Let's say a character with an 8 STR confirms a critical hit with a short sword. A normal hit for them would deal 1d6-1 damage. Does the critical deal 2d6-2?
[RPG] On a critical hit, does one double negative modifiers
critical-hitpathfinder-1e
Related Topic
- [RPG] Does an unarmed strike get double damage on a critical hit
- [RPG] How to roll for damage with a critical hit
- [RPG] Can a Barbarian choose which weapon die to add for his Brutal Critical
- [RPG] Does the Reduce option from the Enlarge/Reduce spell cause a critical hit to do 2d4 less damage
- [RPG] How does the Overkill weapon tag interact with critical hits
- [RPG] Does the barbarian’s 9th-level Brutal Critical feature deal one extra die of damage on a critical hit, or two extra dice
Best Answer
No, it doesn't. The critical deals (1d6-1)+(1d6-1).
From combat#TOC-Critical-Hits:
From combat#TOC-Damage:
I read this as "roll the damage (1d6-1) twice and add together the results". Since a hit always does at least one damage (which might be nonlethal, as below), the damage roll of (1d6-1) has a range of 1-5 damage. This critical hit, therefore, has a range of 2-10 damage. If you roll two 1s then you do 2 nonlethal damage. If you roll 1 and 2 then you do 1 nonlethal and 1 lethal damage. If you roll two 6s then you to 10 lethal damage.
Rolling 2d6-2 is not the same — it has a range of 1-10.
From combat#TOC-Damage:
It is the "still deals 1 point of nonlethal damage" which explains why the multiple rolls need to be made separately when there are negative modifiers. Or, to put it another way, doubling (1d6+1) is the same as (2d6+2) but doubling (1d6-1) is not the same as (2d6-2).