House Rule: Undead are not immune to critical hits from holy weapons

[Scalenex]

So that's my thought. Normally undead are immune to critical hits because of their lack of vulnerable organs. If holy weapons allowed critical hits on undead, the lucky shot of a critical hit would represent a clashing of positive and negative magical energy as opposed to hitting a vulnerable spot.

Feedback?

[Matthew]

Hmmn. At first glance I would say this seems like a good idea, but on the other hand Sneak Attack is already pretty powerful and Holy Weapons already do +2D6 Damage against Evil Aligned Creatures. It seems reasonable, but I probably wouldn't implement it.

[Spellhunter]

I would say that you should be careful because alot of undead lack constitution scores, therefore bonus hit points. I am in favor of the dramatic elements that you propose however, so if I was to suggest anything, then I would say that instead of extra damage on a critical hit, the undead become stunned or blinded in someway for one round. Dazzeled or shaken are other options (less powerful effects).

Just my 2cp

[Roderick_BR]

I don't think there's a need for it. Plenty of powers to beat undead. Disruptive weapons can destroy most weak undead, and doesn't forget that (I think) Vampires are not immune to vorpal weapons, since decaptation is one of their weakness.

[Ultimatum479]

Your explanation makes sense, but then I think only the extra Holy damage should be doubled (or tripled or quadrupled depending on the weapon) on a critical hit.

[TheOOB]

Isn't the extra damage from being a holy weapon punishment enough. Immunity from critical hits are neccesary as undead usually have pretty horrible hp(even with d12 hit die).

All this house rule does is make holy weapons more powerful then they allready are. They allready add +2d6 damage to evil enemies (which in many campaigns is virtually all enemies), and bypass many creatures DR, including most evil outsiders which are some of the toughness monsters in the game.

[Ultimatum479]

Personally, I have no problem with making weapons more powerful. Magical weapons are one of the few things which give non-magical classes any chance at all to be comparative in power to a wizard once the wizard hits 6th-level spells and up.

[TheOOB]

The Tome of Necromancy (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=632562) has varient rules that makes it so many undead are allready able to be critically hit so long as the attacker has at least 1 rank in knowledge(religion)