bad dice rolls

[The Blow Leprechaun]

where is that listed? that would be amazing! I know I can take improved crit with that! (It said something about a weapon that crits on a 19 in the book, but I dont have it in front of me right now so I could be wrong.)

Both the rapier and the keen weapon bonus are core rules in the PHB and DMG respectively. You can't combine Improved Critical with the keen magic weapon bonus, the rules explicitly state that so sorry (otherwise it would actually be a 10-20 crit range since they double).

is rolling a 19 with a 19-20 crit weapon the same as rolling a 20 with anything else? auto hit? or does it still have to penetrate thier AC?

Only a natural 20 is an automatic hit, ever. The critical range just determines when you've scored a possible critical hit (assuming you've hit at all). You still have to roll another attack roll to confirm the critical.

 

[backbeat]

I would overcome the Curse of the Dice with a Wizard type.
- Maximize Spell
- Spells where you roll nothing.
- Take feats to take 10 on Concentration and Cast level checks

 

[Shazman]

I see two ways too minimize the effects of bad rolls.
1) Play a duskblade or gish and use quickened true strikes and wraith strike as much as possible,

2) Go the two weapon fighting route with kukris or scimitars. A fighter/tempest/dervish would work well. Get as many bonuses to hit as possible, weapon focus, mastery,etc. plus power critical to get a +4 bonus to confirm critical hits. Boots of speed would also be helpful. If you really want to max out critical damage, take a look at the psionic weapon master from WotC's Mind's Eye articles.

 

[milo]

Dervish

I would say duel wield scimitars with improved critical feat. Possibly a speed weapon or boots of speed. You would have a 15-20 crit range, high number of attacks, and with the dervish your penalty for TWF with scimitars is treated as if they are light so only a -2. The attack bonus is normally pretty high with a decent strength and some mid level enhancement on the weapon. +2 or +3 is good. If you can do some customized magic items I would pump it all into attack. Their is another feat for crits, I think it is Power Critical from the complete warrior that gives you a +4 on back up attempts for crits. The average damage per hit is not normally that high, but I had one with 8 attacks a round normally hit on 4 and critted on one per round. The only problem is undead, the way I handled that was back-up scimitars with a +1 undead bane, ghost touch.

 

[kelson]

You critical with a rapier on a 18-20. By making it keen you double the threat area. This makes it 15-20. However, you need to roll equal to or above the opponents AC to hit it, unless it is a natural 20. So if you rolled a 16 with a keen weapon, plus your attack bonuses and still get below its AC then you miss, even though it is a threat.

I would just go look all of this up but I am at work right now and cant get to my books, but cant I get a truestrike enchantment on the weapon and have it auto hit on a crit threat?

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

I would just go look all of this up but I am at work right now and cant get to my books, but cant I get a truestrike enchantment on the weapon and have it auto hit on a crit threat?

If there's a true strike enchantment you can apply to a weapon, it's not from the core rulebooks.

If you True Strike yourself, this would apply to the initial attack roll, not the roll to confirm the critical.

 

[Darklone]

I would say duel wield scimitars with improved critical feat. Possibly a speed weapon or boots of speed. You would have a 15-20 crit range, high number of attacks, and with the dervish your penalty for TWF with scimitars is treated as if they are light so only a -2. The attack bonus is normally pretty high with a decent strength and some mid level enhancement on the weapon. +2 or +3 is good. If you can do some customized magic items I would pump it all into attack. Their is another feat for crits, I think it is Power Critical from the complete warrior that gives you a +4 on back up attempts for crits. The average damage per hit is not normally that high, but I had one with 8 attacks a round normally hit on 4 and critted on one per round. The only problem is undead, the way I handled that was back-up scimitars with a +1 undead bane, ghost touch.

Another possibility to avoid TWF would be a falchion with Power attack and Cleave and you'll hit better:
Bbn2/Ftr4/Dervish. You can't rage and use the dervish dance, but you have different options for different fights. Ftr4 gives you the needed feats and allows you to take Weapon Spec and thus Melee Weapon Mastery. Plus rage or dance will make you hit nearly everything. If you can squeeze some levels of Scout in there, you'll love the skills, evasion and Improved Skirmish plus Dervish Dance is just nasty.

 

[UltimaGabe]

If you True Strike yourself, this would apply to the initial attack roll, not the roll to confirm the critical.

Actually, the confirmation roll is made at the same attack bonus as the initial attack.

That being said, there's no such thing as a "True Strike Enchantment", in any WotC product. However, you might want to look into getting dozens of Oils of Bless Weapon- with it applied to your weapon, any critical threat against an evil target is an automatic critical.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Did you ever Game in Missouri?

If so, I believe I know you.

If not, I've met your Karmic Twin.

I have gamed with the "How the Dice Lords do Hate me" Player for a very long Campaign (about 2 years). He couldn't roll for Dragon Droppings the entire 2 years.

My recommendations (Don't Laugh).

Declare an offical Dice Roller for you. Have another Player make your rolls. Tell the DM what you are doing, tell the player what your Total Mod is & them have them roll.

It might sound silly.

But it you really have bad dice genes, you need a substitute to roll for you.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Both the rapier and the keen weapon bonus are core rules in the PHB and DMG respectively. You can't combine Improved Critical with the keen magic weapon bonus, the rules explicitly state that so sorry (otherwise it would actually be a 10-20 crit range since they double).

If I may correct you - combining improved critical with keen would give a crit range of 12-20 due to 'D&D maths'. You add on the threat range once for the keen and then add on the original threat range a second time for improved crit.

In 3.0 keen and improved crit did stack. Andy Collins (IIRC) removed the stacking from 3.5e because he felt it made crits not feel special or some such - despite mathematics proving that there was nothing wrong with the balance in it. Sean K Reynolds has an interesting 'rant' about it from 2004 here http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/rants/keenimprovedcritstacking.html

Cheers