Threat on a 3 or better?

[the Jester]

I posted this in the general monster discussion board, but nobody hangs out there very much... so here we go again:

Okay, so I'm crafting a cool high-level adventure that's going to take my group to the brink of epic levels (if not actually into epic levels), and I came upon this gem...

A nimblewright (MM2) has the augmented criticals SQ, giving it a threat range of 12-20. If I give it fighter levels and improved crit, this becomes 3-20 (!!!!).

Does anyone know if, by the rules, there's any reason why these shouldn't stack?

Good lord!

 

[Dave Blewer]

Sounds nasty, But it still has to hit to though doesn't it, and then it has to hit again to cause the crit... Sounds legal to me

 

[the Jester]

As it stands this thing has +26 to hit... hard to miss, and if it hits it pretty well threats, meaning it pretty much always crits! Ouch!

 

[Dave Blewer]

+26 does sound very nasty, but what sort of AC's can an Epic character be expected to have? Whats the CR of a Nimblewight?


I am the Lord of Questions!

 

[Liquide]

Now just give him +1 Keen raiper hands instead of the normal rapier hands and Improved Critical feat with 9 Levels of Fighter

-7 to 20 threat , and way too high attack bonus (and at CR16 of course)

 

[Dave Blewer]

So the proposed creature will have a CR of 24/25 then.

Nasty!

 

[Liquide]

So the proposed creature will have a CR of 24/25 then.

Nasty!

That is CR16 WITH, the nine fighter levels BTW

 

[Dave Blewer]

So its a CR 7 creature in the ELH

Something wrong here, methinks

Edit: Nevermind its in the MM2, can you tell that I haven't got either of these books?

 

[Plane Sailing]

A nimblewright (MM2) has the augmented criticals SQ, giving it a threat range of 12-20. If I give it fighter levels and improved crit, this becomes 3-20 (!!!!).

Does anyone know if, by the rules, there's any reason why these shouldn't stack?

Yes, I believe it can't stack by the rules... the improved critical feat would only increase the original threat range, not the augmented critical range. Since it seems to be duelling with built-in rapiers I'd assess that improved crit gives it a 9-20 threat range

cheers

 

[AuraSeer]

It looks to me like the monster started with a crit range of 18-20, and already has the benefit of a keen effect and improved criticals. I don't think I would allow the Improved Critical feat to stack on top of that.

If you consider the special ability to be a kind of double-strength keen, then you could rule that the feat does stack. However, you still have a math error; you need to follow the normal rules for multiplied multiples. You'd end up with a crit range of 9-20.