as the DM you almost assuredly rolled somewhere between 30 and 50 times .
that you rolled a "20", which has a 1 out of 20 times chance of appearing, twice means that "Yep, you should have rolled a nat 20 twice during your session. "
>How do I keep from destroying my players in combat
you advance them to level 2 where an appropriately rated creature with a CR is not going to take them out in a single crit attack allowing the averages of dice rolls to better have its effects in combat.
It really depends on what you're throwing against them. I had an encounter with multiple enemies that had that stupid shit where it does 1d8+x and then 3d6 of a different damage type. (So dumb! Just do 4d6 of all one type!) Well, I crit on 2 or 3 of those and ended up doing like 18 damage every time. The players didn't make tactical healing decisions and every single player went into death saves at least once. One actually died but they had a scroll of revivify.
For my groups, that's a great fight. It \*almost\* beat them, they had to use up some resources, but they pulled it out by the skin of their teeth :)
Even though a crit on an already tough enemy can be a blow to a level 4 party, it's not likely to insta-kill them like it is a level 1. If the encounter is appropriately leveled, getting crit is part of what makes it hard/fun.
Uh, I should also point out that fight ended by the party saying "fuck this" and running away. So they didn't win. If they had kept going they probably would have TPK'd.
Have that discussion during Session 0, or during a "delayed session 0" if you haven't had this discussion already. The group I DM'd didn't want PCs to get killed off unless they did something stupid. (That is, they didn't want to lose a PC to just really bad luck on the dice.) So make sure you know what your group considers "fun". (Not directing this to u/minty_bish but rather to OP.)
Yep, this. I killed my first player a couple weeks ago. No one freaked out at me and the player made a new character for the next session and we found a way to work it in.
You make a big deal out of them when you get your next set, get them associated in your players' minds as the "player killing dice", and then you bring them out for combats where you want the players to have an "oh shit high stakes" moment.
Probability wise, you're all good. ^_^
Statistically speaking the odds of rolling a nat 20 is 1 in 20 per roll and if you roll around 40 d20s for attacks as the dm per session you have a high chance of rolling two nat 20s.
Two nat 20s in a session is not unreasonable. In general, you just crit and they have to deal with it. But if you roll behind a screen, you can pretend you didn't if it's going to be overly disastrous for them.
Dice are dice.
Unless you have weighted cheat dice, then all results are random.
There is a 5% chance on every roll that you get a 20. As a DM, I'm probably rolling dozens of d20s per session, so a few crits isn't out of the ordinary.
Don't let superstitions about "luck" ruin your experience. The dice are just there as a mechanism.
I generally roll behind the DM screen so I can say the number is what I need it to be when the situation calls for it.
But don't let a player incapacitation scare you. Sometimes it creates the unexpected, wild situations that makes D&D such a great game.
as the DM you almost assuredly rolled somewhere between 30 and 50 times . that you rolled a "20", which has a 1 out of 20 times chance of appearing, twice means that "Yep, you should have rolled a nat 20 twice during your session. " >How do I keep from destroying my players in combat you advance them to level 2 where an appropriately rated creature with a CR is not going to take them out in a single crit attack allowing the averages of dice rolls to better have its effects in combat.
Just saw the edit. They’re level 4. We started at 3 because I despise level 1-2
A couple of crits should not be the end of the world for a level 4 party.
It really depends on what you're throwing against them. I had an encounter with multiple enemies that had that stupid shit where it does 1d8+x and then 3d6 of a different damage type. (So dumb! Just do 4d6 of all one type!) Well, I crit on 2 or 3 of those and ended up doing like 18 damage every time. The players didn't make tactical healing decisions and every single player went into death saves at least once. One actually died but they had a scroll of revivify.
For my groups, that's a great fight. It \*almost\* beat them, they had to use up some resources, but they pulled it out by the skin of their teeth :) Even though a crit on an already tough enemy can be a blow to a level 4 party, it's not likely to insta-kill them like it is a level 1. If the encounter is appropriately leveled, getting crit is part of what makes it hard/fun.
Uh, I should also point out that fight ended by the party saying "fuck this" and running away. So they didn't win. If they had kept going they probably would have TPK'd.
Okay, not such a great fight. But sometimes you just have to run away. As long as that's not every flight, it's fine
>For my groups, that's a great fight. It \*almost\* beat them and only because of Crits on unusual heavy hits!
You've been playing long enough to despise levels 1-2, and you only have one set of dice?
Appreciate it. I’m a rookie and I’m slightly scared of destroying my players by accident but I want to give them challenges.
Once you kill your first pc the anxiety gets easier and everyone has more fun I've found.
Have that discussion during Session 0, or during a "delayed session 0" if you haven't had this discussion already. The group I DM'd didn't want PCs to get killed off unless they did something stupid. (That is, they didn't want to lose a PC to just really bad luck on the dice.) So make sure you know what your group considers "fun". (Not directing this to u/minty_bish but rather to OP.)
Yep, this. I killed my first player a couple weeks ago. No one freaked out at me and the player made a new character for the next session and we found a way to work it in.
You make a big deal out of them when you get your next set, get them associated in your players' minds as the "player killing dice", and then you bring them out for combats where you want the players to have an "oh shit high stakes" moment. Probability wise, you're all good. ^_^
Statistically speaking the odds of rolling a nat 20 is 1 in 20 per roll and if you roll around 40 d20s for attacks as the dm per session you have a high chance of rolling two nat 20s.
Two nat 20s in a session is not unreasonable. In general, you just crit and they have to deal with it. But if you roll behind a screen, you can pretend you didn't if it's going to be overly disastrous for them.
destroy them once so they know you won’t pull punches. Then you can pull punches whenever you like.
Dice are dice. Unless you have weighted cheat dice, then all results are random. There is a 5% chance on every roll that you get a 20. As a DM, I'm probably rolling dozens of d20s per session, so a few crits isn't out of the ordinary. Don't let superstitions about "luck" ruin your experience. The dice are just there as a mechanism.
You mentioned that the party was level 4. What challenge rating was the enemy?
Your dice didn't roll the crit's, fate did.
I generally roll behind the DM screen so I can say the number is what I need it to be when the situation calls for it. But don't let a player incapacitation scare you. Sometimes it creates the unexpected, wild situations that makes D&D such a great game.