Michael Morris
First Post
Unless you play with loaded dice, it's not too powerful. I've calculated the odds of rolling 2, 3 or 4 consecutive crits with a fighter who has this feat, is using a rapier, and is playing under a DM which is allowing the keen spell (or weapon ability) to stack with the improved critical feat (technically this is against the rules). This creates a threat range of 12-20. I've assumed that the confimation roll always hits, and I've ignored the rule that a roll of one always misses for purposes of this calculation (basically, I'm assuming all non threat rolls are hits to simplify my calculation). The damage is based on a character with a 13 strength (minimum needed for this feat tree).
As you can see, the odds of rolling 2 crits in a row are significant but small - the massive damage you guys are worrying about is statistically speaking, insignificant. Rolling 3 crits with this feat is about 10 times less likely than rolling an 18 stat on 3d6, and rolling 4 crits is comprable to drawing a royal flush in 5 card stud poker (0.000154%) Anything beyond that gets significantly less. Hence it would be unusual to see 3 crits more than once a month and 4 crits maybe once a year in real time. If a player did 3 or more crits more than once a game I seriously would balance check his dice.
The damage, even on the 4 crit scenario, is in line for what a meteor swarm or other high level spell can do on a failed save, but those abilities are at a wizard's disposal on command, while this is random. Also remember that this calculation is a gross simplication of the odds - where we to factor in the 5% chance on each roll of a miss, not to mention the effect of the higher AC's foes at this level are likely to possess, and the open ended nature of the roll isn't going to significantly impact things.
The way I look at it as a DM is that if the player does pull this off he's going to get real excited and have a lot of fun with it. Which is cool. But he isn't going to do this everytime he turns around. Normally Relentless assault will allow 1 extra attack and rarely 2 on the foe if the 2nd attack is indeed a crit. Essentially it's true value is effectively adding another multiple to the original attack provided you can hit on the followup (most of the time a fighter of this level will). The only real worry is how a player reacts if an NPC does this to them, but as long as that NPC is not a random but a bad ass the players have been hunting a *long* time (and they know he's bad) this shouldn't be a problem.
Code:
# crits Damage Probability
0 d6+5 60%
1 4d6+18 36.8%
2 7d6+32 3.1488%
3 10d6+43 0.05103616%
4 14d6+52 0.0001637351424%As you can see, the odds of rolling 2 crits in a row are significant but small - the massive damage you guys are worrying about is statistically speaking, insignificant. Rolling 3 crits with this feat is about 10 times less likely than rolling an 18 stat on 3d6, and rolling 4 crits is comprable to drawing a royal flush in 5 card stud poker (0.000154%) Anything beyond that gets significantly less. Hence it would be unusual to see 3 crits more than once a month and 4 crits maybe once a year in real time. If a player did 3 or more crits more than once a game I seriously would balance check his dice.
The damage, even on the 4 crit scenario, is in line for what a meteor swarm or other high level spell can do on a failed save, but those abilities are at a wizard's disposal on command, while this is random. Also remember that this calculation is a gross simplication of the odds - where we to factor in the 5% chance on each roll of a miss, not to mention the effect of the higher AC's foes at this level are likely to possess, and the open ended nature of the roll isn't going to significantly impact things.
The way I look at it as a DM is that if the player does pull this off he's going to get real excited and have a lot of fun with it. Which is cool. But he isn't going to do this everytime he turns around. Normally Relentless assault will allow 1 extra attack and rarely 2 on the foe if the 2nd attack is indeed a crit. Essentially it's true value is effectively adding another multiple to the original attack provided you can hit on the followup (most of the time a fighter of this level will). The only real worry is how a player reacts if an NPC does this to them, but as long as that NPC is not a random but a bad ass the players have been hunting a *long* time (and they know he's bad) this shouldn't be a problem.
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