Can someone explain to me why you don't multiply sneak attack damage on a critical?
You do on spells that do like 15d6 damage that can be cast each round.. why not sneak attacks that ur likely only going to get 2 or 3 a battle?
A Critical Hit is a representation of a particularly well-placed blow. There is an element of chance to having struck such a spot. This is why you get extra damage, because you've hit a particularly vulnerable spot.
Sneak Attack (I much prefer the term "Precision Damage") exists to represent an intentionally precise strike to such a vulnerable spot. It doesn't get multiplied for a random placement into a particularly vulnerable spot because it was already intentionally targeted at such a spot.
Think of it this way: A critical hit is like a random head shot. Sneak attack is an intentional called head shot.
EDIT: This isn't really a rules question. What category should it have gone into ?
It just feels ... underpowered..
I mean spells all u have to do to boost the damage is stack CL.. but there's very few ways to boost sneak attack? Why?
One reason is that spells are a limited resource and sneak attacks are not.
Another is that stacking CL isn't exactly easy, certainly not enough to do more than an extra die or so of damage from most spells.
Another is that CL increasing with level improves spells so that a caster still has a reason to use early spells because otherwise why even bother having low level spell slots at higher levels?
Another is that sneak attack does go up with rogue levels much like caster level does.
Aside from that, you only really have to worry about a magus gettin a critical hit with a spell since otherwise spells only crit on a natural 20 (magus spell combat and spellstrike will cause spell damage to also be a critical if the melee attack is a critical).
Also, welcome to the discovery that the Rogue (and sneak attack) generally sucks.
I just thinknit wouldn't be game breaking to multiple a few extra d6 damage duringna sneak attack crit
It's actually pretty game breaking to do so. Again, a 15d6 attack from a wizard is a limited resource, while a rogue with a keen rapier is critting quite a bit. In fact, the rules are pretty clear on precision based damage and critical hits:
Exception: Precision damage (such as from a rogue's sneak attack class feature) and additional damage dice from special weapon qualities (such as flaming) are not multiplied when you score a critical hit.
If you'll notice other places where precision based damage is concerned, such as Vital Strike, you're always rolling the base weapon damage multiple times, but not from other sources.
Let's turn it around on the PCs. Assume a 10th level fighter with 127 hit points (10 for first level + 75% of d10 for 2nd through 9th level + 30 CON + 10 favored class + 10 Toughness) lost initiative and failed his perception check, meaning that a 10th level rogue with a composite longbow and deadly aim leveled two flatfooted attacks against him. If both attacks succeed, that rogue just dealt 10d6 sneak attack damage against him in addition to weapon damage of around 21. He can survive 51 points, even though he'll feel the hurt. However, if that same rogue dealt a critical with the longbow, that means the fighter would take take 20d6 points of SA damage from two attacks. Assuming all other beneficial bonuses (deadly aim, strength rating+2, 1d8 base weapon damage), total damage is 4d8+8+16 plus 20d6. Average damage done? 42 base weapon damage plus 70 sneak attack damage, or 112 damage. Max damage is 176, meaning the rogue does have a decent chance of killing the fighter outright before he even acts.
By the way, I'm going to link to this post, since it sums up the general rule of thumb regarding critical hits.
OP, the real reason is simply game balance.
A typical spellcaster can only achieve x2 damage on 1 critical out of 20 touch spells, without adding in extra feats or other critical stuff. And that typical spellcaster will usually only make one such attack every round, so statistically, it takes 20 rounds to threaten a single x2 multiplier.
A typical rogue of high enough level can easily achieve x2 damage on 6 criticals out of 20 (keen rapier for example) and could attack with flanking or greater invisibility as much as 7 times per round quite easily and would therefore be capable of threatening 42 critical hits in the same 20 rounds that the spellcaster only gets one.
So the rogue, in perfect conditions, would multiply his sneak attack dice 42 times more often than a mage would multiply his Shocking Grasp.
Some might say that maybe that's the balance a rogue needs to be playable, but clearly the game designers decided that this disparity was worth preventing.
Personally, Ive never found it difficult to get sneak attacks off in a round.
The two main builds I use to do this are:
Acrobatics build, make sure your acrobatics is insanely high. Then flank the target. If you need it you can use Peerless Maneuver to help. Also, take Offensive Defense since you are going to be exposed.
Gang Up build, take the feat Gang Up and consistently Flank the target that way. It will require that the main fighter type and one other person (preferably a cleric with a reach weapon or some other ally) threaten the target. In practice I have not found this too difficult to achieve with the right group composition.
- Gauss
With a build focused on getting critical hits, you WILL in fact deal game breaking damage if you multiplied it on a crit. DM Blake explains it very well.
I would be down with a rogue talent that allowed sneak attack damage to be multiplied under certain conditions, but no, otherwise, it shouldn't be. (Says I, a GM who's seen a rogue player be VERY good at getting off lots of sneak attack damage.)
If you are concerned about getting sneak attack damage off more often, the solution is to work on your tactics and build as a rogue, rather than changing the rules.