Weapon Crits + Spell Crits

[Vincentrose91]

I have a duskblade that uses Arcane channeling alot. So he attacks with his sword to deliver touch spells as well. His longsword threatens a crit on 19-20 (x2), But spells have crit ranges of 20 (x2). So if i Roll a 19 and confirm the crit, do i get crit damage with just sword or spell also?

I was thinking this. 19 is a Critical threat with Only longsword
While a natural 20 is a chance for BOTH sword and spell.


What are your thoughts on this? Are there any rules i havent found yet?

[Reel On, Love]

Since you're not making an attack roll with the spell, I'd say the spell damage is never multiplied.

[Raolin_Fenix]

Since you're not making an attack roll with the spell, I'd say the spell damage is never multiplied.

Agreed. You're attacking with the weapon, not your spell. Therefore, you're striking against their full AC (with the weapon), rather than their touch AC (which would be easier to hit). Since you won't deal your spell's damage on a miss, you won't deal extra damage on a crit.

[AtomicKitKat]

Actually, I would go the other way. Duskblade's Arcane Channelling is really no different from Sacred(Enlightened?) Fist's ability to burn a Stunning Fist use for the day to imbue their next punch with a spell.

[Swooper]

I think the OP means something like this:

Scenario 1:

Duskblade casts Shocking Grasp with a touch attack. He rolls a 20, which is a critical threat. If he confirms the crit, Shocking Grasp deals double damage.

Scenario 2:

Duskblade channels Shocking Grasp through his longsword. He rolls a 20, which is again a critical threat. If he confirms the crit, the sword will deal double damage. What about the spell? Shouldn't the spell deal double damage too? What would have happened if the roll was a 19? Sword crits, spell doesn't? Does that make sense?

Edit: By the way, I'd go with the OP's interpretation.

[Dhavaer]

I think the spell counts as bonus dice, and isn't affected by the crit. I think it came up in Ask Wizards or something.

[Krrth]

I believe it's in one of the complete books, but the weapon damage is multiplied, but the spell damage is not. The rational is that since the spell had no to hit roll, it cannot score a crit.

[AtomicKitKat]

I think the spell counts as bonus dice, and isn't affected by the crit. I think it came up in Ask Wizards or something.

Well, except for the bit in Complete Arcane where I think they used Scorching Ray or Disintegrate, or some other Ray spell, and it doubled the damage, even though it was dice. Because they are the "weapon dice", rather than "bonus dice".

[Person_Man]

From the SRD:

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

I think that's pretty strait forward. Extra damage is not multiplied on a critical hit, only bonus damage. So unless the spell increases your Str bonus to damage or something similar, its not multiplied.

The funny thing is that the rules for multipling damage are slightly different.

Multiplying Damage
Sometimes you multiply damage by some factor, such as on a critical hit. Roll the damage (with all modifiers) multiple times and total the results. Note: When you multiply damage more than once, each multiplier works off the original, unmultiplied damage.

Exception: Extra damage dice over and above a weapon’s normal damage are never multiplied.

Notice the difference? If you charge with a Lance and Smite Evil, the Smite Evil bonus is multiplied, because its a static damage bonus, not extra damage dice. But if you score a critical hit, the Smite Evil damage is not multiplied, because its bonus damage.

I for one rule that all extra damage that is not represented as extra dice are multiplied whenever the situation calls for it (crit, lance, Headlong Rush, etc). It makes things much simpler. But its a house rule as far as I know.