A couple of questions

[Gandalf970]

We are using criticals where if you roll your attack skill by 10 you crit.  I had someone ask if it would work for magic as well?  Is this too powerful?  Second question would you allow someone with Nightvision to use a mirror and still get Nightvision.

 

Please answer these as your world and what YOU would do.

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

I can't speak regarding the criticals.  I don't know what "if you roll your attack skill by 10" means (hit a DCV 10 higher than needed?), or what effect you've given to the critical. 

Edit: And for that matter, I'm not sure what your objective is.  I can judge your houserule based on my subjective standards of Good Game Design, but they're subjective and may not apply to your table so knowing what you expect the rule to do and why you want it to do that will make any advice I give much better. 

 

I'd need to know the SFX of the Nightvision to know if the mirror would work.  If it's "really good sight, like a cat's eyes" then it'd absolutely work via a mirror.  A magic power of "Everything I see, I see as if the sun was shining directly upon it", I'd have only work via direct line-of-sight. 

Edited August 16, 2020 by Gnome BODY (important!)

[archer]

In fantasy settings you'd have either normal mirrors or polished bronze mirrors.

 

Glass absorbs infrared radiation rather than reflecting it and so does the silvering which provides the reflectivity of normal mirrors. Bronze also absorbs IR rather than reflecting it. So, I wouldn't allow someone to use infrared with normally-found reflective surfaces.

 

For ultraviolet light (nightvision), the silvering in a mirror does reflect that. Unfortunately, most of UV is absorbed by glass. So by the time the UV light passes through the glass, hits the reflective surface, and whatever is left of the UV tries to pass through the glass again...I'd rule that nightvision wouldn't work with a normal mirror.

 

I'm not sure offhand if bronze absorbs or reflects UV light. But since polished bronze doesn't reflect even visible light very well, I'd be comfortable in not allowing it to work with nightvision.

 

 

 

Of course since you're working in a fantasy world, there's no reason why the laws of physics there would have to slavishly follow the laws of physics as found in the real universe.  If you want nightvision to work, let it. But if you don't, you have real-life science as a convenient excuse to disallow it.

[LoneWolf]

Since an 18 always misses that means under that system that your max chance to hit would be on a 7 assuming you need a 17 or less to hit.  Realistically that means that means you will usually need a 3-4 to critical unless the target is at a severe disadvantage.  

 

Since for the most part magic uses the same combat rules as anything else they should also have the same chance to get a critical hit.   The only exception I would make is for attacks that do not target the characters DCV.  But I would also do the same for non-magical area of effect attacks.  I would also limit critical hits to attacks that do actual damage to the target.  Things like flashes, drains and other direct damage would qualify for a critical hit, assuming they target the opponents DCV.  Entangles, most mental powers and power built with UAaA would not.

 

A mirror works by reflecting light so if there is no light to reflect it does not work.  So like Gnome Body said it is going to depend on the special effect of the night vision.   
 

[mallet]

17 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

Since an 18 always misses that means under that system that your max chance to hit would be on a 7 assuming you need a 17 or less to hit.  

 

A roll of 18 does mean an automatic miss, but that does not mean that the character couldn't (in some high powered situation) have a 23- or 27- or even higher chance to succeed. We see this on some of the official NPC's in the game (usually on skill rolls, but that doesn't mean it could also be for attack rolls). so if the house rules were that the character gets a critical hit by making the roll by 10 or more, and if their chance to succeed was 30- then any roll made (3-17) would be a critical success, except for a natural 18, which would mean an automatic failure. If their chance to succeed was 23- then anything between 3-13 would be a critical success, between 14-17 a normal success, and an 18- an automatic failure. 

 

In fact, as per the RAW, there are many spells that would basically require the caster to have a skill roll much higher then 17- to even hope to succeed on, given how many negatives can apply to high point cost spells. 

 

So the roll of 18 on 3d6 is just an arbitrary automatic failure number, that also makes logical sense since it is the highest number possible on 3d6, and it means you got 6,6,6, on you roll which for some is a very bad number, but statistically it is just as hard to roll 3 4's or 3'5 or whatever on 3d6. So once target numbers get beyond 18-, then you could just as easily say an automatic failure is when the character roll 3 2's or 3 4's or what-not as it wouldn't change the odds of success in games with target rolls that high.   

[Scott Ruggels]

Crits are rolled 3s. No for Magic. Yes mirrors Work for night vision.  

[MrKinister]

Well, personally, in my Fantasy games I used the "final to hit number, rounded down, -1" formula. This means that on an even 11 or less, a crit would come on a roll of 3 or 4. If you had higher numbers, you could crit easier, but anything below an 8 would not be able to crit at all. I also never allowed minions to crit, but minor and major bosses could crit freely. That made for a cautious approach from PCs when facing a major opponent.

 

As for mirror, I agree with everyone else here: it depends entirely on 'how' it is happening. If it is magic, then sure... anything goes. If it is 'natural', there are plenty of observations here made on realistic 'this world' conditions that would say it is difficult. But it is your world, what do YOU think is appropriate and/or 'cool/cinematic/fantastic'?

[Ternaugh]

3 scores a Critical Hit, but that's defined as a situational bonus. It might be extra DCs or AP (or other appropriate Advantage) for the hit. This does apply to magic in the campaign.

[Chris Goodwin]

Per 6e2 p. 118, a critical hit is less than half of what you need to roll to hit.  So if your to hit roll is 13-, you'd critical hit on (13 / 2 = 6.5) 6 or less, while if your to hit roll is 11- or 12-, you'd critical hit on a 5 or less.  

[Ninja-Bear]

We always used rolled 3 Ones and you get to do max damage (or other cool effect) that applies to anything. So yes magic is involved. Conversely roll 3 sixes and something bad happens. Example when a Mook rolls this then his buddy gets shot! 
 

Overpowered? [shrugs shoulders?] Fun and memorable? Yes! 
 

Night Vision and mirror? I don’t see why not.

[Gandalf970]

Thanks everyone on the ideas and thoughts.  I agree with the no Nightvision for a mirror and the three one's for a critical with magic.  I might expand on ternaughs idea of extra dc or ap, good idea.  

[Thia Halmades]

On 8/15/2020 at 12:51 PM, Gandalf970 said:

We are using criticals where if you roll your attack skill by 10 you crit.  I had someone ask if it would work for magic as well?  Is this too powerful?  Second question would you allow someone with Nightvision to use a mirror and still get Nightvision.

 

Please answer these as your world and what YOU would do.

 

@Chris Goodwinbeat me to this when he pointed out that under RAW, a crit occurs when you beat your target by half (in favor of the defender, so rounded down); this is what I’ve always used and it works very well, particularly given how much manipulating of the numbers can be done by skilled players. In your system as proposed, I’d be looking at a pretty wide gap between OCV & DCV and that’s before application of CSLs or other modifiers like Surprise. Not saying it can’t work, just far less often. Also bearing in mind that you have a 0.5% (IIRC) of rolling 3 (that very specific combination; there’s a broader chance to roll any combination of 3 of a kind, but a materially smaller chance to get that exact one).

 

To the question you didn’t ask, a Critical Hit in my games doubles damage rolled. I’ve fiddled with different iterations of this, but I found doubling the dice to be the most entertaining; oh, and if you’re using rolled STUNx, double that and take the higher value. If you’re using the damage chart (almost forgot this) then by every two over the crit threshold, I allow players to adjust their targeting roll by 1.  So, on a crit, you roll a 12, you can move it to 13. 

 

Your second question is messier, because it all depends on what you mean by night vision. However as my games tend to be bouncy science in application, my answer is “no,” because the mirror needs to have something significant to reflect. If you can’t see it with normal vision, then the mirror can’t see it, and I’m pointing my eyes at the mirror and seeing what it’s reflecting, not bouncing my dark vision off the mirror, because my eyes are receptive, not emissive.

[Sveta8]

Can't speak to crits.

Mirror? Eh, Three approaches to that. The first is the one listed up above. The lack of light does not bounce, and thus, they can't see around corners with a mirror via dark vision. End of Discussion.

Or, they can see around the corner, because you are ruling that as a visual ability, it follows the same rules for normal sight. Thus, they can see with darkvision around a corner with a mirror.

Or my favorite, The first with consequences. They can't see around the corner with a mirror, because the mirror reflects light that is picked up by the eyes. That's not what Darkvision is seeing though, thus, it doesn't reflect for them to see around with it.
BUT, I'd allow the player to purchase what functions as a Mirror for Darkvision, and not work for regular sight. It is obvious Darkvision is picking up something that lets them see, and most people can't see it.  So, have something special to reflect that something and use it as a Dark Mirror.