LogFAQs > #882391772

Not 20, you just need to beat their AC, as others have already said.

It's like that, because you can get some weapons to threaten a critical hit on a 15, which means you would have a 30% chance to crit every time you roll an attack, and with some characters, you can roll an attack up to 8 or even more times a round.

A natural 20 automatically hits, even if with the 20 and your hit modifiers wouldn't hit their AC. It will also always threaten a critical hit.

A lot of weapons also have a crit range, this will be 15-20, meaning you threaten crit on a 15 above if you beat their armour class. (It does not mean an automatic hit if you roll a 15 on one of these weapons and your modifiers do not allow the roll to hit their AC, which a lot of people don't seem to understand.) 17-20 means you threaten a crit on a 17 or above, and so on with 18-20 and 19-20.

If you threaten a critical hit, then you roll an attack roll again with the same modifiers as you rolled the original attack. If that roll hits their AC, then you get a critical hit. (Even if you roll a 2, but your +10 to hit brings your roll up to a 12 against their 12 AC. But a 1 can never confirm a crit as a 1 is always a failure.)

Since you're playing Pathfinder, you should also know that a natural 20 is only ever an automatic success on an attack roll, a saving throw, or a Constitution check to stabilize. Likewise, a natural 1 is only ever an automatic failure on an attack roll, or a saving through, but not a Constitution check to stabilize.


Anyways, if you roll consistently roll low that often, I would really recommend checking to see if your dice are weighted poorly, or even just buying new ones. Google or search Youtube for the dice in salt water trick to figure out how to check your dice. It's really not that uncommon for them to be weighted poorly, especially if they are opaque. Sometimes it's positive, sometimes it's negative.
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Stupid signature!