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New feat - Devastating Critical
- Thread starter Emongnome
- Start date
Wolf72
Explorer
Improved Paper Cut Critical!
but I think that: BAB 8+, wp focus (I like wp spec prereq though!) is just fine.
and a simple increase by 1 is just fine too, even if it does stack with keen ... *oh no! not that ... it's much to powerful* ... well then throw undead or constructs at 'em! ... nothing like being immune to criticals
but I think that: BAB 8+, wp focus (I like wp spec prereq though!) is just fine.
and a simple increase by 1 is just fine too, even if it does stack with keen ... *oh no! not that ... it's much to powerful* ... well then throw undead or constructs at 'em! ... nothing like being immune to criticals
We call it:
Killing Blow
Prerequisites:
Power Attack
Weapon Focus in Selected Weapon
BAB +6
Everything else is the same. Improved crit and Killing blow, with a Keen, Bursting weapon is nasty, but you have to be 8th level (min) to get these feats, and the extra damage is not unbalanced since that is the level where you get to the instant death spells. Here, you just take lots of damage on a lucky hit. Instant death and you die if you fail a save, and it is easy to choose the correct save and augment the DC enough where any opponent is going to be sweating the roll. Phantasmal Killer v Fighters, Finger of Death v Wizards, etc.
Increasing damage possibilities is almost necessary to allow fighting classes to keep up with the spellcasting levels starting about the level where you can get Killing Blow and Improved Critical.
Where it gets disgusting is a strong fighter, with both feats and a highly enchanted item, who has a lot of attacks. Then the likelyhood of a crit happening every round is a lot higher, especially when you add in relatively low level spells like Rapid Strike and Haste to the equation.
However, they are still not as deadly as spells that are achievable at lower levels on a shot by shot basis, or even some of the more potent poisons out there.
We find it to be strong, but not unbalanced, even when maxed out in its effects. It does have a string of feats to achieve and another feat and a magic weapon to get the highest effects. Not too bad, but not too strong.
Killing Blow
Prerequisites:
Power Attack
Weapon Focus in Selected Weapon
BAB +6
Everything else is the same. Improved crit and Killing blow, with a Keen, Bursting weapon is nasty, but you have to be 8th level (min) to get these feats, and the extra damage is not unbalanced since that is the level where you get to the instant death spells. Here, you just take lots of damage on a lucky hit. Instant death and you die if you fail a save, and it is easy to choose the correct save and augment the DC enough where any opponent is going to be sweating the roll. Phantasmal Killer v Fighters, Finger of Death v Wizards, etc.
Increasing damage possibilities is almost necessary to allow fighting classes to keep up with the spellcasting levels starting about the level where you can get Killing Blow and Improved Critical.
Where it gets disgusting is a strong fighter, with both feats and a highly enchanted item, who has a lot of attacks. Then the likelyhood of a crit happening every round is a lot higher, especially when you add in relatively low level spells like Rapid Strike and Haste to the equation.
However, they are still not as deadly as spells that are achievable at lower levels on a shot by shot basis, or even some of the more potent poisons out there.
We find it to be strong, but not unbalanced, even when maxed out in its effects. It does have a string of feats to achieve and another feat and a magic weapon to get the highest effects. Not too bad, but not too strong.
Tony Vargas
Legend
Even restricting the feat to the original threat range of the weapon would still make it disproportionately effective with 18-20 & 19-20 weapons.
Elder Basilisk had it right. To keep it 'balanced' you need to either use a huge multiplier, or, to balance it at a more reasonable level, restrict the increase to natural 20's only (or to weapons that have a native threat range of 20).
The basic idea for the feat is a fairly obvious one, and I think it's telling that it wasn't included in the PH - it's just too tricky to balance.
Elder Basilisk had it right. To keep it 'balanced' you need to either use a huge multiplier, or, to balance it at a more reasonable level, restrict the increase to natural 20's only (or to weapons that have a native threat range of 20).
The basic idea for the feat is a fairly obvious one, and I think it's telling that it wasn't included in the PH - it's just too tricky to balance.
KearaMedici
First Post
If no-one's mentioned it...
How about increase in Critical multiplier at the cost of Threat Range on a 1 for 1 basis as with Power attack, etc. (with 20 as the minimum of course). However, limit the increase to ONLY 1 each way, of course.
How about increase in Critical multiplier at the cost of Threat Range on a 1 for 1 basis as with Power attack, etc. (with 20 as the minimum of course). However, limit the increase to ONLY 1 each way, of course.
Malachai_rose
First Post
weapon master
ya know this alread exists in sword and fist and the o.a. handbook the prestige class weapon master has increased critical multiplier and he recieves it at lvl 2 or 3, plus you only need to be a 5th lvl fighter to take it. You may have already known it but no one has mentioned it
I thought I would since they adress all these issuses with the prestige class. One of the ways they do it is by limiting its use to a specific number of times per day equal to your weapon master level. Anyways just htought ya might like to know this ability already is on the books.
ya know this alread exists in sword and fist and the o.a. handbook the prestige class weapon master has increased critical multiplier and he recieves it at lvl 2 or 3, plus you only need to be a 5th lvl fighter to take it. You may have already known it but no one has mentioned it
I thought I would since they adress all these issuses with the prestige class. One of the ways they do it is by limiting its use to a specific number of times per day equal to your weapon master level. Anyways just htought ya might like to know this ability already is on the books.Elder-Basilisk
First Post
Re: weapon master
Actually, a 5th level fighter will have a lot of trouble taking Weapon Master seeing as it requires Whirlwind attack. Whirlwind attack has spring attack as a prereq which requires a BAB of 4+. Since the weapon master can't get spring attack until 4th level, he can't get whirlwind attack until 6th (he only gets one feat at 4th level) unless he multiclasses with Monte Cook's ranger or Psionic Warrior (althought that puts the Weapon Master off a level as well since the character's BAB wouldn't suffice until 6th level).
In any case, the weapon master's critical ability is limited to a certain number of times per day so it's not really directly applicable to this feat which is always on so to speak--much more useful than x times/day.
As to the other suggestion--the increase multiplier/reduce range on a 1/1 basis one--it works alright for 18-20 crit range weapons and x4 crit weapons (as long as they just become x5), but it's useless for 19-20/x2 crit weapons which just become 20/x3 which is statistically almost identical.
Malachai_rose said:ya know this alread exists in sword and fist and the o.a. handbook the prestige class weapon master has increased critical multiplier and he recieves it at lvl 2 or 3, plus you only need to be a 5th lvl fighter to take it. You may have already known it but no one has mentioned it
Actually, a 5th level fighter will have a lot of trouble taking Weapon Master seeing as it requires Whirlwind attack. Whirlwind attack has spring attack as a prereq which requires a BAB of 4+. Since the weapon master can't get spring attack until 4th level, he can't get whirlwind attack until 6th (he only gets one feat at 4th level) unless he multiclasses with Monte Cook's ranger or Psionic Warrior (althought that puts the Weapon Master off a level as well since the character's BAB wouldn't suffice until 6th level).
In any case, the weapon master's critical ability is limited to a certain number of times per day so it's not really directly applicable to this feat which is always on so to speak--much more useful than x times/day.
As to the other suggestion--the increase multiplier/reduce range on a 1/1 basis one--it works alright for 18-20 crit range weapons and x4 crit weapons (as long as they just become x5), but it's useless for 19-20/x2 crit weapons which just become 20/x3 which is statistically almost identical.
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
I created a feat for this pretty much on day 1. This was my take on it.
Great Critical [General]
Choose one type of weapon, you know how to make the most of hitting a vulnerable spot.
Prerequisites: INT 13+, Proficient with weapon, Base attack 12+
Benefit: The critical multiplier is raised by one, so x2 becomes x3, or x4 becomes x5.
Note: you can take this many times, but it doesn't stack. Each time it must be a different weapon.
We've never had any problems with it. Seemed like an obvious one to introduce.
Great Critical [General]
Choose one type of weapon, you know how to make the most of hitting a vulnerable spot.
Prerequisites: INT 13+, Proficient with weapon, Base attack 12+
Benefit: The critical multiplier is raised by one, so x2 becomes x3, or x4 becomes x5.
Note: you can take this many times, but it doesn't stack. Each time it must be a different weapon.
We've never had any problems with it. Seemed like an obvious one to introduce.
Kae'Yoss
First Post
We made Overwhelming Critical work that way.
Overwhelming Critical is an Epic Feat that originally adds +1d6 to the damage when you score a critical hit (or +2d6 for x3 weapons, +3d6 for x4). Since that's not very much if you're an epic warrior-type: if your critical already deals 50+ points on average, 3.5 additional points aren't that much (Epic Weapon Specialization gives you flat +4 with every attack, that's +8 in that case), and 10 additional points are not so much at over 100 points of damage (assuming you attack with a x4 weapon, where EWS would give you +16).
So just take the prerequisites of overwhelming critical and change it to "+1 to the multiplyer".
It should not be a non-epic feat, though, cause it's stronger than Improved Crit.
Overwhelming Critical is an Epic Feat that originally adds +1d6 to the damage when you score a critical hit (or +2d6 for x3 weapons, +3d6 for x4). Since that's not very much if you're an epic warrior-type: if your critical already deals 50+ points on average, 3.5 additional points aren't that much (Epic Weapon Specialization gives you flat +4 with every attack, that's +8 in that case), and 10 additional points are not so much at over 100 points of damage (assuming you attack with a x4 weapon, where EWS would give you +16).
So just take the prerequisites of overwhelming critical and change it to "+1 to the multiplyer".
It should not be a non-epic feat, though, cause it's stronger than Improved Crit.
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