Higher Crit Mod

[noeuphoria]

That's why you gotta love deepwood sniper. All arrrows crit on a 19-20, crit multiplier goes up by +2 eventually. Where's that +5 flaming and shocking burst longbow I left lying around?

 

[Staffan]

The balance problem with increasing crit multiplier is that when combined with increasing threat range, the two multiply rather than add. A weapon like the scimitar (18-20/x2) with an increase in both threat range (to 15-20) and crit multiplier (to x3) is four times as "critty" as a non-enhanced scimitar (increase average damage by 60% rather than the normal 15% or the threat range-enhanced 30%).

 

[Li Shenron]

It is slightly more powerful in some cases, IIRC.

The only reason that comes to my mind about why for example 20/x3 is very slightly better than 19/x2 is that a 19 is not an automatic hit and therefore it may be a miss. If you were thinking of this then yes, on the average an increase to the multiplier is slightly better than an increase to the threat range

 

[Korak]

I wish I still had the math saved, but I did a pretty extensive analysis of this as a +1 weapon property and found it to be on the powerful side of +1 propeties, but not so much that it should be a +2. When combined with keen, it is more powerful that any other combination of +1 properties. HOWEVER... it's value is totally negated against creatures that are not subject to critical hits. Perhaps a better way to do it would be to include it combined with keen as a +3 property as a distinct enhancement or alone as a +1 and not allow the regular +1 version to be put on the same weapon as keen or the combined version (no keen and the combined version). I think this balances it pretty well. As far as taking it as a feat, I would have no problem given the right prerequisites. In fact, I think it should be designed as a higher level fighter only feat, say, requires weapon focus and fighter level 8.

Ex.

mundane Longsword 19x2
Keen Longsword (8k) 17x2 - +1 equivalent property
"Rending" Longsword (8k) 19x3 - +1 equivalent property
"Fleshbiting" Longsworrd (32k) 17x3 - +3 equivalent property

No more than one of the above enhancements can ever be on a single weapon at once.

 

[Staffan]

The only reason that comes to my mind about why for example 20/x3 is very slightly better than 19/x2 is that a 19 is not an automatic hit and therefore it may be a miss. If you were thinking of this then yes, on the average an increase to the multiplier is slightly better than an increase to the threat range

On the other hand, with a higher multiplier you run the risk of "overkill" - if I'm fighting gnolls or something like that (stuff that's tough enough that I usually won't drop them in one blow, but two usually does it), I'd rather crit more often than harder.

 

[Li Shenron]

On the other hand, with a higher multiplier you run the risk of "overkill" - if I'm fighting gnolls or something like that (stuff that's tough enough that I usually won't drop them in one blow, but two usually does it), I'd rather crit more often than harder.

That's an interesting comment... I've never thought of that!

 

[Staffan]

That's an interesting comment... I've never thought of that!

I like to think of "wasted damage" as the marginal effect that offsets the marginal effect of "wasted threat range".

 

[Lord Pendragon]

The Master Thrower also gets an ability that increases the crit multiplier of a thrown weapon, I believe.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

We houseruled overwhelming critical that way. (overwhelming crit gives you an additional d6 damage on a crit, or 2d6 for x3 weapons, 3d6 for x4 weapons. It's an epic feat.) We also decided not to use devastating critical.

 

[strongbow]

I can back up Korak on the math, as I was in the same room when he ran the numbers on his spreadsheets. The syngergy of Improved Crit (or Keen) and an increase in the critical multiplier was quite impressive. His house rule suggestion is good as well. It is too bad that there are only 10 levels of weapon enhancement with the (bonus squared times 2000) formula. Sometimes I wish WOTC had gone with a (bonus squared times 1000) formula and made weapon enhancments go up to +20, with corresponding increases in weapon enhancment costs. There are few straight cost enhancers (ex +10000 gp) compared to the number of weapon qualities, which is a shame, since not all +1,+2 etc weapon qualities easily fall into a category.