Hi All,
For the Champion Fighter, the Improved Critical feature at level 3 reads "... your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 o 20" and similarly at level 15.
It says if you roll a 19, you score a critical hit, and a critical hit is a hit. I read this as very clearly overriding the general rules for automatic hits to extend automatic hit from "only a 20" to 19 or 20. Thus if you roll a 19, you don't have to beat your target's AC. This seems like a clear-cut case of "Specific Beats General".
Other people are reading it differently. Because it does not explicitly say it is an automatic hit (which happens to be a critical hit) they believe you have to beat the target's AC on 19 (and later 18) in order to hit. Then if it is a hit, it is a critical.
I'm seeking your opinions on this.
For the Champion Fighter, the Improved Critical feature at level 3 reads "... your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 o 20" and similarly at level 15.
It says if you roll a 19, you score a critical hit, and a critical hit is a hit. I read this as very clearly overriding the general rules for automatic hits to extend automatic hit from "only a 20" to 19 or 20. Thus if you roll a 19, you don't have to beat your target's AC. This seems like a clear-cut case of "Specific Beats General".
Other people are reading it differently. Because it does not explicitly say it is an automatic hit (which happens to be a critical hit) they believe you have to beat the target's AC on 19 (and later 18) in order to hit. Then if it is a hit, it is a critical.
I'm seeking your opinions on this.
