Devastating criticals & Quivering palm on NPCs

[Winter83]

Are these feat still used by some NPCs?

I am aware of at least three different mobs having this. But been avoiding those areas for years, reason above.

If these still in, can it be changed with something different nastyness? Hit-on-die with no chance of save (expect fortitude roll) is too cheap.

[Valo65]

In response to the suggestion, not the question: Death on Arelith isn't exactly harsh compared to most servers, especially at higher levels. Personally I feel the added threat of these monsters' feats adds a certain appeal. The more risk the better.

[zeylin17]

It has been brought up in past, I believe I tried to argue the same, however, I used the argument if we can't have it or do it. Why should they... ((mostly regarding devastating critical)

[Nitro]

In fairness, that argument can be applied to any number of monster abilities that we can't use.

But I do agree that these are fairly cheap, spells at least you can do things against, here it's just a fort save or splat.

[IndifferentPerson]

I haven't seen devastating critical in a long while. Quivering Palm is still a thing.

[Winter83]

I have no qualms with challange, neither difficulties. It is only things I have no control over that bothers me greatly. Namely no possibilities to make precautions against dev crits or quivering palms.

Rolling a 1 in a heroic battle and you go down, is just meh.

Gimme more risk, gimmi more threat, I'd not mind, just not things that kill you no matter what you do. I have peace with death spells, with cheap tactics. You can counter them be cautious. Unlike those 1 rolls on save or die feats.

[IndifferentPerson]

Quivering Palm won't work if it doesn't deals damage, nice to keep in mind if you got premonition or high DR.

[The Man of the Moon]

Yep...

I noticed the existence of the Sahuagin Isle a while ago with Morkhav, and when I tried to get a group to explore that place (to reach the last one I was missing in my cartographic explorations) I found that some members refused to go there cause the sharks' ability to limb your body in a single bite... (aka devastating critical)

I noticed one of them was never going there since THREE YEARS because that reason.

When they told me that, I must admit I pissed my pants while imagining getting an 1 in the roll (and I got so often those cursed 1s in my rolls)...

So basically, cause those mobs with devastating crit, there are certain areas that none or a so low amount of players, will use. (To me, that makes no sense take the work to build areas that will be useless cause won't get any visit in years)

I could find right that those deadly feats were in Epic bosses, but give them to mob trash encounters when are feats not available to the own players, is a bit too much. I would replace those with huge damage rather than allow the luck to get rid on people.

[Mayonnaise]

The last place I saw a NPC with this feat was the old Zhentarim. However, I believe they no longer have it.

[Razmo_de]

You know, AC helps with avoiding criticals, right?

[Artos13]

Yeah, I was gonna say... I thought I took out all Dev Crit from the mobs a long time ago. It's entirely possible though that contributors have put it back in with their critters, which is what it sounds like with the Sahaugin.

[Winter83]

*cautiously starts to explore*

[Ecstatic]

Dev crit on select monsters is awesome and fun.

Razmo has pretty much explained how to protect from dev crit. Between good AC and a decent fort, you'll be fine, none of the old dev crit monsters (or the current ones, for that matter) have a big crit range, or terribly high DCs, or great AB. For the most part, it's possible to drop the chance of drawing that dev crit down to 1 in 200 or 1 in 400 from a monster. You're more likely to die from repeated wing spam on dragons than a dev crit if you make sure your tank has both AC and fortitude saves.

There are some of us who think that this sort of low level risk is a little fun: focus down the mob that can drop you on a crap roll, so long as the reward was there for the risk (spoiler: it was). These areas definitely saw use.

[Lorkas]

It's actually possible to drop the dev-crit chance down to 0. The threat roll doesn't auto-succeed on a 20, so if your AC is greater than the attacker's AB by 21 or more, then you are immune to critical hits from that attacker (as long as you don't become flat-footed or flanked or have any of those other situational modifiers).

The attack roll will auto-hit on a 20, but the threat roll acts like a skill check--a 1 is not auto-fail and a 20 is not auto-succeed.

[Queen Titania]

Also, Quivering Palm does not work if you are equal or greater level than the PC or NPC.

Its much less lethal than devastating critical.