5E - Theogeek's Improved Critical

[MrDDT]

This looks cool, I will have to check it out.

[TheoGeek]

Feedback is appreciated.

I'm also thinking about adding an option to do something with some random multiplier from like 10% to 100% where a crit would do like max weapon damage + some random percentage modifier of die rolls like this:

MAX/RAISE/LOWER(weapon damage) + (SUM(crit dice rolls) * RND(0.1 .. 1.0))

That would allow even more tweaking of critical damage. Default would be 100% (calculate critical damage normally)

Not sure how often it would be used, but it would be easy to implement.

[TheoGeek]

OK, updated to 8.1 with a sort of preview function for critical dice only...if y'all like it, let me know and I can make the other damage types follow suit.

Basically, it's this: add more options for critical dice only: "Soft Criticals" (scale die rolls to a range of 1 - 50% of max), "Medium Criticals" (30%-70%), "Hard Criticals" (50% - max)

This differs from the "raise floor" and "lower ceiling" in that those two options don't scale the rolls to a new range, they simply force rolls to a certain min or max value (i.e, the roll profile for a d8 in a raise floor option just forces all results <4 to equal 4 (4,4,4,4,5,6,7,8). Where the "hard criticals" option scales the roll like this: 4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8.

So, the roll profiles for a d8 are:
Soft: 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4
Medium: 3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6
Hard: 4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8

It's subtle, but it can make for some interesting combinations, and I can add an option to enter your own ranges as well.

Consider some of this a playground for you since there may be some overlap with how these options interact, but it'll give you more flexibility.

And, you can always set the options to "Standard" or "No" to return to the normal "rules as written" behavior.

Anyway, play around with it and let me know what you think.

And as always, if something's broken, let me know!

[TheoGeek]

I think what they want (not what I'm asking for).

They want to make sure that the roll is going to meet the minimum of 1/2 the first dice of damage. IE. 1d8 would have to be a 4 or higher on the first roll.
So currently on a crit, you can do a 1d8 + 1d8, getting anywhere from 2 to 16 damage, using the first die at max (as the current setting), you could get a 9 to 16.
So instead of only the options of 2 to 16, or 9 to 16, they want min 1/2 on the first die. Which would be 5 to 16.

Personally, I don't see the need but I guess having it a little more refined slightly lower is maybe better for some.
Doing MAX + second die RNG might be to much for some.

TLDR
Current options are
2 to 16 or 9 to 16. They want the option for 5 to 16.

I didn't even think about this, but the extension also has an option to only max the first dice of each die group or only the first overall die rolled, such that a GS crit would look like this:

6 + (1,6) + 2d6 critical = 7-12 + 2d6

Then, with the soft/medium/hard critical dice:

6 + 1d6 + soft(2d6) = 7-12 + (1,3)+(1,3) = 7-12 + 2-6 = 9-18
6 + 1d6 + med(2d6) = 7-12 + (2,4)+(2,4) = 7-12 + 4-8 = 11-20
6 + 1d6 + hard(2d6) = 7-12 + (3,6)+(3,6) = 7-12 + 6-12 = 12-24

I'd love to run an Anydice simulation for all these cases to see what the probabilities are.

[MrDDT]

Yeah I've been looking to test this in a game once I work out all the issues with the EXTs that broken after the last update to FGU.

Pretty much have my core EXTs fixed up so going to check this out soon.

[TheoGeek]

Awesome!

I have a test version where I'm exploring different options for modifying the behavior of the "soft, medium, hard" ranges.

1) add these ranges as selectable for all damage types (weapon, effect, crit, and special)
2) add options to set the min/max percentages for each range (soft max, medium min, medium max, hard min)
3) add option to either scale or clip the inputs to those ranges (i.e. if the medium range is 3-6 on a d8, scaling could look like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 => 3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6 but clipping would look like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 => 3,3,3,4,5,6,6,6)

I haven't done any statistical analysis on any of this to see how it practically affects outcomes, and it seems kind of pointless for small dice, but hey... options!

[TheoGeek]

OK....here's a test version. I'd like feedback if you can give it. It's probably "option overload" but whatever.

Added the following:

"Damage (critical dice)"
[Standard]* - Does not maximize the critical dice
[Maximize] - Maximize extra critical dice
[Raise Floor] - use Floor to determine minimum damage (clips, doesn't scale)
[Lower Ceiling] - use Ceiling to determine maximum damage (clips, doesn't scale)
[Soft Criticals] - use Soft Critical Max and Damage Range Method to determine maximum damage
[Medium Criticals] - use Medium Critical Min/Max and Damage Range Method to determine maximum damage
[Hard Criticals] - use Hard Critical Min and Damage Range Method to determine minimum damage

"Damage (effect dice)"
[Standard] - Does not maximize the critical dice
[Maximize]* - Maximize extra critical dice
[Raise Floor] - use Floor to determine minimum damage (clips, doesn't scale)
[Lower Ceiling] - use Ceiling to determine maximum damage (clips, doesn't scale)
[Soft Criticals] - use Soft Critical Max and Damage Range Method to determine maximum damage
[Medium Criticals] - use Medium Critical Min/Max and Damage Range Method to determine maximum damage
[Hard Criticals] - use Hard Critical Min and Damage Range Method to determine minimum damage

"Damage (special critical dice)"
[Standard]* - Does not maximize the critical dice
[Maximize] - Maximize extra critical dice
[Raise Floor] - use Floor to determine minimum damage (clips, doesn't scale)
[Lower Ceiling] - use Ceiling to determine maximum damage (clips, doesn't scale)
[Soft Criticals] - use Soft Critical Max and Damage Range Method to determine maximum damage
[Medium Criticals] - use Medium Critical Min/Max and Damage Range Method to determine maximum damage
[Hard Criticals] - use Hard Critical Min and Damage Range Method to determine minimum damage

"Damage (weapon)"
[Standard] - Does not maximize the critical dice
[Maximize]* - Maximize extra critical dice
[Raise Floor] - use Floor to determine minimum damage (clips, doesn't scale)
[Lower Ceiling] - use Ceiling to determine maximum damage (clips, doesn't scale)
[Soft Criticals] - use Soft Critical Max and Damage Range Method to determine maximum damage
[Medium Criticals] - use Medium Critical Min/Max and Damage Range Method to determine maximum damage
[Hard Criticals] - use Hard Critical Min and Damage Range Method to determine minimum damage

"Damage Range 1 (Floor)"
[10%-90% of max] - (default 50%) For "Floor", set the minimum of the die damage to x% of the number of sides the die has

"Damage Range 2 (Ceiling)"
[10%-90% of max] - (default 50%) For "Ceiling", set the maximum of the die damage to x% of the number of sides the die has

"Damage Range 3 (Soft Max)"
[10%-90% of max] - (default 30%) For "Soft Criticals", set the maximum to x% of the number of sides the die has

"Damage Range 4 (Medium Min)"
[10%-90% of max] - (default 30%) For "Medium Criticals", set the minimum of the die damage to x% of the number of sides the die has

"Damage Range 5 (Medium Max)"
[10%-90% of max] - (default 70%) For "Medium Criticals", set the maximum of the die damage to x% of the number of sides the die has

"Damage Range 6 (Hard Min)"
[10%-90% of max] - (default 70%) For "Hard Criticals", set the minimum of the die damage to x% of the number of sides the die has

"Damage Range Method"
[Clip] - When computing a range, clip the damage at the min and max values (Floor and Ceiling always clip)
[Scale]* - When computing a range, scale the damage to evenly fit the min and max given the type of dice

There can be some overlap. For example, setting "Damage Range 1 (Floor)" to "50%" and using "Floor" as the damage type is the same as setting "Damage Range 6 (Hard Min) to "50%", "Damage Range Method" to "Clip", and using "Hard Criticals" as the damage type.

I was going to have it all as one option, but thought "hmmm...maybe someone wants to mix and match ranges.

[MrDDT]

Holy Moley!

The rabbit hole you've gone down. Like it.

[mapleybacons]

I'm going to go out on a limb and ask if you can incorporate the One D&D changes criticals please. (Or as much as you can.)

[TheoGeek]

I'm going to go out on a limb and ask if you can incorporate the One D&D changes criticals please. (Or as much as you can.)

I was actually thinking about doing this, I believe the changes are:

1) Spells cannot crit
2) Monsters cannot crit
3) Effects don't crit

I'm not sure how to do #1, mainly because I've never tried to distinguish between spells and weapon attacks. Might be possible.

I think #2 could be done by checking the source and target and see if the source is an NPC and the target is a PC and clear the crit flag in that case. I could also only check if the target is a PC which would disable any crit damage against any PC from any source, but I'm not sure if that's what's intended.

I think #3 could be handled by removing the critical damage dice from any source other than the weapon.

These changes would come for free if Smiteworks implemented them in the ruleset, but until they are officially released, there's no incentive for them to do that because they will likely change as the general consensus I've heard so far is that the One D&D Critical rules won't last through the playtesting and if they do, DMs aren't likely to use them.

It would be a neat coding exercise though.

I'll look into it.