The class ability states the following:
Does this mean that the effect in question won't occur if the enemy critically fails a save against my spell, or if I critically succeed in my spell attack? For example, a 5th-level fire sorcerer uses fireball but an enemy caught in the area critically fails their save. Do they take the additional 3 fire damage from Blood Magic or not?
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The class ability states the following:
Does this mean that the effect in question won't occur if the enemy critically fails a save against my spell, or if I critically succeed in my spell attack? For example, a 5th-level fire sorcerer uses fireball but an enemy caught in the area critically fails their save. Do they take the additional 3 fire damage from Blood Magic or not?
Personally, I've been reading 'fails' as general term for either a 'Failure' or 'Critical Failure' result: If 'Failure' is used instead of 'fails', then it specifically requires a 'Failure' result.
I have no idea if this is official or not...
Stuff that only happens on a normal failure normally calls that out specifically - like the Press trait or Dubious Knowledge. So Blood Magic should also activate on critical failures/successes.
Determine the Degree of Success
If a feat, magic item, spell, or other effect does not list a critical success or critical failure, treat is as an ordinary success or failure instead.I'd think that this would apply to Blood Magic as well.
Thanks! That's enough for me!
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Huh. That's kind of a revelation, actually. So then that's why spells that use spell attack rolls and just deal damage (like telekinetic projectile) have to explain that they deal double damage on a critical hit. Ordinarily, that would be self explanatory, and I always thought it was just redundancy, but this seems to suggest that if a spell does NOT explain what happens on a critical hit, then there is no effect on a critical hit?
I think I'm going to have to change my stance on how hydraulic push criticals work, then.
To my knowledge the two places that establish double damage on a crit are the Strike action, and Basic Saving Throws.
Spells are careful to always (* haven't checked ever one) say 'make a ranged spell attack roll' when you're rolling. They don't define it in terms of the Strike action, so it doesn't inherit that critical effect definition, which is why the spells list them specifically. If it doesn't list a critical success effect, its treated as a regular success, as per the rule Red Metal quoted.
So a level 2 Hydralic push does 8d6 on a critical hit or 10d6?
So a level 2 Hydralic push does 8d6 on a critical hit or 10d6?
As currently written, a critical success on the spell attack roll with a 2nd-level hydraulic push, the target would take 8d6 bludgeoning damage and would be knocked back 10 feet.
The extra damage is not doubled because nothing states that it is. It could be an error, but if that's the case, it would need errata to correct it.
Yeah that seems right.
Hydraulic push does 3d6>5d6>7d6>9d6>11d6>etc. on a hit and
6d6>8d6>10d6>12d6>14d6<etc. on a crit, since the crit rider is a specific dice value (plus extra push) instead of a damage multiplier.