[4e] The Crit Keeper

[bastion_korupt]

A new houserule we've been using...

If you roll a crit, you can use it right then or "keep" it for later, any attack of your choosing. Only one person in the party can "keep" a crit for later at a time.

What are your thoughts on this? It seems dramatically appropriate and fun so far.

[SpringsBoundlessThorns]

what happens on the current attack if you decide to keep the crit?

[Jerrythehun]

It's pretty similar to our house rule "Hero Points" for 3E. It's nice to crit with a 3E great axe and max Power Attack on the bad guy for a c-note or more.

I don't see anything wrong with "MOAR HERO" house-rules.

[bastion_korupt]

what happens on the current attack if you decide to keep the crit?

It succeeds, just without being a crit.

[Scarik]

Sounds like someone has been critting Minions :D

[cloak n' dagger]

Not a bad idea, but if I were going to use anything like this I'd probably just give an AP out instead.

[domino]

Keeping a crit is a pretty big deal. The largest advantage is that you can get a crit on a weak power, save it, and then use a daily power and auto-crit, getting a much bigger effect than you would have otherwise.

This can encourage players to farm crits, selecting powers that give them lots of attacks so they can save a crit for a single-target whammy on a big bad.

I don't like either of these consequences, but I can see how the first wouldn't bother some people. It transforms the meaning of rolling a nat 20 from "I get lucky on this attack" to "I get lucky on this encounter." Wizards, rangers, and other characters with lots of attacks might get an advantage. And it's not hard to tell your players not to farm crits.

If I wanted to offer alternative rewards for crits - especially if players are critting minions and feeling disappointed, as Scarik mentions - I would consider using a variant on cloak n' dagger's thought: When you get a crit (either in general, or maybe only on a minion) you can trade in the crit effect to immediately take an extra standard action. It's not technically an action point, but it's almost as good. And it lets you redirect some energy from your misplaced crit toward a boss monster.

[Smartmonkey]

I'd mod this a bit before I let it into my game.

-Only one crit for the entire party can be banked at a time.

-This crit can only be spent by the player who rolled it.

-If he does not spend it before the end of the encounter, it is lost.

-It cannot be transferred to another character, but the holder of the crit may voluntarily give it up when another player rolls a crit and decides to store it.

-The attack which scored the hit to be stored is automatically a miss.

-The DM may do the same thing - this ability only applies to non-minions (that is, crits rolled for minion attacks may not be stored).

[bastion_korupt]

I'd mod this a bit before I let it into my game.

-Only one crit for the entire party can be banked at a time.

-This crit can only be spent by the player who rolled it.

-If he does not spend it before the end of the encounter, it is lost.

-It cannot be transferred to another character, but the holder of the crit may voluntarily give it up when another player rolls a crit and decides to store it.

-The attack which scored the hit to be stored is automatically a miss.

-The DM may do the same thing - this ability only applies to non-minions (that is, crits rolled for minion attacks may not be stored).

We are using most of that... only one crit can be banked at a time, only by the player who rolled it, only one can be kept at a time in the entire party, and it can't be transferred to another player.

As for using it in the encounter and using it for NPC's, I'm not convinced that's necessary in order to limit it's usefulness, but if things seem unbalanced I will revisit these suggestions definitely.

As for turning a crit into a miss... MEAN! lol

[hong]

Ooh, I like it.

[Smartmonkey]

We are using most of that... only one crit can be banked at a time, only by the player who rolled it, only one can be kept at a time in the entire party, and it can't be transferred to another player.

As for using it in the encounter and using it for NPC's, I'm not convinced that's necessary in order to limit it's usefulness, but if things seem unbalanced I will revisit these suggestions definitely.

As for turning a crit into a miss... MEAN! lol

I see this as being used when say, the Warlord crits with furious smash, or the like. Moments where the joy of a crit just isn't all that joyous. A crit is cool and all, but it sucks to crit on a 1W at will and then flub your daily the next turn. Half the awesome about critting is that it's an automatic hit, so converting the attack into an automatic failure seems to be a pretty good trade off, and will mean the player will -have- to give something up in order to bank it. So no, it's not to be mean, it's to add a bit of tactical thought requirement to the equation.

I think the DM getting the same mechanic is only fair, especially as monsters can't generally deal NEARLY as much damage as a well setup PC with an autocrit.