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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WalterKovacs" data-source="post: 4921270" data-attributes="member: 63763">If you roll a natural 20, and you hit the target's defense THEN you score a crticial hit. Scoring a critical hit is the end state. When you CAN score a critical hit, you still have to check to see if you scored a critical hit. If you HAVE scored a critical hit, you have already past the point where you check to see if it's a hit. To use some older edition terms. General rule: Natural 20 is a potential critical. It is also an automatic hit. The crit is confirmed (scored) if your attack total is enough to hit even if it wasn't an automatic it. "You may score a critical on a 18-20): As above, plus natural 19 and 18 are also potential criticals. They are confirmed if they hit, but they don't automatically hit like a natural 20 does. "You score a critical hit" : In this case there is no 'potential' about it. You skip straight to having confirmed (scored) a critical hit. There are results of scoring a critical hit (max damage, bonus damage, etc). There are also conditions for scoring a critical hit. Nowhere does it say that it is impossible for other conditions to cause critical hits. SOME change the numbers you need to roll BUT still require a hit. SOME turn any hit into a critical. This one just so happens to create a condition where a critical hit can occur that does not utilize a 'check if it hits' mechanism. The precision 'rule' points out that there are ways to score criticals that supercede the 'only on a natural 20'. That isn't a necessary rule, because it is simple reinforcing exception based design. At the time, there were no exceptions that ignored the "have to hit" requirement as well. The bracketed part of Precision only pointed out that Automatic Hits is a different mechanic than (potential) critical hits, and that something that lets you crit with an 18 doesn't let you automatically hit with an 18. An automatic hit occurs instead of a critical hit. (When it happens in addition to a critical, it doesn't matter, since the critical hit trumps normal hit/automatic hit and deals max damage, etc). There is a difference between being ALLOWED to score a critical hit, and SCORING a critical hit. If RAI was that it misses if you roll doubles but would otherwise miss, all they had to do was include "can" like they did with EVERY OTHER increased crit range effect they've put out in 4e, and they wouldn't have needed to include the double 1's comment for obvious reasons. Instead, they worded this feature unlike any other of the increased crit range powers.</blockquote>

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