critical hit every time?

[Yqatuba]

If an attackers attack bonus is high enough that anything (other than maybe a 1) they roll would be more than 10 higher than the target's ac, do they get a critical every time?

[Taja the Barbarian]

Yep, but that kinda indicates something like a +/-8 level encounter, which you really shouldn't see in game.

Our group had a +3 encounter where the monster's attack bonus was equal to my AC, and that was plenty painful...

[HammerJack]

If an attack roll is high enough to be a critical success, then it is a critical hit. Therefore, if an attack roll is always high enough to be a critical hit, then yes, it would always be a critical hit, unless a natural 1 is downgrading it to a regular hit. It's not something that will really come up without a staggering level disparity.

[thenobledrake]

The closest to a practical situation I can come up with in which this could happen is as follows:

The party is level 7, includes a fighter, and is facing an encounter comprised entirely of gelatinous cubes - which are immune to critical hits.

So as Taja pointed out, it is not a situation that is going to come up without some very deliberate set-up, and when it does come up it's likely the difference between a critical hit and a normal hit isn't going to matter much because of intense level disparity, or an immunity to critical hits attached to a very low AC like that of an ooze will make it less impactful.