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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dmnqwk" data-source="post: 6762309" data-attributes="member: 6804204">I think if the DM is either very lucky or unlucky for damage, it sometimes pays to simply take the average. You're also welcome to reduce the dice involved so the average has a shorter range.The initial 13-68 (or 11d6+2 to simplify) is a great example - the average is sitting on 40.5 mean compared to the average, you're looking at 33% to 150% as a rangeReduced Range - 2d10+29 puts us down to 67% to 125%, a much easier range to cope with but still fairly randomLow Range - 2d6+33 pulls it down even further, so we're dealing with 87.5% to 112.5%Looking at more normal rolls on numbers, let's look at something such as a Young White Dragon, whose breath weapon is normally 10d8.Normal Range - 10d8 goes from 10 to 80, average of 45. This means we're going from 22% to 178%, quite a bit of pot luck going on there.Reduced Range - We could go 2d12+32 and the average remains the same, but the range is now 34 to 56 (or 75% to 125% ish)Low Range doesn't seem necessary since 75 to 125 is very reasonable. It makes the breath weapon dangerous every time, without allowing a bit of luck to decimate the party.Obviously when you're dealing with normal low damage attacks such as a 3d10 necrotic touch, or just a 2d8+2 you could prevent them being capable of dealing 18 points, and work on the average 11, letting them do 1d6+8 (or 1d4+9) to prevent misfortunate screwing the PCs over. Basically I'd look to roll no more than 2 dice, and try to get the % between about 67% and 150% for a range where possible, to really make things a bit less random without removing the danger entirely.</blockquote>

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