Would It Break The Game If...: Weapon Damage

[airwalkrr]

For some of my players, even those who have been playing for a couple of years, there is a tendency to reach for the right dice. I know it probably sounds silly to those of us who live and breathe gaming, but a lot of my players are casual gamers who don't get really heavily into the nitty-gritty rules and still think a d8 looks a lot like a d10. Sometimes I just let it slide if they roll the wrong die and its a positive result in the interest of moving things along, but I've been thinking about a simplified damage dice system. It's really easy to understand. Here it goes.

All damage dice are d6s. Here is how the conversion works.
If its a d2, then roll a d6 and divide by 3, rounding up.
If its a d3, then roll a d6 and divide by 2, rounding up.
If its a d4, then roll a d6 - 1 (minimum 1).
If its a d6, no change.
If its a d8, then roll a d6 + 1.
If its a d10, then roll a d6 + 2.
If its a d12, then roll a d6 + 3.

This results in the same mathematical average for all dice except the d4, which is slightly better (2.67 over the d4's average of 2.5). So players will be dealing the same amount of damage on average, and as a side result will also be dealing more consistent damage. I consider this side result to be a net benefit because anything that reduces randomness in the game generally benefits the PCs.

On the other hand, this might make it less likely for certain weapons to overcome DR. The greataxe has a chance (2 in 12) of getting high enough on the die roll alone to overcome DR 10. But with this system, the greataxe is simply incapable of doing so without a critical hit unless a Str modifier or magical enhancement bonus is being applied. This is the only situation in which I can think of currently that would negatively effect the players.

I am thinking perhaps the benefit of more consistent damage is a wash with the reduced possibility in some corner cases to overcome DR. And with the overall result of allowing the use of only two dice, 1) the d20 for attacks, skills, and saving throws and 2) the d6 for damage (including spells), this could overall be a good thing for my group.

What do you think? And more specifically what areas of the game might this affect that I am not thinking about?

Note: I don't expect this to work for every group. I've played with veteran D&D players before who know their dice inside and out and never reach for the wrong dice. This variant isn't for them. It's for more casual groups like my current one.

 

[Dandu]

I think your players will now just roll the wrong amount of dice.

 

[airwalkrr]

Well in general you are only rolling one die for damage on a weapon hit. If you are a spellcaster it is generally one die per caster level although there are plenty of exceptions. But the number of dice here is rarely the problem. It's usually the type. They can look at the sheet and see 1d8+3 for damage is listed then pick up the wrong die. I'll admit the d8/d10 confusion is the most common. But I've also seen d12/d20 confusion a lot. And some of my players are completely bewildered at how to read d4s. It doesn't help that reading a d4 varies depending on who made the die.

 

[Dandu]

Use an online dice rolling program?

 

[airwalkrr]

Perhaps we don't all have laptops.

If you'd like to contribute to the conversation then please do. You still have yet to actually address my question of how this might impact the game in other ways.

 

[ExploderWizard]

If the players are casual enough to not know what dice to use for weapon damage then use simpler rules. All damage is 1d6, OD&D old school. It should be easy to remember too.

 

[Dandu]

Perhaps we don't all have laptops.

If you'd like to contribute to the conversation then please do. You still have yet to actually address my question of how this might impact the game in other ways.

I'm sure your proposal will be fine, then.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Aside for the DR issue you mentioned, I can't see anything too out of whack. Your method simply compresses the range of damage possible.

One question: what will you do for weapons with multiple damage dice, eg falchion's 2d4 and various large sized weapons? Seems it could take some work to get all those new damages to work out so they fall in the same relative places on the generic weapon damage by size table.

 

[Dog Moon]

Interestingly enough, unless you have special dice, your rule for d2 and d3 is exactly how I already roll for those.

Personally, I like all the different types of dice, but as I think about it, I can't really think of how it might break the game at all. Only thing I can think of is if you use this as a DM, running prewritten monsters would be a pain in the butt. Players just need to make the modification once, write it down, and they'll be good. DM would have to convert damages of all the monsters they use.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I don't see anything wrong with it. As a player, I approve-- random anything is the bane of my existence.

Of course, for some people, the weird dice are part of the appeal.