Better Spell Damage Progression (+Martial fixes to keep things balanced)

[Yunru]

First off, this is still rough around the edges, for that I apologise. But since I lack the playtest base that WotC has...
Second I will be referring to spell damage by number of dice, since single target and multi/auto target have different dice (d10s and d6s).

Spell damage:
1st level: 3 dice
2nd level: 5 dice
3rd level: 7 dice
4th level: 9 dice
5th level: 11 dice
6th level: 17 dice
7th level: 26 dice
8th level: 40 dice
9th level: 60 dice

N.B.: Be sure to also apply this increase to things like the Paladin's Divine Smite feature.

Since this puts casters way ahead of non-casters, we also need to up their damage.
So we double the Rogue's Sneak Attack. Up to you how you want to do it, either have it go up by 1 per level (rather than every other), or up by 2 every other level.
For non-Rogues, we can simply increase base weapon damage. For a quick fix, simply increase each weapon so the average damage goes up by around 4.
Or remake your weapons using my super dandy point guide:

Each weapon starts off with 7 points. Being a Martial weapon gives you 3 points, being heavy also gives you 3 points (limited to two-handed weapons), being two-handed gives you 5 points, and being versatile gives you 3 points to spend on features that apply when held in two hands. For ranged weapons, having Loading gives you 3 points.

Weapon damage (melee|ranged):
(11|7.33): 18 points
(10.5|7): 17 points
(10|6.66): 16 points
(9.5|6.33): 15 points
(9|6): 14 points
(8.5|5.66): 13 points
(8|5.33): 12 points
(7.5|5): 11 points
(7|4.66): 10 points
(6.5|4.33): 9 points
(6|4): 8 points
(5.5|3.66): 7 points
(5|3.33): 6 points
(4.5|3): 5 points
(4|2.66): 4 points
(3.5|2.33): 3 points
(3|2): 2 points
(2.5|1.66) 1 point

Now then, some features:
Being Light costs 3 points
Being Finesse costs 3 points
Having Reach costs 3 points
Being Thrown is free (for now)

 

[Gadget]

What is the purpose behind these proposed house rules? Are you trying to solve the problem of insufficient damage by characters all around? For spell damage, are you purposing single target damage spells do the equivalent of 3d10 damage? What about mitigating factors such as Ray of Sickness's poisoned condition, Magic Missile's auto hit, and Thunderwave's push back effect, and Witch Bolt's continuous damage? Should these have less damage due to other benefits? What about scaling when cast in higher level slots?

I ask these questions not to be argumentative (I too think some of the spells and weapons are out of whack), but because I want to understand the reasoning behind the changes to better critique the system and apply it.

 

[Dausuul]

I agree with Gadget. Normally, if someone proposes changing caster damage, I assume the goal is to bring it into line with martial damage, or vice versa. But here, you're hiking both. Why do you think PCs do insufficient damage? Do you find that fights are dragging, or are you trying to enable something else (e.g., making ambushes deadlier)?

Personally, I'd rather reduce monster hit points than try to boost PC damage; it's a much simpler solution and accomplishes the same end.

 

[Yunru]

What is the purpose behind these proposed house rules? Are you trying to solve the problem of insufficient damage by characters all around? For spell damage, are you purposing single target damage spells do the equivalent of 3d10 damage? What about mitigating factors such as Ray of Sickness's poisoned condition, Magic Missile's auto hit, and Thunderwave's push back effect, and Witch Bolt's continuous damage? Should these have less damage due to other benefits? What about scaling when cast in higher level slots?

I ask these questions not to be argumentative (I too think some of the spells and weapons are out of whack), but because I want to understand the reasoning behind the changes to better critique the system and apply it.

It's simple: Spell damage doesn't match the benefits of non-damage spells of the same level. This intends to fix that. Unfortunately, if you want to match the power of 6th level and above, you start out-damaging Martial characters by a lot, so also had to boost that.

For scaling, scaling is supposed to make a 1st level spell be on par with, say, a 5th level spell when cast in a higher spell slot, at least for damage.

For other effects, you'll just have to eyeball those I'm afraid, I tried codifying it once and... yeah, I know now why WotC didn't. Magic Missile, though, seems to just use the damage for something that hits multiple opponents (1d4+1 = 1d6).

 

[FrogReaver]

It's simple: Spell damage doesn't match the benefits of non-damage spells of the same level. This intends to fix that. Unfortunately, if you want to match the power of 6th level and above, you start out-damaging Martial characters by a lot, so also had to boost that.

For scaling, scaling is supposed to make a 1st level spell be on par with, say, a 5th level spell when cast in a higher spell slot, at least for damage.

For other effects, you'll just have to eyeball those I'm afraid, I tried codifying it once and... yeah, I know now why WotC didn't. Magic Missile, though, seems to just use the damage for something that hits multiple opponents (1d4+1 = 1d6).

But then you are going to increase monster hp to compenate and so really you just bloated the numbers for no reason?

 

[Yunru]

But then you are going to increase monster hp to compenate and so really you just bloated the numbers for no reason?

Not at all. To both parts. Except maybe by a static 12 HP. At which point you've damage spells on par with control spells, and martial classes haven't lost out.

 

[FrogReaver]

Not at all. To both parts. Except maybe by a static 12 HP.

So you are proposing to greatly increase martial and spell damage without increasing monster hp?

 

[Yunru]

So you are proposing to greatly increase martial and spell damage without increasing monster go?

Of course not, but HP's only going to go up scaling to martial damage, so everything falls into balance.

 

[FrogReaver]

Why the hell would I increase monster damage?

My fingers don’t type what I was thinking. I fixed the post.

 

[Yunru]

My fingers don’t type what I was thinking. I fixed the post.

Yeah, caught that after I replied.