Help with Lance critical please

[DanMcS]

It's a harder interpretive question than one might think.

The 3.0 rules were clear that static bonuses (stat, magic, etc.) were multiplied.

The 3.5 rules are not clear whether static bonuses were multiplied. It merely says that extra damage is not multiplied.

No it doesn't.

Critical
The entry in this column notes how the weapon is used with the rules for critical hits. When your character scores a critical hit, roll the damage two, three, or four times, as indicated by its critical multiplier (using all applicable modifiers on each roll), and add all the results together.

All applicable modifiers on each roll. That's your static bonuses right there.

Exception: Extra damage over and above a weapon’s normal damage is not multiplied when you score a critical hit.

This does not refer to strength and magical bonuses, because those are part of the normal damage. It refers to extra dice. That part is unclear, I'll admit.

 

[Hypersmurf]

That part is unclear, I'll admit.

In a couple of places in 3.5, it mentions "extra damage dice" are not multiplied. In one place, it says "extra damage" is not multiplied.

It's a typographical screwup, basically, and has caused much confusion among people who start with 3.5 and didn't come from a 3E background/

-Hyp.

 

[Carpe DM]

Dan:

Thanks for the admission, and that was my point. That same text did refer explicitly to extra dice in 3.0. Thus the interpretive question of why they would change the wording of something they didn't intend to change. Why, for that matter, touch the wording at all.

I agree with everyone here that static bonuses are (ed: yep, typos happen to us all) multiplied. I was merely pointing out the discrepancy in the RAW.

HS:

Have they errata'ed that?

best,

Carpe

 

[Hypersmurf]

I agree with everyone here that static bonuses are not multiplied.

Um? Everyone here says static bonuses are multiplied...

-Hyp.

 

[Carpe DM]

Hyp: a typo of my own. Edited above.