Oathbow

[Darkness8Me]

I was looking over the oathbow listed in the DMG and a few questions came to mind, particularly when it's wielder swears to slay a creature.

"arrows launched from it deal double normal damage (and x4 on a critical hit instead of the normal x3)."

1) Is "normal damage" referring to the base damage of the arrow (1d8 plus any enhancement bonuses) or all damage normally inflicted (such as from specialization or bow enhancement bonuses)?

2) Does the x4 critical hit replace the double damage effect?

Basically, would the base damage for a critical be: 4d8 (1d8 x 4) or 8d8 (1d8 x 2 x 4).

 

[hong]

I would assume it's meant to be (2d8 + 2 x all bonuses) on a normal hit, and (4d8 + 4 x all bonuses) on a crit. That's going by how regular crits work, and the various burst enchantments in the DMG.

 

[Artoomis]

I see no reason why it would work differently from any other damage multiplier.

The critical mulriplier should be read simple as a reminder to add one more ionstance of the damage, as you normally would if the damage was doubled.