Hello!
Let's say we have a monk with 5 attacks in a full-round action. He uses Pummeling Style, and the first 4 attacks miss. However, the last one is a critical hit, which confirms. Does the monk simply treat the attacks that hit as criticals, or does the crit mean that all 5 attacks hit?
My guess is that only the attacks that actually hit are multiplied, but at the same time, there's enough ambiguity that I think it could go either way.
Can anyone clarify this for me?
This feat doesn't turn misses into hits, There is no language to suggest that previous misses suddenly become hits. It just means that if you hit twice and miss 3 times you only need 1 confirmed crit and the other hit(s) automatically crit.
That's what I thought. However, one of the important things about critical hits is that they never miss, and because the entire thing is a critical hit, I wasn't sure if that meant that everything was a hit/critical, or just the ones that actually hit.
Critical hits can miss. Let's say I have a keen scimitar, I threaten a crit on a 15+. That doesn't do me any good if I need a 17+ to hit. You have to actually hit before you can crit.
However, that keen scimitar is irrelevant, because we are talking about unarmed strikes. Unarmed strikes only crit on a nat 20, and thus a critical threat is always a guaranteed hit.
Based on what you just said I wonder if you've misunderstood the critical hit rules.
An unarmed strike only threatens on a natural 20 (barring improved critical or the like, which we'll ignore to keep the example simple), but after rolling a threat you still need to confirm the critical hit by rolling a second attack. It's only a critical hit if the confirmation roll is high enough to hit the target's AC. This is all explained in the combat chapter, briefly summarized here.
Let's try an example. A 5th level Unarmed fighter affected by haste uses Pummeling Style to make a full attack. He's also using TWF to make an extra unarmed attack. The target's AC is 22, and he has a +12 bonus on his three attacks.
He rolls: 4, 20, 20.
The first attack (4+12=16) is a miss, and so no longer relevant. We'll ignore it.
The second attack (20) is a threat, so he rolls again to confirm it. He rolls a natural 1 on the confirmation roll and fails to confirm the crit. The attack still hits, but it is not a critical hit.
The third attack (20) is also a threat, so he rolls again to confirm it. He rolls a (14+12=26) 26 on his second attack, which beats the target's AC. The final attack is a critical hit, and doubles (because US is x2) the damage dealt for that attack. Because of the unique rules interaction of Pummeling Strike, it also doubles the damage of his other successful attack.
Since two attacks hit and one was a critical hit, that means he'd roll the normal damage for an unarmed strike four times and add it all up. The end result is the total damage he dealt.
However, that keen scimitar is irrelevant, because we are talking about unarmed strikes. Unarmed strikes only crit on a nat 20, and thus a critical threat is always a guaranteed hit.
When I said the above, I was referring to the following:
When you make an attack roll and get a natural 20 (the d20 shows 20), you hit regardless of your target's Armor Class, and you have scored a “threat,” meaning the hit might be a critical hit (or “crit”)....Sometimes your threat range is greater than 20. That is, you can score a threat on a lower number. In such cases, a roll of lower than 20 is not an automatic hit. Any attack roll that doesn't result in a hit is not a threat.
I was pointing out that because unarmed strikes only have critical threats on a natural 20, and natural 20's never miss. I suppose my wording was a bit weird, though.
...One of the important things about critical hits is that they never miss...
Sorry, I realize that was wrong. However, that doesn't change the fact that a critical threat with unarmed strike is a guaranteed hit. Thank you for helping, though.
If any of the attack rolls are critical threats, make one confirmation roll for the entire attack at your highest base attack bonus. If it succeeds, the entire attack is a confirmed critical hit.
Confirmed critical hits always hit, right? That's why we call them confirmed. The feat says that the entire attack is a confirmed critical hit, which made me wonder if that was referring to just the attacks that hit in the first place, or all of the ones you've made, regardless of whether they hit.
It was really hard to write this in a way that wasn't defensive or accusatory. If any of this feels "mean", please know that I'm just trying to explain my reasoning and doubt in as neutral a way as possible.
If you confirmed the crit then all of hits are crits. Basically double the normally of dice you would normally roll.
It was really hard to write this in a way that wasn't defensive or accusatory. If any of this feels "mean", please know that I'm just trying to explain my reasoning and doubt in as neutral a way as possible.
No worries! I wasn't quite sure if I misunderstood you or if you really were misreading the crit rules, but it's really important to clear that kind of thing up early when you're in a rules discussion - I've seen debates go for pages and pages with people talking past one another because of a simple misunderstanding like that. Rather safe than sorry. :)
While I'm reasonably confident that I understand the ability correctly, Pummeling Strike is confusing as written - it's already been errataed once. It is very likely to see a further update when the ACG errata is released, which should be sometime in the next couple of months.
Anyways, thanks for the clarification, everyone who contributed!
If you have room for combat feats, I'd suggest Improved Critical, which doubles your unarmed critical threat range from 20 to 19, if you also get Critical Focus, you can add a +4 to your critical confirmation, if you also have the Martial Manuscript trait, that +4 becomes a +6. So, more chances of you getting critical with your unarmed strikes.