If you crit on a ranged touch attack ray spell, like Ray of Enfeeblement, does it do double the ability damage (if no save)?
Ray of enfeeblement bestows a penalty, and does not do 'damage.' As such it is not multiplied on a critical hit. Spells that DO deal damage would be however.
Relevant text snippet.
The subject takes a penalty to Strength equal to 1d6+1 per two caster levels (maximum 1d6+5).
On the flip side, i believe Enervation would double on a critical.
What Rathendar said about that specific spell. In general:
A spell that requires an attack roll can score a critical hit. A spell attack that requires no attack roll cannot score a critical hit. If a spell causes ability damage or drain (see Special Abilities), the damage or drain is doubled on a critical hit.
So, even though the Ray requires an attack roll to succeed, the fact that it´s called a penalty instead of damage makes it not critable? I would think a penalty to an ability would be considered damage. Although, since the penalty only lasts 1 round per caster level, it doesn´t take as long to heal as ability damage would.
Ok, got it.
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Greetings, fellow travellers.
I have to disagree here. As stated by what Bobson quoted
a spell that requires an attack roll can score a critical hit.
Following the flavor text of ray of enfeeblement:
You must succeed on a ranged touch attack to strike a target.
There. Plain and simple.
Furthermore, the first quote - more precisly its second sentence:
If a spell causes ability damage or drain (see Special Abilities), the damage or drain is doubled on a critical hit.
refers you to the Special Abilities section where the difference explained between damage and penalty applied to an ability score is simply that you cannot die from a penalty to an ability score, since the source causing said penalty cannot reduce your stat below 1 (while with drain it's possible) as quoted below:
Some spells and abilities cause you to take an ability penalty for a limited amount of time. While in effect, these penalties function just like ability damage, but they cannot cause you to fall unconscious or die. In essence, penalties cannot decrease your ability score to less than 1.
Therefore, it is implied that all the rest - including how to handle a spell crit - are treated the same way for penalty, damage or drain.
TL;DR: Yes, you can crit with ray of enfeeblement, but cannot reduce the Str stat below 1 with that spell.
Ruyan.
So what does a Ray of Exhaustion do on a crit, then?
Weapon-like spells can potentially crit. But in order to crit, they have to actually deal damage of some sort.
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This issue came up tonight - Weapon-like spells can most certainly crit, but Ray of Enfeeblement does not do damage, specifically - the spell says it applies a penalty. However, in the section on ability score damage (page 555, Core Rulebook), it says the following:
"Diseases, poisons, spells, and other abilities can all deal damage directly to your ability scores. This damage does not actually reduce an ability, but it does apply a penalty to the skill sand statistics that are based on that ability."
So, it's been confirmed that ability "damage" and "drain" can crit, but can something that applies an ability penalty crit? If those words are synonymous, why use them separately?
It may seem like a trivial and nitpicky thing, but wording has to be carefully considered in spells.
I would say that ability penalties cannot be doubled on a crit, despite the fact that ability penalties are described to function similarly to damage.
This is because the description of penalties versus damage are general rules, a baseline.
The rules of a critical are more specific and directly state damage and drain.
In any case that ambiguity exists between a general rule or a specific rule, I would let the specific override the general. This means that damage can crit, but a penalty (which is not specifically stated) cannot.
If you sneak attack with ability drain the sneak attack damage is negative energy.
You could do the same with drain crits if you didn't want to take too many ability points away.