[RPG] Is the Vicious Weapon enchant compatible with the Champion archetype’s Improved Critical feature

archetypecritical-hitdnd-5emagic-items

The Champion's (a Fighter Archetype) "Improved Critical" feature says that he can score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. However, the vicious Weapon enchantment specifically says that you need to roll a 20 on the attack roll to get it's bonus dice. Am I correct in assuming that this means that a Champion wielding a vicious Weapon would get a critical on a 19, but wouldn't get the bonus 2d6 from the Vicious Weapon?

As a bonus question: Do we know if this is intentional, or if it was just a spelling mistake to say specifically 20, instead of just saying "critical" in the Vicious Weapon's description?

Best Answer

Improved critical does not expand the range of numbers triggering Vicious Weapons

This question has been answered by Mike Mearls in a tweet.

The extra damage from Vicious Weapon is triggered by a natural 20, not a critical hit.