On the topic of the Assassin rogue subclass, and critical hits

One of the Assassin's class features in 5th edition grants an automatic critical hit against any creature you hit with an attack, as long as it is surprised by you. I can handle granting advantage against such a target easily with a custom condition called "Surprised", by giving the player a condition that checks for the Surprised condition. However, forcing an automatic critical hit appears to be more tricky... unless there is some hidden parameter I've missed. It's an edge-case so I'm assuming there just isn't an effect or parameter for it in the Effects system.

I expect someone could write an extension for it, but alas, that is beyond my ken.

I suppose I'll just have to remind my player to hold shift when rolling damage against surprised targets, eh? :)

Disregard I didn't read the last sentence. You got the bit about holding shift. I'm unaware of an extension that autmates this.

If you click the +/- button (Modifiers) in the top right, there is a Damage button for Critical, as well as Max and Half.

You are correct; you can't force a critical via an effect. Holding SHIFT whilst rolling damage is the way to go.

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Originally Posted by Fingersome

One of the Assassin's class features in 5th edition grants an automatic critical hit against any creature you hit with an attack, as long as it is surprised by you. I can handle granting advantage against such a target easily with a custom condition called "Surprised", by giving the player a condition that checks for the Surprised condition. However, forcing an automatic critical hit appears to be more tricky... unless there is some hidden parameter I've missed. It's an edge-case so I'm assuming there just isn't an effect or parameter for it in the Effects system.

I expect someone could write an extension for it, but alas, that is beyond my ken.

I suppose I'll just have to remind my player to hold shift when rolling damage against surprised targets, eh? :)

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You can code this pretty easy.

Put an IFT: CUSTOM(Surprised); CRIT: 2

Apply this to the player that gets it, you can even leave it on all the time. Then when something has the "Surprised" effect (fyi it's really not a condition don't ask me why it should be), it will allow the to crit on any roll over a 1.

Just make sure you put the Surprised effect correctly spelled on the target before they roll attack roll.

Edit, nm this wont work as it will give a hit on any roll even if it would normally miss (other than a nat 1)

That should still work since the assassin character will not roll damage unless they actually hit, right?

I coded this up as an exercise to address this...not super tested, but it does work in the cases I tried. Check it out if you want. :)

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...245#post639245

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Originally Posted by spoofer

That should still work since the assassin character will not roll damage unless they actually hit, right?

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The effect "IFT: CUSTOM(Surprised); CRIT: 2" will actually make every attack roll a critical hit unless it's a 1 because it lowers the crit range floor to 2 like MrDDT's edit says. In that case, a "3" which would miss would be considered a critical hit. The player wouldn't have to roll damage in that case, but then the DM would need to tell the player that the critical hit was actually a miss and not to roll damage.