Removing (some) Crit Confirmation Rolls


Homebrew and House Rules


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Rolling a natural 20 and failing to crit is always a disappointment. Yes the automatic hit rule is cool but rarely will a PC be fighting something that a roll of 20 would not be enough to hit anyways. So to address this, without completely destroying critical balance, I propose the following house-rule for your consideration:

Natural 20
When you roll a 20 on an attack roll your attack always hits and deals double damage this is a critical hit.

Higher than x2 crit multiplier
If your crit multiplier is higher than x2 when you roll a natural 20 you still make a critical confirmation roll. On a success you use your weapons crit multiplier. On a failure you use x2, this is still considered a critical hit and the x2 bonus damage can be negated by some effects.

Expanded threat range
If you threaten a critical hit on anything other than a 20 that is resolved using the vanilla rules.

The idea is to make a natural 20 slightly more satisfying without breaking the game. Any thoughts?


It works against the players. Those unending waves of goblins, kobolds, mites, or whatnot will take always score a few 20's. Dead party.


parsimony wrote:
It works against the players. Those unending waves of goblins, kobolds, mites, or whatnot will take always score a few 20's. Dead party.

It would definitely need to work against the party. Though unending waves of anything will kill the party just with the automatic hit on a 20 in the vanilla rules.

Perhaps you only get the automatic x2 confirmation if you would normally hit on a 20? I am trying to keep the rule as simple as possible. That would fix the problem with hordes (kind of)

I am more worried about big monsters though the ones who are the most dangerous with their extra damage are the ones more likely to confirm their critical hit roll anyways.


What about just doing max damage on base weapon damage on a Nat 20? (Sneak Attack, Flaming, etc., would still need rolls) If you confirm, roll additional damage dice (and multiply static damage) for a crit as normal.


KahnyaGnorc wrote:
What about just doing max damage on base weapon damage on a Nat 20? (Sneak Attack, Flaming, etc., would still need rolls) If you confirm, roll additional damage dice (and multiply static damage) for a crit as normal.

That would work as well. A bit less exciting but also less likely to cause problems because it doesn't actually increase damage potential (though it does increase average damage slightly). I might use that if I decide that my first idea is too strong. Thanks.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

What my group has been doing is if you roll in the weapon's natural crit range (20 for most weapons, 19-20 on some blades, etc.), it's a crit, no confirmation roll needed. If you have any way to expand the threat range (the keen property, improved critical, etc.) and you roll in the expanded range, you have to confirm the crit.

It's been working pretty well for us, but I'm thinking that the next time I GM, I'll have the enemies confirm crits as per RAW. We've seen a number of PCs get ganked thanks to a lucky crit, especially at low levels.


Xelite wrote:

What my group has been doing is if you roll in the weapon's natural crit range (20 for most weapons, 19-20 on some blades, etc.), it's a crit, no confirmation roll needed. If you have any way to expand the threat range (the keen property, improved critical, etc.) and you roll in the expanded range, you have to confirm the crit.

It's been working pretty well for us, but I'm thinking that the next time I GM, I'll have the enemies confirm crits as per RAW. We've seen a number of PCs get ganked thanks to a lucky crit, especially at low levels.

Low levels are pretty brutal, I generally start PCs at level 2 these days so that even the casters generally don't die in one hit. Did you find that the PC ganking was caused by high crit multiplier weapons?


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

The past few I believe have been due to higher threat ranges as opposed to crit modifiers (that and large enemies so higher damage overall lol)


How about this:
If the d20 is equal to 20, and you also hit by 5, you receive the auto-confirmation up to *2 damage. Otherwise, you need to roll to confirm (for a 20 that did not hit by 5, or for a critical threat with less than a 20 on the attack roll, or to exceed *2 [for a bow, scythe, etc.])

This keeps it so a Kobold who needs a 20 to hit you at all has a chance to confirm a critical with another 20, but makes PC's or monsters with high attack modifiers get a really good chance to confirm without having to roll again after having already gotten a 20 for that attack.

What to do with Critical Focus feat under these rules:
1. Apply the +4 to the attack roll for confirmation purposes so you only need to hit by 1 (rather than by 5) with a 20 [if not too powerful]. or
2. Apply the +4 to the confirmation roll, as usual [if the feat is otherwise too powerful in your opinion].

Another way to look at the process in summary, with a *2 multiplier:
If you got a 20 on the attack roll, treat the confirmation roll as an automatic 15 (or a 19 if you have Critical Focus). If not auto-confirmed with a 15 or 19 (plus your attack modifier), or to get more than *2, you still get a chance to roll to confirm with a 2nd d20 attack roll as usual.

[I selected 15 since that equates to a 20 on the current attack and the next iterative also getting a 20 [even if you don't have an iterative remaining or don't normally have an iterative at all]. However, maybe a 10 makes more sense: an automatic "Take 10" for confirmation roll if the attack was a 20 on the d20 may also make sense. If you want a game really filled with critical hits, use "Take 20", but then those Kobolds just became more deadly also.)

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