If a player rolls a natural 20 on an attack or save, then they have rolled a critical. A critical is considered an automatic success except as noted below.
Similarly, rolling a natural 1 on an attack or save is considered a fumble. A fumble is considered an automatic failure except as noted below.
Automatic Successes and Failures:
Some rolls are so impossibly difficult that they cannot succeed even with a critical, and some are so impossibly easy that they cannot fail even with a fumble. If the result of a roll would fail by more than 10 even with a natural 20, then it fails even on a critical. Similarly, if the result of a roll would succeed by 10 or more even with a natural 1, then it succeeds even on a fumble.
Attacks
Critical Hit
If an attack hits and the roll is either a natural 20 or within the threat range of the attack used before modifiers, then it is considered a critical threat. To confirm the critical, you roll another attack roll with the same modifiers as the roll you just made. If the second attack roll is also a hit, then the attack is a critical hit. If the confirmation misses, then resolve the hit normally.
A successful critical multiplies the damage of your attack by default. Any static modifiers to your damage are multiplied, and the amount of dice you roll for the hit are multiplied. Unless otherwise specified, the multiplier for a critical hit is x2. Any damage dice added to a weapon's normal damage (such as from sneak attack or a flaming enchantment) are not multiplied from a critical hit. Static increases (such as a +2 enhancement or a paladin's smite evil) are multiplied.
A player may elect to forgo the critical damage from an attack to instead add a critical effect to the hit. If so, a location die is rolled to determine where the critical occurs, along with the appropriate critical die for the location and attack type. The DM may in some cases allow for both critical damage and a critical effect die depending on the situation, and certain enemies may be resistant to critical effects, reducing the potential severity of the rolled outcome.
A spell that requires an attack roll to hit can score a critical hit just like a normal attack. All spells have a critical range of 20 and multiplier of x2 by default. Critical effects cannot be added to a spell attack.
Critical Fumble
If an attack rolls a natural 1, then it is considered a fumble. Hit or miss, the attacker must roll to confirm the fumble much like a critical. If the confirmation check is a miss, or if another natural 1 is rolled, then the attacker must roll the appropriate fumble die to determine the effect of the fumble. A player may spend a
Luck Point to automatically avoid a fumble, but they must spend it before they roll to confirm the fumble. Each time a player suffers a fumble effect, they also obtain a
Luck Point.
Skills
While criticals do not apply to skill and ability checks, rolling a natural 1 or 20 can still have a tangible effect on the outcome, depending on the conditions of the roll.
On a roll where success or failure is dictated by the roll, a 20 or 1 may serve to magnify the outcome. A success with a natural 20 may bear additional success beyond the stated outcome of the roll, and a failure with a natural 1 may result in additional consequences to said failure beyond the norm. For example, a natural 20 on a knowledge check may provide an extra piece of relevant information that may not have been achievable with a normal success, or a natural 1 on a climb check may result in you falling into an ally below you, prompting an additional check on their part to avoid falling with you. These extra results are determined by DM discretion, and as a general rule are somewhat smaller in magnitude than the consequences of the overall failure or success.
Rolling a 20 on a check where success is not possible even with said 20 may result in a limited form of success (or a mitigated form of failure), and rolling a natural 1 where failure is not possible may result in a more qualified success, with some form of imperfect result. Such results will always be determined by DM discretion, though such outcomes may be posited prior to the roll to give a gauge on expectations. Note that most situations where success or failure is clearly not possible regardless of the roll, then no roll will be made at all.
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