Rust Monster

Yes, that’s right, critical hits are getting a make over too in Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. Why? Well they say it’s because the 3E way - having to back up a critical threat - was too often disheartening. How many times have you rolled that beautiful number to score a threat and fail to back it up. It’s like an 80’s flick on regular TV - you know that ‘boob shot’ is coming up but they edit it out. It leaves you feeling…empty.

Well no more they say in D&D 4th edition. No more threat ranges either. Roll a 20 and start celebrating! But another problem that Wizard’s of the Coast sited was the irregular - and often massive - damage caused by crits.

Let’s say you roll a crit with a power that deals 1d10+4 normally. So the crit deals 2d10+8. The next turn, the monster attacks you using a power that deals 3d6+4 damage. He crits, dealing 6d6+8. Between the extra dice and the doubled ability modifier, that’s a pretty huge difference! (And a pretty painful one.)

Ok, so what did they do to change that - critical hits deal maximum damage. It’s more predictable, you can even note your crit damage on your sheet to speed things up, and besides, random results favor the monsters more so than the PCs.

But thats not all. Crits can get enhanced by magic weapons, like tacking on that d6 of fire damage, but it sounds like that damage still needs to be rolled. But this as also a benefit reserved for the PCs, so the monster’s crits in this case would be a little softer. But thats not the only way to modify critical hits.

Crits can be improved in a couple of other ways. Weapons can have the high crit property, giving extra dice on a crit. In addition, some powers and magic items have extra effects on a hit.

So in the end the crit damage will be less but you should crit a little more now. Plus,fewer dice rolls means faster combats. All in all I think I like it. So many times you don’t even need to bother rolling crit dice when the damage will be so massive and that takes a little of the buzz out of the crit too. Critical hits should be a nice little advantage but shouldn’t be a combat breaker. Hope it’s play-testing well.

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