Topic: ...Does X and Y criticals

[Tywyll]

So one of my players has a Forcewand (basically a lightsaber) from RMC5 (but I've seen this on other items). It says it does Heat and Electrical criticals. How does that work. Does it do both crits of equal severity? Is the second crit mentioned used for secondary criticals? How does that work?

[vector]

Ouch!

If all it says is something like, "does additional Heat and Electrical criticals" then it does an additional Heat and Electrical critical of the same severity as the primary critical (a Slash, I would guess?).

So an attack result of 14C would result in 14 hits plus a "C" severity Slash critical plus a "C" severity Heat and Electrical critical. You would only roll the critical once for all three criticals. So if you rolled a 72, then the result is 72 on the Slash, Heat, and Electrical tables.

Wow, it's almost like crap from the latter Rolemaster Companions is over the top and broken. LOL

[jdale]

"The wand is handled like a 2-handed melee weapon, and attacks on the Space Master Power Sword table (or use AL 2-handed sword table, x2 hits), delivering Slash and Electrical criticals. The wand has a chance to cut armor (resolve attack on AT 1 if damage delivered by the attack would be greater) equal to the wielder's skill ranks (not bonus) in sword."

Seems a little ambiguous. It's possible the Power Sword table provides some useful context. But without looking at Space Master, my inclination is to interpret it as both a Slash and an Electrical critical of the severity stated on the table. As Vector says, use the same roll for both criticals. (I don't see any mention of Heat criticals here.)

[Hurin]

Seems a little ambiguous. It's possible the Power Sword table provides some useful context. But without looking at Space Master, my inclination is to interpret it as both a Slash and an Electrical critical of the severity stated on the table. As Vector says, use the same roll for both criticals. (I don't see any mention of Heat criticals here.)

Sorry to piggyback onto the thread, but this just came up for our group: JDale, is the rule the same for RMU? Thus for example the Paladin has a spell that does an additional A Holy critical. Does RMU say that you use the same roll for both the normal critical and the additional A holy?

[jdale]

Sorry to piggyback onto the thread, but this just came up for our group: JDale, is the rule the same for RMU? Thus for example the Paladin has a spell that does an additional A Holy critical. Does RMU say that you use the same roll for both the normal critical and the additional A holy?

Yes. It's explicit, see page 22 of A&CL (beta2). In RMSS, it's noted for slaying criticals on RMSR pg 89 and Spell Law pg 217 (I'm having trouble finding examples of spells that deal additional criticals to see if they specify). It's noted more generally in RMFRP Treasure Companion pg 52. I don't know if RM2/RMC has a rule about it.

This makes a big difference for lethality. With this rule, additional criticals add damage and make wounds more severe, but don't increase the chance of a death critical. If you make separate rolls, the chance of death for a C critical (as an example) goes from 5% to 9.75%, and for E it goes from 16% to 29.5%.

[rdanhenry]

Seems a little ambiguous. It's possible the Power Sword table provides some useful context. But without looking at Space Master, my inclination is to interpret it as both a Slash and an Electrical critical of the severity stated on the table. As Vector says, use the same roll for both criticals. (I don't see any mention of Heat criticals here.)

Sorry to piggyback onto the thread, but this just came up for our group: JDale, is the rule the same for RMU? Thus for example the Paladin has a spell that does an additional A Holy critical. Does RMU say that you use the same roll for both the normal critical and the additional A holy?

Yes.
"If multiple criticals are delivered against a target
for any reason, all criticals always use the same roll and
modifiers (so a flaming sword will cut and burn the
target’s arm, rather than cutting his arm and burning his
foot)." -- A&CL p.22 (PDF numbering) Beta 2 July

Extra criticals become OP pretty easily if they let you get multiple rolls for a kill result.

Power Sword table does up to J criticals, which are E Slash + E Heat. The description probably means to use Electrical crits in place of Heat crits for the high critical results. I'm not sure any real thought went into interpreting this for those who had to substitute the two-handed sword chart. Allowing dual crits in that case might be appropriate, as you still don't have a Power Sword (which crits against ATs 2, 5, and 6 starting at 19 and hits E crits against AT 1 at 82).

[Tywyll]

Yeah he broke it out last night and I used the powersword table and OH MY GOD! I might switch to double hits arms law table.

Sent from my E6533 using Tapatalk

[Spectre771]

Unless explicitly stated in the item description, it is one crit roll.  There are items that state "additional crit, separate roll."   In RM2, the target locations fluctuated within the crit tables so we simply replaced the secondary body part to match the original.  As stated earlier, the first crit hits the arm and the text for the second crit states "opponent's foot" we just changed it to the same arm as the first crit. 

The severity of the crits can get pretty brutal.  RM2 - Elemental Companion has an attack table that hits J-Crits.  I think M-Crits too, but the entire gaming universe has to be plotting against you for you to take an M Elemental crit. 

[Hurin]

Thanks for the clarification everyone. It should be easier to describe the effects now that the hit locations will line up (in RMU) .

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

I think M-Crits too, but the entire gaming universe has to be plotting against you for you to take an M Elemental crit.

"Blaster Law" has M criticals. They're pretty much jokes, though, as they are 268M, so the target would probably be vaporised by the 268 hit point damage before being affected by the M critical. 

[Mordrig]

Not sure if allowed, but here is the Power Sword Table, sorry for the bad scan.  if the Moderator allows the post I guess it is OK.