CTRL + HotKey = Max damage

[gmkieran]

Heyo again! Found something in the 4e ruleset (latest version, FG 2.7.3, Windows XP pro) that may be a bug or just a feature, but I didn't see anything on it anywhere else, so I thought I'd bring it up. Holding the CTRL key while rolling causes FG to roll max damage (for purposes of crits, as I understand it). Holding CTRL also brings up a series of hotkeys. If you happen to have a die roll mapped to this series of hotkeys, attempting to use that hotkey results in an automatic max roll, regardless of whether the hotkey is mouse-clicked, drag-n-dropped or keypress activated. The obvious work-around is not to map die rolls to the CTRL hotkeys, but I wondered if there was a way to have the CTRL hotkey activation ignore the CTRL max damage function?

[EugeneZ]

Frist of all, I assume you mean SHIFT. If you hold SHIFT when rolling a damage roll, the ruleset treats it like a crit.

Second of all, here's what's really happening: You hold down SHIFT before dragging the damage, so when you move your mouse, you're dragging the "crit version" of the damage dice. Thus, when you drag it to the SHIFT hotbar, you've stored the crit damage, and when recalling that hotbar, will always roll the crit damage.

However, if you begin to drag the damage WITHOUT HOLDING SHIFT, just normally, and after the normal damage roll is under your pointer, you THEN hold SHIFT to open the SHIFT hotbar, you can then store the normal damage in the SHIFT hotbar. Rolling it from the SHIFT hotbar after that, no matter when you hold down SHIFT, will roll the normal dice, and NEVER the crit dice.

Edit: BTW, Ctrl also has an effect in the ruleset: negation. The above holds completely true for any value that can be negated: if you are holding CTRL when you begin the drag to the hotbar, you will store the negated value. If you begin a normal drag, then hold CTRL to open the CTRL hotbar, you will store the normal value.

[gmkieran]

I appreciate the response, EugeneZ, but I really meant CTRL. I will see if I can re-create it, but in our last game session for two rolls in a row I held down the CTRL key to access additional hotkeys and then clicked on the hotkey to roll a skill check (stealth in this case) and got a max roll on both rolls. It's possible that I just rolled two 20's, but unlikely. Good to know that it's the SHIFT that's supposed to give max damage, because we can never seem to get that right when we actually try to use it. In creating the hotkey entry I *might* have been holding CTRL before dragging the roll onto the hotkey slot, but I don't get negatives when I roll, so probably not. The fact that it's a skill check may be affecting how things are working, I guess (I assume a skill check can't be negated). I'll post an update when I've had a chance to try and re-create the problem.

[Griogre]

Holding shift while rolling a skill check also marks the check as an assist.

[Moon Wizard]

I can see where holding the SHIFT key while triggering a hot key that has a damage roll would trigger the critical effect. The critical effect is triggered off when the SHIFT key is depressed.

Since the character sheets were improved greatly in 4E, many people aren't using multiple banks of hot keys, so it hasn't been a big issue. I plan to review the 4E hot key subsystem eventually, since it needs some work anyway.

Regards,
JPG

[gmkieran]

thanks for the responses, all! Apparently, I'm just that lucky. The results are not reproducible. When holding either CTRL or SHIFT I do not get a max result when rolling from the associated hotkeys, even if I am holding SHIFT before I grab the die to map to the hotkey. So, I guess I really did just roll 2 20's in a row. Sorry to have bothered!

[EugeneZ]

Yes, holding SHIFT with an attack roll won't make it a twenty, as there's no shortcut for that (since there'd be no purpose to that). But if you hold SHIFT when picking up the damage dice, then drag them to any hotbar, that hotbar will always result in critical dice being rolled.

Also, if you're trying to watch out for this bug/feature in the future, keep in mind that modified rolls, like critical rolls, say they have been modified in the chatbox. I forgot the exact wording but critical damage is something like [CRITICAL] in order to set it apart from what a player would get if he just did a normal roll and got lucky.