Sorry I've been absent- like the old curse goes, lately I've been living in "interesting times," so I've been unable to even get time to go online, much less participate in the fun here. I have a few minutes, so here goes...(if I skipped anybody's direct questions to me, its not intentional, its just a time thing- just remind me):
A critical hit is not a hit, it is a critical hit. It is a specific term with specific usage. It can be done after (some) normal attacks (hits) and after (some) touch attacks (touches). But, this does not mean that hits are touches.
There really is no confusion here.
An attack roll is not a touch attack roll. They are two different yet similar game mechanics.
A critical hit is not a hit. They are two different yet similar game mechanics.
A hit is not a touch. They are two different yet similar game mechanics.
Apparently, there IS some confusion.
A melee touch attack IS an attack- it is a subset of "all attacks." Indeed, the first line of the section on Touch Attacks (they even CALL them that!) on page 136 reads:
"Some attacks disregard armor, including shields and natural armor."
And successful attacks require successful attack rolls which result in "hits." Melee touch attacks merely redefine the difficulty of the task of making offensive contact with your target by recalculating the AC of the opponent.
A critical hit is a hit, once again, its just one of a subset of all hits.
If you use Venn diagrams, this is easy enough to see- you cannot get a critical hit without first making a successful hit. The category of "critical hits" is completely within the Venn circle of successful hits.
According to the PHB glossary, damage is defined thus (p307):
Damage:
a decrease in hit points, an ability score, or other aspects of a character caused by an injury. The three main categories of damage are lethal damage, nonlethal damage, and ability damage. In additon, wherever it is relevant, the type of damage an attack deals is specified, since natural abilities, magic items, or spell effects may grant immunity to certain types of damage. Damage types include weapon damage, (subdivided into bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing) and energy damage (positive, negative, acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic). Modifiers to melee damage rolls apply to both subcategories of weapon damage (melee and unarmed). Some modifiers apply to both weapon and spell damage, but only if so stated. Damage points are deducted from whatevcer charcter attribute has been harmed- lethal and nonlethal damage from current hit points, and ability damage from the relevants abiliyt score. Damage heals naturally over tiem, but can also be negated wholly or partially by curative magic.
Emphasis mine.
No special attack listed in the PHB specifically states that it modifies magical damage, therefore no special attack listed in the PHB modifies damage from magic.
3) When you make an attack roll, you roll a d20 and add your attack bonus. (Other modifiers may also apply to this roll.) If your result equals or beats the target’s Armor Class, you hit and deal damage.
Simply put, you can only do the extra damage from an energy weapon if you roll a D20, add the attack bonus, equal or beat the target's AC, and you hit and deal damage.
Except that's not what the energy weapons state. They don't say to add the damage if you hit and deal damage, they say to add the damage if you hit.
When you make a successful hit, you have to figure out what kind of damage you're allowed to do at that point.: lethal or nonlethal, HP or ability, weapon or magical, or mixes of the various kinds.
If you are attempting to make a melee touch attack, you are not attempting to hit, you are attempting to touch. Attempting to hit allows for a successful touch (you touch if you hit), attempting to touch does not allow for a successful hit (you do not hit if you merely touch).
The rules don't distinguish between touches and hits, merely in the difficulty in doing either.
But lets take a look at the effects of a RW weapon that is as close as I can think of to a flaming sword: the Red Hot poker.
If I'm swinging one of these at you and hit you, you'll be damaged, not just by the force of my swing as transmitted by the metal bar, but also by the heat of the metal.
If I'm merely trying to touch you with the weapon while you evade, but I still succeed, you still get burned.
You can check out the severity of such burns by using a slab of meat...
From a common sense standpoint, it makes absolutely no sense to me that I can bash a weapon against an armored opponent and not be able to hurt him because the armor protects him, but that I would be able to damage the same opponent by simply touching him with the weapon. If touching with an energy weapon causes damage, all regular attacks that fail to beat full AC but beat touch AC should cause energy damage as well.
Common sense here takes us only so far because "magic" is the mechanic the game uses to bend, break or otherwise warp rules that would ordinarily apply. One could just as easily ask why the magical energy of a spell can penetrate armor without a weapon, but can't when bound to a weapon. If you look at each of the energy weapon enchantments, they each require a specific short list of spells to make the weapons. Not a one is stopped by armor.
The best example of how magic weapons bend or break the rules is the Vorpal enchantment, as placed upon a seemingly inappropriate but still qualified weapon- the whip. (Vorpal requires a slashing weapon, which a whip is.)
On a successful critical hit, a Vorpal weapon beheads a creature (assuming it's subject to beheading. This happens even if you're using a Vorpal whip against a heavily armored opponent, even though a whip can't normally damage such an opponent. A whip wielder can swing a whip at such an opponent all day and not harm him one bit...but if its a Vorpal Whip, 1 time in 20, it will
behead him.
Gotta go- my life just got interesting again- but I'll be back!
