Critical Damage in 5e

 Underperforming critical hits are a total bummer as a player.  It seems like damage from critical hits isn't across the board uniform, like most things in TTRPGs, but rolling garbage on a critical hit sucks.  I have been in games where you roll the dice twice, which seems to be the most common.  This is not my favorite way to determine damage.  Another way I have seen people do crits, is to roll once, then multiply damage by two.  If you roll low, you just made one of the more exciting parts of being a player underwhelming.  A third way I have seen damage done--and in my opinion, the best way--is to max out damage and modifiers, then roll and add mods.  This way, you at least get max damage, and the roll isn't as important.  I cannot remember the times over the years I shorted myself on a critical hit, by rolling as low as possible on attack dice.  

Doing this for players seems to be best, at least in my experience, and of course, I also use this method for monsters, especially in 5e.  The main reason is that the monsters are a little soft at times, and I have had encounters go sideways fast in player's favor in 5e--much more than in 3.X editions.  While I am personally not a fan of TPKs, I also know that sometimes they just happen.  Play in any game should be challenging enough, and sometimes encounters tend to be catered to player characters (which they should) in a way that can sometimes make the games boring.  A PC at a lower level suddenly taking 20 damage from a critical hit always has the same reaction from every group of players, every time, and it always increases the quality of play from the players.

I also want to touch a little on role playing monsters, because I feel like this is something lots of DMs new and old struggle with.  Role playing a monster appropriately usually makes combat significantly more dangerous.  Not all monsters react the same, and people newer to the game and unfamiliar with monster lore sometimes just look at the stat blocks and roll dice.  On a basic level, that is what you are doing, but for me, the real reward of being a DM is playing the monsters.  I probably will not really get into how to actually play specific monsters, because someone has already done an amazing job of that here, and if you aren't familiar with Keith Amman, you need to be if you are running games.  I will say that his book and website will make you get more mileage out of the game if you are running them.  

That is all I've got this time.  Feel free to add to this topic, or shoot my an email through the contact stuff on this page.  All typos are for your enjoyment, because I am terrible at editing things I wrote, and I want to leave them as easter eggs for you, the reader.