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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DM_Blake" data-source="post: 3979371" data-attributes="member: 57267">Here's the problem I see.If you're so good at defending yourself that your opponent can barely hit you, then why is it that all of your opponent's hits always land in your critical locations?Example:Currently, in 3.5, if a small army of orcs (or pick your favorite mook) is attacking a group of PCs (who are way out of their leage with high enough ACs that the orcs need natural 20s to hit), then when an orc rolls a natural 20, it represents an orc landing a lucky blow against his superior opponent. This army of orcs will be slicing nothing but air most of the time, and when they land a lucky 20, they will almost certainly roll normal damage (19 times out of 20) because that confirmation roll will keep them from scoring critical hits with almost all of their natural 20s.But on those rare occasions when an orc rolls a natural 20 on the attack and another natural 20 on the confirmation, now, finally, he caught his superior opponent off guard, landed a telling blow, and managed to land it in a critical location.1 out of 20 attacks is a lucky hit.1 out of 400 attacks is a critical hit.But, fast forward to the 4e version of the same fight:Still 1 out 20 attacks is a lucky hit, but now so lucky that they are all critical hits, too. In fact, in this scenario, those well-armored defenders will never suffer a glancing blow, never suffer a minor wound, never even suffer a hard hit. Nope, those defenders will only be hit by disembowling, spleen-cleaving, lung-piercing, kidney-rupturing critical hits.For some reason, the orcs cannot even manage to hit them unless they hit them in a ctirical location.So the first fight looks like: 19 wiffs, followed by a little hit, repeat 18 times (for a total of 380 attacks so far, resulting in 19 ordinary hits), then 19 more whiffs, and finally a critical hit (finally one guy who gets his spleen ripped out).But the second fight looks like: 19 wiffs, someone loses a spleen, 19 whiffs, someone loses a spleen, 19 whiffs, someone loses a spleen...That's the part I don't like.Disclaimers: yes, I know that D&D critical hits don't specify organ-rending damage, and yes, I know that 1 in 400 chance doesn't mean the critical hit would be the 400th roll or even occur exactly once.</blockquote>

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