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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Probability, Critical Hits, and the Illusion of Importance
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<blockquote data-quote="Jack Daniel" data-source="post: 8756786" data-attributes="member: 694"><p>This is precisely how and why I can get away with implementing the critical hit mechanic that I use in OD&D and OAD&D, systems which emphatically predicate the balance of their combats on <em>not</em> having critical hits (a mechanic that Gygax appears to have despised, as he never missed a chance to ridicule it mercilessly).</p><p></p><p>Since players love and expect critical hits, I give them a mechanic that looks powerful — on a natural 20 attack roll, they get to roll "corrected-exploding" damage dice. That is, they roll damage normally, and if they roll max damage, they subtract 1 point and roll again, repeating as often as they continue to roll maximum. The actual impact of this mechanic? No matter the die-size (it can be as small as d2 or as large as d-any-finite-integer), it increases the expectation value by +½ hp. So if a d6 damage weapon can be expected to deal 3.5 damage on a hit, a critical hit means an expected 4 damage. It's pure mathematical sleight of hand… and yet my players still <em>love</em> scoring critical hits on enemies, and they still cringe and sit on the edge of their seats whenever they suffer a critical hit at the hands of a foe.</p><p></p><p>I never explain the rationale behind the critical hit rules I use, and I have never once seen a player suss it out either.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jack Daniel, post: 8756786, member: 694"] This is precisely how and why I can get away with implementing the critical hit mechanic that I use in OD&D and OAD&D, systems which emphatically predicate the balance of their combats on [I]not[/I] having critical hits (a mechanic that Gygax appears to have despised, as he never missed a chance to ridicule it mercilessly). Since players love and expect critical hits, I give them a mechanic that looks powerful — on a natural 20 attack roll, they get to roll "corrected-exploding" damage dice. That is, they roll damage normally, and if they roll max damage, they subtract 1 point and roll again, repeating as often as they continue to roll maximum. The actual impact of this mechanic? No matter the die-size (it can be as small as d2 or as large as d-any-finite-integer), it increases the expectation value by +½ hp. So if a d6 damage weapon can be expected to deal 3.5 damage on a hit, a critical hit means an expected 4 damage. It's pure mathematical sleight of hand… and yet my players still [I]love[/I] scoring critical hits on enemies, and they still cringe and sit on the edge of their seats whenever they suffer a critical hit at the hands of a foe. I never explain the rationale behind the critical hit rules I use, and I have never once seen a player suss it out either. [/QUOTE]
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Probability, Critical Hits, and the Illusion of Importance
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