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I'm playing an Ardent and I have psionic points to augment my at-will powers. My weapon is a Falchion, a high crit weapon. If I augment for example "Psionic Shield" with 2 psionic points and then roll a crit: What exactly is the damage?

Here the relevant three quotes from the Player's Handbook:

High Crit weapon: A high crit weapon deals more damage when you score a critical hit with it. A critical hit deals maximum weapon damage and an extra 1[W] at 1st–10th levels ... This extra damage is in addition to any critical damage the weapon supplies if it is a magic weapon.

Maximum Damage: Rather than roll damage, determine the maximum damage you can roll with your attack. This is your critical damage. (Attacks that don’t deal damage still don’t deal damage on a critical hit.)

My impression: The word "attack" implies that the full power damage is used for the maximum damage part. Am I right with that impression?

Extra Damage: Magic weapons and implements, as well as high crit weapons, can increase the damage you deal when you score a critical hit. If this extra damage is a die roll, it’s not automatically maximum damage; you add the result of the roll.

My impression: Here, there's neither the word "weapon", nor the words "attack" or "power" ... this makes it quite unclear to me what I'm supposed to do ...

The "normal" damage of my augmented Psionic Shield is 4d4 + 4 (=2[W]+Ch-Bonus) but the basic weapon damage is 2D4 (I have no magic weapon, no Str bonus). What value do I use for the damage in this case?

Is it the maximum of the power, because that's the current weapon damage? Or the maximum of the pure physical weapon?

The maximum could be either:

  • 4d4+4 = 20

or

  • 2d4 = 8

And do I roll the damage as listed in the power? Or do I roll the pure weapon damage?

That could be either:

  • 4d4+4

or

  • 2d4

As you see the damage differences are quite big. And in case it's always just the physical weapon without the applied power, it's even more efficient for me to forget about the crit and throw the dice as described in the power - see here:

Without crit:

  • average of 4D4+4 = 14

or

  • with crit, but both addends just for physical weapon: 8+ (average of 2D4 = 5) = 13

Or is it even a mixture of both? The maximum from the power, the extra from the weapon? And does that apply to powers as well if I do not augment them?

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You get the max of the normal damage plus any extra critical damage.

I'll highlight the relevant parts of the quotes you found:

Maximum Damage: Rather than roll damage, determine the maximum damage you can roll with your attack. This is your critical damage. (Attacks that don’t deal damage still don’t deal damage on a critical hit.)

Extra Damage: Magic weapons and implements, as well as high crit weapons, can increase the damage you deal when you score a critical hit. If this extra damage is a die roll, it’s not automatically maximum damage; you add the result of the roll.

Because you got a crit, you automatically get the maximum of the damage the power would normally deal. Then you add any extra damage from things that give bonus damage on a crit, such as a high crit weapon.

In your specific case, you would deal the max damage for the normal attack: 4d4+4 => 4*4+4 = 20. Then on top of that your high crit weapon adds +1[W] damage, 2d4. Your final damage for a crit with augmented Psionic Shield is thus 2d4+20.

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From the Players Handbook FAQ:

  1. Which dice do I maximize when scoring a critical hit?

Only the dice you would normally roll to calculate damage are maximized. If another bonus (like from a weapon or feat) causes you to roll extra damage dice when scoring a critical hit, those dice are rolled as normal.

Anything that you would roll for a hit, you instead take the maximum. In your case, 4d4 + 4 is maximised to 20. Rogues maximise sneak attack dice etc.

Anything that adds dice to a critical is rolled. Thus you add 2d4 from your falchion's High Crit property. If it were a magic falchion, you would add some more dice, where the specific magic determines the size and quantity. E.g. a +1 Falchion would add 1d6 from the magic on top of the 2d4 from High Crit.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The link doesn't work for me :/ \$\endgroup\$ Apr 23, 2018 at 13:20

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