Hee hee! I found an error in this month's Gamestoppers!

[Pielorinho]

Check out http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/gs/gs20020217a -- a column on WOTC's site devoted to explaining the rules.

Lidda gets swallowed by a purple worm, and asks the DM if she can sneak-attack. She can't, so she slices her way out with a kukri. Compare these two passages:

(The DM explaining why she can't sneak-attack)

Nope. First, once the worm has swallowed you, you're still grappled but it's not grappled or flat-footed. Second, its gullet doesn't provide you with a discernible anatomy. You can't pick out a critical area to sneak attack. So it's a normal attack.

and

(Lidda resolving her regular attack)

[Lidda retrieves the magic kukri from her Heward's handy haversack as a free action and tries to hit the worm. She rolls and gets a natural 19 and a natural 20. That's two hits and possible criticals! She rolls to confirm the criticals and succeeds.] Wow! Take THAT! Two critical hits to the stomach!

But you can't do a critical attack against something with no discernible anatomy!

Looks like Lidda's worm-food after all.

And unless I'm wrong, the rulesmeisters at WOTC need to be thumped on the head.

Daniel

 

[Orco42]

I'm not sure if you need to see a vital area to score a critical hit.

In the DMG it says (pg 64) that the creature must vital organs but it does not say you have to know where they are.

It is more like a lucky hit. It a "she cuts through the stomach and hits his heart" kinda thing.

 

[Wolfspider]

Good catch.

In any case I would think that the best place to discern a creature's anatomy would be while inside it!

 

[Pielorinho]

I'm not sure if you need to see a vital area to score a critical hit.

Hmm, possibly. But I'm pretty sure that the rules for what creatures can be sneak-attacked and what creatures can be criticaled are worded exactly the same. I'm off to see Count of Monte Cristo now, so I'll have to wait until I'm home to look it up.

Daniel

 

[Petrosian]

look, gamestoppers has bee off many times.

go back to the one on disarms, where they add an unspecified 'attack roll" before every disarm attempt. thats just plain wrong.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I thought you were going to point out the other mistake in this month's Gamestoppers, where the DM tells Lidda she can Sneak Attack the worm "because it's grappling".

A creature who is grappling is denied its Dex bonus against all opponents, except the opponents it is grappling.

The worm is not denied its Dex bonus against Lidda, therefore, no sneak attack...

-Hyp.

 

[Nareau]

Didn't Lidda already have the Kukri in hand? Didn't she attack with it the round before? I assume the passage about taking it out of her HHH was supposed to go before her first two attacks, not before her second two attacks.

And why was she able to sneak attack it? It gets to retain its Dex bonus against her (it loses it against everyone else).

 

[Hypersmurf]

And why was she able to sneak attack it? It gets to retain its Dex bonus against her (it loses it against everyone else).

I like the way that man thinks!

-Hyp.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

A purple worm is not immune to critical hit therefore you can score a critical against it even in a situation where you can't sneak attack it.

Basically, the dagger bit deep and hard. It doesn't even have to hit a vital organ.

A critical hit doesn't have to involve finesse.

 

[Vaxalon]

The reason she can't sneak attack is that 1> it hasn't lost its Dex bonus and 2> it's too dark to discern its anatomy.