D&D 5E Critical Hits Appears to be Next in D&D Archive

[pweent]

Maybe a bonus to hit if you are proficient with the weapon ? Now that there is the unified BAB, you need another way to give the BAB edge to fighters...

I guess there are weapon group proficiency, and wizards or rogues won't be pick proficient.

That's an interesting hypothesis. Could be so.

Based on SW Saga, I expect Fighters will get a first level BAB boost along the lines of a flat +2 bonus to all attack rolls. I could see such a bonus being combined with benefits based on weapon proficiency, though.

 

[Voss]

Looks like Golems are vulnerable to crits...

Are you referring to the picture? Thats from book of nine swords. Some stone dragon feat that allows you to ignore hardness/DR, or something.



@Roger- what do you mean by 'still automatically successful'? Why wouldn't they be? On a 20 you crit and max your base damage die (or dice). There might be a fortification property somewhere, but there doesn't seem to be a not critical crit lurking about anywhere. Oh. 20s automatically hit? Unclear.

 

[Aloïsius]

Or it could be a penalty if you are not proficient, by the way.

 

[Stormtalon]

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.

By this I assume you're wondering if a Nat 20 is still an automatic hit, yes? Doesn't say, but I don't really see any reason they'd change that, especially since they've toned down the damage crits do.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

It is statements like this that make me have faith in the new math...

However I don't know if I want predictable.
Also the idea of favoring characters instead of monsters I am not sure about. I would prefer that neither are favored by the rules.

In general critical hits favour monsters rather than characters because the monsters make more die rolls. That is why they have maxed the damage rather than continued with the multiple dice route. That way monsters with above average damage output will not in general splat the fighter on a crit.

Under the old way with a confimation roll the criticals were rare enough that it did not matter much and unless the DM rolls in the open he had options.

I suspect that minon monster will not be able to crit under this system, otherwise players will be suffering crits on a regular basis

 

[Lackhand]

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

My guess is that it's random for two reasons. One is symmetry with the rogue, so that all damage added by dint of awesome strikes takes the form of Nd6. The other is so that you roll *something* -- since the damage is otherwise flat, you go from NdY+Z to 1d6+N*Y+Z, so you still (sometimes) get to touch dice

This is an interesting change! Comes kind of out of left field, but I like it anyway.

 

[Stalker0]

So I assume that crits work for spells the same way.

If I throw a 5d6 fireball and it crits, I do 30 damage

 

[Voss]

On the other hand, even if minions can crit, it isn't that bad.
Example
orc with great axe
3.5
6.5+4 damage, 19.5+12 on a crit. Verdict: dead PC (into 2nd and 3rd level, even)

4e
6.5+4? damage, 12+4 on a crit. Verdict: severely injured to bloodied (half hp) PC. May not even drop wizards, depending on how the HP distribution works out. Even if a great axe is a high crit weapon, its still survivable, yet dangerous.

Not getting TPKs with good rolls from first level monsters: awesome.

 

[FireLance]

Prof. = that must mean proficiency and a number is underneath it. I wonder what that means?

It could be some kind of tiered weapon proficiency, e.g. Weapon Proficiency 1 now covers simple weapons (or simple versions of the various weapon types), Weapon Proficiency 2 covers martial weapons, and Weapon Proficieny 3 covers exotic weapons.

A basic pick might only require Weapon Proficiency 1, for example.

 

[Roger]

Just to clarify, yes, I was talking about 'roll a 20 == hit your opponent regardless of armor class'. I agree that it's quite likely that that's still the case.


Cheers,
Roger