Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tzarevitch" data-source="post: 996730" data-attributes="member: 1792">Yet they already took away 1/3 of the maximum normal threat range for these very same weapons by taking away use of one of the two regular means of expanding the threat range. My argument is simply that allowing multiple increases of a weapons threat range (at +1 apiece) is better than only allowing 1 total effective increase. Here are my reasons why:1) The problem with 3.0 crits was caused by Vorpal not by wide crit ranges themselves. Vorpal was waaaaaayyyy too powerful in 3.0 to the point that it was more powerful than nearly any epic ability you could put on a sword. Note there is an epic feat that does nearly the same thing but the feat grants a saving throw. Vorpal does not grant a save and is available at much lower levels. Limiting (or removing) Vorpal solves the problem and makes controlling weapon threat ranges unnecessary. (BTW, I do not agree that Vorpal on 20 only is a "fix". I think it is a small mitigation, nothing more. The instant death, no save, little effective defense nature of Vorpal is still a problem.) 2) Assuming that Vorpal really wan't the primary reason for limiting crit ranges, there was still a less catastrophic way to reduce them. There is one feat, one weapon enhancement property, and 2 classes that grant improvements in a weapon's crit ranges that I am aware of. (There are probably more but 4 works for this argument.)Ruling that only one increase applies effiectively destroys the utility of three out of four of these. That is pretty catastrophic. It would have been better to rule that you get only +1 from each additional increase in threat range rather than say only one total applies, because at least you get a small benefit from all of the abilities you have effectively paid for (muck like happens with multiple classes that give Divine Grace).  Now however only one increase is ever useful and all others are utterly useless. 3) Since the problem seemed to center on the huge threat ranges that were possible with weapons like kukris and falchions, perhaps WoTC shouldn't immasculate the narrow-threat-range weapons too. Even in 3.5 a falchion can still get a whopping threat range of 15-20 (3 in 10) x2 with even 1 expansion of its threat range (keen or improved critical). The poor battleaxe however is now forever stuck at 19-20 (1 in 10) x3. The 3x greater frequency of crit hits will significantly outweigh the slightly greater damage multiplier on average. The +1 threat increase solution allows the narrow-crit weapons to keep some parity while still limiting threat range increases overall. Tzarevitch</blockquote>

Verification