Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
So why all the freaking dice?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Gorgoroth" data-source="post: 6064053" data-attributes="member: 6674889"><p>Disarming the enemy before he can hit you with that Morgul or poisoned blade could be well worth more than 1d12 or 2d6 damage. They can tweak how often you get bumps. By removing the silly extra fighter flat bonus, and even the strength bonus to damage, they can make the system a lot simpler than it is. Strength bonus, I used to think, was a sacred cow that I didn't want to lose, but with all this damage, it's superfluous and bloaty at higher levels, and like Mearls wrote, breaks low level enemies (there is no chance to not kill a kobold at level1 if you have any kind of str mod, since you'll always do at least 2 damage).</p><p></p><p>I get your point about the same maneuvers costing you proportionately more damage at higher levels, but there is such a thing as overkill, right? With whirlwind attack, for example, instead of doing 6d12 extra damage on one guy, who'll be so dead it's not even funny, do 3d12 on three guys having sacrificed 3d12 to do that. If you're smart or lucky, you can kill all of them. That's a worthwhile tradeoff, IMO. Especially if you're wielding a sword of slaying X and you can gain multiple times the benefit of the 2d8 flame or holy damage. </p><p></p><p>The 4e motto for rangers was multi-attacks on one foe to kill'em dead faster. The DDN motto seems to be, you have the flexibility to assign damage where you want to, with some tradeoffs for splitting the damage over foes. Don't split it around if you really need the first big guy dead. But if you're fighting eight mooks and one BBEG at the same time, you really want to pick off 2-3 mooks every round, to reduce incoming damage, rather than just concentrate all your dice on the BBEG and die in the process since the number of incoming attacks stays the same. Mop up the mooks first. That makes perfect sense to me.</p><p></p><p>If maneuvers aren't worth a whole W's worth of extra damage when using a greatsword, but are worth a d6 or d10 of extra damage, then maybe if you're wielding an offhand light weapon then you are only trading off a d6 for a d6 of parry with that hand's weapon die anyway. I think that's a feature of the system, not a bug. You really should only be disarming that enemy when it's way more important to not get hit by it even once, than it is to simply finish off the foe faster. Or blocking, or parrying. If I give up d12 damage for d6 damage reduction, is that not worth it? </p><p></p><p>Maybe not when I'm at full HP, but when I have 3 hp left, you can betcha it is. I like the fact that finessable, lower damaging weapons would be used more for maneuvers than a big old sword. You can use a polearm to trip people up, since it's a ranged control weapon. So what if you trade off d12 to do it, all your friends now have advantage against him. Pummel him to pulp now, guys...ps you're welcome.</p><p></p><p>"<span style="color: #979797"> (which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.)" there are probably other neat-o ways of addressing this issue we haven't thought of. If I get 1/2 the number of dice but higher values than now, you betcha the opportunity cost of chosing to apply it to damage over that maneuver is different. but that's what playtesting is for, am I right? It's just an idea, anyway. I like big swords doing more damage as you get higher in level.</span></p><p><span style="color: #979797"></span></p><p><span style="color: #979797">Stealing 4e's W damage dice mechanic for basic attacks if a good one, IMO, and partly addresses this concern. e.g.. at level 6 you get 2W. It's not such a huge bump than going up by a d6. Do it on a dead level when the d6 martial damage die count doesn't go up.</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Gorgoroth, post: 6064053, member: 6674889"] Disarming the enemy before he can hit you with that Morgul or poisoned blade could be well worth more than 1d12 or 2d6 damage. They can tweak how often you get bumps. By removing the silly extra fighter flat bonus, and even the strength bonus to damage, they can make the system a lot simpler than it is. Strength bonus, I used to think, was a sacred cow that I didn't want to lose, but with all this damage, it's superfluous and bloaty at higher levels, and like Mearls wrote, breaks low level enemies (there is no chance to not kill a kobold at level1 if you have any kind of str mod, since you'll always do at least 2 damage). I get your point about the same maneuvers costing you proportionately more damage at higher levels, but there is such a thing as overkill, right? With whirlwind attack, for example, instead of doing 6d12 extra damage on one guy, who'll be so dead it's not even funny, do 3d12 on three guys having sacrificed 3d12 to do that. If you're smart or lucky, you can kill all of them. That's a worthwhile tradeoff, IMO. Especially if you're wielding a sword of slaying X and you can gain multiple times the benefit of the 2d8 flame or holy damage. The 4e motto for rangers was multi-attacks on one foe to kill'em dead faster. The DDN motto seems to be, you have the flexibility to assign damage where you want to, with some tradeoffs for splitting the damage over foes. Don't split it around if you really need the first big guy dead. But if you're fighting eight mooks and one BBEG at the same time, you really want to pick off 2-3 mooks every round, to reduce incoming damage, rather than just concentrate all your dice on the BBEG and die in the process since the number of incoming attacks stays the same. Mop up the mooks first. That makes perfect sense to me. If maneuvers aren't worth a whole W's worth of extra damage when using a greatsword, but are worth a d6 or d10 of extra damage, then maybe if you're wielding an offhand light weapon then you are only trading off a d6 for a d6 of parry with that hand's weapon die anyway. I think that's a feature of the system, not a bug. You really should only be disarming that enemy when it's way more important to not get hit by it even once, than it is to simply finish off the foe faster. Or blocking, or parrying. If I give up d12 damage for d6 damage reduction, is that not worth it? Maybe not when I'm at full HP, but when I have 3 hp left, you can betcha it is. I like the fact that finessable, lower damaging weapons would be used more for maneuvers than a big old sword. You can use a polearm to trip people up, since it's a ranged control weapon. So what if you trade off d12 to do it, all your friends now have advantage against him. Pummel him to pulp now, guys...ps you're welcome. "[COLOR=#979797] (which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.)" there are probably other neat-o ways of addressing this issue we haven't thought of. If I get 1/2 the number of dice but higher values than now, you betcha the opportunity cost of chosing to apply it to damage over that maneuver is different. but that's what playtesting is for, am I right? It's just an idea, anyway. I like big swords doing more damage as you get higher in level. Stealing 4e's W damage dice mechanic for basic attacks if a good one, IMO, and partly addresses this concern. e.g.. at level 6 you get 2W. It's not such a huge bump than going up by a d6. Do it on a dead level when the d6 martial damage die count doesn't go up.[/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
So why all the freaking dice?
Top