Really nasty crit, or bad ruling?

[Piratecat]

*sniff* That's beautiful. Nicely done. Because really, if you're going to kill, go for overkill.

 

[Elric]

Note that on average, power attacking for that much, even with a Frenzied Berserker, isn't worth it (unless you are fighting something with ridiculously bad AC). Of course, you don't get to do over 200 dmg in a hit

Congrats, a smackdown in game! I'm sure your players were... not quite as thrilled.

 

[jgsugden]

On a separate note: I would not use a frenzied berserker as a PC or NPC. Their ability to stay alive regardless of how many hit points they lose is a bit ridiculous ...

 

[Gaiden]

IIRC, the great axe base damage is 1d12 not 2d6 but that won't really change anything (increases the chances to deviate from average of course). At 14th level, while that is certainly alot of damage, it is by no means insta-death. Given that the character was wearing a breastplate he is probably a barbarian, ranger, or quick fighter type. Given the fact that he was using a shield, he is probably not a barbarian (which is regrettable as he probably would survive the hit with a greater likelihood than other classes). Death is looking more likely regrettably. However, if you had a priest in your party, a simple shield other would probably have saved the day. I hope the character survived - that would be the mac of all battlescars, afterall.

 

[Scion]

Of course I confirmed it. With to hit bonuses of +12 for str and +2 for weapon, against someone wearing breast plate and shield, it was not too hard to do.

Worst thing was the shield had fortification, but failed to save him.

the reason i asked was because at the levels I think we are talking about having ac's in the 30's isnt incredibly difficult.. breast plate +2 = +7, shield +2 = +4, couple points of dex, deflection, whatever.. these are just base gives around 25. When only going on BAB and feats (-14 cancled +12 str and +2 weapon rather nicely) there still looks like a 50/50 chance of not confirming That along with having fortification (a truely great enhancement!) makes this sort of thing happening pretty rare.. hopefuly from now on the pc's will take precautions! maybe upping that fortification to the max as soon as possible... no more crits then

 

[Orco42]

Nice hit! But next time use a scythe.

 

[Wraithdrit]

The equipment was magical. Just not magical enough apparently. And my rolls were pretty high...

It was a grimlock, they get +4 str. High level Frenzy gives you +10 which stacks with the +6 from raging. Thats the part that makes frenzy so ugly, stacking with raging. So its base strength before racial or frenzy mods is a only a 14.

Nasty, I know.

 

[Wraithdrit]

It was a real eye opener for them (which is kinda how it was intended). They have been running around without a front line fighter for some time. This whole series of encounters woulda been a lot easier with a high defense, high hit point tank anchoring the group.

 

[DM_Matt]

On a separate note: I would not use a frenzied berserker as a PC or NPC. Their ability to stay alive regardless of how many hit points they lose is a bit ridiculous ...

What makes it worse is that the PCs really can't beat it with its Deathless Rage unless they know that that ability is in play. Its simply not the sort of thing that they would think about, let alone the loopholes (i.e. that the damage that disintegrate does on a sucessful save can kill them). Thus, either they need to be talked about in the campaign enough that the PCs know about them, or else you need to expect them to metagame.

 

[Crothian]

it's good for a suprise, the characters should not always know how things the NPCs have world. The class is a bit strange and won't work well in all games though.