Critical randomization

Base Rank	Randomized Rank
0	0
1	1
2	1 or 2
3	2 or 3
4	2, 3 or 4
5	3, 4 or 5
6	3, 4, 5 or 6
7	4, 5, 6 or 7
8	4, 5, 6, 7, or 8
9	5, 6, 7, 8 or 9

The ranking of a critical attack has some variation according to the critical randomization mechanics. First, the base rank of the critical is determined as normal (the raw damage of an attack modified by weighting and padding, followed by scaling according to critical divisor). This is the maximum possible critical rank of the attack. The minimum critical rank is half of the maximum rounded up. The actual critical rank of the attack is anything in that range (inclusively) with equal probability. The maximum critical rank of an attack is 9. The table at right summarizes these values.

The effectiveness of a given critical hit is different depending on which location is hit, which is normally determined randomly unless the AMBUSH verb is used, generally. Also, there are different types of critical hits for each location, which include crushing, piercing, or slashing damage. What type of damage a critical hit does is randomly determined between the possible damage types a given weapon is capable of, unless the Combat Maneuver, Precision is used. However, both the hit location and the type of damage cannot be influenced at once. If the AMBUSH verb is used, one cannot benefit from Precision, and if Precision is used, one cannot aim an attack through AMBUSH. In such a case, using a weapon that only deals certain types of damage is paramount.

Example

The italicized line below is the line known as the critical messaging.

You swing a gleaming vultite battlesword at a thunder troll!
   AS: +195 vs DS: +49 with AvD: +42 + d100 roll: +4 = +192
   ... and hit for 53 points of damage!
   Strong slash to the thunder troll's right hand cuts deep.
   The thunder troll is stunned!
Roundtime: 5 sec.

Note that the critical location was determined to be the right hand and that the damage type shown is slashing. The damage factor of a two-handed sword against a thunder troll's armor is .500, so the +192 endroll does 46 raw damage. The message given is a level 4 critical. The critical multiplier against the hand is 5, so the expected critical level is 9, but the troll is protected by natural critical padding and critical randomization reduced the critical level to 4. A level 4 slashing critical to the hand does 7 extra damage.