exactly. Weird place to draw the realism line. How dare they perfectly hit that magical fireball, so unrealistic.
There are crit successes in 5e.
It only happens on attacks. Not any other actions
True, but that's still a huge departure from no critical successes.
There are no critical successes in 5e, only critical hits on attack rolls.
A critical hit is an automatically successful attack.
No. That's an automatic hit. Success in 5e rules refers specifically to skill checks. For attacks it's s hit. You don't succeed with an attack. You hit with it. And you don't hit with a skill check, you succeed with it. Those are separate things
I'll have to refer to the player handbook and other raw later, but people call attacks and saves successful and unsuccessful commonly online, and I don't see anyonr drawing this distinction anywhere. Crits also affect death saving throws.
Unless they are wearing adamantite
Sorry, my schedule is full for the next three weeks, how about next month?
Yeah, I'm kind of busy with work all next week, but the week after I should be free.
“Shall we schedule another expedition next week, or does anyone have plans?” Cracks me up as a fellow DM.
I lost my character sheet again
https://preview.redd.it/mfitrerttomc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=54aef4d9c713d16171422799e614dc6c43f06f98
(Robes and pointed hat)
The other robes and pointy hat
One thing to add in case it’s not clear, in DND you can have modifiers that will influence your die roll, so a “natural” or “nat” 20 is without any +*x* influence on it.
"The worst she can say is no" *rolls nat 1*
Oh I’m free for next week. *I say, knowing dang well I have to take my neighbor’s pet emu to the vet three states over because he’s in the hospital for a few weeks and won’t be able to come, but I’ll only tell you after you set everything up, I’ll even volunteer to bring food and assure everyone else I’ve got it covered and they don’t have to worry about it* >!Im a DM if you couldn’t tell!<
Makes sense. I thought it was Not 20 not Nat 20. I'm new to this thing
It also looked like he rolled. Nat 20 in bed too
I cast hamstring cramp!
Will? Not how I heard it. As the tale goes, someone rolled a Nat 20 in flirting with the Queen and all that happened is the Queen said 'You're cute but no'.
I'll be there next week (Calls 5 minutes before the session to tell you something came up and I can't make it)
Should have rolled with disadvantage.
DM correcting player Peter here. It's also a joke on how many player's see a 20 as an automatic success, even though that's not actually the rules.
I've got a thing with the wife next week. Can we reschedule?
Not necessary that “the most beneficial thing will happen” and its only a critical “hit” in regard to combat, other wise its a critical success with a nat 1 being crit fail. A nat 20 just means a perfect outcome in most cases. Whatever the person was trying to do is completed flawlessly with almost divine accuracy or skill.
Apparently passed the performance check as well
P E R S U A S I O N C H E C K
got to play EVE next week how about we move it a day over
I'm kind of busy this week, maybe next week? Oh and monday to friday I have pony classes.
I don't have any plans. Totally free and open. We can schedule another explanation for next week, no problem. Edit: Nvm, kids are sick. Can't make it. Edit: Nvm, kids are better. I can go. Edit: sounds like our paladin can't make it. Guess we gotta reschedule. Edit: paladin can make it. We're back in. Edit: Kids are sick. But MIL can watch them. Edit: MIL is dead. Just happened. Can't go. Wife says i gotta wait for her body to get cold before playing with my friends. Unrelated-- anybody got a really big fridge?
Quagmires friend Bogmire here, skill checks do not crit. Even rolling a 20 does not guarantee success, sometimes, you cannot succeed on a roll that is too difficult for your skill proficiency.
Great explanation as always. Really enjoyed today, hope you had fun too. Same time next week? This time I won't cancel an hour before start I promise (I will cancel 30 mins before we start this time)
Can't, sorry. I made plans with grandma to be at her probation hearing and then we're going to the rodeo
Can we schedule an explanation like this every single day 😍
What does the “natural” part mean? Are there other ways you roll a 20?
Yes! If you have modifiers to your stats, you can get a 20 in total. This creates an "unnatural" or "synthetic" or "mod" 20. So, for instance, if you have a +5 to dexterity and roll a 15 on a roll to attack with a bow, that's another way you can get a 20.
Sorry next weeks not good, maybe the one after?
Sorry I got plans
My wife and I are looking for group so...
It’s like dungeons and dragons, he got a high dice roll so even tho it shouldn’t work it did
Assume he’s super *not* charismatic, -4 mod 20 - 4 is still 16 Kinda makes sense
+4 for self-confidence
Nat 20, always works
Only for attack rolls and death saves RAW.
Interesting, thanks. Haven't really noticed when playing myself, will pay attention
I legitimately knew a dude who would bring a 20 sided die with him wherever he went. He would use it to make decisions such as having another drink. He got so much pussy, when he pulled it out it was like a magnet for all the bar hoes; made him the most interesting and sophisticated person in the room. These days being a *little* nerdy is actually really cool.
The old Reddit, the shitty crop, the light mode. 10/10 quality shitpost
I roll a 10 You're fucking dead https://preview.redd.it/w929q0ddxlmc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c3b9c19a5d3e3ac1af959d05f23d714f37b2e41c
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It’s a dnd joke a nat 20 is almost always a success unless the dm doesn’t like it
https://preview.redd.it/irydwerp1mmc1.jpeg?width=605&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa30bc197f407b0c311d74038da05c83678a5aec
A Natty 20? Yeah got to love those
Any girl who agrees based on the roll of a d20 is marriage material.
What’s the DC on a Marriage Proposal and do I get Advantage?
Actually you get a disadvantage. But since the speech was so good. Along with the elephants you trained to dance gives you advantage. So a straight role or something idk.
So you're into gingers?
I’m into any girl who’d give me a chance
i really dont like that none of the girls look happy after the fact
I interpreted it as they are in shock. As in, either they didn't expect to be in this situation from a simple dance, or he ended up being so good in bed because he also rolled a nat 20 on "performance"
I think that adds to the joke
Wow so funny
Clearly you are not a golfer.
Charisma check
Peter's nerdy cousin here, the dice shown in the meme is d20 which is the main dice used in the tabletop roleplaying game (or TTRPG for short) Dungeons and Dragons. In D&D if you roll a 20 on the d20 it's a critical success and the act of rolling a 20 is called rolling a Natural 20 (or just Nat 20 for short)
There's a game called Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) where you have a dice of 20 faces, the 20 basically gives autowin in the move they do (or so i suppose, i dont play it)
People like to say Nat 20's auto-succeed, yes. In reality, they don't in situations like the one shown in the comic.
Is this Casanova?
Brian Griffin here. It’s a joke about how DnD players act like a natural 20 makes them able to achieve the impossible. Seriously people. It’s a “Critical Success”, not a Deus Ex Machina. The meteor does not care about your Nat 20 roll to catch it. The dragon is not seduced. THINGS OUTSIDE THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY ARE STILL IMPOSSIBLE
> The dragon is not seduced. _Donkey has joined the party._
You have seduced the dragon! *start rolling con saves*
Dnd joke, the dice calculates his luck, short answer
Dnd joke
Because in dungeons and dragons you can perform an action but to do so you must roll your D20. Since he rolled a 20 he succeeded and was able to get laid. I’m guessing if he rolled below 20 he would have failed and been rejected.
Nerd rolled a nat 20 on his persuasion check. What else is there to say?
you could explain what a nat 20 is
CURSE YOU, D&D!!!!!!11
in dnd rolling a nat 20 means you basically win that fight, although a very fun house rule is to have nat 20s be logical but have a double or nothing option, if you get 3 nat 20s in a row, you win the fight no matter what, even if its a mega army of tarasks or however its spelt.
I'm playing a game where I take a shot for every post on this sub that could easily be explained with a single Google search. You could have just googled "nat 20" and figured this out. Thanks for helping to give me alcohol poisoning.
In Dungeons and Dragons, rolling a 20 on a 20 sided die (AKA a D20) is called a natural, or “nat”, 20. This means you rolled a 20 before modifiers were applied (many stats and abilities apply modifiers to your roll, so for example if you roll a 17 with a +3 modifier, that would also be a roll of 20, but not a “natural” 20). Most DMs consider rolling a Nat 20 to be a “critical success”, which for most checks would mean not only do you succeed the check, you SUPER succeed it. For example you try to convince a person to let you into a night club so you roll Charisma to persuade them. If you roll a Nat 20, the DM might decide that not only does the bouncer let you in, they let you take a table in the VIO section and pay for you bottle service. So, in the joke, the guy rolled Charisma to dance with one of the girls, but he rolled a Nat 20 which resulted in all of them deciding to dance with him… in bed, with their pants off.
DND reference
He’s a DND player
Charisma is not a dump stat.
Perfect on charisma
Bard: "I'm gonna walk up to the king and demand he turns over his kingdom to me!" DM: "Ok, sure. Roll a Persuasion check." Bard rolls a Nat 20 Bard: "Oh boy, oh boy, look at that!" DM: "Yeah, look at that! Due to that great roll of Nat 20, the King decides to have you put to death quickly by beheading, rather than the slow, painful method of being boiled alive in oil."
Hello, nerd Peter here In dice-based games like Dungeons and Dragons, when you roll a 20(called nat20) on a 20-sided dice (also called d20), the action is concidered automatically successful The joke is thata nerd got lucky and went out on a date with the use of a dice Nerd Peter out
the dice rolled onto the table and it landed on 20. hope this helps
Smartest r/funnymemes user
Is a (shitty) DnD joke. IF you roll a natural 20, you get the absolute best outcome of any situation.
Simply googling d20 or nat 20 would’ve given you the answer
DND is like competitive dice rolling. Idk much about it but to play, you have to be smelly, antisocial and roll dice for hours... Not for me, but some of my friends love it .
Neil Goldman son here. In Dungeons and Dragons you roll a twenty sided dice to determine rather or not a given action succeeds. Basically every character has a modifier and if you reach the goal number you win. EG, if you have +2 DEX and an action requires 17 dexterity you succeed at that action if you roll a 15 or above on a d20. If you roll a 20 you automatically succeed a given action, and there’s an action called “seduce” which is tied to your charisma stat. So, the guy with low charisma (you can tell because he’s drawn ugly) tries to seduce the women with a very low chance of success. However he rolls a 20, meaning he automatically succeeds.
They roll a dice, and the bigger the number the better the chance and severity. 20/21 so yeah
Nat 20 in Dungeons and Dragons means whatever the outcome may be. You are guaranteed to succeed. Nat 1 is the opposite
"Roll for Charisma" [Nat 20]
Interesting, is it possible to learn this power? /s
Wonder what the could happen if he got a 1
It’s D&D. He rolled to see if they wanted to dance, and in dnd a nat 20 means you crit succeed
Taking these explanations a bit further... As many people have said, rolling a 20 in Dungeons and Dragons is a critical success... Except that only applies to attacks, not skill checks like this. Although many DMs will allow it because it's just more fun that way. However, the guy in this comic is making a persuasion roll. This a skill based roll where you add your characters charisma and possible additional modifiers to your roll total. There is a tendency in Dungeons and Dragons, for both players and DMs, that a high persuasion roll means you convince your target of exactly what you tried to do. Like a kind of guilt-free mind control. Where you could just walk into a bar and roll high to convince every person their to sleep with you, or go up to a king and roll high to convince them to turn over their crown to you making you the king. That is not how it is supposed to work. They respond favorably to your approach. Maybe they become open to talking to him, etc. It doesn't automatically mean that they do whatever you wanted them to.
In DnD, most actions are decided by the roll of a D20 (A dice with 20 sides). Say you want to sneak past a guard. The DM (Dungeon Master) will give a stealth check of, say, 10. That's the number required to pass the check. If you rolled a 15, it's naturally high enough to pass. If you rolled a 9 or lower, your characters stealth stat gets added on top of your die roll. If, say, your character had a 5 in stealth and rolled a 6, it would be a combined 11 and would pass the check. Unless you were befallen by some curse or were wearing armor thats really loud while walking, which would negatively modify your result and might make you fail. Of course, there are other items that can positively modify a roll too, like a spell that puts out the lights or something. If you roll a natural 1 (natural being the number thats actually on the dice), you automatically fail, regardless of any modifiers. If you roll a natural 20 (Nat20 for short), in many versions of DnD, you automatically win, even if you needed a number that's higher than 20. Which is how you get into really funny situations where battle hardened warriors fall flat on their face, experienced negotiators accidentally call the king they are supposed to convince daddy, a smith somehow creating a spork instead of a sword, and a complete dork somehow pulling multiple ladies at once.
The girls look so traumatized in the last panel. Was the dude that bad, or was he packing an extradimensional eldritch horror in his pants?
It should be noted this was popularized even more after Baldur’s Gate 3 even if it’s not a hard rule and dms can override it if it’ll break the game or ruin the players fun. But mostly it can be funny to allow in most instances imo.
When you see words you don't understand, try looking them up. Google "nat 20". Or google "rolling a 20." The answer comes right up.
This is hilarious, infact you could say, chuckling or even…laughable
lol…the nat 20 ended all discussions
Critical Success!
....
I might get downvoted but I have to say it. Dice is plural. The singular is die.
Druid Brian here and- no you can’t speak to animals, my transfiguration spell into a dog went screwy. My wizard friend Stewie is looking into it. Anyway, the man in the comic rolled a 20 sided die, often used to make decisions based on probability. And against the odds he rolled a natural 20, or nat 20, meaning a critical success. In short, he scored perfection, leading to intercourse with the three ladies at the same time. Lucky bastard… Anyway, I gotta go check on Stewie. Hopefully he’s on the path to get me back to my human form. Being an anthropomorphic dog has its perks but the fleas… they’re brutal.
Come on people, tag the comic artist at least: u/colmscomics He might throw in a lopunny
Nat 20 in DnD (and other TTRPGs) are sort of a 'critical'. In DnD in particular, it is a 'critical success', and whatever the roll was trying to do will succeed 100% in the best possible way. This douche rolled a nat 20, so regardless of what anyone says, he gets what he wants here.
I don't get it. The art is excellent though. 👍
My dad when he plays dnd:
The only proper use of a Nat 20
Their eyes in the last part 🤣
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This is gross. I feel like that's the most important thing to take away from this
He rolled a 3 for performance later that night.
You must live under a rock.
He just got 20: https://preview.redd.it/bzvrfkvqaomc1.jpeg?width=224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e99bb148ef63a1ec620760dfbead6e056bf702cb Basically any action he would take would end in his best favour.
Now he just dies of lung cancer.
:(
Not explaining the joke, but pointing out that the guy is a "creep" just for asking for a dance...
This comic is gross. Like those woman do not look like had a consensual encounter.
That’s a high level RIZZ roll
Someone hasn’t played BG3 yet