GMMichael
Guide of Modos
Modos Ode to the Dagger:
Well, as it stands (my code for "I'm open to ideas"), a dagger does 1d4+1 damage. Minimum damage 1 (per all weapons), max damage 5. Average damage, 3.5.
The average person has 10 Physical health. So average joe can get stabbed about 3 times, or with 2 good hits, and be Mostly Dead.
Joe doesn't like this idea, so he dons the best armor that average people can get: padded armor (d4). The next time Joe gets stabbed, he gets to roll a d4 to reduce that dagger's damage. His armor's average protection is 2.5. So on a good hit, Joe will take 4 damage (5 damage less 4 protection). On a bad hit, Joe will take 1 damage (minimum successful hit) (2 damage less 4 protection). After 2 good dagger hits, Joe will still be hating life. (If both sides take half, Joe takes 1 damage).
So Joe gets promoted to Superior Joe, and gets issued a shiny new suit of scalemail (d8). Scale, we'll assume, has some good spots for dagger penetration. Joe can now take half on all his protection against daggers, and the dagger will only be able to do 1 damage. However, if Joe rolls, the dagger can do max damage of 4 (5 damage less 1 protection), minimum damage of 1 (2 damage less 1 protection).
The dagger looks pretty wimpy against medium-armored opponents. Enter the Backstab perk, which grants another +2 damage against unaware opponents. (If the dagger-wielder only takes backstab once) now if Superior Joe takes half on his protection, he'll take 3 damage on a good, sneaky dagger attack.
Or you could add a mod for critical hits: an attacker rolling an unmatched 20 gets to avoid armor protection on his attack.
And let's not forget Hero Points: if the player of the dagger-wielder feels lucky, he can add hero points to his damage roll, and that dagger stab will gain an average of 3.5 more damage on a successful hit.
(For the record, characters gain 1 "hit point" per level, unless they spend their level perk on 3 more hit points).
Well, as it stands (my code for "I'm open to ideas"), a dagger does 1d4+1 damage. Minimum damage 1 (per all weapons), max damage 5. Average damage, 3.5.
The average person has 10 Physical health. So average joe can get stabbed about 3 times, or with 2 good hits, and be Mostly Dead.
Joe doesn't like this idea, so he dons the best armor that average people can get: padded armor (d4). The next time Joe gets stabbed, he gets to roll a d4 to reduce that dagger's damage. His armor's average protection is 2.5. So on a good hit, Joe will take 4 damage (5 damage less 4 protection). On a bad hit, Joe will take 1 damage (minimum successful hit) (2 damage less 4 protection). After 2 good dagger hits, Joe will still be hating life. (If both sides take half, Joe takes 1 damage).
So Joe gets promoted to Superior Joe, and gets issued a shiny new suit of scalemail (d8). Scale, we'll assume, has some good spots for dagger penetration. Joe can now take half on all his protection against daggers, and the dagger will only be able to do 1 damage. However, if Joe rolls, the dagger can do max damage of 4 (5 damage less 1 protection), minimum damage of 1 (2 damage less 1 protection).
The dagger looks pretty wimpy against medium-armored opponents. Enter the Backstab perk, which grants another +2 damage against unaware opponents. (If the dagger-wielder only takes backstab once) now if Superior Joe takes half on his protection, he'll take 3 damage on a good, sneaky dagger attack.
Or you could add a mod for critical hits: an attacker rolling an unmatched 20 gets to avoid armor protection on his attack.
And let's not forget Hero Points: if the player of the dagger-wielder feels lucky, he can add hero points to his damage roll, and that dagger stab will gain an average of 3.5 more damage on a successful hit.
(For the record, characters gain 1 "hit point" per level, unless they spend their level perk on 3 more hit points).
