Trading critical power for critical range?

[Quartz]

Would you alow a feat that traded the power (i.e. the multiplier) of a critical hit for increasing the range of the critical hit?

Something like:

Flexible Critical
Prerequisites: Weapon Focus, Combat Expertise, BAB +4 (?)
Benefit: You can trade x1 of critical hit damage for +1 to your critical range, but not vice versa.
Special: This stacks with the +1 range from Improved Critical but not the increased range from the Keen weapon property.

 

[BRP2]

You probably don't mind it, but is kind of a metagame feat. The critical rate is usually based on the way the weapons hurt. Like a weapon with 20/x3 is very lethal in it's attacks but not exactly accurate, especially compared to something like a dagger with a larger range and but smaller multiplier.

 

[Quartz]

Actually, I should require something like Power Attack as a prerequisite instead of Combat Expertise, since it's along much the same lines.

 

[Cabral]

Special: This stacks with the +1 range from Improved Critical but not the increased range from the Keen weapon property.

Note: bonuses are added after any multiplication. Why wouldn't it stack with Keen? (In 3.5, Keen and Improved Critical don't stack).

No, I wouldn't allow it. It may be a balanced feat with a masterwork sword but effects that trigger on a critical hit were designed with a limited number of threat range enchancements available.

 

[Quartz]

Note: bonuses are added after any multiplication. Why wouldn't it stack with Keen? (In 3.5, Keen and Improved Critical don't stack).

Precedent: because Keen and Improved Critical don't stack.

 

[Cabral]

Precedent: because Keen and Improved Critical don't stack.

Yes, but why does it stack with Improved Critical and not Keen? Keen and Improved Critical do the same thing but this feat does not.

 

[ByteRynn]

I would split it into two feats:

Accurate Critical
Prerequisites: Improved Critical, Combat Expertise, BAB +8
Benefeit: For every point you reduce your weapon's critical multiplier, you may extend its threat range by one. This adjustment is made on your turn and lasts until your next turn. You may not reduce your weapon's critical multiplier below x2. This increase in threat range stacks with both the keen property and the Improved Critical Feat.

Power Critical
Prerequisites: Power Attack, BAB +4
Benefeit: For every point you reduce your weapon's threat range, you may increase its critical multiplier by one. This adjustment is made on your turn and lasts until your next turn. Your weapon may not have a threat ranged smaller than 20.

I made Accurate Critical harder to achieve because it is a VERY good feat that focuses on someone who is very good at hitting just the right spot yet sacrificing some of their ability to do massive damage. Power Critical is not very good. You can basically use it to convert your longsword into a battle axe. The best use I could think with it might be to swing a scimitar or rapier with 1d6 19-20/x3. You are still swinging lower damage than a longsword/axe, but you have very good critical math. You could alos use this feat to get milage out of keen and improved critical.

 

[starwed]

The metric for critical damage from a weapon is: (muliplier - 1) x (width of threat range). This holds when elemental burst abilities are added in.

The expected (overall) damage from a greataxe [2] is the same as from a long sword [2].
A weapon which crits x4 on a 20 [3] is as powerful as one which crits x2 on a 18-20 [3].

Note that doubling the threat range of two weapons doesn't change their relative power. But allowing someone to shift from an 18-20/x2 [3]weapon to a 19-20/x3 [4] weapon is an overall boost in power. Add in keen, and you can shift from 15-20/x2 [6] to 17-20/x4 [12]. That's a bit too much mileage for my liking. ^_^

 

[ByteRynn]

I know that it is much better to be giving up threat-range for multiplier, but as a feat that won't be availible until level 9 at the earliest, and even then, pretty much only by fighters, I think it's fair enough. I wouldn't be opposed to upping the BAB requirement a bit.

 

[Quartz]

Back up a bit. I don't believe Flexible Critical - or other similar feats - should stack with Keen. As noted above, Improved Critical doesn't. As further examples, Power Attack doesn't stack with a weapon's plus, nor does Combat Expertise. The precendents are ample.