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D&D 5E Critical Hits Appears to be Next in D&D Archive
- Thread starter Fallen Seraph
- Start date
Daniel D. Fox
Explorer
Hrm.
I just use multiple dice in my game (a longsword does 2d8 damage, instead of 1d8X2). I think I like my rules better.
However, this is an interesting tidbit:
Weapon Prof. Damage Range Cost Weight Category Properties
War pick 2 d8 -- 15 gp 6 lb. Pick High crit, versatile
Properties = High Crit, which means it deals an extra d6 for crits. Versatile - hrm...
Prof. = that must mean proficiency and a number is underneath it. I wonder what that means?
I just use multiple dice in my game (a longsword does 2d8 damage, instead of 1d8X2). I think I like my rules better.
However, this is an interesting tidbit:
Weapon Prof. Damage Range Cost Weight Category Properties
War pick 2 d8 -- 15 gp 6 lb. Pick High crit, versatile
Properties = High Crit, which means it deals an extra d6 for crits. Versatile - hrm...
Prof. = that must mean proficiency and a number is underneath it. I wonder what that means?
Raith5
Adventurer
For those who cant see it.
Quote
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Critical Hits
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Crit-Mas
To score a critical hit in 4th Edition D&D, do the following:
Roll 20.
Simple enough, right? Just one number to remember. And more importantly, just one roll.
Yes, the confirmation roll is gone. So why did we get rid of it? Because we, like so many players, had rolled crits only to have the confirmation roll miss. And we didn't like it. We don't think that many people did. (I look forward to reading the posts of people who disagree.) Having one roll is faster, and it's more fun. It keeps the excitement of the 20, and ditches the disappointment of the failure to confirm.
Critical Damage
Here's the part that's going to take some getting used to: Critical hits don't deal double damage. This changed because doubling everything 5% of the time led to some pretty crazy spikes that were very unpredictable.
Let's say you roll a crit with a power that deals 1d10+4 normally. So the crit deals 2d10+8. The next turn, the monster attacks you using a power that deals 3d6+4 damage. He crits, dealing 6d6+8. Between the extra dice and the doubled ability modifier, that's a pretty huge difference! (And a pretty painful one.)
Instead, when you roll a critical hit, all the dice are maximized. So your 1d10+4 power deals 14 damage and the monster's 3d6+4 deals 22. Generally speaking, randomness is more of an advantage to monsters than PCs. More predictable critical damage keeps monsters from insta-killing your character.
Having maximized dice also helps out when you have multitarget attacks. You'll roll an attack roll against each target, so maximized dice keep you from needing to roll a bunch of dice over and over -- you can just write your crit damage on your character sheet for quick reference.
Beefing Up Your Crits
PCs also have some extra tricks up their sleeves to make their criticals better. Magic weapons (and implements for magical attacks) add extra damage on crits. So your +1 frost warhammer deals an extra 1d6 damage on a critical hit (so your crit's now up to 14+1d6 damage in the example above). Monsters don't get this benefit, so PC crits outclass monster crits most of the time.
Crits can be improved in a couple of other ways. Weapons can have the high crit property, giving extra dice on a crit. Like this:
Weapon Prof. Damage Range Cost Weight Category Properties
War pick 2 d8 -- 15 gp 6 lb. Pick High crit, versatile
In addition, some powers and magic items have extra effects on a hit. So crits are doing just fine without all those dice.
Crits in Play
In playtest, it does seem like critical hits come up more often. The subtitle of this article is stolen from Chris Tulach, who sings a bit of, "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Crit-mas" whenever the natural 20s come out to play. Fortunately, hit points are higher, especially at low levels, so there's a bigger buffer to keep those crits from killing people too quickly. It still feels great to roll one, but the fight goes on.
We've tried to corral the numbers but keep the feel that a critical hit is a special event. So grab your d20 and your big, nasty magic axe, and get ready to crit for the fences!
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Quote
>
>
Critical Hits
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Crit-Mas
To score a critical hit in 4th Edition D&D, do the following:
Roll 20.
Simple enough, right? Just one number to remember. And more importantly, just one roll.
Yes, the confirmation roll is gone. So why did we get rid of it? Because we, like so many players, had rolled crits only to have the confirmation roll miss. And we didn't like it. We don't think that many people did. (I look forward to reading the posts of people who disagree.) Having one roll is faster, and it's more fun. It keeps the excitement of the 20, and ditches the disappointment of the failure to confirm.
Critical Damage
Here's the part that's going to take some getting used to: Critical hits don't deal double damage. This changed because doubling everything 5% of the time led to some pretty crazy spikes that were very unpredictable.
Let's say you roll a crit with a power that deals 1d10+4 normally. So the crit deals 2d10+8. The next turn, the monster attacks you using a power that deals 3d6+4 damage. He crits, dealing 6d6+8. Between the extra dice and the doubled ability modifier, that's a pretty huge difference! (And a pretty painful one.)
Instead, when you roll a critical hit, all the dice are maximized. So your 1d10+4 power deals 14 damage and the monster's 3d6+4 deals 22. Generally speaking, randomness is more of an advantage to monsters than PCs. More predictable critical damage keeps monsters from insta-killing your character.
Having maximized dice also helps out when you have multitarget attacks. You'll roll an attack roll against each target, so maximized dice keep you from needing to roll a bunch of dice over and over -- you can just write your crit damage on your character sheet for quick reference.
Beefing Up Your Crits
PCs also have some extra tricks up their sleeves to make their criticals better. Magic weapons (and implements for magical attacks) add extra damage on crits. So your +1 frost warhammer deals an extra 1d6 damage on a critical hit (so your crit's now up to 14+1d6 damage in the example above). Monsters don't get this benefit, so PC crits outclass monster crits most of the time.
Crits can be improved in a couple of other ways. Weapons can have the high crit property, giving extra dice on a crit. Like this:
Weapon Prof. Damage Range Cost Weight Category Properties
War pick 2 d8 -- 15 gp 6 lb. Pick High crit, versatile
In addition, some powers and magic items have extra effects on a hit. So crits are doing just fine without all those dice.
Crits in Play
In playtest, it does seem like critical hits come up more often. The subtitle of this article is stolen from Chris Tulach, who sings a bit of, "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Crit-mas" whenever the natural 20s come out to play. Fortunately, hit points are higher, especially at low levels, so there's a bigger buffer to keep those crits from killing people too quickly. It still feels great to roll one, but the fight goes on.
We've tried to corral the numbers but keep the feel that a critical hit is a special event. So grab your d20 and your big, nasty magic axe, and get ready to crit for the fences!
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Moniker- not necessarily an extra d6. Just extra dice. Which depending on if he's using the word dice properly (not many people do)... might mean multiple dice.
Article as a whole has me doing a happy dance. The always 20, no confirmation had me concerned. Double damage is absolutely insane in those circumstances, particularly for monsters that would only hit on a 20. It becomes stupid, really fast.
Maximizing the weapon's normal damage is a very reasonable trade off. You aren't exploding big bonuses out into absurdity, but its definitely a nice bonus for rolling that nat 20. Nothing makes crits suckier than hitting the 20, confirming, and then rolling multiple 1s on the damage dice.
I like. And I'm reassured about one of the major 4e elements that I was very worried about. Now as long as there aren't multiple, stacking ways of increasing weapon size in 4e, I think I'm good. Hopefully Greater Mighty Wallop from Races of he Dragon won't wander in to someone's spell list.
Now, whats the significance of the proficiency number, the pick category and that versatile trait. Not that 'piercing' is nowhere to be seen.
Article as a whole has me doing a happy dance. The always 20, no confirmation had me concerned. Double damage is absolutely insane in those circumstances, particularly for monsters that would only hit on a 20. It becomes stupid, really fast.
Maximizing the weapon's normal damage is a very reasonable trade off. You aren't exploding big bonuses out into absurdity, but its definitely a nice bonus for rolling that nat 20. Nothing makes crits suckier than hitting the 20, confirming, and then rolling multiple 1s on the damage dice.
I like. And I'm reassured about one of the major 4e elements that I was very worried about. Now as long as there aren't multiple, stacking ways of increasing weapon size in 4e, I think I'm good. Hopefully Greater Mighty Wallop from Races of he Dragon won't wander in to someone's spell list.
Now, whats the significance of the proficiency number, the pick category and that versatile trait. Not that 'piercing' is nowhere to be seen.
Roger
First Post
Interesting stuff.
It doesn't mention one way or the other whether critical hits are still automatically successful. My guess is that they still are, but there's a chance they're not.
I'm not sure how worthwhile something like 'high crit' really is. If you're already dealing 16 points with the war pick, and possibly some bonus damage from a Strength modifier, is it really worthwhile to dig out a d6 and roll it for an average of 3.5 more points of damage? I'll keep an eye on this one for house-ruling into a flat bonus.
Not sure what significance 'Prof.' and 'Category' might have, but it's something to speculate about. Looks like Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning are gone.
Cheers,
Roger
It doesn't mention one way or the other whether critical hits are still automatically successful. My guess is that they still are, but there's a chance they're not.
I'm not sure how worthwhile something like 'high crit' really is. If you're already dealing 16 points with the war pick, and possibly some bonus damage from a Strength modifier, is it really worthwhile to dig out a d6 and roll it for an average of 3.5 more points of damage? I'll keep an eye on this one for house-ruling into a flat bonus.
Not sure what significance 'Prof.' and 'Category' might have, but it's something to speculate about. Looks like Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning are gone.
Cheers,
Roger
frankthedm
First Post
That's some nice nerfing!
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