Does a natural 20 on an attack roll still crit if it was forced to be rerolled

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Does a natural 20 on an attack roll still crit if it was forced to be rerolled?

Say a creature attacks me, and gets a nat. 20 on the attack roll (which would be a critical hit). However, I use the Silvery Barbs spell or the Lucky feat to make the creature reroll the attack roll; this reroll would still hit, but the die roll isn't a natural 20. Is the attack still a critical hit? Or does this cancel the crit damage?

Best Answer

No. If a reroll is forced, unless specified otherwise, you must always use the second roll (in general; I can't find an overall rule in the Dungeon Master's Guide about rerolling, but every ability which allows or forces a reroll that I can find specifies which roll to use, and most say you must use the second).

Both of the abilities you point out divert from the general case. The silvery barbs spell specifies the following (Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, page 38; emphasis mine):

You magically distract the triggering creature and turn its momentary uncertainty into encouragement for another creature. The triggering creature must reroll the d20 and use the lower roll.

So in the case of Silvery Barbs, you must use the lowest roll, so even if the first roll was a hit and the second roll was a crit, you'd still need to use the first non-crit roll.

The description of the Lucky feat says (Player's Handbook, page 167; emphasis mine):

You can choose to spend one of your luck points after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined. You choose which of the d20s is used for the attack roll, ability check, or saving throw.

You get to choose which roll is used, and I don't know why you'd ever choose the one which results in a crit against you.

The crit only exists for the natural 20 roll; it does not persist for any rerolls, even for the same attack.