136
votes
After successfully hitting with an attack roll, when rolling for damage, if you roll a 1, is that a negative crit?
No, this is not normal.
By the book, critical failures only (kind of) happen on death saving throws.
Even for DMs that use crit fails on attack rolls, they are usually only on the attack roll (the d20)...
- 27.1k
108
votes
Accepted
Weapon attacks compared with damaging cantrips?
It is cantrips that can not keep up, if you get Extra Attack
Weapon attacks alone are not competitive, a 14th level Wizard does more damage with a cantrip than with a dagger1. Class features like ...
- 52.5k
78
votes
Accepted
How can 16th-level characters mitigate damage from a lethal (long) fall?
In short: Don't do this.
I would suggest that starting your game with a challenge or scenario that has the potential to immediately kill one or more characters is setting a poor tone for the game.
I'm ...
- 61.8k
74
votes
Accepted
How much damage does Great Weapon Fighting add on average?
I've forgotten the formal proof for this, but hopefully this is correct:
Consider a D6 (for the sake of concrete language).
When you roll a 1, you reroll the die and keep the result. This produces an ...
- 43.8k
72
votes
Accepted
Is my Ranger doing more damage than they should?
You are doing wildly too much damage.
A ranger's damage shouldn't be out of line with the other characters. While some classes and weapon choices hit harder than others, it shouldn't be more than 20% ...
- 61.8k
70
votes
Accepted
How does extra damage work for critical hits?
From the PHB (p. 196):
Critical Hits
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice
for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the
attack’s damage dice twice and add them ...
- 27.1k
70
votes
Is there an official rule that the minimum damage can't be negative?
The rules in the SRD say:
"With a penalty, it is possible to deal 0 damage, but never negative damage."
- 12.1k
66
votes
Accepted
Can a 6th level monk choose to not deal magical damage with unarmed strikes?
Ki-Empowered Strikes aren't magical attacks to begin with!
Ki-Empowered Strikes state this explicitly:
your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity ...
- 62.5k
65
votes
One PC doing too much damage
I'm not sure this is a problem if you're actually reading and applying the rules for poisons in 5e.
Poison is bought in single doses. How much were they allowed to buy? And how much did they buy them ...
- 845
63
votes
What does "+6 to hit, Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4)" mean in a creature's stat block?
Flip back to pages 54 and 55 of the Starter Set's adventure booklet, at the beginning of Appendix B: Monsters. This section explains how to read the monster's stats. I want to bring your attention in ...
- 239k
62
votes
Accepted
How many times do you roll damage for Magic Missile?
Rules designer Jeremy Crawford addressed this question in a September 2016 tweet:
Magic missile. RAW: You roll 1 damage die (see "Damage Rolls," PH, 196). RAI: It doesn't matter; you choose....
- 28.3k
59
votes
Accepted
Can massive damage knock out rather than causing instant death?
These rules have two entirely separate triggers, and if a single attack satisfies both, then so be it.
The attack reduced the creature to 0 hit points, and it was a melee attack. So you can choose to ...
- 141k
59
votes
Is my Paladin stacking Smite spells correctly?
This is correct, but note how much of his available resources this character is using up for each of these attacks. If there's another battle before he gets a long rest, he's not going to be nearly as ...
- 1,470
58
votes
Accepted
Interactions between unarmed strikes, negative strength and an unconscious target
Unarmed attacks can crit, but do not do double damage
Can an unarmed strike crit? - Yes
If you roll a 20 on an unarmed strike, it is considered a critical hit.
This means that it will ...
- 90.5k
57
votes
Accepted
Does dealing 0 damage to a concentrating spellcaster require a saving throw?
No saving throw is triggered
I found two relevant Q&A twitter posts from Jeremy Crawford (the Lead Designer and Managing Editor for DnD 5e) that shed some light on this. However, Jeremy's tweets ...
- 9,333
56
votes
I'm confused about combat; how can I hope to hit anything?
Let's break this down a little bit using the Basic Rules you have available.
Page 73:
Attack Rolls
To make an attack
roll, roll a d20 and add the appropriate modifiers. If the
total of the roll plus ...
- 55.7k
56
votes
Accepted
Does rolling a critical hit on a spell attack do double damage?
Yes, you roll twice as many damage dice for the spell on a crit
The rule on critical hits on page 196 of the PHB says:
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack's ...
- 141k
55
votes
Accepted
How much fire damage does igniting Grease deal?
Grease cannot be ignited.
Spells only do what they say they do, nothing more.
The full text of Grease is:
Slick grease covers the ground in a 10-foot square centered on a point within range and turns ...
- 62.5k
54
votes
Accepted
Can massive damage kill you while at 0 HP?
Yes, Massive Damage can kill you at 0 HP
Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you ...
- 50.9k
54
votes
How do we deal with my DM's house-rule about critical damage?
Adamantine armor
It has the property:
While you're wearing it, any critical hit against you becomes a normal
hit. (DMG 150)
It is only classified as uncommon, but it is still a magic item. Depending ...
- 60.2k
53
votes
Would wearing full plate armor cause slashing damage to be converted into bludgeoning damage?
As an addendum to Thomas Markov's excellent answer, I'd like to add the old adage that "HP are not meat points". 5 HPs of slashing damage does not directly translate to a slashing wound, and ...
- 1,791
52
votes
Accepted
Is a concentration check required when temporary hit points absorb all the damage?
Yes (Likely).
According to 5e designer and official rules expert Jeremy Crawford, "When temporary hit points absorb damage for you, you're still taking damage, just not to your real hit points.&...
- 7,364
52
votes
Accepted
What happens when an unconscious but stabilised character is hit?
The creature takes death saving throw failures on the initial hit
Unfortunately for the character in question, your first scenario is correct.
A stable creature is unconscious with 0 hp - the fact ...
- 24.5k
51
votes
Accepted
Is there a minimum damage rule?
It is correct to say the 3.5e rule no longer appears in 5e. Another tweet (god I wish we had that back in the 90s) clarifies that the minimum is indeed 0.
JeremyCrawford
@JeremyECrawford
There ...
- 1,065
51
votes
Accepted
Which damage dice exactly does the Great Weapon Fighting fighting style allow you to reroll?
From Sage Advice — Rules Answers: April 2016:
If you use Great Weapon Fighting with a feature like Divine Smite or a spell like hex, do you get to reroll any 1 or 2 you roll for the extra damage?
...
- 687
51
votes
Is my Ranger doing more damage than they should?
D&D Wiki is notorious for overpowered fan-created content.
D&D Wiki (dandwiki.com) is infamous for fan-created game content with two major issues: it is often wildly overpowered, and it is ...
- 72.2k
50
votes
How to halve the damage on a successful saving throw?
The rule is “half damage”, not “half the damage dice” or “half the damage die size”. All the dice are rolled and then the total is halved (rounded down, per PHB page 7).
So in the case of fireball, ...
- 239k
50
votes
Accepted
Does a concentrating caster damaged by Ice Knife require two concentration checks?
The target would need to make up to two saves.
The short answer:
Since Ice Knife deals damage twice, the target would indeed make up to two saves.
The long answer:
The rules for Concentration say (...
- 6,403
50
votes
Accepted
Does the Cure Wounds spell damage undead?
Nope, this is no longer the case!
Spells (and all features etc) do only what they say they do. Cure wounds very specifically says:
This spell has no effect on undead or constructs
So in fact it ...
- 26.7k
48
votes
Must I use all available damage, if I want to leave my target alive?
Yes, you must apply all the damage--but you can still leave your target alive.
Except in the case of instant death: "when damage reduces [one] to 0 hit points and there is damage remaining, [one dies] ...
- 98.9k
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