Automatic Criticals

[Big Bad Bob]

Recently one of my players rolled an attack of 47 against a tiny little goblin. I thought, wow... this guy is hardcore; he should make short work of this little goblin. He rolled his damage and scored a 1 which modified up to a 3. The little goblin kept on running.

Now... this seems outrageous. If the guy is shooting so straight that he beats the thing's AC by over 30, wouldn't you expect the shot to do more than 3 damage?

So how about this house rule? Anytime you beat an opponent's AC by 25 or 30, it counts as an automatic crit, or something along those lines.

 

[Nifelhein]

I don't know whether this was true to AD&D 1st edition or was a house rule but there was this level attack thing, the greater the difference the more attacks you had on the beasts, you could easily rule that every 10 points above the target Ac the hit deals additional damage, this would allow for interesting results without being overkill...

Anyway, I think automatic critical might happen to be a problem...

 

[robberbaron]

Sounds like a house rule but an overwhelming attack like the one BBB described certainly begs extra effect.

 

[Nifelhein]

Maybe if the attack roll total doube the target Ac then you have an automatic critical, an interesting houserule, in this case it would be interesting and it could enter the game since the first levels... now beware the enemy dragons!

 

[UltimaGabe]

Recently one of my players rolled an attack of 47 against a tiny little goblin. I thought, wow... this guy is hardcore; he should make short work of this little goblin. He rolled his damage and scored a 1 which modified up to a 3. The little goblin kept on running.

My question is this.... how exactly did a PC manage to achieve an attack roll modifier of at least +27, with only a +2 to his damage?

 

[Big Bad Bob]

My question is this.... how exactly did a PC manage to achieve an attack roll modifier of at least +27, with only a +2 to his damage?

He's an arcane archer using true strike, but with very little magical equipment. You could just put it off as poor planning on his part, but I think it was just that he didn't want to use any of his damage adding effects on an easy enemy.

So, a PC who can manage such a hyge attack bonus should probably also have a significant damage bonus, but I think this is beside the point. It seems like there should be some bonus for beating an AC by so much. I'm mostly interested in what people think the numbers should be.

 

[Ferret]

Perhaps a feat that puts a large penelty on their attack and ups there damage or crit etc.

 

[Aezoc]

At the risk of going OT slightly, this is one reason that I prefer a VP/WP type system. IMC, VP loss depends on how much the attack roll exceeded your AC by, rather than the weapon's damage. However, I consider that to be a nifty bonus that's easily "plugged into" that HP system, whereas I don't feel the standard D&D system lends itself to such a system as well. If you really want to do it, I'd recommend making up a chart that essentially reads like a called shot chart, except that rather than actually making called shots beforehand, "really well-placed shots" just happen to hit the monster in a particularly vital area. However, three things I'd recommend keeping in mind:

1. It will add complexity and slow down combat. Maybe eventually everyone will memorize the chart, but even then it will probably create additional die-rolling.

2. It will likely hurt the player characters in the long run. Many monsters have attack bonuses far beyond those attainable by most characters. Such monsters usually have other weaknesses and aren't designed to be fought toe-to-toe, but you're essentially making those types of monsters more lethal, which should probably be reflected by a CR increase in some cases.

3. Is it really worth the effort? Personally, I would chalk the archer's shot up as a humorous but unlucky occurrence, and leave it at that. The goblin has a story to tell the rest of the tribe when he makes it back to the warren pretty much unhurt, despite the arrow lodged directly between his eyes (anyone else remember the illustration of the orc in the old Tunnels & Trolls book? ). To me at least, it seems like a rare enough situation that its not worth making a rule over.

 

[dontpunkme]

The gm of one of my games has a house rule that for every x past an enemy's armor class you up the wound factor. What would normally be a light wound in this case due to the damage would be a critical wound due to the table. I'm pretty iffy on this rule, but I gotta admit when my 6th level rogue dropped a fire giant with fighter levels in one shot I was pretty happy.

 

[Nyeshet]

Hmm, an interesting situation. How about this for a house rule:

If you defeat the target's AC by the critical range of your weapon (not including magical enhancemants, etc), you are considered to have automatically critically hit the opponent, regardless of the actual d20 attack roll.

Example: You swing your longsword at the enemy! (rolls a 14, w/ modifiers comes to 19 over the target's AC) Result: a critical hit, despite only rolling a 14 on the attack roll. Sounds fair to me.