D&D 5e: Coup-de-Grace Variants
image credit: Dave Allsop
In fifth edition D&D, coup-de-grace attempts are not as clearly defined as they were in previous editions. But essentially, any attack against an unconscious or helpless defender is an automatic critical hit. Now, this is all well and dandy, but a lot of the time (with the exception of the rogue) this will never kill a person outright as you might expect. And in stealth-based adventures, this can make or break the progress of the players. So here I am going to introduce some ideas for different ways to handle stabbing some guy in the neck while they sleep.
When you make an attack that qualifies as an automatic critical hit, roll a regular attack roll. If you hit the targetâs AC (minus DEX modifier), the creature takes damage equal to 100% of its HP. If you do not hit the targetâs AC, the creature instead takes damage equal to 50% of its HP. The reason it is worded like this is in case the creature has any sorts of resistances to the damage it can be applied to this damage. The 50% damage result is essentially a botched execution attempt where the creature becomes âbloodiedâ but not dead.
When you make an attack that qualifies as an automatic critical hit, you triple the damage dice instead of doubling them. I might have pushed for quadrupling to make this especially deadly but rogues might get WAY out of hand. I might even venture to triple damage like this in regular combat like if you have advantage and you roll double 20s or if you do âexplodingâ crits (when you roll a 20, you roll again and repeat the process). It would be a rare occurrence but feel really special when it happens.
When you make an attack that qualifies as an automatic critical hit, you give the creature some type of wound in addition to the normal damage. This way, even if they get out of the encounter alive, they are still punished for surviving. The wound could even make it difficult to escape from their would-be executioner. Such wounds could include halving their movement speed, disabling an arm giving them disadvantage on their attacks, applying 1d3 levels of exhaustion, reducing the creatureâs STR, DEX, or CON by 1d6, or causing them to bleed for 1d4 damage each round until they succeed at a DC 15 Medicine check or receive magical healing. The DM can decide which wound idea they like best or choose one most fitting to the assassination attempt.
If the main thing that bothers you about coup-de-grace rules if that it makes it hard for players to silently kill a victim despite taking plenty of precautions, use this idea. Creatures that are surprised cannot speak or make noise during the surprise round. Some people may already use this without realizing it, but the rules donât explicitly say that a creature cannot speak during a surprise round, alerting everyone nearby to the PCsâ presence. It just says that they canât take actions/bonus actions/reactions. So use this to make it easier to cut down one enemy at a time from the shadows without changing the coup-de-grace rules.
When you make an attack that qualifies as an automatic critical hit, the creature dies but also starts making death saving throws as if a dying player character would. Typically, when monsters reach 0 hp, they just die. With this, the creature still has a chance to live if they are treated quickly, and players can stick around to finish them off if they need to.
When performing these more-deadly coup-de-grace execution variants, keep in mind that bigger creatures, creatures with unusual anatomy, or creatures with natural armor like a dragonâs scales or a giantâs thick skin should be treated with regular coup-de-grace rules. While execution another humanoid about your size should be relatively easy, anything else is going to be understandably more difficult.