Critical hits are getting a make over in Dungeons and Dragons 4thEdition. Wizards has said the 3E way - having to confirm a criticalthreat - was too often disheartening. How many times have you rolledthat natural twenty to score a threat and fail to confirm it. Itleaves you feeling…empty.Well no more in D&D 4th edition. No more threat ranges either. Roll a20 and do more damage. And critical hits deal maximum damage.

It's more predictable, you can even note your crit damage on your sheet tospeed things up, and besides, random results favor the monsters moreso than the Players.And more. Crits can get enhanced by magic weapons, like tacking onthat d6 of fire damage, but it sounds like that damage still needs tobe rolled. But this as also a benefit reserved for the Players, sothe monster's crits in this case would be a little softer. But thatsnot the only way to modify critical hits.Crits can be improved in a couple of other ways. Weapons can have thehigh crit property, giving extra dice on a crit. In addition, somepowers and magic items have extra effects on a hit.So in the end the crit damage will be less but you should crit alittle more now.

Plus,fewer dice rolls means faster combats. All inall I think I like it. So many times you don't even need to botherrolling crit dice when the damage will be so massive and that takes alittle of the buzz out of the crit too. Critical hits should be anice little advantage but shouldn't be a combat breaker.


BT