Do players use critical hits often?

[Aramur 17]

None of the players in our group uses their advantage to inflicts critical hits anymore. A few did it initially, but the effects were not only underwhelming but also introduced additional bookkeeping duties for the GM which slowed down the pace of the action and were often forgotten.

In our groups' opinion many of the critical hits on the critical table are only relevant for the PCs, who might be bothered by them for several encounters. Nobody really cares if the difficulty of all Presence and Willpower checks of some rival is made harder in the few brief rounds he has to live, etc.

Also, we found that non-combat optimized characters rarely score critical hits. because if they do hit, they rarely generate enough additional advantage. Conversely, if the combat-optimized characters often inflict so much damage that a critical hit becomes superflous: the target is already dead from damage most of the time. Players much prefer to use their advantage to give a boost die to someone else or doing something cool with their advantage. Note that none of our players are optimized for crits. I can imagine if you manage to get a real high bonus to criticals, it might get interesting to use vs. Nemeses.

Are you experiences similar? Do criticals get used often or not in your group?

I'm wondering because so much rules are devoted to criticals, and the handbook even says its the primary use of advantage for combat checks.....

[HappyDaze 9,594]

My experiences are very similar. Critical hits are mainly used to drop extra Minions or by characters optimized (through gear and talents) to get massive bonuses just so the crits inflicted are actually meaningful. Even then, it's usually better to activate Auto-fire, Concussive, Sunder, or Linked if any of those are available.

[kaosoe 7,182]

Same as HD. However, I use crits often against my players. In my experience, they're a much handier tool for the GM to use.

[HappyDaze 9,594]

I have no idea how I did a delayed double post.

Edited September 26, 2017 by HappyDaze
Double post.

[Talkie Toaster 358]

On my wish-list for SWRPG 2.0 are types of dice with more advantage, and different types of dice with more success. They *kind* of got it in WHFRP3e with reckless/cautious stance dice but massively overcomplicated it.

[arlo di'lya 21]

We only really have one PC who is full battle orientated marauder, but yeah he does most of the time he gets enough advantage. 

He has a few talents which upgrade them though, which means that essentially our GM allows him to cut off arms or puncture lungs (which I can tell you makes it very worth while to use). I guess if you don’t have any upgrades to criticals, it possibly wouldn’t be worth it.

Finally, criticals make gameplay a million times more interesting... having your gm explain a nemesis punctured lung is quite amusing haha  

[2P51 32,572]

They get used, but so does everything.  If they have a tough target they will pile up crits knowing it leads to the kill shot at some point.  They use it as a resource I guess is my point.  If they have other and better options like Improved Stunning Blow, they will opt for those as well.  The individual crit effects are a mixed bag to be sure, for example Minor Nick and Head Ringer are lame, but Stinger is decent and Stunned, if the PC went first, is a gut kick, and those are low level crits.

I agree that as a GM I use them a lot because I think they're fun as ****.  I've blown offa total of 5 limbs, blinded one PC, and dropped the droid's Presence permanently in my current campaign. Scrounging parts together to craft replacement limbs is always good for a laugh, it's very Monty Python-esque.

[Vorzakk 1,122]

My players generally only use them against opponents whom they know or believe are going to be particularly tough to put down. 

[whafrog 9,703]

As a GM I usually go with a Crit, especially if the PC doesn't have any.  The players go for crits frequently, I think mostly because the first time they got one they got the "repeat the same attack with the same dice pool" crit, and they found it very satisfying

 

[SFC Snuffy 742]

I know that most people use critical hits and critical injuries interchangeably, but it's worth noting that critical hits against vehicles are one of the best ways for infantry to immobilize and incapacitate armored vehicles. It can be pretty handy for a variety of combat scenarios, really, but a foe that you can't hurt fast enough is definitely a good example.

[HistoryGuy 189]

4 hours ago, whafrog said:

As a GM I usually go with a Crit, especially if the PC doesn't have any.  The players go for crits frequently, I think mostly because the first time they got one they got the "repeat the same attack with the same dice pool" crit, and they found it very satisfying

 

My group is the same way. Last session the one crit they got a lot was "crippled". It then almost became a challenge to see how many limbs they could chop off in one session. But I digress. 

As a GM I like triggering crits against my PCs because you can feel the tension grow as I reach for my percentile dice. The medic in the group is really good at healing crits, and the mechanic of the group also made her a custom medical droid to help, so they don't last long (they will only get two or three crits tops before they get healed). But its still fun to watch them squirm. 

[Edgookin 740]

I think a lot of how often the PC's will activate crits is based on the crit rating of the weapon.  My players usually won't bother with a crit if their weapon is crit 3 or worse, unless they really need to crit for kills.  Right now, I started a new F&D knight level game, and one PC has a crit 1 saber.   The only reason she didn't crit more in the 2 sessions we've had is that she was trying not to kill her enemies (neutral station security, tried to stun her, so she started sundering weapons).  But when she got in on a pile of stormtroopers, they went down like wheat.

[RicoD 282]

At my table we tend to crit as much as possible.

In our most recent fight against our Inquisitor we crit her right away with the one that didn't let her take strain voluntarily anymore, so her parry5 and deflect5 immediately became useless. She still beat the crap out of us though...

I think we tend to lean more on crits because the campaign is pretty young and we lack interesting gear and talents.

My Kyuzo Martial Artist is at about 170xp, though if I stopped having bad luck and actually hit someone let alone get some adavantages I'd probably still use crits with my Precision Strike.

[Nightone 638]

My Players love criting,

Especally when the opponent is tought, but also against rivals they like to use it, and since most LS builds allow to crit at one advantage it isn't to hard to get a crit with + 20-50.

and then there is the guy with "chop a limp of with 2 Triumphs"-crystal and the sense upgrade "use three pips until the end of the encounter you add a triumph to all attacks against the target"... so many sewered limps...

 

On my turn I also really like to use them on the players (ok they have a force healing machine so nothings last for to long... except for sewered limps... which then again one player really suffers on with each char he had ever played...)

[HappyDaze 9,594]

Um, "sewered limps" must be an autocorrect failure, right?

[RicoD 282]

38 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

Um, "sewered limps" must be an autocorrect failure, right?

They obviously went down the drain after he cut them off.

[Nightone 638]

57 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

Um, "sewered limps" must be an autocorrect failure, right?

yeah the trouble of using a german cellphone while writing english textes... ... ether you got corrections to eng. words you used in a nother context or even worse you get german or dutch (also writing those with the same phone) words that have nothing to do with the intention of the text...

of course I meant severed... as in lost the limb not sewered as in gone to the sewer...

... it is time for humanity to learn BASIC and stomp all other languages into the trashcan!

[MonCal 150]

Sewered limp. the usual state you end up being in after the typical firefight on a Coruscant underworld, trying to flee the police using.... alternative routes. 

[JRRP 331]

My PCs use crits constantly against any level of target. They love them, as it adds another element of chaos to combat. 

[kaosoe 7,182]

51 minutes ago, MonCal said:

Sewered limp. the usual state you end up being in after the typical firefight on a Coruscant underworld, trying to flee the police using.... alternative routes. 

Or Han Solo escaping through the Corellian service lines

[Matt Skywalker 163]

Crits. Enough said.

Seriously though, I have a PC who essentially plays Batman every time. He builds a weapon, lowers the crit rating to one, and then let er rip

[2P51 32,572]

1 hour ago, Matt Skywalker said:

Crits. Enough said.

Seriously though, I have a PC who essentially plays Batman every time. He builds a weapon, lowers the crit rating to one, and then let er rip

[SEApocalypse 4,385]

On 27.9.2017 at 2:35 PM, kaosoe said:

Or Han Solo escaping through the Corellian service lines

 

[Vondy 849]

Yes. My players dig critical hits. They remove minions with ease and, even on nemesis-level foes, can occasionally produce dramatic results. We had a situation where a padawan got a lucky hit with a saber with a crit value of 1 and 5 advantage (+40) on an inquisitor when all of the destiny points were turned to white. She rolled a 98 for a modified 138. It was the first turn of combat. A legend was born. 

[Genuine 186]

Hands down, my favorite weapons are blaster pistols. Get them paired (or grab a laser sight, it works out the same with the free advantage), and go to town. For 5 advantage you can crit twice, once at +40 and again at +50, with a minimum result of 'crippled.' And of course hit twice with a base damage of 10.