D20 System Question?

[warhawk373]

So I read that if the roll is a 1 it is an automatic miss no matter what. If it is a 20 it is an automatic hit no matter what. Since you have to roll higher than the oponents armor to hit, but a 20 is always a hit, does that mean having more than 20 armor is useless?

[Ragnarök]

Do you mean defense when you say armor? If an enemy rolls a 16 on the D20 and has a + 8 attack modifier, that's 24, and if you only have 20 total defense, then he hits you.

He could roll a natural 2 and still potentially have the attack modifier to make up the difference.

[warhawk373]

Yeah defense, not armor, sorry. But what I read said that rolling a 20 no matter what means you hit. So if you roll lower than a 20 but your attack modifier boosts it higher than a 20 then does it not count as rolling an actual 20?

Like say my defense is 22.
Attacker rolling 15 +5 is a miss.
Rolling 18 +5 is a hit.
And rolling 20 is a hit.

Is that right? That would confirm what I was wondering. Whether or not having more that 20 defense matters.

[Ragnarök]

Originally posted by warhawk373:

Yeah defense, not armor, sorry. But what I read said that rolling a 20 no matter what means you hit. So if you roll lower than a 20 but your attack modifier boosts it higher than a 20 then does it not count as rolling an actual 20?

Like say my defense is 22.
Attacker rolling 15 +5 is a miss.
Rolling 18 +5 is a hit.
And rolling 20 is a hit.

Is that right?

Rolling a natural 20 on the d20 is a critical hit, meaning no matter how high his defense is, the attack auto-hits for double damage. So, say if you rolled a 16 on the d20 and then added your attack modifier of +4, which takes you to 20. That is not a critical hit, and if his defense is higher than 20, your attack will miss.

But if you roll a 20 on the d20 you don't even need to look at his defense or your attack modifier, you know it's a crit.

[warhawk373]

Originally posted by Ragnarök:

Rolling a natural 20 on the d20 is a critical hit, meaning no matter how high his defense is, the attack auto-hits for double damage. So, say if you rolled a 16 on the d20 and then added your attack modifier of +4, which takes you to 20. That is not a critical hit, and if his defense is higher than 20, your attack will miss.

But if you roll a 20 on the d20 you don't even need to look at his defense or your attack modifier, you know it's a crit.

Okay cool, that's exactly what I was confused about and that's the exact answer I was looking for. Thanks.

[Bob of Mage]

Rolling a 20 doesn't result in a crit. It does result in an automatic hit, but you "threaten a crit" and then you have to confirm the crit. This is done by a seond roll using the same modifers where you need to roll high enough to hit. However this time a natural 20 is not an automatic hit (of course this is largely a moot point since you are never going to be in a fight where the enemy outclasses you that badly unless you go out of your way to mess things up). This means hard to hit enemies are also hard to get crits on.

[Tugaman Tugawar]

Originally posted by warhawk373:

So I read that if the roll is a 1 it is an automatic miss no matter what. If it is a 20 it is an automatic hit no matter what. Since you have to roll higher than the oponents armor to hit, but a 20 is always a hit, does that mean having more than 20 armor is useless?

to roll a 1 or a 20 they are call Natural HIT or MISS... that helps with the confusion a bit... it is what i called them anyway for my campaigns i was a DM for 6 years for Actual D20 Paper and Pensil Table Top RPG's ... but something is not mentioned... KEEN and Critical Strike/Shot... if you put KEEN on any weapon or use the Critical move then that lowers what is Considered to be Critical HIT where is says Critical Threat Range 0n the Item I.E. : 20 - 20 on a 2-handed LS... if you put Keen Lense on it that makes it 19 - 20 so IF you roll a Natual 19 on a D20 then that ALSO is Considered Natural 20... also if you use the Crystal that Doubles the Critical Threat Range then it would be 18 - 20 so now a roll of an 18, 19, or 20 would be considered Natural Crit... ADD on top of that using Critical Strike 1 ,2 or 3 i believe that also Lowers the Critical Threat range by 1 per Teir... so escenically or Theorietically you are able to make a 20 - 20 with all the feats and Keen and what not to make it to 16 or 15 Natual roll or Higher would be considered a Natural 20... and also if u have Massive Critical damage augments then it would do more than just Double damage... then adding STR or DEX mod damage on top of that as well... i have done over 150 damage with 1 strike or attack round... on a Jedi non Droid... this is just off the Top of me head not like i played it yesterday but i have pretty recently last year or so... i just finished KOTOR 2 with Mods for the first time it was fun