Critting All Day and Critting All Night

[lord pringle]

I don't care how not optimal it is, my all time favorite thing to do in like all games is to build crit-fishing characters. That said, since I got into Pathfinder, I've never looked into building a great crit focused character using only pathfinder materials.
Does anyone have any tips on how to crit as often and as hard as possible?

[CharonsHelper]

Go with a wakasashi TWF Samurai. Get Improved Critical (or Keen on both weapons) and Critical Focus. Then you have a 15-20 crit with +6 to confirm critical hits.

It's actually probably the highest DPR martials in the game at high levels - and one which benefits a lot from TWF due to how high their static modifiers are between Weapon Specialization & Challenge. (Make sure to grab Chain Challenge ASAP.) Plus they get access to the best critical effect feats due to counting as a Fighter for feats etc.

I believe that one or two of the orders may have extra bonuses on critical hits, but I'm not 100% on that.


Addition: A Swashbuckler might be what you're really looking for. It doesn't have the same crazy DPR due to crits, but it's a class which is largely based around grabbing criticals in order to regain the Panache points which power the class. Plus - while the class isn't top tier power level (It is a martial - and the low FORT & WILL hurt - but there is an archetype which helps on most WILL saves that I'd recommend - plus halflings make awesome Swashbucklers with a 2 level Paladin dip for defense) it's a lot of fun.

[Kurald Galain]

I don't care how not optimal it is, my all time favorite thing to do in like all games is to build crit-fishing characters. That said, since I got into Pathfinder, I've never looked into building a great crit focused character using only pathfinder materials.
Does anyone have any tips on how to crit as often and as hard as possible?

The Magus excels at this. Check the guide in my sig for some feats and items that help.

[Calthropstu]

Another good one weapon is the elven curve blade. It's 19-20x3 if I recall correctly. Slightly less often crits, but harder crits. I also remember there being something that increased threat range by 1. I forget what it was. Might have been 3rd party.

[grarrrg]

any tips on how to crit as often...as possible

This being Pathfinder, they got rid of some of the more Fun and/or Broken stuff. So you're pretty much stuck with a 15-20 threat range (standard 18-20 + "Keen"-type effect).

And there are very few ways to increase Crit-Damage (and then usually only on the weapons that already have sub-par Crit to begin with).

There are, however, TONS of things that can boost your Crit-Confirm roll, if not outright guarantee it.


Another good one weapon is the elven curve blade. It's 19-20x3 if I recall correctly. Slightly less often crits, but harder crits.
Curve Blade is 18-20/x2.
You might be thinking of the Falcata.

[Rainshine]

If 3rd-party is on the table, check out the Stalker. They can get a +1 to crit range bonus that stacks with keen through their arts, and can also get a roll twice per round on an attack by spending ki(originally, the language was vague enough to support it being all attacks in a round, which was even more crazy good). And they can get extra damage on crits through their sneak attack sort of ability.

[Rynjin]

If 3rd-party is on the table, check out the Stalker. They can get a +1 to crit range bonus that stacks with keen through their arts, and can also get a roll twice per round on an attack by spending ki(originally, the language was vague enough to support it being all attacks in a round, which was even more crazy good). And they can get extra damage on crits through their sneak attack sort of ability.

You can also get a crit multiplier boost from Path of War as well, if memory serves. You can roll up with a 14-20/x3 character, and add bonus damage from Maneuvers like Night's Knife (add Heal ranks to damage; not multiplied IIRC but still potent) and such.

[AvatarVecna]

It probably wouldn't surprise you to hear that Oracles can make solid gishes. My recommendation for an Oracle critfisher would be to go for a Dual-Cursed/Cyclopean Seer Oracle with the Time mystery; I'm pretty sure those two archetypes can stack without causing logical problems, but because they touch on the same things YMMV so ask your DM if it's cool. Anyway, the build really doesn't take off as a critfisher 'til lvl 7 (at which point you should have Flash Of Insight, Fortune, Misfortune, and Rewind Time revelations). Make sure to pick up a keen weapon that has base 18-20 threat range, and you're looking at a character threatening on 15-20 who can (up to 3/day as an immediate action) give themselves a d20 reroll, and who can 1/day as an immediate action just decide what one d20 roll will roll. The former gains additional uses as you level up, and if you've got room for it, Abundant Revelations can give you some extra uses along the way. The real kicker here is gonna be if you reach (or start at) 20th level, where the Cyclopean Seer upgrades Flash Of Insight; that power that lets you 1/day set the d20 to whatever side you want? Well at 20th level, if you don't set the number higher than your Cha mod, you don't expend a use of that ability. Obviously, if you can finagle your way into cranking Charisma up to 50, that'd be sweet, but honestly if you can just push it to 40, that'll be enough to at least have one crit threat per round as long as you're fine spending the immediate action for it. Of course, that works much better if you're starting at lvl 20...and if you're doing a lvl 20 oneshot, there's a much better class/archetype for critfishing.

The 'Two-Handed Fighter' archetype is basically a big-weapon fighter that has doubled down on the 'big dude with a big sword' thing, with both the benefits and drawbacks of that style. It mostly just gets damage bonuses up until level 11 - when it gets a Special Standard Action option to attack, with a free bull rush or trip on a hit - but then it's just back to damage pumping, in ways that make crits hit harder, but not really more often. The critfishing aspect of this class comes into play at lvl 19, and then gets far worse at lvl 20. You see, at lvl 19, you get a Special Standard Action option to make a single melee attack at -5 to-hit...but if it hits, it's a critical threat, regardless of your normal range...and then at lvl 20, you autoconfirm and your multiplier increases by 1. So let's say you're a Fighter 20 with Str 36 (Base 18, Race 2, Level 5, Book 5, Belt 6) specializing in scythes with this archetype; if you hit with this attack using PA, it automatically confirms a critical, and now you're dealing 10d4+250 on a standard action (so you get to move). Sure, it's not winning any DPR awards, but it's a basically-guaranteed crit every round, and you're still getting to move every turn, which most warriors can't say.

[Geddy2112]

I believe that one or two of the orders may have extra bonuses on critical hits, but I'm not 100% on that.

Several do. A ronin/knight errant can once per combat re roll a crit confirmation roll at level 8. At 15th level, the order of the sword grants the 1/day knights challenge, which gives +4 to critical confirmation rolls against the target of the challenge. Order of vengeance gets critical focus as a feat one level early. Order of the cockatrice can 1/day auto confirm all crits for 1 round at level 15, devastating with 2 handed fighting.

Another way to boost your critical chances is to simply roll more dice. Spells and abilities that allow re rolls or rolling twice and taking the highest such as the luck domain will net you more critical hits. The downside is a lot of these are a standard action to get online. If anyone in your party has the butterfly's sting feat, it will also help you crit more if they pass their crits to you.

[CharonsHelper]

If anyone in your party has the butterfly's sting feat, it will also help you crit more if they pass their crits to you.

That is one playstyle which I've always kinda wanted to do but never have. Make a rogue or bard designed as a decent crit-fisher, and just give all of the crits to your buddy who is a raging barbarian with a scythe.

I was actually planning it with my PFS bard, but then they released Fencing Grace - so I took that instead since with PFS I wasn't guaranteed to have a two-handed DPR machine in the group anyway, much less one with x3-x4 crit.

[Zerathize]

Another way to do this is with the optional rules of Combat Stamina. There's really two points. With improved Critical you can spend 5 points to do double damage as if you crit threaten if you were within 3 points... so technically that could be 12-20 crit range. And then with Critical Focus if your confirmation was a 19-20 you can spend 2 points to threaten for 1x more crit multiplier. d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/stamina-and-combat-tricks-optional-rules