I feel we need some official rules clarification handed down to us from on high by the mighty DMs.

The confusion seems to be around the way critical hits and critical threats work.

Let us say we have a LVL 1 goblin warrior named Bob with a scimitar, and a +3 bonus to hit.

Scimitars have a 18-20/x2 critical hit range.

Bob is fighting Jack. Jack is a Tower Shield Fighter with an AC of 22.

Bob rolls a Natural Twenty with his Scimitar. That is automatically a hit, and also threatens a critical. If Bob rolls a 19 or 20 again, he will confirm the critical hit, and roll 2d6 Damage against Jack.

Now let's say Bob the Goblin rolls an 18, for a total of 21. That is a critical threat, however, it does not hit Jack's AC of 22. For this reason, he misses, and does not hit at all.

Last of all, let's say Bog rolls a 19. This is a critical threat, and because it also hits Jack's AC of 22, he can attempt to confirm another critical hit against Jack.

Is this or is this not how critical hits work here?

The insanity of not knowing is making me crazy!

@_@

According to the official rules, the only die roll that results in an automatic hit, is the roll of a natural 20. Regardless of critical threat range. If you wield a scimitar and threaten on an 18-20, but a roll of 18-19 misses your target, you do not hit, nor-threaten. I am personally unaware of any house rule that states otherwise. I hope this clarifies things.

Jens is correct in this statement, only a Nat 20 is an automatic hit.

the 19 hits and is in the threat range. So it should be a crit threat. If the target can ONLY be hit by rolling a natural 20 then it can't be a crit threat. At least that is my understanding of the rules.

Jens explained the rule perfectly. It's not difficult.

From the Combat Section in the Critical Hit Subsection:

Increased Threat Range: Sometimes your threat range is greater than 20. That is, you can score a threat on a lower number. In such cases, a roll of lower than 20 is not an automatic hit. Any attack roll that doesn't result in a hit is not a threat

So a 20 is an automatic hit and then you roll to confirm a critical hit by hitting AC again.

The increased threat range creates a critical hit only if the modified attack roll hits normally and then confirms as well.