A critical hit is an automatic hit. By default, a critical hit can only occur when rolling a 20 on your attack roll. With a feature like the one from Champion, a critical hit occurs on a 19 or 20, and that is absolutely an automatic hit as well.
While I think this makes the most sense and is probably the correct way to read the rules, I think there is also technically some room to interpret it the other way, where the automatic hit part of it is lost between the definition for rolling a 20 and the definition of a critical hit.
There is no room to interpret it any other way. A critical hit is defined as an automatic hit against the target. There is zero possibility of a situation in which you roll a critical hit, but don't actually hit the target... 0.00%
Specific equipment/features a creature may have to nullify a critical hit (like Adamantine Armor) are also irrelevant because the scope of this inquiry is focused on what a critical hit is to begin with.
"Confirming criticals" is not a thing in 5e, full stop.
Unless you have disadvantage.
Confirming criticals is not a thing in 5e, and disadvantage is not the same thing. Really, it's conceptually different enough that the comparison shouldn't be made.
Confirming critical hits in 3.5e were something done after the actual attack roll, and only determined whether the hit was a critical or normal hit; confirmation rolls did not carry the risk of making the attack a miss.
Disadvantage in 5e is the actual attack roll. If you roll a miss on one die, it doesn't matter if you rolled a 20 on the other one; you missed entirely.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Our group uses the term "soft 20" if it comes after modifiers.
Also in regards to crits, the wording stated that a 20 on the d20 always hits, blah, blah blah. As such, our Fighter could still miss on a 19 roll. His Champion ability only kicks in IF he hits and I have only seen text stating a 20 on the d20 always hits, regardless of modifiers. Important to note, however, if a fighter rolls a 19, he almost always has big bonuses to hit and will likely be making contact anyway, making it SUPER rate that a 19 roll would NOT hit.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Our group uses the term "soft 20" if it comes after modifiers.
Also in regards to crits, the wording stated that a 20 on the d20 always hits, blah, blah blah. As such, our Fighter could still miss on a 19 roll. His Champion ability only kicks in IF he hits and I have only seen text stating a 20 on the d20 always hits, regardless of modifiers. Important to note, however, if a fighter rolls a 19, he almost always has big bonuses to hit and will likely be making contact anyway, making it SUPER rate that a 19 roll would NOT hit.
The Champion ability says they "score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20" which means they hit, no? At least that seems to be Jeremy Crawford's reasoning here.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Our group uses the term "soft 20" if it comes after modifiers.
Also in regards to crits, the wording stated that a 20 on the d20 always hits, blah, blah blah. As such, our Fighter could still miss on a 19 roll. His Champion ability only kicks in IF he hits and I have only seen text stating a 20 on the d20 always hits, regardless of modifiers. Important to note, however, if a fighter rolls a 19, he almost always has big bonuses to hit and will likely be making contact anyway, making it SUPER rate that a 19 roll would NOT hit.
The Champion ability says they "score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20" which means they hit, no? At least that seems to be Jeremy Crawford's reasoning here.
Based strictly on the verbiage of the rulings, nothing states a rolled 19 makes contact, but it does state a rolled 20 always hits. That's our interpretation of the RaW and we all take that as acceptable. Other tables may well rule that a 19 roll always hits for the Champions, but we can't find anything RaW to support it, so we don't. Part of the reasoning is you can roll a 20 and not hit (fighting in darkness and attacking the wrong square as one example) JC's statement is fine for rule disputes, but we never looked it up, due to the wording of RaW being clear enough for us. Also that view of the ruling makes the Hexblade gain the same benefit, a 19 is auto-hit auto crit. If it works in your games, then I say go for it. We just don't, because only a 20 roll states specifically that you hit no matter what modifiers are involved.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Our group uses the term "soft 20" if it comes after modifiers.
Also in regards to crits, the wording stated that a 20 on the d20 always hits, blah, blah blah. As such, our Fighter could still miss on a 19 roll. His Champion ability only kicks in IF he hits and I have only seen text stating a 20 on the d20 always hits, regardless of modifiers. Important to note, however, if a fighter rolls a 19, he almost always has big bonuses to hit and will likely be making contact anyway, making it SUPER rate that a 19 roll would NOT hit.
The Champion ability says they "score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20" which means they hit, no? At least that seems to be Jeremy Crawford's reasoning here.
Based strictly on the verbiage of the rulings, nothing states a rolled 19 makes contact, but it does state a rolled 20 always hits. That's our interpretation of the RaW and we all take that as acceptable. Other tables may well rule that a 19 roll always hits for the Champions, but we can't find anything RaW to support it, so we don't. Part of the reasoning is you can roll a 20 and not hit (fighting in darkness and attacking the wrong square as one example) JC's statement is fine for rule disputes, but we never looked it up, due to the wording of RaW being clear enough for us. Also that view of the ruling makes the Hexblade gain the same benefit, a 19 is auto-hit auto crit. If it works in your games, then I say go for it. We just don't, because only a 20 roll states specifically that you hit no matter what modifiers are involved.
I realize this thread is being necroed and folks are welcome to play how they like but I wanted to clarify that the rules do support a Champion fighter hitting with either a 19 or 20.
"If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. This is called a critical hit, which is explained later in this chapter."
An attack that hits regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC is CALLED a critical hit. Normally this is only scored on a roll of 20 on the die.
The champion fighter ability states:
"Beginning when you choose this archetype at 3rd level, your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20."
A champion fighter scores a critical hit on a 19 or 20. A critical hit is defined as an attack that hits regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC. Thus, for a champion fighter, a 19 or 20 will both hit regardless of modifiers or AC. The EFFECTS of a critical hit are defined later in the chapter and go into the details of how to resolve a critical hit. However, a critical hit itself is NOT the doubling of damage die - that is the effect - a critical hit is one that hits the target regardless of modifiers or AC.
So the rules do quite clearly support the view that a champion fighter hits when rolling a 19 or 20 on the to hit roll regardless of modifiers or AC since that is the definition of a critical hit.
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Confirming criticals is not a thing in 5e, and disadvantage is not the same thing. Really, it's conceptually different enough that the comparison shouldn't be made.
Confirming critical hits in 3.5e were something done after the actual attack roll, and only determined whether the hit was a critical or normal hit; confirmation rolls did not carry the risk of making the attack a miss.
Disadvantage in 5e is the actual attack roll. If you roll a miss on one die, it doesn't matter if you rolled a 20 on the other one; you missed entirely.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
We use "Dirty 20" and the DM usually treats it like a natural 20 but describes how you get there in a funny and shitty way.
"Synthetic or Mathematical 20" vs. "Natural 20."
Our group uses the term "soft 20" if it comes after modifiers.
Also in regards to crits, the wording stated that a 20 on the d20 always hits, blah, blah blah. As such, our Fighter could still miss on a 19 roll. His Champion ability only kicks in IF he hits and I have only seen text stating a 20 on the d20 always hits, regardless of modifiers. Important to note, however, if a fighter rolls a 19, he almost always has big bonuses to hit and will likely be making contact anyway, making it SUPER rate that a 19 roll would NOT hit.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
The Champion ability says they "score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20" which means they hit, no? At least that seems to be Jeremy Crawford's reasoning here.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Based strictly on the verbiage of the rulings, nothing states a rolled 19 makes contact, but it does state a rolled 20 always hits. That's our interpretation of the RaW and we all take that as acceptable. Other tables may well rule that a 19 roll always hits for the Champions, but we can't find anything RaW to support it, so we don't. Part of the reasoning is you can roll a 20 and not hit (fighting in darkness and attacking the wrong square as one example) JC's statement is fine for rule disputes, but we never looked it up, due to the wording of RaW being clear enough for us. Also that view of the ruling makes the Hexblade gain the same benefit, a 19 is auto-hit auto crit. If it works in your games, then I say go for it. We just don't, because only a 20 roll states specifically that you hit no matter what modifiers are involved.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
We say BTEC 20
I realize this thread is being necroed and folks are welcome to play how they like but I wanted to clarify that the rules do support a Champion fighter hitting with either a 19 or 20.
"If the d20![]()
roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. This is called a critical hit, which is explained later in this chapter."
An attack that hits regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC is CALLED a critical hit. Normally this is only scored on a roll of 20 on the die.
The champion fighter ability states:
"Beginning when you choose this archetype at 3rd level, your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20."
A champion fighter scores a critical hit on a 19 or 20. A critical hit is defined as an attack that hits regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC. Thus, for a champion fighter, a 19 or 20 will both hit regardless of modifiers or AC. The EFFECTS of a critical hit are defined later in the chapter and go into the details of how to resolve a critical hit. However, a critical hit itself is NOT the doubling of damage die - that is the effect - a critical hit is one that hits the target regardless of modifiers or AC.
So the rules do quite clearly support the view that a champion fighter hits when rolling a 19 or 20 on the to hit roll regardless of modifiers or AC since that is the definition of a critical hit.