History Main / CriticalHit

[[TeamFortressTwo http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Crit_hit.jpg]]

** As well, physical attacks do double damage with a critical hit, while magical and elemental attacks do 150% (not quite as much, but still powerful since those go through armor and hit harder anyways). Death Knights, however, have a passive ability that lets their diseases and magical-type attack do double damage with a critical hit.

*** While not a damaging version, Generatin V also add critical captures in which after one shake of the Pokeball, the Pokemon is caught.

* The ''{{Pokemon}}'' [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Damage_modification# Critical_hit games]]. Besides double damage (or triple with the ability Snipe), critical hits also ignore stat changes if applying them would result in less damage (except in Generation I, where they ignored them either way). Any given attack that does non-fixed damage has a 1/16 chance, which can be increased by various things on a "level" system from level 1 (regular) to at most level 6 (56.25%). (Achieving level six is highly, highly situational, but still possible.) There's also two abilities (Battle Armor and Shell Armor) which prevent the user from taking critical hits, and the move Lucky Chant protects the user's team from them for five turns. Such are the power of critical hits that many games were won and lost because of them. Examples of ways to raise said chances:

* 4th edition DungeonsAndDragons has all creatures affected by critical hits. All weapons deal max damage on a crit. Magical weapons and some heavy weapons deal extra damage on top of that. However, all weapons deal critical damage on 20s alone again (except when augmented by certain powers or feats).

** Since the KOTOR games are based off the DnD dice system, there is a critical hit range for each weapon. If the game rolls within a certain range on an attack, the damage is increased (Power Attack feats also make this increase larger). It is also possible to upgrade weapons with Massive Criticals - added damage upon critical hits. Abusing this system can make the game obscenely easy, since you're essentially able to make a One Hit Kill ''anything''.

* Spoofed in the webcomic [[http://www.commissionedcomic.com/ Commissioned]], the main characters have DnD sessions where it switches from the POV of their characters to them, and occasionally they try something completely off the wall... and end up rolling a natural 20. [[http://www.commissionedcomic.com/?p=2134 this comic]] is a more recent example even though it's actually a bluff check.

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** In addition, ever since the inclusion of "jobs" to the Dragon Quest series, there's always been a skill that allows a character to either land a critical hit or miss entirely every round. Of course, the chance to hit was pretty small (about 25%), but still...

[[indent:40:The above applies to ''most'' Pokemon games, but Generation I (that is, Blue/Red/Yellow) works quite differently:]]

** Using the move Focus Energy or the item Dire Hit raises the level by 2 until you switch. (This is what "Enemy MACHOP's getting pumped!" actually means.)
** Consuming a Lansat Berry is the same as using the above move.
** The use of certain moves (including, but not limited to Psycho Cut, Night Slash, Stone Edge, Cross Chop, and Cross Poison) raise the ratio by one.

** Most bizarre, Focus Energy and Dire Hit are ''supposed'' to multiply the crit-ratio by four... but somebody in coding screwed up, so they ''divide'' it by four instead. Once you know this, it's fun to watch enemy Pokemon screw themselves over. (Stadium and all later games fixed the bug.)

* The best known is ''DungeonsAndDragons'', where rolling a "natural 20"[[hottip:* :That is, a 20 on the die, before applying modifiers.]] in combat did bonus damage -- this started out as a common house rule which became an official option in the 2nd edition. The 3rd Edition allowed critical successes under other circumstances as well, and had weapons with different odds of critical hits. A "natural 20" no longer resulted in an automatic critical hit, either, but did mean an automatic hit and a chance to "confirm" a critical hit with a second roll.

* In WorldOfWarcraft, criticals are a regular occurrence for players, so much so that nearly all classes have talents that provide further benefits from this occuring, while others get guaranteed Critical Hits under certain circumstances. There's even a chance for healing spells to have a critical effect. You can increase your chance to get criticals of any kind based on stats granted by your equipment.
** First case: Holy Paladins get their mana refunded for each critical heal, Elemental Shamans get a 60% man acost reduction on their next two spells after a Critical, Survivalist Hunters have certain damage and status-afflicting attacks that follow after Criticals (and Beast Masters and Marksmen have special pet abilities that take place after crits).
** Second case: Rogues with the right talents can ensure a critical on their opening attack out of stealth, Restoration druids have a nearly guaranteed chance to critically heal with one of their spells (which ties into the first case with a cast time reduction for their next spell), Frost Mages have a greatly increased chance of critically hitting frozen targets.
** Fire mages make critical hits such a common occurrence that there's a talent that only activates when you get two in a row.

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' just ''loves'' critical hits. And forget on a natural 20, some classes often get higher than a 50% chance to critical hit with every attack. It also includes critical hits for spells, critical hits for periodic damage (yeah, you can set someone on fire, and the fire will critically hit), and critical ''heals''. Paladin healers in particular are incredibly dependent on getting consistent critical heals. There are spells and talents that massively increase your critical hit chances, talents that give you a bonus when you critical hit, and there's a mage talent that does nothing unless you get two critical hits in a row. And it's useful.

** The 40K version, ''DarkHeresy'', has the same thing (only it's now called the "Righteous Fury!", and isn't nearly as fun to shout).
** ''DarkHeresy'' also has actual critical hit tables, like ''Rolemaster'' but much more fun. You can see scans of them on [[TheWikiRule 1d4chan]].

** The reverse (called a "dramatic failure", or a "botch" in the old [=WoD=]) also exists. If a dice pool is reduced to negative figures by penalties, the player can still roll a "chance die", where only a 10 counts as a success, and a 1 causes a "dramatic failure", which is just as good as it sounds. Some characters also have penalties where they can't use the "10-again" rule on certain rolls, and further ''lose'' successes on rolling a 1, which can result in them having negative successes, and thus get a dramatic failure.