Hello,

I have two questions about criticals.

1. If soak is not penetrated and the person attacked does not take damage from the attack, can that person still suffer a critical?

2. How does your table work lethal blows?

. If I have a talent that allows me to add 30 percentage roll of a critical hit, am I able to choose how to use it?

a. Do I have to use the full 30 each time?

b. Can I choose to add 15 points and not the full 30?

I have a concept of a knife fighter that uses a very small knife like an artist.

Thanks for any answers and opinions.

1) An attack must hit and do damage in order to cause a critical injury.

Remember, a Critical Injury can only be triggered on a successful hit that deals damage that exceeds the target's soak value.

(Page 205 EotE Core, Section 4, Paragraph 2).

2) By the rules it is all. The talent doesn't say may add it say adds.

The character adds + 10 per rank of Lethal Blows to any Critical Injury rolls inflicted on opponents.

(Page 138 EotE Core, Lethal Blows Talent)

But, I see no reason a GM couldn't allow you to hold back and not go for a death strike every time you attack.

1) An attack must hit and do damage in order to cause a critical injury.

Remember, a Critical Injury can only be triggered on a successful hit that deals damage that exceeds the target's soak value.

(Page 205 EotE Core, Section 4, Paragraph 2).

2) By the rules it is all. The talent doesn't say may add it say adds.

The character adds + 10 per rank of Lethal Blows to any Critical Injury rolls inflicted on opponents.

(Page 138 EotE Core, Lethal Blows Talent)

But, I see no reason a GM couldn't allow you to hold back and not go for a death strike every time you attack.

I unfortunately can see how "choosing" could be an issue.

Some Critical injuries add issues that persist past a single encounter. Or add worse issues.

Perfect example, say the Target rolled a 70, and the attacker chose to ignore 10 points of lethal blows.

That turns Scattered Senses (which removes boost dice) into Agonizing wounds that increases the difficulty of Brawn and Agility checks.

Stick to "it adds" not "you can pick and choose".

Better yet is the attack again with the same dice pool crit. Given the choice, I'd pick that every time.

Thanks,

I figured that was how it was, but there are so many many crits that have no value or effect against most NPC's. Sure Mongo the Axe's Gamorean mate may be upset that his Presence was destroyed during our fight when I rolled well over 100 on a crit, but it really won't effect the scene that I have with him.

Better yet is the attack again with the same dice pool crit. Given the choice, I'd pick that every time.

There seems to be something good about every 30. Staggered, 2nd attack, Upgrade to alls dice rolls.

On #2, I asked Sam a rules question about Lethal Blows (or maybe Vicious?) ranks a while back. The answer was basically that you could choose to either use, or not use, the increase to your criticals (after rolling), but you would probably want to use it in most circumstances, and if you do use it, you shouldn't be choosing to only use a certain number of ranks of it. It's all or nothing.

I can't find the answer now, but basically if the action grinds to a halt because you're poring over the critical injuries list for the "maximized benefit," then that's a bad thing. Take your crit and like it