crit rules

[geekintheground]

so i had a session the other week where my DM and i realized we had different understandings of how crits work. i said "any flat, static damage gets multiplied while bonus die dont" while they were of the opinion "only base weapon die get multiplied". then at the beginning of the last session, i arrive early and we get to talking. the crit rules come up again and she asks me and another player there at the time, which way we would like to play just for consistency in how we all play and enjoy the game. we ended up agreeing with my interpretation. over the course of the next session, she managed to land an incredible number of crits and nearly wiped out our party...


now im not telling this story to say "my DM must have cheated those crits to prove a point!" or anything like that, i trust my DM very much. the point of the story is merely to highlight the universes sense of humor XD... and to set up a question: was i correct in my interpretation?

[AvatarVecna]

so i had a session the other week where my DM and i realized we had different understandings of how crits work. i said "any flat, static damage gets multiplied while bonus die dont" while they were of the opinion "only base weapon die get multiplied". then at the beginning of the last session, i arrive early and we get to talking. the crit rules come up again and she asks me and another player there at the time, which way we would like to play just for consistency in how we all play and enjoy the game. we ended up agreeing with my interpretation. over the course of the next session, she managed to land an incredible number of crits and nearly wiped out our party...


now im not telling this story to say "my DM must have cheated those crits to prove a point!" or anything like that, i trust my DM very much. the point of the story is merely to highlight the universes sense of humor XD... and to set up a question: was i correct in my interpretation?

The general rule is that the base weapon dice and the flat bonus gets multiplied on a crit; bonus dice, as a general rule, do not get multiplied (although I think there might be some special cases where the source of the bonus dice has a specific rule trumping that general rule). This is a lot of what makes high-crit weapons viable, and is why uberchargers are ridiculous.

[Calthropstu]

Criticals double most damage.

What is not doubled:
Flaming, freezing, thundering, acidic/corrosive. Poison damage. Sneak attack. Ability drain (though ability damage can be) Damage from a spell inflicted by an attack that does not require an attack roll normally (finger of death for example).

But crits do multiply strength damage, most feat damage (those that do not specify they do not), magic bonuses from things like bardic music. Basically, anything that does not specifically say "does not multiply on crits" does.

[Zanos]

The player's handbook has this to say:

critical hit (crit): A hit that strikes a vital area and therefore deals double damage or more. To score a critical hit, an attacker must first score a threat (usually a natural 20 on an attack roll) and then succeed on a critical roll (just like another attack roll). Critical hit damage is usually double damage, which means rolling damage twice, just as if the attacker had actually hit the defender two times. (Any extra damage dice, such as from a rogue’s sneak attack, are not rolled multiple times, but are added to the total at the end of the calculation.)
Based on the glossary definition, any flat bonuses to damage, such as from strength, or having a +x weapon, are multiplied. Bonus dice from anything are not.

[Extra Anchovies]

A detail worth noting is that damage isn't directly multiplied - it's actually rolled twice. The rules are also perfectly clear on what damage isn't multiplied, i.e. extra damage dice.

A critical hit means that you roll your damage more than once, with all your usual bonuses, and add the rolls together. Unless otherwise specified, the threat range for a critical hit on an attack roll is 20, and the multiplier is ×2.

Exception: Extra damage dice over and above a weapon’s normal damage is not multiplied when you score a critical hit.