Stats that don't have + Stat mod

[Mezzer]

So, if you get a fire bolt a target with your +3 magic rod, and roll a 20 for a critical hit... how much damage do creatures adjacent to him take?

21+Con+3d6 to the main target, 9+Con+3d6 to every adjacent target. Splash damage attacks benefit as much from crits as area attacks do.

One thing to note though, is that static damage effects do not; they are not affected by any bonuses or the like.

 

[keterys]

That's really odd that it works that way - it seems poor to crit people who you never made an attack against (and who you potentially not even hit on a 20, which would normally disallow a critical hit)

I think that mostly just means I disagree with how they designed fire bolt, not that reading of the rule Thanks!

 

[Lurker37]

Due to the changes in the math, going up against targets you need a 20 to hit shouldn't be happening in 4E unless you're under huge penalties to hit, or fighting something you should be either talking to or running from.

 

[Mezzer]

No problem.

You have to look at it how they did, in order for it to make sense though;
- you only roll damage one time, for any given attack
- a critical hit maximizes all damage except damage granted specifically due to the attack critting
- static damage is the only thing that doesn't benefit from bonuses/penalties (static damage being ongoing stuff, Str mod damage and so on)

The fact that it crits as hard as actual area effects do is a pure balance consideration, and they are very careful about that in 4E (despite people's best efforts to misinterpret the rules).

 

[keterys]

Due to the changes in the math, going up against targets you need a 20 to hit shouldn't be happening in 4E unless you're under huge penalties to hit, or fighting something you should be either talking to or running from.

I only mentioned it for the paradox.

That is to say, given a Reflex 45 level 30 solo next to a Reflex 10 level 1 minion, you could throw a fiery bolt at the minion and roll a 20 for a total Reflex of, say, 35... and crit the level 30 solo you would not have hit at all (which is a requirement of critting)

 

[Rith the Wanderer]

Could I trouble one of you guys for the page# where it says all enemies in area take a critical if one of them does(if thats what you mean)? I looked under area attacks and under criticals and couldn't find it. What if you miss the first five enemies in an area and then critical on the sixth one? All of them take critical damage?

 

[Zurai]

I have no clue what spell he was talking about; there is no fire bolt.

Regardless, you have to roll an attack roll for each target in the area effect unless the power specifies otherwise. You only critically hit a target if you roll a 20 on that target's attack roll. A single 20 and forty 1's doesn't give you a critical hit against forty-one monsters.

 

[keterys]

Fiery Bolt, Warlock 3, pg 133

It's not an area attack. It's a 'hit one guy, auto damage adjacent targets'.

P.S. And hey, I did say 'Fiery Bolt which deals 1d6+stat automatic damage to all creatures adjacent to the target with no attack roll' earlier so it wasn't really unclear

 

[Ahglock]

That's really odd that it works that way - it seems poor to crit people who you never made an attack against (and who you potentially not even hit on a 20, which would normally disallow a critical hit)

I think that mostly just means I disagree with how they designed fire bolt, not that reading of the rule Thanks!

It seems weird to me that the design decision for splash damage is one roll to hit, compared against the primary target. And for all other area of effect attacks it is roll for each target.

I'll have to re-read that section, I had not thought about it during my initial read through.

 

[keterys]

Yeah, I think its not the norm - most are more like force orb and acid arrow, or like Cleave.