Critical Hits: What's Best?

[Sir Brennen]

Also, I'm not at all happy that magic weapons behave differently in the hands of a PC vs. the hands of a monster on a crit.

I read that statement in the article as "PCs benefit from magic weapons this way and monsters don't because monsters don't usually wield magic weapons." It does say "monster", which isn't neccessarily the same as "NPC".

But the idea that magic weapons do extra crit damage seems extremely clunky to me. Why cant they have feats that allow PCs (and NPCs) to do extra damage on crits?

I think they'll have both, as well as some normal weapons which simply do more damage on a crit (the "high crit" property of the war pick mentioned in the article.) The extra damage from magic weapons is basically the "burst" property from 3.x, which was always too weak to be worth a +1 under the old system. Oooo... I get an extra d10 once out of 50 hits. If a +1 weapon is now +1 To Hit and +1d6 (type) damage on crit only, that's a good tone down from before as the "standard" definition of +1. I'd also like to see the simplification of any +x [type] weapon having all its damage considered to be of [type]. (So if I hit for 8 points of damage with my flaming sword, it all counts as fire damage.)

 

[Lackhand]

The third option is worded very unclearly. How is it supposed to differ from the first?

In one you roll twice (or thrice, or... um, quatrice?) -- in the other you roll once, then multiply.

I assume.

(which is, btw, what I do now. But Houserule Time: I like the cut of 4e's jib, and will immediately start using it -- with x3 weapons taking max (standard) damage and adding one rolled die of the appropriate size, and x4 doing the same, but with two dice).

 

[Sir Brennen]

Voted for "confirm and multiply" but some 3e builds kinda break this. I'd rather keep the rule and break the builds somehow (maybe lose some crit-enhancing feats and-or items, or not allow extra damage gained from power-attack or similar to multiply). In pre-3e, confirm and multiply works just fine, and it's easy.

Not only character builds, but just raw damage output from certain monsters. My 10th level character had to make a Massive Damage save when critted by a large demon in the first round of combat. Even though I made it, another normal hit would've killed me (and I believe he got multiple attacks.)

 

[Agamon]

Until I see it in play, I can't really say the 4E way is best. But I like the idea of it over the 3.x way.

 

[Intrope]

I'm in favor of the 20 == max crits; it has the nice side effect that it's not difficult to explain how you can crit everything: it just represents the 'perfect strike' with your weapon. Since you could already roll that high against any creature, there's nothing to explain about why you can crit a zombie, golem, elemental, etc.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Wow, I'm shocked at the dominance of the 4E crit support.

I am shocked and dismayed. The way people are talking about confirmation rolls "slowing down" the game, you'd think a d20 weighed twelve tons and required a heavy crane to lift in order to roll it. <sigh>

 

[Professor Phobos]

I am shocked and dismayed. The way people are talking about confirmation rolls "slowing down" the game, you'd think a d20 weighed twelve tons and required a heavy crane to lift in order to roll it. <sigh>

Every unnecessary roll is an unwelcome intrusion on my time. More importantly, every unnecessary game mechanic is a parasite, sucking the fun out of gaming.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I like the look of the 4e version. It won't have a major effect (unless your games have a lot of keen/improved crit rapiers) but every little helps.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I like the 3.x system. Didn't seem all that complicated to me. But then my favorite crit system was Rolemaster.

 

[frankthedm]

I'm in favor of the 20 == max crits; it has the nice side effect that it's not difficult to explain how you can crit everything: it just represents the 'perfect strike' with your weapon. Since you could already roll that high against any creature, there's nothing to explain about why you can crit a zombie, golem, elemental, etc.

Yep.

Wow, I'm shocked at the dominance of the 4E crit support.

Why? The poll is IN the 4e forum.

The 4e crit system is the best at keeping player damage manageable and accountable for. No surprise quad crits ruining a 5-7 round fight or pumping up damage modifiers and going for an extended crit like a barbarian with a falchion.

Also the autohit=crit wisely devalues and discourages players from going too much into AC heavy turtle-builds. A 5% chance that any foes attack will land and it will hurt means the character has to put effort into offence