Critical hit immunity for adversaries

[Ashkar]

In need of help - I'm GMing RotRL AP, and the party 8 level magus with his black-blade rapier is becoming a problem (and will be even a bigger one as he level ups further). With keen property, he has critical range from 15. Till now, dice wasn't on his side, but as he will level up, I fear he could one-shot a lot of people. Can somebody give me an overview of classes, race types/subtypes, spells and items that can give immunity to critical hits?

[Rogar Stonebow]

I wouldnt replace the adversaries of the scenarios with crit immune creatures as thats bad wrong fun IMHO, but replacing sime of their equipment with fortification armor or shields is acceptable. By bringing in immune creatures your hurting everyone by taking away the enjoyment of someone rolling a nat 20 with x4 weapon or the sneak attack of the rogue. The only source of damage for a rogue.

[Secret Wizard]

Don't penalize the dude, he is a walking slot machine. He needs to attack, hit, and roll high enough.

Anyway, stuff that is immune to crits, off the top of my head:
- Oozes
- Incorporeal stuff
- Elementals and Elemental Body (fits ROTRL)
- Anything with concealment (lights out, smoke, etc.)
- Anything with the Fortification ability
- Anything with the Amorphous ability
- Swarms

[Rogar Stonebow]

Secret Wizard wrote:

Don't penalize the dude, he is a walking slot machine. He needs to attack, hit, and roll high enough.

Anyway, stuff that is immune to crits, off the top of my head:
- Oozes
- Incorporeal stuff
- Elementals and Elemental Body (fits ROTRL)
- Anything with concealment (lights out, smoke, etc.)
- Anything with the Fortification ability
- Anything with the Amorphous ability
- Swarms

As a note some of these suggestions are not immunity.

[pezlerpolychromatic]

Secret Wizard wrote:

Don't penalize the dude, he is a walking slot machine. He needs to attack, hit, and roll high enough.

Anyway, stuff that is immune to crits, off the top of my head:
- Oozes
- Incorporeal stuff
- Elementals and Elemental Body (fits ROTRL)
- Anything with concealment (lights out, smoke, etc.)
- Anything with the Fortification ability
- Anything with the Amorphous ability
- Swarms

Don't have the rulebooks handy right now but I'm pretty certain that concealment doesn't negate the chance of a critical hit. What is your source for that?

[Drogos]

Our group is about the same level and has a Paladin wielding a Scimitar doing the same thing. Even with his crits, most of the mooks we are fighting are around for 2 rounds and they hit almost as hard as he does because of their STR mods. Honestly, I wouldn't be too worried about it. He'll frequently get to trigger his spell combat crits, but that's what that class is supposed to do. Surround him with 4 trolls, watch his d8 hit die drop him like a sack. With some of the things we've fought in the AP, taking chunks of HP out have been the only thing that kept us standing. I seriously doubt he'll be one shotting too many of the memorable encounters. Mooks are only there to be a resource sink. The AP is tough enough without adding crit immune creatures and the funny thing about crits is the luck seems to dry up at the most inopportune times :D

[Secret Wizard]

pezlerpolychromatic wrote:

Don't have the rulebooks handy right now but I'm pretty certain that concealment doesn't negate the chance of a critical hit. What is your source for that?

Critical Strike damage is Precision damage, nuh? That's how we roll in my town.

[Artanthos]

I've found critting with my level 8 kensai to be very streaky. One thing to look forward to at level 9: adding my int mod to confirm crits, but most magi will not has this.

[Black Powder Chocobo]

To be honest, let him have his shtick. If you are worried about it, talk to the player about your worrries so that if the player ends up on a hot streak of one-shot critting with intensified shocking grasps, then he should try different tactics to let others contribute and while he can do something awesome.

I have a PC in my high level PFS group that I run for that has a keen scythe and has one-shot more than his share of BBEG than odds should dictate. However, he will sometimes delay to let the others have their turn first, or sometimes target a mook instead of the BBEG.

[Mysterious Stranger]

The magus is great at going nova, but can only attempt it a limited number of times per day. And even when he does go nova he is not guaranteed it will work. He still needs to actually hit the target, and to confirm the critical hit. He also needs to make a concentration check while casting to avoid provoking an attack of opportunity. Then he needs to roll decent on his damage.

As a GM is would actually be rooting for him to pull it off instead of worrying about countering it. The most memorable encounters are the ones that a single player manages to take down the BBEG in a single lucky shot. Often they are they are remember years after the game has ended when all the rest has faded from memory.

If it becomes a problem where he is pulling it off too often adjust thing subtly. Increase the number of minor encounters, or the number of monsters encountered so he burns up his resources. Also a slight increase in AC will reduce the chance of him being able to actually pull off the critical.

[Ashkar]

Thanks for reply! To be clear - I don't want to penalize the player. It's just that the party is taking down their enemies in 1-2 rounds, maximum - 5. No challenge at all. And magus constant crit ability isn't helping. Xanesha was taken down in 1,5 rounds. Just want to give some mooks (preferably arch bosses) abilities that will make the fights with them challenging. And my players love overcoming challenges.

[Rogar Stonebow]

Secret Wizard wrote:

pezlerpolychromatic wrote:

Don't have the rulebooks handy right now but I'm pretty certain that concealment doesn't negate the chance of a critical hit. What is your source for that?

Critical Strike damage is Precision damage, nuh? That's how we roll in my town.

Critical hits are not about precision. Sometimes its about luck. Don't think about it as a numbers game. It's a game about a story altered by the roll of the dice. Maybe the bad guy stumbles in the fog due to the di#icultty of eeing what he is stepping into and falls into the swing of an earthbreaker resulting in the crushing of his head. The only way to reflect that kind of happenstance is by crit rolls. Would you also rule a roll of 1 a possible hit if the numbers work out in the fog? Why/why not?

I would like you to reconsider your stance on crits being precision and let the dice tell the story along with the DM and players.

[Drogos]

Let me know how the Skull extractor fight goes (or even better Black Mamba, if they take her out, you definitely need to turn on the afterburners). That'll be the real test. If they ROFLstomp that, then you might want to make some changes to increase the difficulty of the encounters. If they caught Xanesha with her pants down, she could be a pushover. Also, you may be advancing them a little faster than what's supposed to be. If they were 8 when they faced her, my group was 7 iirc. And we have usually 5 players, if you've got a table of 6-8 , you might even hold them up a level to compensate for the larger table size. SR can be a big hit to PCs, so make sure you remember which monsters have that and that you've read the rules thoroughly.

[Chess Pwn]

Also how many encounters do they face before resting? are they able to blow all their stuff for 1-2 fights to drop them all in 1-2 rounds. I know a lot of my fights don't last more than 5 rounds. If both sides are doing damage then fights don't last long. But if they can do 1 fight, blow everything, then rest, you'll have a hard time challenging them.

[pezlerpolychromatic]

Rogar Stonebow wrote:

Secret Wizard wrote:

pezlerpolychromatic wrote:

Don't have the rulebooks handy right now but I'm pretty certain that concealment doesn't negate the chance of a critical hit. What is your source for that?

Critical Strike damage is Precision damage, nuh? That's how we roll in my town.

Critical hits are not about precision. Sometimes its about luck. Don't think about it as a numbers game. It's a game about a story altered by the roll of the dice. Maybe the bad guy stumbles in the fog due to the di#icultty of eeing what he is stepping into and falls into the swing of an earthbreaker resulting in the crushing of his head. The only way to reflect that kind of happenstance is by crit rolls. Would you also rule a roll of 1 a possible hit if the numbers work out in the fog? Why/why not?

I would like you to reconsider your stance on crits being precision and let the dice tell the story along with the DM and players.

Indeed, concealment negates sneak attacks but there isn't anything in the rulebooks about critical hits being precision damage. You don't have to be precise to land a solid hit, as any barbarian with a heavy pick and power attack can tell you.