Critical Hit with Fireball!

[Jer]

If all attack spells can now crit, I hope they've reduced the number of damage dice.

They've pretty much said that damage for fireballs has been reduced - or at least they've said that it no longer does 1d6 per level.

My suspicion is that wizards are going to get "at will" attacks that they can use all the time and in exchange the amount of damage that a wizard dishes out in a single (successful) spell hit will be about the same as what everyone else in the party does. I suspect that the spells that they prepare in the Vancian way may do slightly more damage than average since they will show up in fewer combats, but that the average amount of damage per spell that a wizard does will drop down to the level of the rest of the party.

And if they're going to be making the wizard make attack rolls to use his spells, I hope they get rid of the pitiful +1/2 BAB progression.

 

[CleverNickName]

My first response to the blog was, "Hmm...interesting. I wonder what that means for dragon breath?" Because, IMHO, that's the Grandfather Of All Area Effects. And the thought of a dragon getting a crit with its breath weapon is terrifying.

I like it.

 

[wgreen]

The possibilities are:

1) Attack Roll Fails to Beat Opponents Defence: Opponent takes half damage (or zero damage if they have 'evasion').
2) Attack Roll Beats Opponent's Defence: Opponent takes full damage.
3) Attack Roll is a 20: Opponent takes double damage.

Three as a possibility didn't exist in 3e, excepted with a limited number of ranged touch attacks. Are you suggesting all spells should be ranged touch attacks? Fireball and all similar area of effect spells should now be all or nothing?

Well, don't forget that a natural 1 on a save in 3.x can result in extra badness for the target in the form of damaged equipment. So, while it isn't double damage, it is kind of like a crit. Sorta.

-Will

 

[Intrope]

Confining the discussion to one relatively low level spell doesn't really demonstrate anything. Ok, if fireball is now the equivalent of a 1st level spell and not an issue, what about the theoretical cone of cold, disentigrate, horrid wilting, etc. equivalents?

I don't know. Ask me after they actually provide something to speculate on! All we really know here is that he could crit with a spell; and he appears to have been surprised by the one-tap kill.

I'm trying to fill in some context, because the tone of the thread seemed to be 'ZOMG! Broken!' Right now, we don't have any idea of what the actual mechanism of Fireball is, much less the actual mechanism of other spells is. I really doubt that they've missed the 'unfun' of one-tapping the BBEG! (especially since this would be, in effect, a save-or-die)

Speculation: Wizards won't be damage kings! Implicit in the idea that a Wizard gets to lob spells *every round* is that they won't do as much damage relative to 3e. As such, the occasionally crit won't be excessive because the base damage won't be as high as before. Sure, they may sweep the room of small fry--but they probably won't crank out single-target damage anywhere as fast as Strikers or Defenders (They're Controllers, not ICBMs!)

 

[Lanefan]

I really, really hope this implies that aiming rolls for all the various ranged damage spells (fireball, lightning bolt, cone of cold, etc.) are being brought in. It has never made sense to me that in the heat of combat a wizard can always put her fireball *exactly* where she wants it...

Lanefan

 

[Branduil]

I really, really hope this implies that aiming rolls for all the various ranged damage spells (fireball, lightning bolt, cone of cold, etc.) are being brought in. It has never made sense to me that in the heat of combat a wizard can always put her fireball *exactly* where she wants it...

Lanefan

If touch AC=Reflex Defense in 4e then that would be easy to do.

 

[Lanefan]

If touch AC=Reflex Defense in 4e then that would be easy to do.

If you're trying to hit a person, yes; but what if you're trying to hit a place? "I want to center my fireball *there*." "OK, roll to see how close you can get it." That's what I'm looking for.

Lanefan

 

[Malhost Zormaeril]

No, I don't like this at all. It makes balance just that much harder to achieve, because as a DM the deviation in the expected damage from an encounter is going way up.

True, considering that a critical hit with a Fireball spell doubles the number of damage dice. The designers could take a page of "two doublings is a tripling" and simply add another die of damage. Then critical hits aren't so cool anymore, true, but it helps to keep the STDEV for expected encounter damage down.

I, of course, have absolutely no basis for this belief. But it could conceivably be applied...

 

[Doug McCrae]

I tend to agree with Gary Gygax's view on criticals in the 1e DMG. They are just too random for my taste. But they are very easy to house rule.

 

[Celebrim]

My first response to the blog was, "Hmm...interesting. I wonder what that means for dragon breath?" Because, IMHO, that's the Grandfather Of All Area Effects. And the thought of a dragon getting a crit with its breath weapon is terrifying.

See, that's what I'm talking about.

I've got a reputation as a brutal DM as it is without going back to the old first edition, "Everytime a dragon breathes you've got a good chance of a TPK".