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I'm thinking of changing how criticals work in my game as a houserule, since I think the critical confirmation roll is overcomplicated and often a big anticlimax. I've also killed two players in fights that weren't meant to be too rough by critting and rolling max damage, and while some parties may be cool with that, it doesn't feel right for us.

I was thinking of adopting the critical rules from 4th edition; a natural 20 is a critical hit, and a critical hit deals maximum damage. So if you have an attack that hits for 2d6+6, it would deal 18 damage automatically on a crit. This seems to suitably tone down crits while making them much easier to get. Of course this kind of messes with weapons with high crit ranges and crit multipliers. I was wondering what people thought about:

1.Allowing high crit range weapons to keep those ranges. If a player has a scimitar then it crits on a natural roll of 18-20 and deals max weapon damage. Since most crit weapons have relatively low damage dice, critting more often would be balanced out. The only problem I foresee here is Magus crit fishing.

2.High crit multiplier weapons... would be a bit screwed. I'd appreciate any creative but uncomplicated ideas for dealing with this. I was thinking that letting extra multipliers apply to the weapon damage only might work? So a player who hits with a longbow for d8+4 would crit for 20 (8+8+4)? Or max damage plus an extra weapon damage roll (8+4+d8)?

Any thoughts?

I've been thinking about making a bladed scarf dancer for my next campaign. I really like the flavour of the weapon, I envision him darting around combat in a blur of movement and colour, seeming to disappear and reappear out of nowhere. Obviously it won't be the most optimised of builds but I'd appreciate some advice to make it not horrible.

Couple of things I want to do:
- Use bladed scarf. Seems like dipping first level into Bladed Scarf Dancer Magus is pretty much a necessity, giving you proficiency and weapon focus in the bladed scarf, as well as allowing you to use it as a one handed weapon, which opens up Slashing Grace for dex to damage.

- Work up to Whirlwind attack. This is mostly just for the flavor of the thing, though if there were another way to attack multiple mooks at once that'd be cool. I just imagine the scarf whirling around and striking a whole group of guys at once.

- Be at least decent from level 1. We'll be starting from level 1 in the campaign, and not really sure how far it'll go.

Build:
(20 points buy)

Human
STR 8
DEX 18 (+2 racial)
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 14

1. Magus 1. Bladed Scarf proficiency (Class), Weapon Focus [Bladed Scarf] (Class), Weapon Finesse (Level 1), Slashing Grace (Human)
2. Ninja 1.
3. Ninja 2. Dodge (Level 3), Ninja Trick (Vanishing Trick)
4. Ninja 3.
5. Ninja 4. Mobility (Level 5), Combat Reflexes(Combat Trick), Ninja Trick (Combat Trick)
6. Ninja 5.
7. Ninja 6. Spring Attack (Level 7), Ninja Trick (Rogue Talent[Offensive Defense])
8. Ninja 7.
9. Ninja 8. Lunge (Level 9), Ninja Trick (Shadow Clone)
10. Ninja 9.
11. Ninja 10. Whirlwind Attack (Level 11), Master Trick (Invisible Blade)

At level 1 he can add dex mod to attack rolls and damage, and Weapon Focus for free kinda makes up for 0 BAB until 3rd. I really like the vanishing trick/sneak attack for the flavour of this character. Dodge, and Mobility obviously as prereqs for Spring Attack. At level 11 he gets invisible blade, which allows him to make 5d6 sneak attacks against every enemy within 10 squares with a lunge whirlwind attack. Offensive Defense also grants him +5 AC against each target hit.

Thoughts? The Ability Scores may be kinda wack, I was originally going to go with 3 levels of Bladed Scarf Dancer to get the Elasticity Arcana, which would give me an extra 5 feet of reach, plus 3 spells/day rather than 1. But then I couldn't do the whirlwind sneak attack thing until level 13. The +2 int modifier was meant for Arcane Pool points, Canny Defense and Combat Expertise, so I guess it's kind of worthless here.

It kind of feels like I'm wasting the strengths of the weapon (lol) like this. I was also thinking of just sticking with straight Bladed Scarf Dancer and picking up the Maneuver Mastery Arcana to focus on tripping/disarming over DPR. I really like the vanishing trick, though the magus does of course get plenty of cool stuff of his own.