Discussion:What is the best way to get the highest critical chance?

What is the best way to get the highest critical chance?

James 18:13, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

I would like to know what the highest critical chance possible. Please help me out.

Name Violation 19:03, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Thers a prestige class in Vile Darkness that lets you triple your threat range with an iron weapon. and it stacks with improved crit, but not keen. so with a scimitar you end up with a crit threat on 9 or better. add 2 weapon fighting and a few levels of dervish and you have a blender. theres also a metal (i think its called godsteel or something)in some 3rd party splat book that gives a beter crit range, but most dm's I know dont like 3rd party splat books.

Regulus 21:49, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

You'd also have to be evil to take the Vile Darkness class, and I'd probably call you out on being a damn twink, because that's exactly what you would be doing. --Regulus 21:49, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Name Violation 21:56, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

its ALL the character can really do tho. granted its a melee blender of awesome proportions, but its also not versatile and easily shut down. Granted, its not suited for every campaign, but its not the worst way to twink a character. the biggest thing is t slows things down by rolling, since you have to confirm so many times.

Regulus 23:15, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Couldn't that be said of almost any melee build? If you're going with the "crit means auto-hit" rule, at the very least you've nullified any threat a high AC monster presents (And with some of the dex-based monsters being hard to hit is offset by having crap hp). I'd probably rule on it by whether it's for awesome or "for the plus." That, and an evil character is pretty hard to work with when the party is supposed to be saving the world.

And I'd actually suggest picking up a scythe instead of leveling in dervish if you're going for a power build. With a X4 crit multiplier the scariest thing you can do to a scythe-wielder is give him a bigger crit range. --Regulus 23:15, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

JazzMan 00:22, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

(First of all, this discussion format is pretty silly). If the question is "what is the best way to get the highest critical chance", what's wrong with giving "damn twink" answers? That's the whole point of the thread. Secondly, I don't see how it's being a damn twink to use one class. It's one thing if you are mixing and matching one level from many different classes, but I don't think any build which consists of one base class and one prestige class fulfills any definition of twink. JazzMan 00:22, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Jay Freedman 03:26, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

...unless your trying to twink. Haha. (Er... nevermind.)

Name Violation 05:07, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

even if you don't have to confirm crits, if you miss on a 13 you miss on a 13, crit or not. cust because you crit on a low number doesn't mean that number hits. only 20's are auto hits. and you could be a dervish with a scythe. thats just rude. but overall you're better off with burst weapons and 2 scimitars. your crit range with a scythe is 16-20/x4 vs 9-20/x2 with scimitars. or get the maiming enchantment from mini's handbook, which changes a x2 crit to a d4, or changes a x4 crit to a d8.

Only on a natural 20? I guess my group's been doing crits wrong for a lot of campaigns, then. That actually lessens the impact of a higher crit range on a character. Maybe it's not so bad after all. --Regulus 22:30, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

"even if you don't have to confirm crits, if you miss on a 13 you miss on a 13, crit or not." Either what your saying is wrong, or strangely worded, in my opinion. If my crit range is 9-20x2 and I roll a natural 9(to hit a AC 18 monster, for example), then confirm is as hit (by rolling again and adding bonuses to a sum greater than or equal to the monster's AC) I get to deal crit damage. However, if I roll a natural 9 (again, against an AC 18 monster), and then fail to confirm the crit (by rolling a number, that with bonuses, is less than the monster's AC), I do no damage (unless my initial roll, with bonuses, met or exceeded the monster's AC, in which case I deal regular damage). So the only way to guarantee damage is to roll a 20. I think maybe that is what you were trying to say, and I just was not understanding you. One last note, I don't know of anything that let's you not have to confirm a crit. Does such a feat/class ability exist, or is this some house rule? --Badger 00:11, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

house rule. my groups have never done crit threat. if you roll in your crit range, you crit. there may be an ability or 2 (in some homebrew?)that gives you the ability. ANd yes, BAdger explained it a lot better than I did. My group did the "if it crits, it hits" thing, but we discovered HOW broken that was--Name Violation 01:27, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Me too. We used to use that system as well. Makes my job a lot easier as DM, though, since I've been a little worried that I let the party get their hands on a magical whetstone that bestowed the keen ability to slashing weapons twice per day. They were supposed to have given the whetstone back to the butcher it was stolen from shortly after using the day's charges in order to complete an item-trading puzzle, but they decided to fend off the ghost that was haunting them until the puzzle was solved for another night and get an additional two charges out of it (Greedy little party-goers). To answer the question about feats that help with confirming crits, there is power critical in complete warrior that adds a +4 to critical confirmation rolls. I wouldn't really consider that helpful, though, considering to even qualify for confirming a crit you need to have broken the monster's AC anyway. --Regulus 18:32, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

71.114.210.152 01:01, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

This thread's topic is: "What is the best way to get the highest critical chance?"

This thread's topic is NOT: concerns over how easily "shut down" crits are, or the consequences of playing an evil character, or clarification on how critical hits work, or accusations that the thread-starter is gay (What are you, homophobic? How is such prejudice permitted?), or anything that does NOT directly correlate with getting the highest critical chance possible. Anything that doesn't have anything to do with getting the highest critical chance possible should have no place in a thread whose topic getting the highest critical chance possible. This is not a difficult concept to grasp.

This thread is about character optimization. There is nothing wrong with character optimization. It is no less "legitimate" or a part of the fun of gaming than role-playing. How many times must the Stormwind Fallacy be invoked before you people get it? How many times? It is written in commoner's English, people. If you can learn how to operate a computer, you have no excuse for being completely incapable of understanding the very basic concept that role-playing and roll-playing are NOT mutually exclusive (definition linked because trolls likely lack the education to know "big words").

If you're so offended by roll-playing, why are you here? This is our house, not yours. Therefore if you don't like how we run things here, it is your problem, not ours. If it bothers so you so much, go elsewhere.

I humbly request that all off-topic posts be removed and stricken from the records so that anyone who wants to know about getting the highest critical chance possible can have their questions answered. This wiki is not yet another launching pad for yet another attack initiated upon roll-players by role-players. This isn't your livejournal.

I know I've gone off-topic as well, but this needed to be said. I'm sick and tired of trying to find character optimization information, and instead being besieged by you role-player TROLLS who like to kick our dog for no reason whatsoever -- perhaps you all are role-playing Neutral Evil? I'd mention the deeply-seeded rage issues common with the social outcasts who are drawn to gaming, but playing Internet psychiatrist is so blasé.

And you know what? I know I'm not the only one tired of it.

We don't troll your discussions on role-playing so kindly return the favor by not trolling our discussions. Thank you and please go away.

Dear god, people are so rude these days. No one should have to explicitly tell you how to behave in a discussion. Why aren't you cognizant enough to think of them on your own? No really, I want to know. How can anyone smart enough to know how to type... no, no, I'm done stooping to your level.

Jay Freedman 02:10, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

...Nice rant. Haha. How long did it take you to write all that? Don't answer that, we don't care. Haha.

Regulus 17:38, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

"No one should have to explicitly tell you how to behave in a discussion." <-- The cruel irony of this topic.

Me calling him a twink was merely a snarky add-on to clarifying that he would have to be evil in order to take that class, which should be important to all you "roll-players" because the rules would dictate that a lawful good party-member (say, the team cleric or paladin) would be inclined to kill you, and being specifically geared towards smiting evil, would probably succeed. I won't even bother with how twinking turns an otherwise fun campaign into a ten-level long pissing match because, as our anonymous friend so pointedly pointed out, the topic is not about such things, and would only be a superfluous debate detracting from the original intent of the poster (Big words haven't been impressive since they made the thesaurus, mate). --Regulus 17:38, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Again, you are missing the point. What if someone is in an all-evil campaign? Are they still twinking by taking an evil class? No. And who are you to say that it's impossible to have fun if you take a few levels in one class from one sourcebook? That seems a little presumptuous. The question is not "what is the best way to get the most powerful character ever so that I can pwn all my co-players in an otherwise normal, laid-back, low power campaign", the question was "what is the best way to get the highest critical chance". It's a thought experiment. If you don't like people trying to get the most out of the rules, then don't participate in these discussions solely to rain on people's parades. If your answer to this question has no bearing on the subject of increasing critical chance, then it's irrelevant to the discussion.

And at a minimum, one would hope you possess a modicum of respect for other posters. Even if you think the whole debate is stupid (and to reiterate: if this is the case then there's no need to participate at all), one would hope you could at least do it respectfully, without ridiculing other users for their opinions. JazzMan 18:11, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

TK-Squared 10:47, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Ignoring the silly, and rather uninformed, outburst from one user, it's quite simple really to get a high critical strike chance (and critical modifier); we can also ignore the whole 'oh no, you're evil and therefore blahblahblah' rubbish because that's counter-productive to the optimization request.

As noted, the Disciple of Dispater (BoVD) gets double crit modifier at level 4 and triple crit modifier at level 8. I do believe the requirements of DoD means you need to be Character Level 6 at least before you can enter. This crit modifier stacks with the Improved Critical feat, but not the Keen weapon enhancement. Currently, the best crit range weapons are Kukri, Jovar (Planar Handbook) and Rapier, I'm sure there are more but these three are the 'best'. The Jovar is a two-handed weapon, Rapier is a one-handed weapon and Kukri is a light weapon. They all have a base of 18-20 crit (Range: 3). Improved Critical doubles the range (18-20 -> 15-20, Range: 6), DoD 4 will triple it (as per multiplier stacking) (15-20 -> 12-20, Range: 9) and DoD 8, finally, will quadruple it (12-20 -> 9-20).

Now, for further optimization (just in case Regulus' zealot comes after you for your beliefs), you need one level in Warblade (Tome of Battle) for the stance 'Blood in the Water' (+1 attack, +1 damage on a crit, stacking, lasts x rounds), the Aptitude weapon enhancement (ToB, the enchanted weapon counts as other weapons for specific weapon feats), Lightning Maces (when you score a threat with a mace, you gain an extra attack), TWF tree and Snap Kick (whenever you make a critical hit, you gain an extra attack). I think that's it; but it basically boils down to; whenever you attack, there's a 55% chance that you will make a threat, 5% chance you will make natural 20 and 35% chance you will not roll a threat. Therefore, there's about a 60% chance you'll get an extra attack. Every time you make a critical hit, you gain a +1 to attack and +1 to damage, therefore after you 'charge it up', possibly with a Bag of Rats, there's little chance that you will ever miss, making the chance to threat also have a 95% chance to crit as well (another attack).

The only way to stop this when it gets going is, pretty much, a long string of natural 1s, which statistically will occur.

The zealot has passed over your house and found no fault with being clever. The addition of lightning mace to the combo actually makes better use of the Vile Darkness class's ability to easily score critical threats, even though you sacrifice a couple of points from your threat range in favor of using light maces. Would it still be considered a critical threat if you were fighting enemies immune to crits, though?--Regulus 18:57, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

You would be right, except he also included the bit about the Aptitude weapon enhancement. In case he was unclear, it means if you get this enchantment on your weapon you can use any weapon specific feat with that weapon, regardless if it is the correct weapon. Thus, you can use "Lightning Mace" with any properly enchanted weapon. Mind you it'll cost about 8,000 gp per weapon, but that's a small price to pay.--Badger 19:05, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Oh, right, I glossed over the Aptitude bit. I'd call shenanigans, but you're right since that IS a hefty sum of money. If you slapped those on scimitars, you could even stack dervish on top of Lightning Mace for that nifty little blender Name Violation suggested earlier. You'd be over 20th level by the time you hit 10th Dervish for A Thousand Cuts, but you'd have an amazing amount of attacks, all with really good crit chances.--Regulus 19:14, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

I haven't looked at the vile darkness class in a long time, i forget how many levels you need to make it awesome. I'd probably go dervish 10/ Bovd class 5/ fighter (or warrior from UA) 5. Its a feat starved build but it works optimized style --Name Violation 21:15, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Actually, the bladed gauntlet in Sword and Fist has a crit range of 17-20 (Not sure why). Add that to your character load-out and I think you get a crit range of 5-20. --Regulus 17:16, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

You could also add the Arcane Duelist (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20030224a) which has the ability: False Keenness, you can choose how much your threat range is gonna be, but it'll cost you damage output later.

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