Natural 20s

In Dungeons and Dragons, a natural 20 occurs when a  20 is rolled on a d20 for an ability check, attack roll, or a saving throw. It is generally treated as a success no matter what the actual difficulty class (DC) happened to be. If you score this on an attack roll, you get to double your damage dice. That's awesome, but there are a host of other activities characters participate in that don't get the same sort of helpful boost.

Because of that, and because as a DM I like to see my players succeed as much as I like to see them suffer, I use natural 20s as an opportunity to inject some positive vibes into a story that is literally created for the sole purpose of making the characters' lives difficult. The intent of these windfalls is never to transform a character into a superhero or de-fang an enemy. They are always meant to give the PC (or NPC because they too can score a natural 20) a chance to shine with an heroic moment of their own.

The following describes a few kinds of consequences I use in my games when a natural 20 shines its beacon of hope in the darkest hour. I've done a similar blog on natural 1s, so if you haven't had a chance yet please feel free to read over that one as well. I also discuss applying natural 20s to initiative rolls in my Initiative Thoughts blog.

With all of that out of the way, let's get started.

Teaching Moment

Proficiency in a tool or weapon allows a character to add their proficiency bonus on rolls related to using it. For example, Briga the first level Rogue has proficiency in Thieves Tools. When she uses the tools to pick a lock she adds her proficiency bonus to the roll. Felwyn the first level fighter, however, does not have proficiency in Thieves Tools. Sure, he can still use them. He just doesn't get to add his proficiency bonus to checks he makes with them.

Until Xanathar's Guide to Everything (a wonderful DM resource, by the way), there was no published rules for characters to learn a new proficiency outside of character generation. That prompted me to allow characters to pick up a proficiency if they scored enough natural 20s when using a tool or weapon. Once the character scores five natural 20s they gain proficiency in it if they do not already have proficiency. For example, Felwyn really admires Briga's lock-picking prowess and tries to pick locks every chance he gets. Through a few story arcs, his player scores a natural 20 on five separate checks. At this point, Felwyn is awarded proficiency in Thieves Tools. While this is strictly a game mechanic, you'll probably want to build in some story elements to help support Felwyn's growth. For example, maybe during long rests Felwyn spends some time chatting with Briga about picking locks. This isn't required but does make for some nice role playing.

I've never applied this rule to becoming a master (double proficiency) but I suppose it's possible to give it a whirl. I'd say, however, that the player would need ten natural 20s instead of five. I caution against applying this to saves, skills, and language. It feels as though allowing this for saves and skills would unbalance the game...but I can't be sure because I haven't tried it. Languages is just problematic as they are something you really need someone, of some thing, to teach you.

Double Success

There will be times when a player must achieve several cumulative successes in order to complete a task. Here, it's only natural to award an extra success when a natural 20 is rolled in much the same way extra damage dice are awarded on an attack roll. For example, a Tak Brewforge needs 5 total successes to improve upon his mead recipe. Tak's player rolls a natural 20. This count as two successes so that now Tak only needs three more successes to attain his goal.

Helpful Twist

This is more abstract than the previous ideas. Following a natural 20, an event occurs (dramatic, comedic or somewhere in between) that introduces a new helpful element to the scene. This potentially affects anyone in the vicinity for the duration of the scene or until the reward is used, wears off, or is otherwise resolved. Of course, the element must be logically consistent with the setting and the scene.

• Ability Check - A character is sneaking down a lit corridor and scores a natural 20 on their Dexterity (Stealth) check. A gentle breeze blows through the corridor, extinguishing several candles and darkening the passage.
• Attack Roll - I don't apply this rule to attack rolls as there are already bonuses for rolling a natural 20 and adding more would unbalance the game.
• Saving Throw - A character dives out of the way to avoid a fireball. They score a natural 20 on their save. As a result, they knock a table on its side, gaining immediate cover.

Temporary Side Effect

This is another more conceptual bonus. In especially wonderful moments a critical success shines so brightly as to bestow upon a person a helpful element (dramatic, comedic or somewhere in between) for a brief time. This is subtly different from the helpful twist in that the side effect generally affects only the character that succeeded. The effect remains in place until a logical stopping point, until the end of the scene, or until the side effect is overcome. The side effect should be related to the roll in some way.

• Ability Checks - A character picking a lock scores a natural 20 on their Thieves Tools check and has a sudden insight about the lock's mechanism and its use. The character can add double their proficiency bonus when picking locks in their current locale until the end of the scene.
• Attack Rolls - As with the helpful twist, I don't apply the temporary side effect to attack rolls.
• Saving Throw - Scoring a natural 20 on a Wisdom check, a character puts up a particularly effective resistance against a psychic attack by a specific enemy. The character gains advantage on saving throws against the same enemy performing the same attack for the remainder of the scene.

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Unrelated Babble

On a completely unrelated side note, earlier this week I discovered that my Epic Gnomish Inventing (link below) supplement on the DMs Guild has become a copper medal seller!. I'm really excited and I wanted to thank everyone who has picked up a copy of the guide. I'm slowly working on another update, but a new PS4 game is proving more addictive than is probably helpful at the moment. Anyway, more to come on that front later!

Also, given that I have had so many sales on the inventing guide, I think I'm going to start including an invention example with every one of my blogs. And let's face it, it will be just plain fun to make a host of random inventions! But more importantly, if you've used the rules to create something epic in your own game, I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks again!

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