1-20 Critical range

[Dragonsworn]

A long time ago I had looked at the various critical options and I was left with the impression that it was actually possible to make a build that could have every attack be a critical hit (well, you would still auto-fail a natural 1, but everything else would be a threat!). This is not to say that it would be a good build, I am not sure if it could do anything other than always land criticals, but I only wanted to see if it would be actually feasible-which I thought it was (and by that I mean there exists the necessary class features/feats/abilities etc to pull it off). I have finally decided to write it down and I have hit a snag

As you may have guessed, it involves Disciple of Dispater, which it combines with Psychic Weapon Master (btw if anyone has the link to the archive this was first introduced it would be much appreciated) to pull it of.

Disciple of Dispater's "Iron Power" reads: Iron Power (Ex): When using an iron or steel weapon, a 4th-level disciple of Dispater gains a +1 insight bonus on attack and damage rolls. Furthermore, his threat range is doubled as if he were using a keen weapon. At 8th level, the insight bonus improves to +2, and the threat range triples. This ability does not stack with the keen weapon quality, but it does stack with the Improved Critical feat." emhasis mine. If that could be combined with Psychic Weapon Master's "Improved Critical: The psychic weapon master gains the Improved Critical feat for free. If she already possesses this feat, add an additional +2 to her weapon of choice's threat range for critical hits." (again, emphasis mine) on a character who already has the Improved Critical feat and a weapon with a 18-20 critical range along with the rule that states you can stack boni in the most beneficial for you order (I am aware that in the case of the Psychic Weapon Master this has sparked some debate, but I do not remember what the issue was and if it was pertinent to such a build...if so, please do enlighten me ), we would end up with a 16-20 threat range weapon whose threat range would first be tripled form Disciple of Dispater's Iron Power and then expanded once more due to DnD math by Improved Critical to a grand total of 1-20

Excited as I was that it all worked out (I thought ), I realised there was one serious issue I had to address: qualification

Disciple of Dispater's Requirements:
Base Attack Bonus: +6
Alignment: Any evil
Feats: Disciple of Darkness , (Combat) Expertise , Power Attack
Special: Dispater's sect initiates new disciples in a terrible ritual that involves the sacrifice of an intelligent being atop an alter made of iron. The ritual must take place in the presence of an erinyes, who reports back to Dispater afterward.

Psychic Weapon Master's Requirements:
Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Power Attack, Psionic Dodge, Psionic Weapon, Weapon Focus.
Base Attack Bonus: +5.
Manifesting: Ability to manifest a 3rd-level power.
Special: Proficiency in your weapon of choice, either from a feat or a class feature.
Weapon: Crystal Melee Weapon

Since you need 8 levels of DoD and 7 of PWM to get the relative abilities and they have a BAB requirement of +6 and +5 repectively means you need a full BAB class with bonus feats for the first five levels and then only PrC levels. While that is doable, it leaves no room for any other dips, which you seem to need - specifically for the PWM'S "Ability to manifest a 3rd-level power" bit

I know next to nothing about psionics, so I came here to ask: is this build possible? Is there a way (such as a feat) to get you enough manifesting to qualify for everything? And is it possible to cram everything in one build? For instance, since Fighter 5 is a dead level, if one went Fighter 4/Swashbuckler 1 and then retrained Swashbuckler's first level's Weapon Finesse for another needed feat, would that suffice? And is it neceessary (meaning can it be done without it)? (You have to take the first level of PWM as you 6th level due to BAB requirements and the only way that can be made to work unless you get and possibly retrain a feat at 5th level is if you go Human and/or use flaws)

Second and perhaps most important problem: the weapon

DoD requires steel weapons while PWM requires crystal ones. This seemingly inconsolable problem might be what keeps this build from actually happening. I have come up with two possible solutions.

One is the Nephelium, a metal substance with all the properties of iron, including the ability to be worked into steel, which is also completely transparent like glass or (ding ding ) crystal. It supposedly retains its transparent quality when worked into steel or other alloys, which may or may not satisfy the requirements of both PrCs depending on how you view it. It should be noted that Nephelium as a substance has only been encountered cannonically once, as the material from which the whistle Night Caller, called azan-gund by the duergar, was crafted from in the adventure "The Sunless Citadel", so DM approval or a quest to find a deposit of the ore and a smith who knows how to work it to craft the weapon will be needed.

The other is the Metalline special quality:
Metalline (+2 bonus) MIC p.38 & Und 69:
MIC: When you activate a metalline weapon, you can change its composition to adamantine, alchemical silver, cold iron, or ordinary steel (standard action)
Und: The wielder can alter the composition of a metalline weapon from one kind of metal to another as a standard action. For instance, a metalline bastard sword can become an adamantine bastard sword or an iron bastard sword.

By RAW the MIC version is the one that should be used, but if you could use the Underdark one you could say that the weapon takes on the properties of a metal with both steel and crystal qualities, though that would require such a metal to exist in-campaign (but if the DM accepts Nephelium this special ability can be substituted for the effort to find and use this most rare ore)

So what do the geniuses of the playground have to say? Is my hypothesis of the threat range correct? Can the build exist? Can the appropriate weapon be crafted? And if not, does anyone have an alternate build to propose that could have such a threat range?

(On a side note, if such a threat range is possible, could it be possible to incorporate Kaorti Resin to the mix to get a 1-20/x4 weapon ? Is there a way to do that?)








Edit: I have started a separate thread to address the manifesting issue

[Saintheart]

Few things:

First issue where you'll get parsimonious readings is where you put the last +2. Where we would want to put it is in the weapon's original, base threat range before it's multiplied by Improved Critical and the like. WOTC has never set out an ironclad order of where those threat range increases are put. Making our case stronger is that some PrCs - in particular the Weapon Master (Kensei), off which Psychic Weapon Master is copied - specify that their increases to threat range are added last, after all other threat range increasers are put in. If the +2 is added last, you have a decent threat range:

Base weapon range: 18-20
After Improved Critical: 15-20
After Iron Power 1: 12-20
After Iron Power 2: 9-20.
Last +2 from Weapon Master 7: 7-20.

This calculation assumes that D&D's rule on multipliers also applies to how threat range is calculated. That is: a double of a double is just a triple, not quadruple. In our case, with each multiplier that increases our threat range, we're just adding another 3 spots on a d20 that can trigger a critical threat.

Now, as said the important reading you're hoping for is that the last +2 goes into the weapon's threat range, not the wielder's threat range, (contra. what Improved Critical does). Helping our case here is that Psychic Weapon Master, unlike Kensei, doesn't have the all-important text confining the increase of +2 to the end of the multiplication sequence. If we take the opportunity to add the 2 to the weapon's base range, that's where your 1-20 range comes from:

Base weapon range: 16-20 <---- assuming it went on an 18-20 weapon.
After Improved Critical: 11-20
After Iron Power 1: 6-20
After Iron Power 2: 1-20.

But to get that, your DM has to agree the +2 goes in the base weapon range, and isn't added to the end of the increases.

And secondly, as you've already indicated: DoD requires that you use iron or steel weapons, and crystal is not steel.

On this one, if you wanted to get into the RAW mud, you could argue that all DoD requires is that you use an iron or steel weapon, not that you wield it or make it part of a weapon pass. Thus, hold an iron weapon in the off hand without utilising Two-Weapon Fighting, and the conditions for Iron Power are satisfied: you are using an iron weapon, nothing in the class feature says you must strike with it, and your primary hand can hold the one-handed crystal weapon to which your threat range increases are applied, since Iron Power increases the Disciple's threat range, not that of the weapon. I have had people say that this is absolutely stretching the RAW to its limit. I say this reading is fine because weapons can have different critical threat ranges while wielded simultaneously, and the DoD's feature is meant to enhance each of them ... so long as you're using at least one iron or steel weapon. My favourite options for roflmao on this: Braid Blade and the Ward Cestus from A&EG. Or the Close-Fighting Blade. When you look them up you'll see why.

The kaorti resin gambit, though, is going to get DMGs thrown at you if it gets allowed at all. Kaorti resin is a natural substance, basically solidified kaorti sweat. Weapons are made entirely out of it, it is not - on the web article that produced it - the sort of stuff you can just dip an iron or steel weapon in.


The other thing is, thanks to the really stupid wording of the opening paragraph of Psychic Weapon Master, you might not even need to use a crystal weapon in combat at all.

To gain the special abilities of the psychic weapon master class, a character must use her weapon of choice. Once chosen, the weapon of choice cannot be changed. This does not mean that, if her weapon of choice is the longsword, she can use only the longsword she owned when she first became a psychic weapon master. The only material requirement for the class is a crystal version of her weapon. It means that she can use any crystal longsword and gain the benefits of the psychic weapon master. If she uses any other weapon, she can use none of the special abilities of the prestige class.

Read it carefully. Despite what is surely a very strong RAI argument, there is nothing in there that says you can only use a crystal longsword to activate PWM's abilities. It only says:
(a) You choose a weapon of choice
(b) You have to have a crystal version of that weapon
(c) If you use any weapon other than your weapon of choice, the PrC's special abilities don't work.
(d) To gain the PWM's special abilities, you must use your weapon of choice.

Just because something is a "material requirement for the class" doesn't mean it has to be used. That is never said in the class. They never took that last step to say "your weapon of choice must be a crystal version of some ordinary weapon and no other." On this reading, you could happily pack a crystal longsword in the backpack and wail away with a steel longsword all day long. (Alternatively, your trick of finding a "crystal version" of your weapon might work too.) In its way, this is the shadow of the "I'm using but not wielding an iron/steel weapon in DoD" argument. And the reason it's open is because the writer of the article didn't understand how WOTC uses the word "type" in reference to weapons, and particularly didn't understand how it's used for feats like Weapon Focus. If he did, this might have been worded differently. As it is, it's a set of daft sentences that some people will say "Oh of course it means the person can't use a normal steel weapon of choice", but which doesn't quite say that. Indeed I'd argue quite the opposite: the paragraph appears to say quite blandly that the PWM can use the ordinary weapon by which he entered the class, because that was his weapon of choice. He can use crystal versions of that weapon to pick up the same effects, but is not locked out of weapons of the same type as his weapon of choice.

Note also that the enhancements to critical threat range and multiplier apply to the Psychic Weapon Master's "weapon of choice." Again, this is not the same thing as the bonded weapon feature. While the bonded weapon has to be a crystal weapon, it just has to be of the same type as the PWM's 'weapon of choice'. The weapon of choice is chosen at the start of PWM. Weapon 'type' is conferred by name, not substance. A greatsword and a crystal greatsword are the same type of weapon. And, on the RAW, Psychic Weapon Master's features that apply to his weapon of choice freely apply to the metal greatsword, you don't have to be wielding the crystal greatsword on the RAW in my view.

[Kalkra]

I'll mention there's a spell called Hero's Blade in ECS that doubles a weapon's threat range, and stacks with Improved Critical (although not Keen). I have no idea how to work it into any build, because it's a 9th-level spell available only from the Deathless and Revered Ancestor domains, but if you can make it work somehow, it would be great.

[Wildstag]

The PrC link you were looking for.

I'm not well versed enough in crit builds to comment on the rest, but at least I know my archives well.

[Darg]

Read it carefully. Despite what is surely a very strong RAI argument, there is nothing in there that says you can only use a crystal longsword to activate PWM's abilities. It only says:
(a) You choose a weapon of choice
(b) You have to have a crystal version of that weapon
(c) If you use any weapon other than your weapon of choice, the PrC's special abilities don't work.
(d) To gain the PWM's special abilities, you must use your weapon of choice.

Just because something is a "material requirement for the class" doesn't mean it has to be used. That is never said in the class. They never took that last step to say "your weapon of choice must be a crystal version of some ordinary weapon and no other." On this reading, you could happily pack a crystal longsword in the backpack and wail away with a steel longsword all day long.

I think you missed the last sentence of your quote:

The only material requirement for the class is a crystal version of her weapon. It means that she can use any crystal longsword and gain the benefits of the psychic weapon master. If she uses any other weapon, she can use none of the special abilities of the prestige class.

Taken as a whole your abilities can only be used with a crystal version of your weapon of choice. If the weapon of choice is longsword and it is not crystal you cannot Whirlwind with it, bond with it, etc.

Going down rabbit holes is a good way to get books thrown at you. If you want an example of another rabbit hole, an attack is a standard action. Taking the full attack action you are actually taking multiple attack actions in succession. Meaning you can use spring attack between each attack. This has another consequence of allowing you to use spring attack with each attack of a Whirlwind Attack. If that wasn't enough you could say that the Whirlwind ability of the weapon master isn't a special action but instead a category change to the attack standard action meaning it is also usable with spring attack and usable multiple times within itself as you make multiple attacks turning you into a shredding, bouncing tornado of absolute death. Rabbit holes are quite fun aren't they?

[liquidformat]

Serious question here, is 'crystal' ever defined inside of 3.5 and is said material directly referenced inside the PRC? If 'crystal' inside Psychic Weapon Master is left as any crystal/crystalline material qualifies for this PRC we are left with the normal definition of crystal in which case steel qualifies as steel is a crystalline material...

[ShurikVch]

How about to use the "original" Weapon Master PrC (Sword and Fist)? This way you wouldn't depend on Crystal Weapon...

[Kalkra]

Mentioning more random critifsher stuff, Dragon #275 had the Crescent Knife and the Scourge, which got two and three attacks per attack, respectively. In other words, if you attacked once with a Scourge, you would make three attack rolls, and roll for damage three times, and each of those three could be a crit. Sadly, they both only crit on a 20. Also, Dungeon #120 has the Braid Blaid, which you can attack with once as part of a full attack. Basically just a free attack, crit 18-20/x2. Plus, there's always the trick with Aptitude weapons and Lightning Mace for infinite attacks.

[Saintheart]

How about to use the "original" Weapon Master PrC (Sword and Fist)? This way you wouldn't depend on Crystal Weapon...

By RAW that one was subsumed into Exotic Weapon Master in the update to 3.5.

[Darg]

By RAW that one was subsumed into Exotic Weapon Master in the update to 3.5.

That was the Weapon Master in Sword and Fist. The Weapon Master (Kensei) in Oriental Adventures was not subsumed or updated.

http://archive.wizards.com/default.a.../dnd/20050110x

[Saintheart]

I think you missed the last sentence of your quote:

I think you missed the first sentence of my post, in which I said the RAI argument is strong. I'm just saying there's an equally available one because the article writer was a poor grammarian.

The issue is this line:

This does not mean that, if her weapon of choice is the longsword, she can use only the longsword she owned when she first became a psychic weapon master.

What they thought they were saying was this:

Just because your weapon of choice is "longsword" when you enter PWM doesn't mean you're allowed to use a metal longsword in this class. You can only use PWM abilities with a crystal version of your weapon of choice.

What they did say instead was:

Just because you select your weapon of choice as steel longsword doesn't mean you're confined only to using steel longswords in this class. You can use crystal ones as well.

And no, the last sentence of the quote doesn't change that.

If she uses any other weapon, she can use none of the special abilities of the prestige class.

You read that and probably assume "weapon" in this sentence is referring to "the crystal melee weapon". I say it's uncertain and therefore it can mean either a crystal version of the weapon of choice or the original weapon of choice ... i.e. a steel longsword.

[AnonJr]

For the weapon material question, what about using Riedran Crysteel from the Eberron Campaign Setting?

It's an Iron/crystal alloy, that has the strength of steel and the psionic resonance of crystal (likely what each requirement was trying to achieve)

[Rebel7284]

Targeteer Fighter from Dragon Magazine #310 can sacrifice attacks to increase threat range by +1 for each attack sacrificed. Doesn't have to be ranged attacks technically so combine with Totemist or a permissive reading of Warshaper to get an easy 2-20 threat range. (1-20 is useless clearly since you fail on 1 anyway)

Even if your DM isn't okay with giving up a claw attack to boost your bow's accuracy, there are a ton of flurry-like effects in the game including rapid shot, two weapon fighting, raging mongoose maneuver, and possibly symmetrical archery from polymorphing into an arrow demon (although not 100% sure if that last one doubles potential shots you didn't take).

Edit:
Build:
Diopsid
Warblade 3/Targeteer 2/Warblade +15

1. Point Blank Shot
3. Rapid Shot
T1: Sniper
T2: Arrow Storm
6. Two Weapon Fighting
9. Improved Two Weapon Fighting
12. Greater Two Weapon Fighting

Attacks:
4 from BAB
3 from TWF Chain
1 from Rapid Shot
4 from Raging Mongoose
2 from Arrow Storm
2 from an ally casting Sakkratars Triple Strike (I guess you can cast if yourself if you're a Jade Phoenix Mage, but that's much more fiddly)

16 attacks total. Sacrifice 15 of them for +15 threat range.
Keen Bow = 19-20x3 -> 4-20x3

Not sure how to best squeeze two more attacks in there. Can't seem to find a bow with a good threat range.

Edit 2:
Going with Ruby Knight Vindicator for two swift actions, you can use Raging Mongoose + Dancing Mongoose during the same turn.
Cloistered Cleric 1/Warblade 1/Targeteer 2/Crusader 1/RKV 10/Warblade +4/Crusader +1
Your initiator level for Warblade hits 15 at Warblade 3 which is 17 HD which is the earliest you can pick up Raging Mongoose while also getting your 4th attack from BAB and thus get to 2-20x3

[Saintheart]

Not sure how to best squeeze two more attacks in there. Can't seem to find a bow with a good threat range.

There aren't many. Bows tended to get the x3 multiplier. There's the Great Crossbow (RoS) 2d8, 18-20/x2. Or if you'd rather just get ammo that does the same thing, Shatter Bolts from Dragon Compendium explicitly are 18-20/x3 to start with. If you don't want magical forms of keen to get around Bless Weapon issues, consider Razorfeather Ammunition (MM IV) which is explicitly nonmagical but is adamantine and is considered keen.

Some thrown weapons do pick up the 18-20 range: Barbed Darts are Simple weapons from RoF, albeit they only do 1d4. There's also the really silly Razor Skipdisc and the Glot from Frostburn, and a random one or two from Dragon magazine.

[Rebel7284]

There aren't many. Bows tended to get the x3 multiplier. There's the Great Crossbow (RoS) 2d8, 18-20/x2. Or if you'd rather just get ammo that does the same thing, Shatter Bolts from Dragon Compendium explicitly are 18-20/x3 to start with. If you don't want magical forms of keen to get around Bless Weapon issues, consider Razorfeather Ammunition (MM IV) which is explicitly nonmagical but is adamantine and is considered keen.

Some thrown weapons do pick up the 18-20 range: Barbed Darts are Simple weapons from RoF, albeit they only do 1d4. There's also the really silly Razor Skipdisc and the Glot from Frostburn, and a random one or two from Dragon magazine.

At first I was reluctant to use crossbows since reloading is annoying. But then I realized that in this build in particular, reloading is less necessary since we are giving up those attacks in the first place! So using one of your two exotic weapon proficiencies from Targeteer to pick up Great Crossbow actually works great and after keen, you are getting 2-20 much more easily, and can possibly even skip Sakkratars Triple Strike, becoming more self sufficient!

[ShurikVch]

By RAW that one was subsumed into Exotic Weapon Master in the update to 3.5.

By which RAW?
AFAIK, neither Complete Warrior, nor Errata says anything about such replacement...

[Darg]

By which RAW?
AFAIK, neither Complete Warrior, nor Errata says anything about such replacement...

They're talking about this article which has no mention of the weapon master from OA. I do agree that saying it is RAW is really stretching it, but it is from an official source.

[ShurikVch]

They're talking about this article which has no mention of the weapon master from OA. I do agree that saying it is RAW is really stretching it, but it is from an official source.

It's weird: when I tried this very address earlier today, it redirected me to https://dnd.wizards.com/go/dnd/20050110x
Anyway, regardless:
1) This thing looks like one more case of "DaWizard" (if you understand what I mean )
2) Still neither the Complete Warrior, nor Errata - thus, its "RAWness" may be even lower than for Dragon magazines (which, at the very least, were printed on actual paper, and occasionally - even errated)

[Troacctid]

The 3.5 update for OA calls out that it was already updated in CW.

But in a larger sense, any unupdated 3.0 material is likely to need some revision, even if it's by the DM, and this is an example of a rules philosophy that changed during the revision. In 3.0, all buffs to critical threat range stacked. If you had Improved Critical with a keen weapon and cast a keen edge spell on it, you summed the multipliers together and quadrupled your threat range. That's just how everything worked back then. The 3.5 update nerfed this interaction and made it so that effects that improve threat range don't stack. I can only speak for myself, but if I were the DM, I would be updating Disciple of Dispater accordingly.

[Chronos]

Yet another option for increasing a weapon's crit range is the Arcane Duelist's "False Keenness", which explicitly stacks with both a keen weapon and with the Improved Critical feat. They also break other rules, like letting you give your weapon an epic enhancement bonus. I think that it's 3.0, though, given that it references Sword and Fist.

[Saintheart]

At first I was reluctant to use crossbows since reloading is annoying. But then I realized that in this build in particular, reloading is less necessary since we are giving up those attacks in the first place! So using one of your two exotic weapon proficiencies from Targeteer to pick up Great Crossbow actually works great and after keen, you are getting 2-20 much more easily, and can possibly even skip Sakkratars Triple Strike, becoming more self sufficient!

That's a really interesting way to offset the crossbow reloading time problem.

That said, this comes unstuck the moment a parsimonious DM says "But you haven't got any attacks to give up, you're physically not capable of making that many attacks in the round because of how slowly your crossbow reloads." The only answer I can find to that is to have the Sor/Wiz 1 spell Ghostly Reload at CL 10 on you. That gives you five free reloads to your crossbow, and thus a maximum of six attacks in the round; thus you can sacrifice five of them into Targetteer for a 6-20 threat range if you're using Razorfeather Ammunition. But that only gives you one shot with a wide threat range ... and for a x2 multiplier, which isn't much to write home about, especially since you can't add your STR to damage with a crossbow. (A nice DM would allow you to make your bolt heads out of kaorti resin, though, thus pushing it to x4. Ideally you dip Deepwood Sniper to help out with this.)

The 3.5 update for OA calls out that it was already updated in CW.

But in a larger sense, any unupdated 3.0 material is likely to need some revision, even if it's by the DM, and this is an example of a rules philosophy that changed during the revision. In 3.0, all buffs to critical threat range stacked. If you had Improved Critical with a keen weapon and cast a keen edge spell on it, you summed the multipliers together and quadrupled your threat range. That's just how everything worked back then. The 3.5 update nerfed this interaction and made it so that effects that improve threat range don't stack. I can only speak for myself, but if I were the DM, I would be updating Disciple of Dispater accordingly.

Just for a Devil's Advocate on this one, there's two responses to be made, one a B.S.-RAW-legal one, the other a more pragmatic one:

(1) Provided that something was not specifically updated to D&D 3.5, it is still valid for use from 3.0 as written. Some of these 3.0 sources include critical-relevant classes like the Disciple of Dispater or the Deepwood Sniper.

Most notably, when you do use these sources, they arguably overwrite 3.5’s rules on keen and Improved Critical stacking.

This comes from the position stated in the PHB’s own errata:

Errata Rule: Primary Sources
When you find a disagreement between two D&D® rules sources, unless an official errata file says otherwise, the primary source is correct. One example of a primary/secondary source is text taking precedence over a table entry. An individual spell description takes precedence when the short description in the beginning of the spells chapter disagrees.

Another example of primary vs. secondary sources involves book and topic precedence. The Player's
Handbook, for example, gives all the rules for playing the game, for playing PC races, and for using base class descriptions. If you find something on one of those topics from the DUNGEON MASTER's Guide or the Monster Manual that disagrees with the Player's Handbook, you should assume the Player's Handbook is the primary source. The DUNGEON MASTER's Guide is the primary source for topics such as magic item descriptions, special material construction rules, and so on. The Monster Manual is the primary source for monster descriptions, templates, and supernatural, extraordinary, and spell-like abilities.

Where there is a disagreement between two rules sources, primary sources override unless an official errata file says otherwise. Whilst it’s not defined, a primary source is frequently (and reasonably) taken to be the book or source that first introduces the material in question (because the only primary sources that were defined by the errata were the PHB, DMG, and MM … and that errata only indicated how they override each other). Therefore an older source – i.e. a 3.0 option – can quite legitimately be said to overwrite the later 3.5 source where the two are inconsistent. Improved Critical may say it doesn’t stack with any other threat-increasing source, but if a 3.0 prestige class, or feat, or whatever, says it does, that 3.0 source is the primary source and overwrites 3.5 in that respect.

Of course this is insane. The nature of an update in virtually every other realm of human existence is to overwrite or modify the older material, but this is also the rule underlying the principle that 3.0 material can still be used as-is in 3.5 where it’s not specifically updated. And it’s RAW. That said, this rule isn’t of much help where the DM simply outright bans 3.0 material, as he’s ultimately entitled to do.

(2) For light or one-handed weapons, it makes no mechanical sense in damage terms to take them unless keen and Improved Critical stack. That is, I'm running the Sean K. Reynolds argument, which he made over here, but which I've reproduced in full below:

Spoiler

Show

In 3E D&D, a keen weapon's increased threat range stacks with the increased threat range from the Improved Critical feat. In 3.5, this is no longer the case.

Some think that this rule was made because the combo is too good, especially with creatures with a lot of bonus damage (which gets multiplied along with the crit). According to some, the change was made because having a crit range that's too big means crits happen too often, and are therefore no longer "special."

I respectfully disagree on both points.

Update 2/18/04: I've decided to redo this rant, as it's sorta scattered and makes some assumptions that are correct but some people aren't comfortable with. The first step is to do a comparison of longsword and rapier and how keen and Improved Critical affect their damage, and compare that to the effects of a simple energy property (such as flaming) or the Weapon Specialization feat. Eventually I'll do other comparisons and fold them back into this main document. In the meantime, please accept my apologies for directing you through multiple documents for this rant.

Is the Combo Too Good?
For this part, I'll prove numerically that allowing these crits to stack is necessary for the high-threat-range weapons (such as rapier and falchion) to keep up with normal-threat-range weapons, and if it's not egregious in the case of frequent crits, it isn't a problem with infrequent crits.

As a player of a character with this combo in Monte's game, I played alongside Erik Mona's paladin Zophas, who was lower-level than my character Shurrin (but our net attack bonuses were almost the same due to Weapon Focus and some levels in cleric and rogue that I had). Shurrin used a +2 keen rapier. Zophas used a +1 holy greatsword. Not counting Strength bonuses (and his was higher than mine, so it only would skew the example in his favor more, and he'd get x1.5 for using a two-handed weapon, which would make it even better for him), here's how it went:

Against nonevil opponents, Zophas was doing 2d6+1 damage (8 points on average) with a 10% chance of a crit (so +10% x 8 points, or +.8 points), for a total of 8.8 points per attack. Shurrin was doing 1d6+2 points of damage (5.5) with a 45% chance of a crit (so +45% x 5.5 points, or +2.475 points), for a total of 7.975 points per attack.

So right from the get-go, his character (with essentially the same attack bonus) is doing more damage per round than my character. And that's on the primary attack ... on iterative attacks we're both less likely to confirm criticals; since his base damage (not including crits) is higher than mine, it means his average damage is higher for these attacks (8 points vs. 5.5 points).

It gets really obscene when we're fighting evil opponents. His weapon is dealing at extra +7 damage per attack (15.8 total), while mine deals no extra damage. I'll remind you here that our weapons have identical plus-equivalent values (+1 enhancement +2 holy = +3; +2 enhancement +1 keen = +3).

And my weapon doesn't get its "bonus" (crit) damage against undead, so when fighting undead we're back to comparing the 8 points vs. 5.5 points. Note that most undead are evil, so he's probably also getting his holy bonus on top of that.

And then you have to consider that I paid a feat for Improved Crit just to keep up with his weapon damage, and I'm still behind in the average and the optimal situation.

For those who point out that the falchion is a better version of the rapier, let's run the numbers for the falchion.

If Shurrin had a +2 keen falchion instead of a +2 keen rapier (and Improved Crit with falchion instead of rapier, of course), his average base damage would be 7 instead of 5.5. With crits included his average damage would be (45% x 7 = +3.15) 10.15 (compared to Zophas' 8.8). Iterative attacks are still less likely to crit, same situation as the rapier, so this advantage essentially disappears after the primary attack (Shurrin's 7 vs. Zophas' 8). So against nonevil crittable opponents on the first attack, Shurrin would average +1.35 points ahead of Zophas. Against evil crittable opponents Zophas again jumps to 15.8 and Shurrin is still at 10.15, and Zophas still has the advantage against uncrittable things.

So with weapons of equal value, Shurrin is a little ahead against nonevil creatures, behind on uncrittable nonevil creatures (just like with the rapier), and far behind against evil creatures (just like the rapier). This despite the fact that Shurrin had to spend a feat in order to get his advantageous crit threat range.

[Aside: Let's compare the absolute base values of a nonmagical greatsword and falchion. Greatsword = 3.5+3.5 = 7, with crits = 7.7. Falchion = 2.5+2.5 = 5, with crits = 5.75. So falchion is worse. Include keen or Improved Critical on the falchion and you add another threat increment of .75 damage, for a total of 6.5, which is still worse than the greatsword. Add another threat increment (if you have keen _and_ Improved Crit _and_ they stack) and you're at 7.25 damage ... still not as good as the greatsword! The only way Shurrin's hypothetical falchion is keeping up in base damage is that his falchion is +2 while Zophas' greatsword is only +1. The falchion is really a worse weapon than the greatsword. Likewise, the rapier is worse than the longsword.]

[Another aside: Let's be totally crazy and assume Shurrin and Zophas both have 20 Str (and we'll take into account the x1.5 Str bonus -- 7.5 points -- for the weapons being two-handed in this example, since that might be enough to help Shurrin come out on top). Now Zophas' +1 holy greatsword averages 7base+1enhancement+7.5str = 15.5 base damage, 17.05 including crits. Shurrin's +2 keen falchion averages 5base+2enhancement+7.5str = 14.5 base damage, 21.025 including crits. Shurrin's ahead by almost 4 points -- woohoo!. Against evil creatures, Zophas' damage still jumps by 7 to 24.05, and against uncrittable things Shurrin's damage drops to the base value of 14.5. So with a hyped-up Strength, which is where the argument for this rule revision comes from, the falchion-wielder is just barely ahead of the greatsword-wielder in ideal circumstances (and note he had to spend one more feat than the greatsword-wielder to get there), and in non-ideal situations (such as when he can't crit, or when fighting evil creatures, or both) he still loses compared to the greatsword-wielder, even though he spent more money (25gp) on his weapon and spent one more feat (Improved Crit) than the greatsword-wielder.]

Does It Make Crits Un-Special?
Imagine an average 10th-level PC fighter. He has a +10 BAB, and say a 20 Strength (base + magic). He's spent almost all of his 49,000 gp on his weapon, a +3 keen rapier (32,000 gp ... and I don't have data on how much a typical fighter spends on his weapon, but I'm guessing it's not "almost all"). Assuming he's not using Weapon Finesse, his total primary attack bonus is +10+5+3 = +18. With Improved Critical, he threatens a crit on a 12+.

If you look at a range of CR10 and CR11 creatures (and only the ones that can be critted), their ACs are in the 20-30 range. That means that at worst (AC 30) the fighter has a 50% chance to hit, and about a 40% chance to threaten; if he hits, he has to confirm (about a 50% chance), so that means his odds of hitting and confirming are (50% x 40%) = 20%. So on average he's just about guaranteed a crit if he fights a creature for five rounds. And if he crits, he does an extra d6. Woohoo.

So maybe letting keen and Improved Critical means crits come up a lot more often. Maybe that makes crits a little less special. But we're talking about crits that are an extra weapon die of damage ... we're not talking about Arduin-style crits that do 1d100 damage, or sever limbs, or do instant-kills ... it's just another d6 or d8. They're not that special in the first place. And as established above, the weapons that crit more often need those crits to keep up with standard-crit-range weapons, otherwise there's no real point in choosing those high-threat weapons.

And there are a lot of things in the game that are "special." 9th-level spells are special. Paladins are special. Dragons are special. But we allow 9th-level spells on scrolls. And we let paladins as PCs as commonly as fighters (there are no mechanical restrictions on how often you can have paladin PCs). And we now have little wyrmling CR2 dragons in addition to the big hulking party-killer monsters. Don't those things make 9th-level spells, paladins, and dragons less special? Don't the epic-level rules make everything under 20th level less special? "It's not special" isn't really a good reason to cut a mechanically sound mechanic from the game. It's a reason to consider cutting it, but the benefit of leaving it in (as demonstrated above) is necessary for that character build and choice of weapon, and isn't that damaging to the "specialness" of crits.

Conclusion
In conclusion: For the lower-damage but higher-threat-range weapons to be viable in combat (as they were designed to be by the original core designers, who crunched all the numbers), keen has to stack with Improved Critical. Otherwise there is no game-mechanical reason to spend the extra 25 gp for the 2d4 falchion instead of the 2d6 greatsword, or the extra 5 gp for the 1d6 rapier instead of the 1d8 longsword, or the extra feat to increase your threat range ... choosing those high-threat weapons is just a bad choice. And if letting these mechanics stack makes crits a little less special, that's only a small mark against letting them stack.

So let them stack, dagnabbit.

The statistical analysis is here. Some of the guys at minmax noted that Sean's numbers were uniformly 5% out because he forgot natural 1s are always misses, but because they were uniformly off, the analysis is still valid. Additionally, Sean forgot that rapiers, unlike longswords, can’t be wielded in both hands to obtain x1.5 STR bonus to damage. However, the scimitar is identical to the rapier in both damage dice, multiplier, and threat range, so the analysis still holds. And the fact light weapons can’t access the x1.5 STR bonus to damage of a two-handed weapon is even more of an argument in favour of keen and Improved Critical stacking for light weapons at least ... since that STR bonus is multiplied on a critical hit, and light weapons even miss out on that.

Perhaps one of the biggest points to note on Reynolds’ argument is that WOTC eventually created two-handed weapons like the Jovar or Great Falchion with the tasty 18-20 threat range and good damage dice to boot. So those two-handed weapons pull even further ahead … unless keen and Improved Critical are allowed to stack for the light weapons, if not the one-handers.

Yet another option for increasing a weapon's crit range is the Arcane Duelist's "False Keenness", which explicitly stacks with both a keen weapon and with the Improved Critical feat. They also break other rules, like letting you give your weapon an epic enhancement bonus. I think that it's 3.0, though, given that it references Sword and Fist.

It is indeed 3.0 and a great disappointment given it has neither full BAB nor any actual caster level advancements, which would make it far more worthwhile. Also note that False Keenness makes more sense if you're only going for effects that trigger on critical hits, since it sucks out damage from any critical that's made. On the other hand, Power Attack can be combined very neatly with Arcane Duelist's features for some nice upgrades to damage.

[Darg]

That's a really interesting way to offset the crossbow reloading time problem.

That said, this comes unstuck the moment a parsimonious DM says "But you haven't got any attacks to give up, you're physically not capable of making that many attacks in the round because of how slowly your crossbow reloads." The only answer I can find to that is to have the Sor/Wiz 1 spell Ghostly Reload at CL 10 on you. That gives you five free reloads to your crossbow, and thus a maximum of six attacks in the round; thus you can sacrifice five of them into Targetteer for a 6-20 threat range if you're using Razorfeather Ammunition. But that only gives you one shot with a wide threat range ... and for a x2 multiplier, which isn't much to write home about, especially since you can't add your STR to damage with a crossbow. (A nice DM would allow you to make your bolt heads out of kaorti resin, though, thus pushing it to x4. Ideally you dip Deepwood Sniper to help out with this.)

One option is getting a third arm or Prehensile tail and two weapon fighting. Wield a one handed ranged weapon and the great crossbow, give up your main hand weapon attacks to increase the threat range of your great crossbow. You still need to take a full round to reload, but you get your targeteer bonus.

[Saintheart]

One option is getting a third arm or Prehensile tail and two weapon fighting. Wield a one handed ranged weapon and the great crossbow, give up your main hand weapon attacks to increase the threat range of your great crossbow. You still need to take a full round to reload, but you get your targeteer bonus.

A dagger springs to mind. Useable in a single hand, is both a melee and ranged weapon. But then for roflmao value I prefer the Harpoon.

[AnonJr]

Since we drifted into crossbow territory, I was going to mention the Quick Loading enchantment, but after looking at the Great Crossbow details it would only bring reload down to a move action.

For this exercise are we giving up on the earlier build that required steel and crystal weapons? I'm curious if the Riedran Crysteel would fit both requirements. If a GM is permissive enough to let you run with this stunt, surely they'll let you refluff the material if the only issue is that it's campaign setting specific. People have been making all sorts of alloys, this wouldn't be too far off other materials usually allowed.

[JNAProductions]

Do critical threats auto-hit?

If not, then a 1-20 range is unneeded, since a 1 would always miss. Even a 2-20 isn't really needed, unless you're able to reliably hit on a 2+.

[Saintheart]

Since we drifted into crossbow territory, I was going to mention the Quick Loading enchantment, but after looking at the Great Crossbow details it would only bring reload down to a move action.

For this exercise are we giving up on the earlier build that required steel and crystal weapons? I'm curious if the Riedran Crysteel would fit both requirements. If a GM is permissive enough to let you run with this stunt, surely they'll let you refluff the material if the only issue is that it's campaign setting specific. People have been making all sorts of alloys, this wouldn't be too far off other materials usually allowed.

If the entry for Riedran Crysteel doesn't explicitly say it counts as an iron or crystal weapon or both, then you're stuck with DM fiat. About as big a reach you can get is that Psychic Weapon Master only requires a "crystal version" of a melee weapon, so it's likely going to qualify for PWM - it's just whether it counts as an iron or steel weapon (noting that having the strength of steel isn't as such steel.)

It's a similar question to whether crystalline structures count as iron or steel. Metal can form crystals, and thus iron can be crystal, so if your DM is willing to resort to real-world physics (a dangerous road, one paved with the corpses of many catgirls) then a crystalline iron weapon would meet these requirements.

Do critical threats auto-hit?

If not, then a 1-20 range is unneeded, since a 1 would always miss. Even a 2-20 isn't really needed, unless you're able to reliably hit on a 2+.

And that gets us to the other issue around critical hits, namely, critical confirmation rolls. As said, having a critical threat range of 2-20 is pointless if you can't get over the opponent's AC twice: once to score the critical threat, the second time to confirm the critical hit.

There's a fair number of options that allow you to automatically confirm a critical threat, but they're usually keyed to the target being of a certain alignment, a favored enemy, useable only X number of times per day, blah blah blah. Self-advertising, but I made what I think is a pretty comprehensive survey of every crit-affecting option in 3.5 which covers all these subjects (albeit I've picked up some changes I'll have to make given the last couple of threads that have come out on the topic.)

And when you get right down to it, the most reliable means of generating a critical hit is, you guessed it, something the cleric can do: Surge of Fortune + Sense Weakness.

[Rebel7284]

Do critical threats auto-hit?

No.

If not, then a 1-20 range is unneeded, since a 1 would always miss. Even a 2-20 isn't really needed, unless you're able to reliably hit on a 2+.

While 2-20 would be nice conceptually since there will be SOME opponents that you could hit on a 2, there are no builds where the resource expenditure is even close to worth it. For example, the Archer above would almost always be better off attacking 15+ times than getting a crit, even if that crit is x4 damage with something like Kaorti Resin arrows. I still wrote it down as a fun optimization exercise, but there are unlikely to be many or even any scenarios where that's a good idea.

The only time I can imagine auto-critting being worth it are builds that force a critical threat with a spell, but at that point you're just a spellcaster using a real roundabout way to do a no save - die effect a few levels early.

[AnonJr]

If the entry for Riedran Crysteel doesn't explicitly say it counts as an iron or crystal weapon or both, then you're stuck with DM fiat.

Well, it is an alloy of both iron and crystal:

Riedran Crysteel: The Inspired lords of Riedra supervise the mining of a crystalline substance that can be alloyed with iron to form Riedran crysteel. Crysteel makes excellent weapons, and the crystalline component makes them resonate with psionic power. When wielded by a character who has at least 1 power point, a crysteel weapon gains a +1 enhancement bonus on damage rolls.

Riedran crysteel has hardness 10 and 20 hit points per inch of thickness. Items made of crysteel are susceptible to the shatter spell, but gain a +4 bonus on their saving throws to resist it because the crystal is alloyed with iron. The market price modifier for a crysteel weapon is +1,500 gp. Items without metal parts cannot be made from Riedran crysteel.

(Also, trying to copy this on a tablet really sucks...)

[Troacctid]

Well, it is an alloy of both iron and crystal

Is bronze a type of copper? Is pewter a type of tin? I would argue that if alloys have different physical properties than the base metals, we should expect them to have different psionic properties too. I mean, if you were a Mistborn, this combination would definitely never fly. You'd need purer steel for that.

[Saintheart]

Is bronze a type of copper? Is pewter a type of tin? I would argue that if alloys have different physical properties than the base metals, we should expect them to have different psionic properties too. I mean, if you were a Mistborn, this combination would definitely never fly. You'd need purer steel for that.

Yeah, I have to agree there. Crystal just isn't that well defined in the game, or at least not outside psionics.


... which is still an issue with a PWM/DOD build, I can't see a way to get a PWM without 5 levels in a psionic base class, which means the build can't be done in 20 levels or less.