Fortification 100%: Not subject to critical hits?

[Egres]

Ok,i know this can sound like a stupid question...but it's really a stupid question!

From the SRD:

Fortification: This suit of armor or shield produces a magical force that protects vital areas of the wearer more effectively. When a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the wearer, there is a chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.
I was debating with a friend of mine about this magical quality.]

I think that it would only grant you immunity from the extra damage from critical hits and from sneak attacks,but it couldn't make you immune to Coup'De Grace,Stunning and so on.

And i also think that it cannot help at all against Vorpal weapons(even constructs are subjects to Vorpal weapons!).

But,please note what the customer service replied to my friend:

Effects that a dependant upon a critical hit would be negated completely by
armor with the heavy fortification ability. Good Gaming!



Please,if you can (i know it does exist a rule supporting my view somewhere!!!),quote rules to support your point of view.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Fortification: This suit of armor or shield produces a magical force that protects vital areas of the wearer more effectively. When a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the wearer, there is a chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.

I think you've provided the necessary quote yourself. Critical hits are no longer critical hits when striking a creature with Heavy Fortification. If it's not a critical hit, then effects dependent on scoring a critical hit do not function...

 

[Hypersmurf]

I think that it would only grant you immunity from the extra damage from critical hits and from sneak attacks,but it couldn't make you immune to Coup'De Grace,Stunning and so on.

Right. You're not immune to criticals; it's simply that there's a 100% chance they'll be negated.

But,please note what the customer service replied to my friend:

Effects that a dependant upon a critical hit would be negated completely by
armor with the heavy fortification ability. Good Gaming!

Heh! As it happens, I agree with Customer Service 100% in this case.

It's the opposite of what the Sage said at one point, though.

As I read it - a Construct still gets his head chopped off, because he's immune to critical hits, and we know that crit-triggered effects (like Vorpal, or Flaming Burst) still take place. The critical still happens... it's just that the Construct is immune to it, so he takes no extra damage. However, since the critical occurred, the Flaming Burst or Vorpal or whatever triggers normally.

This is different to the Fortification scenario. The armor actually negates the critical. You're not immune to the crit; rather. the crit does not take place. Since the critical doesn't happen, nothing dependent on a critical triggers. Including Vorpal.

So I agree completely with CustServ in this case.

(From memory, the Sage said something like "'Negated' doesn't actually mean 'negated'".)

-Hyp.

 

[Egres]

I see.

But,where did the Sage say that?!?

 

[Hypersmurf]

But,where did the Sage say that?!?

I have a feeling it was in a Sage Advice chat... it's not currently in either of the Main FAQs.

Unfortunately, I don't know if there are transcripts of all the chats stored somewhere accessible...

-Hyp.