Bug?: [D&D 4E] Adding Crit dice with an Effect always maximizes the first dice

[skelekon]

Summary: When critical dice are added via an Effect and then rolled, the first extra crit die appears to always be maximized.
I am not aware of any rule that would cause this to be the case.

Ruleset(s): 4E

Extensions/Themes: none

Modules Loaded: none

Operating System / Language Setting: Windows 10

Steps to Reproduce:
Add an effect to a character that adds crit dice.
Perform a damage roll, holding down shift to trigger a crit.

55085

(the base damage here is 1d12 + 4 maximized for the crit, extra crit damage is 3d10 with one die maximized)

[Griogre]

No that seems like a bug. The extra dice should either all be maxed or not maxed at all

It's been a while since I played 4E but this seems accurate:


When attacking, if you land a natural 20, and the total of your attack roll is high enough to hit the target's defense, it's a critical hit!

Maximum Damage: Instead of rolling the power's damage, you deal max damage. For example, a power that deals 2d10 + 4 damage would deal 24 damage. Extra damage dice that were added to the attack (such as sneak attack and hunter's quarry) are also maximized.

Extra Damage: Some effects add extra damage to a critical hit. This includes most enchantments for weapons and implements, high crit weapons, some feats (Devastating Critical), and other effects. You roll this extra damage on top of your power's maximized damage.

Extra damage rolled on a critical is not maximized. Thus a magic weapon that adds 3d6 to a critical requires that you maximize the power's normal damage, then roll a d6 3 times and add that to the total.
Notes:

Some feats, class features and powers allow you to crit on numbers beside 20. For example, the Axe Mastery feat allows critical hits on a 19-20 with axes.

A coup de grace that hits is automatically a critical hit.


Some feats and other effects trigger off of a critical hit. For example, Surprise Knockdown.

If you rolled a natural 20 but didn't beat the target's defenses, it is an automatic hit rather than a critical hit.

[skelekon]

Just wanted to add, Crit dice on a weapon on the combat tab work correctly - this only appears to effect crit dice from an effect.

[Moon Wizard]

Just pushed a fix for this, so that all effect dice are maximized on a critical as originally implemented.

Regards,
JPG

[skelekon]

Just pushed a fix for this, so that all effect dice are maximized on a critical as originally implemented.

Regards,
JPG

It depends on what you mean by effects dice, but that sounds like the opposite of what's required (the problem was the one maximized die and not the normal dice).

Critical dice (that is dice rolled only when there is a critical) should be rolled normally on a crit (and not at all on a normal hit) - otherwise they would be effectively be just a static bonus as they would never actually be rolled.

All dice that would be rolled if it were just a normal hit should be maximized on a critical hit.
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I just tested it and it is incorrect - crit dice from an effect should roll normally as if they were crit dice from the Combat tab +Crt.

Also I can see that High Crit property adding one crit dice per tier is now working correctly.

[Moon Wizard]

I was just restoring the behavior prior to the dice roll customization being added. It has worked that way for some time.

Any changes to the rules interpretation for the rolls will have to be something looked at a little later.

Regards,
JPG

[skelekon]

Just wanted to note that this now appears fixed in the 2023-02 ruleset update.

Thank you.