Craven damage

[zaratul666]

I have read many threads about the feat but none ive seen, have explained it clearly.

Craven (CoR p.17) "when making a sneak attack, you deal an extra 1 point of damage per character level"

my question is about the "when making a sneak attack" part. does that mean when a sneak attack occurs or every sneak attack that was done. for exemple (in these i assume you hit and can actually sa)

situation 1 :
rogue lvl 5 as 3d6 of sa, will 3d6+5 craven do
a) 1d6 + 1d6+ 1d6 + 5 (+5 from craven)
or will it do
b)1d6+5 + 1d6+5 + 1d6+5 (+15 from craven)

situation 2 :
rogue lvl 5 3d6 sa, using 2 weapons
a) mh sa +5 + oh sa +5 ( giving a +10 for that round from craven)
b) each of the 1d6 from mh and oh get a +5 ( giving a +30 from craven)

also, if i get a crit, will the + damage from craven be doubled in any of these situation

[Manyasone]

Well, the way I read it it is addition to the damage die sneak attack offers, not added per dice. The sneak attack die are also explicitly called out as precision damage while the craven feat is a flat damage bonus, which according to the rules are multiplied.

[Mike Miller]

It is situation a, in both of your scenarios. Also, craven damage is multiplied by criticals.

[zaratul666]

thank you for the swift answers

[Malimar]

"When you make a sneak attack" means every time you attack, not every time you make an action that includes an attack, and not every sneak attack die you roll. A in both cases.

Last I checked, there's some room for disagreement about whether Craven damage is multiplied on a critical. The general rule is that bonus dice are not multiplied while flat bonuses are, so one would think that craven damage, being a flat bonus, is multiplied -- but it could also be that craven damage, being not a flat bonus to the main attack but a rider on bonus dice, is not multiplied. This may be "check with your DM" territory.

[XionUnborn01]

"When you make a sneak attack" means every time you attack, not every time you make an action that includes an attack, and not every sneak attack die you roll. A in both cases.

Last I checked, there's some room for disagreement about whether Craven damage is multiplied on a critical. The general rule is that bonus dice are not multiplied while flat bonuses are, so one would think that craven damage, being a flat bonus, is multiplied -- but it could also be that craven damage, being not a flat bonus to the main attack but a rider on bonus dice, is not multiplied. This may be "check with your DM" territory.

Yeah, I can see not multiplying it in lower optimization games. I personally count it as part of sneak attack so I don't multiply it but the group i play with is fairly mid to low OP.

[rrwoods]

Also, craven damage is multiplied by criticals.
A) ask your DM
B) this is based on a sentence which says “extra damage dice” aren’t multiplied. That sentence exists in the rules, but so does a sentence that says “extra damage” without the word “dice”.

[Uncle Pine]

A) ask your DM
B) this is based on a sentence which says “extra damage dice” aren’t multiplied. That sentence exists in the rules, but so does a sentence that says “extra damage” without the word “dice”.

As a rule of thumb, it is always beneficial to ask your DM about all the homerules he plans to use before starting the game. In this case, not multiplying craven damage on critical hits would be one of such homerules:


Critical Hits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#criticalHits)
When you make an attack roll and get a natural 20 (the d20 shows 20), you hit regardless of your target’s Armor Class, and you have scored a threat. The hit might be a critical hit (or "crit"). To find out if it’s a critical hit, you immediately make a critical roll—another attack roll with all the same modifiers as the attack roll you just made. If the critical roll also results in a hit against the target’s AC, your original hit is a critical hit. (The critical roll just needs to hit to give you a crit. It doesn’t need to come up 20 again.) If the critical roll is a miss, then your hit is just a regular hit.

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.