Ok, here's the deal. On double damage (or triple, etc) we've rolled the dice the requisite number of times and added the usual bonuses (STR and Magic bonuses to weapon damage, though not counting the extra damage such as from Bane weapons) the same number of times equal to the number of dice rolled. Have I been doing this wrong all these years? As I understand the rule that is what happens. A player and I got into a discussion about it and I was wondering if I could get some clarification. Thanks.
Here's the rule as written:
"A critical hit means that you roll your damage more than once, with all your usual bonuses, and add the rolls together. "
You've been doing it right.
Thanks. I thought I had been, but this player was adamant about it and we didn't have time to look up the rule as it was getting really late and some folks had a long drive home.
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I don't know how much of what you said is a misconception and how much of it is just unfortunate phrasing, but I will help clarify:
When you land a critical hit, this is what you multiply:
-Weapon Damage Dice
-Strength Modifier
-Any other numeric bonus from feats, class abilities, and the like. (such as the +2 damage part of Bane)
What you don't multiply:
-Any bonus that is considered precision damage
-Any bonus that is added in the form of extra dice (such as Flaming weapons, Vital Strike, or the +2d6 part of Bane)
-Any other bonus that explicitly states it is not multiplied on a critical hit
This has no relevance to how many dice you roll. If your weapon naturally involves rolling two dice (such as a Greatsword's 2d6), landing an x2 critical results only in doubling the bonuses, not tripling or quadrupling or anything else based just on how many dice the Greatsword has.
For a final note, for classes who get weapons that increase in strength, the precise wording is key.
-Alchemists' Bombs explicitly say the bonus damage is not multiplied on a critical hit, so if a bomb criticals, it deals only 1d6 extra.
-Kineticist's Kinetic Blast lacks this provision, so when it lands a critical hit, you multiply its full strength.
Awesome. Thanks!
@Saethori, an important thing to note (and what I feel you post does not convey) is that you don't simply multiple the value on the weapon dice rolled.
I think many people do this as a simplification, but you're actually supposed to roll the damage dice the number of times indicated by your critical multiplier.
For instance, a greatsword has 2d6 damage and 19-20x2 crit. This means that on a critical hit you would roll 4d6 damage and apply your strength modifier (and other damage that is multiplied on a critical) twice.
I do understand the distinction, and understand I should have clarified somewhat better.
I usually just end up thinking of it as multiplying the dice, rather than the dice's result.