to threat or not to threat?

[krupintupple]

weird situation came up last night:

PC, through spell use, good defence items and total defence, managed to get his AC up to 30 during a battle. the enemy mook only had an attack bonus of +5, so he'd only ever hit on a natural 20. however, he was using a falchion and managed to roll an 18 - a threat - but this still fell short of the natural 20. being the first battle of the day, i went easy on them and insta-ruled that it didn't crit and the battle ended soon after.

however, what is the proper ruling for this? should the mook have gotten his threat, or does he really need a natural 20, regardless of threat range?

 

[blargney the second]

Not only wasn't it a critical threat, it didn't even hit in the first place. It's spelled out in the "increased threat range" paragraph of the critical hits section.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

What blargney said.

A threat only counts if the attack still hits. So while a weapon with a large threat range is good, it won't be much use if you can only hit your opponent on a 20.

If that wasn't the case then everyone would take a Falchion, take Improved Critical and then always hit on a 15-20.

Olaf the Stout

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

If that wasn't the case then everyone would take a Falchion, take Improved Critical and then always hit on a 15-20.

And full Power Attack, Combat Expertise, etc... cause who cares what your attack bonus is at that point?

 

[Hawking]

Simply put:

• A natural 20 die roll on an attack always hits.
  
• A natural die roll that falls within the threat range of the weapon used (usually 20, but not always the case, such as a falchion), is a critical threat if it hits, which isn't guaranteed (unless the above rule is in effect).

These two rules are independent of each other.

 

[Kask]

Simply put:

• A natural 20 die roll on an attack always hits.

Unless of course you are using the optional rule from the DMG...

 

[Corsair]

[/LIST]
Unless of course you are using the optional rule from the DMG...

Given how many optional rules are out there (particularly if you include UA), and considering how drastic some of them are, I think we can safely assume that unless an OP notes they are using an optional rule, they probably aren't.

Otherwise every time someone answers a question we'd have to go down the laundry list of situations in which the answer is wrong, which would just be more confusing to everyone.

 

[Kask]

Given how many optional rules are out there (particularly if you include UA), and considering how drastic some of them are, I think we can safely assume that unless an OP notes they are using an optional rule, they probably aren't.

It's a DMG optional rule of the same level as using Prestige classes...