Question about critical strike feat

[liquidthex]

I'm curious about the critical strike feat and possibly critical strikes in general..

 

When a weapon says:

Critical Threat: 20-20x2 +1

This means that when you roll a 20 (on a d20 roll) you get a critical strike for 2x the normal damage +1, correct?

Also, is the critical based on your roll or attack roll? (just the dice, or the modified roll with dual wield penalty, melee on ranged, str mod, etc) ?

 

The critical srike feat says "this feat doubles the critical threat range", "if a weapon needs a roll of 20, a critical hit will result on a 19 or 20".

 

I'm confused though, if your critical threat is 20-20 the range is 0, how does doubling 0 give it 19-20?

 

Also, if your critical threat range was 17-20, and you double this, logically the new range would be 14-20 (a range of 3?), but since doubling 20-20 apperently is a range of one, would this instead turn out to be 13-20 (a range of 4) ?

 

I'm very curious.. Particularly since with Keen and a vibroblade you can get yourself to 17-20 threat range, using master critical strike you could potentially get this down to 8-20 every single hit for nothing more than the cost of -5 defense while striking.

Combine this with some +massive critica l gear and you are majorly powerful.

 

Am I correct here, or what?

[RasputinX]

Hm, how can I best explain this.

 

Firstly, a 20-20's range is 1, not zero.

This is because rolling a 20 (on a twenty sided die) would give you a critical threat chance.

 

A 19-20's threat range is 2, because rolling a 19 or a 20 would give a critical threat chance (two numbers... range is two).

 

The critical threat chance is based on your roll, before any attack bonuses.

 

You make a roll, you roll a 20.. this gives you a critical threat chance.

You immediately make another roll, if this next roll PLUS your attack modifier hits the enemy character, you successfully make a critical strike, otherwise you just hit the enemy character for a normal hit.

 

Also, "keen" upgrades do not multiply together with improved critical strike.

 

Here is the best possible critical strike chance you get get.

 

1-handed lightsaber - 19-20 x2 crit chance.

 

Keen doubles the threat range (It is adding 2 to the threat range, making it 17-20)

 

improved critical strike quadruples ORIGINAL critical threat range.

Original critical threat range was two (19-20), this now gives a threat range of 8 (13-20).

 

How it all adds up

Lightsaber base 19-20

add in crit strike feat... crit range is 13-20

Keen - total crit range is 11-20.

 

With a critical strike range of 11-20, exaclty 50% of your base rolls will give the chance for a critical strike threat.

[liquidthex]

Thank you, your reply has been very informative, but I am curious about one thing:

 

Originally posted by RasputinX

Also, "keen" upgrades do not multiply together with improved critical strike.

 

You say that keen does not stack with the critical strike feat.. But then you go on to say:

 

Originally posted by RasputinX

How it all adds up

Lightsaber base 19-20

add in crit strike feat... crit range is 13-20

Keen - total crit range is 11-20.

 

With a critical strike range of 11-20, exaclty 50% of your base rolls will give the chance for a critical strike threat.

 

I'm confused, does keen have any effect when using the critical strike feat, or not ?

 

 

Again, thank you for your very descriptive post, it has helped me make an informed decision about my game.