FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Hypothetically speaking, what do you think would happen to the game if the Champion's 3rd level ability were the ability to score crits on any roll of 17-20, and his 15th level ability was to score crits on 13-20?
Would (Half-Orc?) Champions suddenly become all the rage?
The "autohit" effect of criticals probably doesn't matter at low levels, since a 17 is almost always a hit already even if you're using GWM. At 15th level, the autohit on a 13+ could be significant, especially against high-level foes like Tiamat and the Tarrasque. I think that would make the 15th level ability exciting, which is good.
In terms of raw damage, at 3rd level you're adding a constant (weapon dice * 0.15) to the expected damage of every attack, or up to double that for a half-orc using a one-die weapon. For a 5th level Str 18 Champion using a greatsword, you'd be adding 1.05 to the 9.35 damage per attack you'd do to an AC 13 T-Rex (10.4, an 11% increase in damage), and you'd be adding that same 1.05 to the 5.15 damage per attack you'd do to an AC 20 Helmed Horror (6.2, a 20% increase in damage).
That doesn't seem ridiculous to me. There's some synergy potential there for half-orc Champions with the Great Weapon Master feat exploiting the bonus attack on a crit, but it's still not an outlier in terms of potential. Compare to a human with the Polearm Master/Great Weapon Master combo: the half-orc is in the same ball park, occasionally weaker, and neither of them is particularly strong compared to other builds and tactics. (I tweaked my Death Slaad simulation to use these rules and it doesn't even show up as a blip in terms of the fighters' abilities to survive the Death Slaad cage match--you'd have to use high-powered statistics tests to even spot the difference.)
The point of this thought experiment is that even if you triple or quadruple the effect of the Champion's 3rd level ability, it still doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Does it seem unreasonable to you? It confirms my opinion that the PHB's rules for Champions are unreasonably stingy; I think in my next campaign I may adopt this thought experiment as a rule.
Would (Half-Orc?) Champions suddenly become all the rage?
The "autohit" effect of criticals probably doesn't matter at low levels, since a 17 is almost always a hit already even if you're using GWM. At 15th level, the autohit on a 13+ could be significant, especially against high-level foes like Tiamat and the Tarrasque. I think that would make the 15th level ability exciting, which is good.
In terms of raw damage, at 3rd level you're adding a constant (weapon dice * 0.15) to the expected damage of every attack, or up to double that for a half-orc using a one-die weapon. For a 5th level Str 18 Champion using a greatsword, you'd be adding 1.05 to the 9.35 damage per attack you'd do to an AC 13 T-Rex (10.4, an 11% increase in damage), and you'd be adding that same 1.05 to the 5.15 damage per attack you'd do to an AC 20 Helmed Horror (6.2, a 20% increase in damage).
That doesn't seem ridiculous to me. There's some synergy potential there for half-orc Champions with the Great Weapon Master feat exploiting the bonus attack on a crit, but it's still not an outlier in terms of potential. Compare to a human with the Polearm Master/Great Weapon Master combo: the half-orc is in the same ball park, occasionally weaker, and neither of them is particularly strong compared to other builds and tactics. (I tweaked my Death Slaad simulation to use these rules and it doesn't even show up as a blip in terms of the fighters' abilities to survive the Death Slaad cage match--you'd have to use high-powered statistics tests to even spot the difference.)
The point of this thought experiment is that even if you triple or quadruple the effect of the Champion's 3rd level ability, it still doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Does it seem unreasonable to you? It confirms my opinion that the PHB's rules for Champions are unreasonably stingy; I think in my next campaign I may adopt this thought experiment as a rule.
