I know that when a creature with a weapon has, say, cold damage on the weapon, that damage isn't multiplied on a critical hit.
But what if its a natural attack, where the ONLY damage is energy damage? There's a giant slug with a 3d6 acidic spit touch attack...does this multiply on a critical hit?
Yes. The giant slug acid spit ability is a Ranged Touch Attack, and Ranged Touch Attacks have a critical range of 20 and critical multiplier of x2 damage.
Oh, okay, so since its "ranged touch", then the acid DOES multiply?
So is this specific to "ranged touch"? A fire elemental does extra fire on its melee attack...but that doesn't multiply on a critical hit.
So is "ranged touch" the only distinction?
Correct. All Touch Attacks (ranged or melee touch attacks) cause x2 damage on critical, whether it's physical or some type of energy damage (in your slug's case, Acid damage). Like if you're a level 5 wizard and you cast a 5d6 Shocking Grasp and roll a 20 on your attack, you would deal 5d6 and then multiply the rolled damage as x2 damage.
Same thing for your slug. If he rolls a 20 on the ranged touch attack for a 10d6 acid spit, and he rolls 34 damage, it would be multiplied by x2, so total damage would be 68 acid damage.
Abilities that deal "extra" damage on hit like "causes an extra +1d6 fire damage on melee hit" do not get multiplied on a critical hit. This is simply extra damage.
Still not sure about that, since Spells are different and have the rules spelled out differently for them.
Any attack that requires a "to hit" roll can critical.
The part you are getting confused is bonus damage dice are not multiplied on a critical.
For example, a +1 two handed sword with the flaming enchantment does 2d6+1 +1d6 fire damage with a x2 critical multiplier. So on a critical hit it does (2d6+1)x2 + 1d6 fire.
Someone making a Vital Strike (which gives bonus dice damage equal to the base damage dice of the weapon) with a +1 two handed sword with the flaming enchantment does 2d6+1 +1d6 flaming +2d6 slashing. On a critical it would do (2d6+1)x2 +1d6 flaming +2d6 slashing.
A large fire elemental does 1d8 damage on a slam +2 burn. Since the +2 is not bonus dice, it does get multiplied, so it does (1d8+2)x2 on a critical.
The giant slug has a ranged (touch) attack that does 10d6 (ouch) acid. Since this is the base damage of the attack, all of it gets multiplied on a critical.
Hope those examples help.
Joey Cote wrote: Any attack that requires a "to hit" roll can critical.
The part you are getting confused is bonus damage dice are not multiplied on a critical.
For example, a +1 two handed sword with the flaming enchantment does 2d6+1 +1d6 fire damage with a x2 critical multiplier. So on a critical hit it does (2d6+1)x2 + 1d6 fire.
Someone making a Vital Strike (which gives bonus dice damage equal to the base damage dice of the weapon) with a +1 two handed sword with the flaming enchantment does 2d6+1 +1d6 flaming +2d6 slashing. On a critical it would do (2d6+1)x2 +1d6 flaming +2d6 slashing.
A large fire elemental does 1d8 damage on a slam +2 burn. Since the +2 is not bonus dice, it does get multiplied, so it does (1d8+2)x2 on a critical.
The giant slug has a ranged (touch) attack that does 10d6 (ouch) acid. Since this is the base damage of the attack, all of it gets multiplied on a critical.
Hope those examples help.
^---- Yep.
Do you roll a "to hit"?
If yes then a natural 20 always hits the targets ac.
If any potential crit confirms, then it does double damage unless something specifically states otherwise
ugh, i wonder where else we've been messing this up...
So the Fire Elemental you quoted, doesn't do 2 Burn. it does 1d8 burn...since that is bonus dice, it doesn't multiply on a crit...right?
But the Slug, that does 3d6 Acid...that does multiply.
See where my confusion is? One time, the energy damage is multiplied, one time it is not.
Xavram5 wrote: Oh, okay, so since its "ranged touch", then the acid DOES multiply? It isn't about «ranged touch», it is about the kind of weapon - in the everyday meaning of the term rather than the Pathfinder ruleset meaning - used to perform the attack.
A critical hit with a magic sword that does acid damage, on top of what a regular sword would do does, multiplies the part of damage that isn't from the acid.
An acid spit works with the same mechanics as a non-magic sword does, multiplying the damage inflicted on a critical strike.
I think your problem here is that you're getting caught up on the "energy" part. What you need to understand is the distinction between "base" damage and "extra" or "added" damage.
The base damage, whether it's the slugs 3d6 acid or a longswords 1d8 slashing gets multiplied. The one maybe confusing part is the addition of ability or enhancement damage. +1 magic, +3 from Str, etc. Those static numbers also get added into the base, and that all gets multiplied by the crit.
What does NOT get multiplied on a crit, is "extra" dice. Like the plus 1d6 lightning from a shocking weapon, or the "added" weapon damage from Vital strike.
In the case of your fire elemental. It has a slam attack. The base damage of the slam is 1d8 (or whatever) plus Str mod. All of that multiplies on a crit. Because it's made of fire it adds the burn. The burn dice don't multiply. Has nothing to do with energy or not.
Also important to know that the slug's acid spit is not actually a "natural attack" in game terms. It IS the slug's naturally occurring means of offense, but "natural attacks" are physical organic weapons that are part of a creature's body (claws, bite, slam, sting, etc.). Have to remember the differences between real world and game terms. Hope that helps.
Its the energy part that was throwing me off...I just need to reset my thinking on this. Thanks!
I'm curious, what giant slug are you looking at? The one I'm seeing has a spit attack at +3 ranged touch, 10d6 acid.
...what a weird, potentially devastating CR8 monster.
It's a simple matter of base damage dice and bonus damage dice. All base damage dice are multiplied regardless of nature on a crit. No bonus dice are ever multiplied (because the crit itself is in essence bonus dice).
Xavram5 wrote: Oh, okay, so since its "ranged touch", then the acid DOES multiply? Not because it is "ranged touch"; because it is the base damage of the attack. Fire damage from (for example) a flaming sword does not multiply not because of fire or because of the kind of attack roll, but because it is extra damage not base damage.
EDIT: Sorry, I thought I was at the end of the thread, but I clearly wasn't since there are several posts saying pretty-much what I just said there already, some of them dated yesterday. So that this post is not a total waste, I will add an example:
Let imagine our frog got Awakened and took a level of Rogue. Then if they spat at someone in a surprise round (or who was otherwise denied their Dex bonus) they caould add a die of Sneak Attack damage to the acid.
If they critted with this attack, the base 3d6 would be doubled, but the extra die for sneak attack would not be. So the crit would do 7d6 damage (plus double any static bonuses, but the frog probably does not have any on this attack).
(Sneak attack specifically says it does not double on a crit, but this is redundant - due to the general rules on extra dice it would not double even if it did not say so.)
_
glass.
only the base damage dice multiply. pretty simple.
non-dice extra damage do multiply, so if it adds +3 damage that does multiply. its only extra damage dice that do not.
Recent threads in Rules Questions
|
