High crit and multiple [W] attacks

[jasin]

Is the damage from high crit (1[W] 1st-10th, 2[W] 11th-20th, 3[W] 21st-30th) multiplied for multiple weapon attacks?

When you attack with a 2[W] attack at 1st-10th and crit with a scimitar (1d8), do you deal 16 + 1d8 or 16 + 2d8?

[77IM]

16+1d8.

[W] is your weapon die which for a scimitar is 1d8. 1[W] is 1d8, so that's what the high crit does. 2[W] is 2d8, so that's what the base power does. The 2[W] for the base power does NOT change the [W] value for other calculations. (If it did, there would be some very complicated language to that effect; "Other powers and effects now consider your [W] value to be twice its normal value" or something.) In fact, I can't think of any effect that dynamically changes [W] (except for a rogue picking up a shuriken) -- a medium-sized scimitar will always have a [W] of 1d8 at any level.

-- 77IM

[jasin]

The reasoning wasn't that the [W] value is changed, but that:

1) a 1[W] power with a scimitar deals 1d8
2) a 2[W] power deals twice that
3) a crit with a 1[W] power deals 8 + 1d8
4) a crit with a 2[W] power deals twice that

[Piratecat]

Nope, 77IM has it right. It's 16+1d8.

[77IM]

Originally Posted by jasin

The reasoning wasn't that the [W] value is changed, but that:

1) a 1[W] power with a scimitar deals 1d8
2) a 2[W] power deals twice that
3) a crit with a 1[W] power deals 8 + 1d8
4) a crit with a 2[W] power deals twice that

I don't see where you get point 4. The rules say that a crit with a scimitar does an extra 1[W]. The do not say anything about how much damage the base power is doing or any other thing, nor do they say that a crit is ever twice anything.

I can see how this might be confusing (especially coming from previous editions), but by most people's interpretation, the high crit damage is +1[W] at levels 1-10, regardless of other factors.

-- 77IM

[Doctor Proctor]

Put it this way. Say a Barbarian is wielding an Executioner's Axe, is in a rage, and decides to use Rage Strike. He burns a 29th level Daily to do so, and crits. That means 9[W], which is a d12, so that's 108 damage, right off the bat. Then you want to add 27 d12's on top of that? Going by the idea that high crit is multiplied by the [W] of the power, that's what we would get with the Executioner's Axe. On average that would come out to a grand total of 310.5 points of damage (factoring in the Brutal 2) before you even roll the magic item crit dice. That's just ridiculously powerful.

The property works as it was written. It's 1[W] additional damage per tier, and that's it. It's not 1x[W]. This still gives high crit weapons quite a damage boost over time though, especially once you factor in the weapon mastery feats that increase your crit range. Additonally, a large number of magic items only add d6's for crit dice, whereas many of the high crit weapons use larger dice than that. This means that with many weapons, the high crit dice value will be almost equal to the crit dice value from the magic items. 3d12 Brutal 2, for example, will be better on average than the 6d6 from a +6 magic item. Even with lower dice, like d8's from a Scimitar, you're still getting a lot of extra damage.