D&D General Sandbox style: Rumors say a +1 sword is in a cave nearby. Go get it?

[MerricB]

I own a whole bunch of 1e modules and don't recall seeing this anywhere, so I'm curious as to whence it came.

White Plume Mountain.

 

[Lanefan]

White Plume Mountain.

Huh. I own that one but have never run it. Interesting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I would never refer to an item as “+1” in game. And unless the item is mook loot or bought from a store I would always give it a minor fluff power and some history.

But a sandbox should provide choices. Does the party want to follow up rumours of the magic sword, the magic glaive or the magic bow?

 

[MarkB]

Does the party want to follow up rumours of the magic sword, the magic glaive or the magic bow?

Depends whether it's a historically-accurate glaive or a Krull glaive.

 

[Lanefan]

Eh.
If you roll a 1 on that d8, a +1 doubles the damage.
If you roll an 8 on that d8, the +1 is 12.5%
On average, a d8 weapon does 4.5 damage. The +1 is then 22.2222%

Do you all now see why I didn't get into damage?

1 pip on a d8 is always 12.5%; and +1 merely increases the range* by one pip from 1-8 to 2-9. Hence, the overall net damage goes up by 12.5%.

* - assumption for these purposes is that the range is closed-ended.

 

[Lanefan]

But a sandbox should provide choices. Does the party want to follow up rumours of the magic sword, the magic glaive or the magic bow?

Yes.

The only debate is in which order we'll do these things.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yes.

The only debate is in which order we'll do these things.

It’s going to depend on what is most important to the party, and wether they outlevel +1 before they get to it.

And if there are other adventuring parties in the area, they might get their first!

 

[Lanefan]

It’s going to depend on what is most important to the party, and wether they outlevel +1 before they get to it.

Go after 'em all anyway, even if we can't use 'em they're still each worth a bucketful of gold.

And if there are other adventuring parties in the area, they might get their first!

A much more valid issue.

 

[Bill Zebub]

1 pip on a d8 is always 12.5%; and +1 merely increases the range* by one pip from 1-8 to 2-9. Hence, the overall net damage goes up by 12.5%.

* - assumption for these purposes is that the range is closed-ended.

Oh boy.

Ok, I'll break it out....

If you can roll 1-8, the average is (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8) / 8 = 4.5
If you can roll 2-9, the average is (2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9) / 8 = 5.5

Which is the same thing as adding +1 to the average of a d8.

1/4.5 = 0.222...

Therefore the increase is 22%.

But note that if you have other bonuses, such as +3 for strength, then the +1 is less significant and you get a lower % increase.

 

[Reynard]

Never have a boring magic sword again!