My group has voted to toss out the confirmation roll for critical hits, for one reason that it just bogs combat down and the other being it takes away from the excitement of seeing that crit number appear if it doesn't successful confirm. I know this negates a few feats and changes the the feat trees for some things, but has anyone else tried this? How did it work?
Crits are pretty much combat enders as they are.
I'd say it'd probably work fine as long as you made sure to tweak certain abilities (like teh Fighter's capstone) and remove Critical Focus from any Feat requirements.
I suggest using color coded die for multiple attacks or for criticals if it is becoming too much of a problem rather than change rules that are there to maintain balance.
Ex:
Red Normal Attack
Black Crit Confirmation (if Red threatens a crit)
Blue 2nd Attack
Purple Crit Confirmation (if Blue threatens crit)
You can roll color coded die for damage as well.
Buy dice in bulk online it helps. Unless of course you play online.
Ok, 4th time I'm trying to post this. Apparently the boards have decided they hate my phone.
I can't say how it would change things since my group has never used confirmation rolls. We find the rule stupid. Haven't really had to make changes other than what Rynjin said about feats.
EDIT: It should probably be noted that the damage we see isn't as swingy as Duiker says since we use the critical hit deck.
I've played both ways before and it does affect high crit weapons mostly. The 18-20 weapons become a 15-20 weapon with keen. The 15-20 weapons really become the best option in this system. It feels like you're using a killing edge in Fire Emblem (if you've played those games.) In any case, the damage for those weapons go up 25 % of the time they are used and its even better if you use critical feats.
Though for weapons that aren't 18-20, there isn't a whole lot of a difference. Well, other than the surprise nat 20 archer headshot or something. But those only come up once every 4 sessions even when under this system.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've played both ways before and it does affect high crit weapons mostly...
Conversely, the first thing it makes me think is 'grab a keen scythe and go fishing for some epic, epic gibs'.
In our group only a real 20 auto-confirms. This does not increase the power of 15-20 cookie cutter weapons but increases the value of the 20. Seeing that number should always instill awesomeness into players.
|
If I did away with confirmation rolls I'd tone down the power of crits.
Instead of x2 damage, you treat the weapon as if it rolled its highest dice number.
x3 becomes 1.5, x4 becomes double.
So a rapier is 18-20/Max (6+Str+Enhancement) + Precision or Flaming etc.
A hand axe crits on a 20 dealing Max x1.5 (9+(1.5STR)+(1.5Enhancement)) +Precison Flaming etc
A scythe crits on a 20 dealing Max x2 (16+(2Str)+(2Enhancement)) +Precision etc
You should still roll flaming, sneak attack and the like.
How do you handle weapons with increased critical threat ranges? Does a +1 Keen Flaming Burst Rapier suddenly deal double damage, with an added d10 25% of the time now?
In my group, yes, and we have no problem with this. Though for what it is worth, most of my players would put that +1 bonus towards something else flashy like Frost instead.
In our group, we collectively decided that missing the confirmation on a natural 20 was just a big let-down whenever it happened, and it was especially disappointing to confirm a crit and then roll less damage than you could have got with a single die, so we use this house-rule:
1.) Rolling a critical threat maximizes the damage of that first attack die.
2.) Roll for confirmation as normal.
3.) If the confirmation roll is also a natural 20, maximize the 2nd damage die as well.
4.) Roll subsequent damage dice normally.
For example, if you're Medium-sized and using a Spear, you would normally roll 1d8 damage for the first hit plus another 2d8 when you confirm, resulting in 1 to 24 damage total with an average of 13.5 whenever you crit. Under our house-rule, you'd get a flat 8 for the first die and 2d8 to 1d8+8 for the confirmation, resulting in 8 to 24 damage total with an average that's a little tricky to calculate because of the chance to get a nat 20 again. Sneak attack and elemental buff damage is unaffected by the house-rule; only the original damage die is increased.