Can Natural Weapons Crit?


Rules Questions


I was told by the folks who taught me Pathfinder that natural weapons do not crit and took this as common knowledge. Then it occurred to me just now to double check that, but I looked in the Core Rulebook and the Bestiary and cannot find any indication as to whether or not natural weapons crit.

So, do natural weapons crit, or do they not?


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They use standard crit rules, threaten on a 20, X2 dmg, just like every other weapon that doesn't specify it as different. Every weapon crits.


I see now! Im a little annoyed now at being misled. If it was a house rule, I wish they were more clear about that.

Grand Lodge

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Even spells that allow attack rolls crit. All at 20/x2


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It makes some sense to ignore natural weapon 20/x2 crits - if it's about monsters. A GM handling it that way speeds up the game and reduces the probability of random chracter death. In average it doesn't affect damage output much.

Anyway, I'd stick with the original ruling. Throwing away the excitement of a crit is too much of a loss, better give both sides full HP for their hit dice.


SheepishEidolon wrote:

It makes some sense to ignore natural weapon 20/x2 crits - if it's about monsters. A GM handling it that way speeds up the game and reduces the probability of random chracter death. In average it doesn't affect damage output much.

Anyway, I'd stick with the original ruling. Throwing away the excitement of a crit is too much of a loss, better give both sides full HP for their hit dice.

Yeah, it has occurred to me that I would have killed a lvl 1 character or two if not for ignoring natural weapon crits at the time. Had I known that it was actually a house rule, I would not have followed it in that game.


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Aniuś the Talewise wrote:
I see now! Im a little annoyed now at being misled. If it was a house rule, I wish they were more clear about that.

They may not have even realized it was a house-rule. Many many players who came from previous generations of the game have rules that they play by because the systems of yore were so incomplete that you had to fill-in-the-gaps. At some point someone probably decided that monsters shouldn't crit because not manufacturered (blah blah blah) and just ran it that way. Those players never knew better, they moved away and started their own group and ran it that way, etc etc, until you picked it up (and probably told your players that it was so, and maybe even one of them left the group before you figured it out) and ran your game with that rule.

Natural weapons seem to be a particular niche for collecting these rules. I'm curious if natural weapons were particularly poorly defined in ADnD. I had a GM when I was first getting into playing that said moving didn't keep you from full-attacking with natural weapons. I never looked it up (and even ran my games that way for a while) until it came up in another game I was playing in. DM moved a skeleton in to attack me an only clawed once. I asked him, "why didn't you give me the full sequence?" "Because he moved." "Yeah but natural weapons!" "Uh, are you drunk? That's not a thing."

So, anyway, it happens. Don't feel misled because it was probably a legitimate knowledge issue not an attempt to decieve.


BigDTBone wrote:
Aniuś the Talewise wrote:
I see now! Im a little annoyed now at being misled. If it was a house rule, I wish they were more clear about that.

They may not have even realized it was a house-rule. Many many players who came from previous generations of the game have rules that they play by because the systems of yore were so incomplete that you had to fill-in-the-gaps. At some point someone probably decided that monsters shouldn't crit because not manufacturered (blah blah blah) and just ran it that way. Those players never knew better, they moved away and started their own group and ran it that way, etc etc, until you picked it up (and probably told your players that it was so, and maybe even one of them left the group before you figured it out) and ran your game with that rule.

Natural weapons seem to be a particular niche for collecting these rules. I'm curious if natural weapons were particularly poorly defined in ADnD. I had a GM when I was first getting into playing that said moving didn't keep you from full-attacking with natural weapons. I never looked it up (and even ran my games that way for a while) until it came up in another game I was playing in. DM moved a skeleton in to attack me an only clawed once. I asked him, "why didn't you give me the full sequence?" "Because he moved." "Yeah but natural weapons!" "Uh, are you drunk? That's not a thing."

So, anyway, it happens. Don't feel misled because it was probably a legitimate knowledge issue not an attempt to decieve.

Yeah I figure that's what it was, a house rule that people forgot was a house rule, or a house rule unwittingly inherited from a previous group of players.

I just like to complain ;Þ

Very interesting questions, however!

Grand Lodge

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If it requires an attack roll, it can crit.

Now, sometimes that means nothing, but it is always true.

If it requires an attack roll, it can crit.

Just speak it like a mantra.

All the players will get it eventually.

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