D&D 5E Hex question

[Erebus690]

A character scores a critical hit with a sword. Hex was cast on the target prior. Does the damage from hex get extra dice or just the actual sword attack? Had a disagreement with this a a recent session.

 

[jodyjohnson]

All the dice unless they come from a separate source (like Poison damage which comes from a failed Poison save).

 

[Jaelommiss]

"When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack's damage against the target. Roll all of the attack's damage dice twice and add them together ... If the attack involves other damage dice, such as from the rogue's Sneak Attack feature, you roll those dice twice as well."
--PHB, 196

Emphasis mine.

Hex adds damage dice (1d6) to the attack's damage*. All of the attack's damage dice are rolled twice. Therefore, Hex is rolled twice.

Since you said that this led to a disagreement during a game, page numbers have been provided.


*"Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack."
--PHB, 251


Edit: Sage Advice agrees with this interpretation. http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/04/11/hex-damage/

 

[Ahrimon]

All the dice unless they come from a separate source (like Poison damage which comes from a failed Poison save).

I'm going to have to look at the wording for poison. It doesn't always depend on a failed save, it adds dice damage with the caveat of half damage on a save, and some poisons don't allow saves. I'm AFB, but I definitely want to look it up for the poison using rogue in my game.

 

[iatesand]

When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack's damage against the target. Roll all of the attack's damage dice twice and add them together

*"Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack."

The spell Hex deals the damage not the attack. This is just like hunters mark. Hex is not the attack, Hex damage is not the attacks damage. Read the spell HEX and it does not say it adds to the weapons damage. It does not say it adds damage to the attack. In a math formula it would look like this : Damage = (weapon dice *2)+(modifiers)+(hex). The spell is doing extra damage upon the hit. The spells damage is not doubled because you crit with the sword attack.

As a side note to further this example: if you had hit a creature that is immune to your weapons damage say ... a wereduck for example, your weapon would do NO damage at all, but because you did hit him Hex would still proc for 1d6 nec damage as per the spell. If you look at the spell Divine Favor p.234 that spell actually says your weapon attacks deal an extra ... where hex clearly says HEX deals X damage upon a hit

So I am in the NO crit for hex camp, That is RAW and from what I can tell RAI as well

 

[jodyjohnson]

https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/536683487517224961?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

Poison that depends on a save not doubled. Poison damage that doesn't get a save I would double (usually it's add-on and small like +1d6 similar to Divine Favor).

The rest is still debatable. If it's debated then the DM has final say (and the DM can change the Poison ruling too).

 

[Staffan]

When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack's damage against the target. Roll all of the attack's damage dice twice and add them together

*"Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack."

The spell Hex deals the damage not the attack. This is just like hunters mark. Hex is not the attack, Hex damage is not the attacks damage. Read the spell HEX and it does not say it adds to the weapons damage. It does not say it adds damage to the attack. In a math formula it would look like this : Damage = (weapon dice *2)+(modifiers)+(hex). The spell is doing extra damage upon the hit. The spells damage is not doubled because you crit with the sword attack.

As a side note to further this example: if you had hit a creature that is immune to your weapons damage say ... a wereduck for example, your weapon would do NO damage at all, but because you did hit him Hex would still proc for 1d6 nec damage as per the spell. If you look at the spell Divine Favor p.234 that spell actually says your weapon attacks deal an extra ... where hex clearly says HEX deals X damage upon a hit

So I am in the NO crit for hex camp, That is RAW and from what I can tell RAI as well

Sneak Attack: "Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack [...]"

Hex: "you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack."

Hunter's mark: "you deal an extra 1d6 damage to the target whenever you hit it with a weapon attack"

These use pretty much the same wording, "you deal an extra 1d6 damage." And Sneak Attack has been confirmed to double on a crit.

Also, Jeremy Crawford agrees: https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/583085619879886848?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

Poison (and other damage bonuses) depends on how the attack works. For example, if a basilisk crits you with its bite (2d6+3 piercing damage plus 2d6 poison damage), the poison damage would be doubled, because it's just a part of the attack. On the other hand, the assassin's short sword attack deals 1d6+3 piercing damage, and forces you to save or take additional poison damage (save for half). There, I would not double the poison damage, because the save makes it a separate "event."