When Do Critical Strikes Occur?

The critical strike system presented here is meant to be an expansion of the critical hit system from Player’s Option: Combat & Tactics . However, some of the mechanics that work for attack rolls and Armor Class can’t be applied directly to saving throws. For a spell or an attack to have the potential for a critical strike, it must do physical damage. While it’s easy to imagine a character who is double-charmed or double-held, it’s somewhat hard to extend the effects of such spells past the obvious results. After all, by failing the saving throw, the character already suffered whatever he was going to suffer for being subjected to the spell.

Critical strikes occur when the target rolls a natural 3 or less on his saving throw and misses his saving throw by a margin of 5 points or more. If the spell in question does not allow a saving throw, the target still checks for a critical strike by rolling a saving throw versus the attack; this special saving throw has no other purpose than determining whether or not the character suffers a critical strike.

High-level casters or monsters are more likely to cause critical strikes, as shown on Table 45 : Critical Strike Chance by Caster Level.

Note that spells written on scrolls are assumed to be scribed at the 6th level of ability or one level higher than the minimum level required to cast them, whichever is higher; for example, a 5th-level wizard spell requires a 9th-level caster, so it is scribed at the 10th level of ability, but a 1st-level spell (requiring only a 1st-level caster) is written at the 6th level of ability.

Monsters with special attacks that may entail critical strikes use the table above, substituting their Hit Dice for caster level. As one might suspect, ancient red dragons of the 20 Hit Dice or higher variety can inflict devastating criticals with their fiery breath!

Beshira the Sorceress, a 4th-level mage, hurls a magic missile at an unfortunate orog. Normally, a magic missile allows no saving throw, but the orog will still roll a d20 for a saving throw vs. spell just to see if he fails critically or not. The orog is a 3 Hit Die monster, which means that his saving throw vs. spell is a 16. The orog rolls an 8, which can’t be a critical strike, since it’s not a natural 3 or less— even though he missed his save by 8 points!

A few levels later, Beshira encounters an angry cloud giant and decides that lightning bolt is the best way to deal with him. The cloud giant is a 16 Hit Die monster and only needs a 7 to make its saving throw. However, the giant rolls a 4, missing its save! Since Beshira is now an 8th-level sorceress, this natural 4 may be a critical strike—except the giant still didn’t miss by 5 points. (He would have had to roll a 1 or 2 to miss his saving throw by a margin of 5 points.)

Later in the same fight, Beshira exhausts her spells and hauls out a wand of fire to use against the giant. Against rods, staves, and wands, the giant’s saving throw is a 6, so he will only suffer a critical strike on a roll of 1.

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