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Critical Hits

A critical hit rolls extra damage and represents a shot that landed where it really mattered: through the eye port of a helmet, between plates, into the femoral artery. The base mechanic is classic 5E (a natural 20 doubles your damage dice), but each weapon in the compendium publishes its own Crit range that can extend the trigger window. Several training programs and designation features let you skip the dice and just declare a hit a crit outright.

How Crits Trigger

Look at the Misfire/Crit column of the weapon's table entry (e.g. an AI AW lists 1/19-20). The right-hand value is the Crit range:

  • A natural attack roll at or above the Crit range is a critical hit, if the attack also clears the target's AC after modifiers. A natural 20 always hits regardless of AC, but other crit-range numbers do not - they only crit on hits.
  • Most precision weapons crit on 19-20; magnum/anti-materiel weapons (e.g. .50 BMG bolt rifles) crit on 18-20; some pistols crit on 20 only. Read the table.

The other property to know is Misfire, on the left of the slash. A natural roll at or below the Misfire value auto-fails and triggers the misfire chart in Weapon Properties. Crit range and Misfire range are independent: a single weapon has both windows.

What a Crit Does

On a critical hit, roll all damage dice twice and add them together. Then add modifiers once. Static bonuses (STR/DEX, Accurate, ammunition bonuses) are not doubled.

Example: Falke's M4 deals 2d8 damage. He rolls a hit and the natural die was a 19 (Crit range 19-20). He rolls the damage dice twice: 2d8 → 11, second 2d8 → 9. Total dice = 20, plus his +3 DEX modifier = 23 damage. A normal hit on the same roll would have been 2d8 + 3 → 11 + 3 = 14.

The doubling applies only to the dice of the attack that crit. Side-effect damage from the same hit (Bleed it caused, ongoing Ignite ticks, etc.) is not doubled.

Headshots Always Crit

When you call a Target Zone head shot (-10 to hit), the hit is treated as a critical - no Crit range needed. If the natural die was also a 20, the damage dice are tripled instead of doubled. This is the only "triple dice" trigger in the system without a feature granting it.

Example: Falke calls a head shot with the same M4. He rolls 1d20 → 17, +3 (DEX) +2 (Prof) -10 (head zone) = 12 vs AC 13 → miss. Different shot: he rolls a natural 20, which always hits. Head shot + nat 20 = triple damage dice. 2d8 × 3 → 5+7+3+1+8+6 = 30, +3 DEX = 33 damage. Whatever was wearing the helmet is no longer a problem.

Crits Under Advantage and Disadvantage

  • A natural number in the Crit range on either die under advantage triggers the crit.
  • A natural number in the Crit range on the chosen die under disadvantage triggers the crit. The unchosen high die does not count - it isn't the result.

This means advantage roughly doubles your crit chance; disadvantage roughly halves it.

Auto-Crits and Other Sources

Several features bypass the dice and crit on contact. The most common:

  • Marksman - Critical Shot (3rd-level Combat Designation feature): as an action, fire one bolt-action or single-shot rifle round. If it hits, it is automatically a critical hit. If the underlying roll also fell in the Crit range, the dice triple instead of double.
  • Covert Training Level 3 (Ambush): your first hit on a Surprised creature is automatically a critical hit. A normal-rolled crit on top of this becomes maximum damage dice instead of doubled.
  • Precision strike on a downed target: a hit within 5 ft of an unconscious creature, by a melee or single-shot weapon, is treated as a crit at GM discretion.

When two auto-crit sources stack on the same attack (rare), the attack is a single crit, not "double crit" - the upgrades only kick in if the source explicitly says so (Critical Shot's "triple if naturally crit" or Ambush's "max damage if naturally crit").

Crits While Downed

Any crit landed on a creature at 0 HP costs them 2 death-save failures instead of 1. A close-range crit can take a casualty from "still rolling saves" to dead in a single hit. See Hit Points.

Compared to Classic D&D 5E

  • The "natural 20 → crit, double the dice, add modifiers once" core is identical to classic 5E.
  • The configurable Crit range per weapon (e.g. 18-20 on heavy magnums, 20 on small pistols) is homebrew - classic 5E only widens this through class features (Champion fighter).
  • Auto-crit-on-headshot is homebrew, paired with the target-zone -10 penalty.
  • Triple damage dice exists but is rare: nat-20 head shot, or a feature explicitly stacking onto a natural crit ( Critical Shot, Ambush).
  • Crits at 0 HP costing 2 death-save failures matches classic 5E.