Weapon Damage

[maddman75]

Unisystem works like this, in Cinematic anyway. Weapons have a set damage, or are a multiple of strength. So a gun might do 16 damage, while a punch does 2 times strength. There's also modifiers to damage types, so a bullet does double damage to living targets for instance. Then you add on a bonus based on how well the attack was. So if you shoot someone with said pistol and get 4 success levels (a very good hit) you do 20 damage. 40 if they're a living target.

Classic you can roll for damage, but there's still the option to just use the standard damage. I like it myself, it makes combat a lot faster and smoother.

And the real reason weapons do different damage types? Because when Gygax & co found a place to sell d20s, it was from a mathematics supply company and they only sold them in sets. So they had the d20s and d6s, but they also had all these d12, d10, d8, and d4 dice. Rather than throw them out, they decided to use them for something!

 

[avigor]

An idea I've been toying with:

First, give all weapons a static base damage. Enchantments increase this damage base.

Then, say that every X you beat the opponent's AC by, you get a +1 to your damage. The X should probably be something like 5; I'd say definitely less than 10.

I haven't really mathed it out or attempted a playtest, and this type of system might require a reworking of damage reduction numbers if implemented.

I think I saw something like this in the True20 PDF I got during Free RPG Week.

 

[Zurai]

And the real reason weapons do different damage types? Because when Gygax & co found a place to sell d20s, it was from a mathematics supply company and they only sold them in sets. So they had the d20s and d6s, but they also had all these d12, d10, d8, and d4 dice. Rather than throw them out, they decided to use them for something!

Yep, this is true. I was told the same story by Dave Arneson. Kinda funny how random stuff like that shapes an entire product for decades

 

[JDJblatherings]

Oh and you guys should play OD&D since it has d6 damage for all weapons. Where is diaglo at...



And I can see how a dagger could do the damage a greatsword does in the right hands...but on average I think the greatsword would do much more damage to a target.

of course that 1d6 for damage makes a lot more sense when you consider there was a man to man combat table in Chainmail wherein different weapons had different chance to hit depending on the armor of the opponent so a two handed sword was superior to a dagger.

given the abstract nature of D&D combat (certainly more so in the olden days) variable weapon damage with different dice doesn't necessarily reflect more stopping power or a wider area of contact for a specific weapon exclussively but also but a higher likelihood of being able to bring a weapon to bear against an opponent in a manner that allows one to cause significant harm.