[SWSE] Autofire seems very broken

[Henry]

Why do you say that? You have an attack roll and there is nothing on page 145 (critcals) or 155 (Area Attacks) to say Area Attacks don't critical.

In other D20 games Area Attacks didn't critical because you didn't make an attack roll the target made a reflex save. In Saga you make an attack rolls and compare it with their Reflex Defense. Since you as the attacker are making an attack roll you can roll a natural 20 in which case the critical rules on page 145 seem to apply as there is nothing to say they don't.

Right after I wrote that, I double checked the forums on that, and couldn't find it - but I could have sworn I saw something that mentioned this as errata or a FAQ question.

I'll have to look, because it just doesn't make sense to have a critical on a grenade or other area attack - they already do enough damage to a bunch of people as it is!

 

[Bagpuss]

Yeah and since it's one attack roll you critical on every target at once, it feels wrong to me too, but there is nothing in the rules or the official errata thread (that I've found) to say otherwise.

Just started a thread on the official forum asking about this, with the logical name "Critical Hits on Area Attacks" so that it will hopefully show up on a search.

 

[Asmor]

Well, it's good to know that cover provides the benefits of evasion.

I think in my own game I'll just say that area attacks can't crit. I'll still make it auto-hit on a 20, though. Hell, that's as good as a crit since you're doing full damage to multiple people.

 

[Bagpuss]

I'm pretty sure the official line will be they can't crit, but I'll like to see it in the errata.

 

[Michael Tree]

Autofire and other area attacks aren't auto hits though. It was a mistake in the book, but you have to roll at least a 10 to hit with them. Still very powerful though.

And note that is roll a 10, not get a 10 with bonuses.

No, your attack roll (d20 + bonuses) has to be at least 10. Essentially, the "square" has a reflex defense of 10.

Having to hit Def 10 in order to hit the area at all is also in the errata.

 

[Michael Tree]

If the three people by the door were using it for improved cover rather than cover, they take half or no damage from autofire.

It might turn out that a reasonable house rule is to allow normal cover give the 'half or no damage from autofire' too, since presumably roughly half of the shots are going to be spanging into the cover rather than hitting you.

A better house rule might be for normal cover to give 'full or no damage from autofire', so improved cover is better than it. That is, a successful attack roll still does full damage, but a failed attack roll does no damage.

 

[Bagpuss]

After a bit of digging there is a comment on page 6 of the Errata thread that area attacks can't critical, I've just suggested they add it to the first post.

 

[Henry]

http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=12575368&postcount=5

Above is the post where Rodney Thompson spells it out. It needs to be in the compiled errata, because what was assumed before, can't be now, since they changed the wayou you DO area attacks...

 

[Skywalker]

To summarise:

1. You still need to get a 10 for the autofire to hit.
2. You can't crit an area attack such as autofire.
3. If you have cover, then a miss equals no damage (not half).

So the result is that the PCs have an effective +10 to Ref Def and the attack is no better than normal, except that it can hit them all at once.