Thinking of Barbarian Auto-Crits

[Amechra]

So, one thing that everyone and their mother brings up when the Barbarian is discussed is that Brutal Critical is a terrible, terrible feature. And that got me thinking...

Would this be a fair feature to give the Barbarian? And, if so, what level should they get it at?

Wrathful Precision
At Xth level, you may spend a use of your Rage ability as a bonus action. If you do, the next attack you make that hits before the beginning of your next turn is automatically a critical hit.

[ender241]

Doesn't seem too op until they reach level 20 and get unlimited rages...

[Dr.Samurai]

I don't think it would be worth it all that often. Before Brutal Critical, the effect of using this is +1d12 if you're using a Greataxe. Barbarians don't have in-built ways to increase the number of damage dice they get.

If it doubled all damage or something that could make a difference maybe.

[ProsecutorGodot]

If we want to avoid giving automatic crits to a 20th level Barb, which is such a fringe case that I might not worry too much about it in the first place, we could do PB/LR instead. It scales a little bit slower but it's pretty close in uses and puts a cap on it to prevent unlimited use.

Honestly you could give it to them with Rage and I don't see it making a hugely significant impact until multiclassing gets involved. Actually, with multiclassing in mind we shouldn't do PB/LR and just assume that if a 20th level Barbarian is always critting they've earned that.

[JellyPooga]

This is a feature I would literally never use (as written). Barbarians have so few Rage uses per long rest anyway that gambling on hitting at all to guarantee the crit simply wouldn't be worth it. Maybe if it was activated after the hit (like Paladin Smite), but even then it's still a steep price for little gain.

[Amnestic]

I concur with JellyPooga, spending a precious Rage use (pre-20 where they're unlimited) to guarantee a crit isn't worth it considering how few they get, especially since it also has a bonus action cost!
Unlimited crits at 20 is a pretty cool capstone though. I'm not a mathamagician so I dunno how powerful it is, but it certainly sounds powerful.

It would have to be on a separate use cost (eg. 1/SR, PB/LR, etc.) for sure.

You could just tie it to Brutal Critical even. eg.


Beginning at 9th level, you can roll one additional weapon damage die when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack. This increases to two additional dice at 13th level and three additional dice at 17th level.

In addition, once per long rest when you hit a creature with a melee attack you can choose to deal critical damage. At 13th and 17th level in this class your number of uses between rests increases to 2 and 3 respectively.

Might even be able to do it on a short rest refresh without breaking anything, but long rest only is the conservative option.

[Rerem115]

One interesting way to do it might be to have worded like this -

When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack while Raging, you can use your Bonus Action to turn it into a critical hit. Doing so ends your current Rage.

[Ganryu]

I say replace brutal critical with expanded hit die. Champion's gimmick seems better on Barbarian anyways.

Also, bake in the first part of GWM into the base class.

On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action.
On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action.

[Quietus]

I say replace brutal critical with expanded hit die. Champion's gimmick seems better on Barbarian anyways.

Also, bake in the first part of GWM into the base class.

On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action.
On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action.

Honestly I think you could bake the entirety of Champion into the base barbarian class in tier 3/4 without breaking anything, and call it a day.

[Sigreid]

It would at least need to cost their bonus action.

[False God]

As long as crits are rolled, they're still one of the most disappointing elements of this edition.

I'll trade a rage for more damage sure, but more guaranteed damage, because the rage itself is a fixed element. It provides X bonuses for Y time Z number of rages. A crit is just +1 damage die, with a "hope you get lucky!" note.

[Dr.Samurai]

As long as crits are rolled, they're still one of the most disappointing elements of this edition.

I'll trade a rage for more damage sure, but more guaranteed damage, because the rage itself is a fixed element. It provides X bonuses for Y time Z number of rages. A crit is just +1 damage die, with a "hope you get lucky!" note.
100%

My barbarian crits often and you can hardly tell the difference.