| ninjaelk |
The trigger for the Operative level 2 class feat Kill Steal is "An ally ends their turn after hitting a creature two or more times or critically hitting a creature." The problem is 'hit' doesn't seem to be defined.
It seems fairly clear that anything that includes an attack roll against AC, including spell attacks, should count as a hit if you succeed.
However, Area Attacks and Auto-Fire attacks seem a bit murky. They specifically say "You attempt to hit each creature..." and "Creatures that critically fail this save are subject to effects that occur on a critical hit with this weapon".
It seems that Kill Steal is an effect that occurs when a weapon critically hits so that seems like it should work.
However, if the target simply fails their save is that a hit? If so, why? Is it just because of the descriptive text that says "You attempt to hit each creature"?
If that's the case, it seems to stand to reason that even a successful save (but not a critical success) should count as a hit. Because if the reason it counts as a hit is that it specifically says you're attempting to hit each creature, if you deal any damage at all that should logically count as a hit. I don't see how you can deal any damage, even half damage, without landing a hit.
It seems like other general non-attack spells aren't intended to count as hits. I'm assuming that a failed (or successful) save against Electric Arc wouldn't count as a hit, and a critically failed save wouldn't count as a critical hit. However, my only basis for that is mostly just that they don't specifically say they're "trying to hit" the way Area Attack or Auto-Fire does.