Just as an FYI:
When the crit says x3, by the rules you roll the damage dice 3 times and add up, not roll once and multiply.
Multiplying straight out tends to accentuate good or bad rolls while adding them as intended usually yields something closer to the arithmetic mean. I don't think multiplying the result is necessarily bad, but just as your high results will look particularly spectacular, your low results will look unusually weak. That may be a trade-off your table prefers if your multiplication speed is higher than your rolling multiple sets of dice and adding.
Doing it your way:
Boxcars for your friend is 45 points of damage.
Snake eyes is 15 points of damage.
RAW evens it out so it still can hit hard, and minimize the change of hitting less so.
I prefer multiplying myself.
Soooo..... the intent of a crit is to force it toward the mid-range? Sorry, but I find that pointless.
You probably won't find it so pointless when you're on the receiving end of a x3 crit and the first die rolled is maxed. Criticals add to the swinginess of the game. By adding multiple rolls, rather than multiplying I think the designers wanted to rein in the effect by moderating it a little.
And be sure to watch how the game stacks criticals with other multipliers like spirited charge or charging with a lance. The x3 battle axe critical coupled with the x2 for spirited charge isn't x6.
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I had this happen early in a campaign -- barb critted and did something like 36 points of damage.
I told him he had taken his opponent's head off with a single blow "and the head flies off, bounces, bounces, and then rolls to a stop. It still has a surprised expression. The headless body stands there for a moment, blood spurting from the neck, then topples over."
He loved it so much that, ever after, every time he critted he wanted to hear a nice gruesome description.
Doug M.
If you want to multiply it instead of rolling it 3 times who cares? If that works for your group, Awesome! As long as the pcs know that it works both ways.
Reaper Miniatures
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If you want to multiply it instead of rolling it 3 times who cares? If that works for your group, Awesome! As long as the pcs know that it works both ways.I had this happen early in a campaign -- barb critted and did something like 36 points of damage.
I told him he had taken his opponent's head off with a single blow "and the head flies off, bounces, bounces, and then rolls to a stop. It still has a surprised expression. The headless body stands there for a moment, blood spurting from the neck, then topples over."
He loved it so much that, ever after, every time he critted he wanted to hear a nice gruesome description.
Doug M.
Agreed.
I let my players choose before they roll, - do you want to roll more dice, or multiply? It's their option EACH TIME they crit. not a game rule, just how I run my table.
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I had this happen early in a campaign -- barb critted and did something like 36 points of damage.
I told him he had taken his opponent's head off with a single blow "and the head flies off, bounces, bounces, and then rolls to a stop. It still has a surprised expression. The headless body stands there for a moment, blood spurting from the neck, then topples over."
He loved it so much that, ever after, every time he critted he wanted to hear a nice gruesome description.
Doug M.
Sounds like he'd like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.
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Sounds like a fun session at Oleg's.
The group I started running a few weeks ago had their Cleric and Knight hole up in the stables next to Claptrap. Their bard used his longbow from atop the stables.
For their surprise round, the Cleric used his move action to throw open the door, while the archer-bard stoop up. The knight, astride his horse forfeit his surprise round action as the cleric was in his way.
As the init count went, one of the thugs charged the cleric and took him down to negatives with a single swing (I believe he hit for 9HP and the cleric had 8HP).
Said thug was then gunned down in a single shot of the longbow and a halfling PC elsewhere.
With the path clear, the knight galloped out directly at Happs (who I had take a move action onto one of the tables around Oleg's fire pit and use his longbow).
Lance out, the knight PC skewered Happs with a single critical hit as well. 4d8+3 damage for just over 30 pts of damage.
In our subsequent sessions I've gotten them to all agree to playtest wound and vigor points. So far, it feels like a big win. I won't mention what's coming up though for fear of spoilers.
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M P 433... Thank you for noting what I thought was obvious. Setting math aside, it's just awesome for a player's very first attack as the character to be a crit... while wielding a great ax.
PJ: Our group tends to be on the gory side for descriptions. This attack on Haps was a slice at waist level that cut him in two. Upper half fell, lower half remained mounted.
We had some fun RPing moments up until the attack. The Cleric and my character (wizard) knew each other, and we finagled the Charter before we actually had the Rogue and Fighter. Those two characters are both half orcs. They're brothers (in game), and both have the Bandit Campaign trait. Available fighting men are scarce in the River kingdoms, so we had our doubts about the pair, fearing we might be scraping the bottom of the barrel with them. For the Rogue's part, he asked what >I< was bringing to the group, so I cast Color Spray on him... and he saved. He was not impressed. When it came to combat, though, all the Bandits I hit with Color Spray failed, and dropped. So, now, I think we ALL feel better about the group as a whole.
Awesome! My group likes the gory descriptions also.
He rolls nat 20, followed by 17. He's carrying a great axe. He does (11+3)x3 = 42 points damage!I've been playing D&D since about 1983, and that is the BEST first attack I've ever seen from any character.
My group had almost the same thing happen. Except it happened from surprise (they ambushed the bandits), on the very first attack roll, with a glaive-guisarme, against a mounted opponent.
Ouch.
(Although it wasn't Haps, it was just an ordinary bandit)
That was great start to the game.
The game that I run, we are currently in The Rivers Run Red module, began in an interesting manner too. The group took a particular interest in the following words of the Stolen Land Charter: "The punishment for unrepentent banditry remains, as always, execution by sword or rope." Two of the bandits, at Oleg's, surrendered but one was hesitant on the repenting part of the equation. Well, the two party members, who took him in custody, did not use swords but they did have rope. The cleric with the mend spell managed to get one of the catapults working, and the other two tied the unrepentent bandit to the catapult. After one last roll he was still unrepentent. The head was found about about 200 feet away. They staked the headless body to serve as notice that was a new law in land.
What a great start! Players always love stuff like that. I use a custom crit table, so results of a crit can vary from a slight damage bonus to instant death. It always adds extra excitement, and even when one of the PCs died on a crit recently, it made for some great story getting her back to life.
I say if multiply works for your table, go for it. You might want to let your players know it's a house rule so they don't expect it at other tables, too, though.