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D&D @ High Levels = No Problem?
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<blockquote data-quote="DM_Jeff" data-source="post: 4224975" data-attributes="member: 3687"><p>Sure!</p><p></p><p><a href="http://64.223.12.31/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060929a" target="_blank">http://64.223.12.31/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060929a</a></p><p></p><p>And in fact here is the exact text I was referring to in that article:</p><p></p><p><strong>Dice Expressions I Wouldn’t Wish on My Worst Enemy</strong></p><p></p><p>Another weird thing: You might notice that the damage for the rogue’s sneak attack, the wizard’s meteor swarm, and other high-level effects isn’t the “plus 10d6 sneak attack” or “6d6 four times” that you’re used to. But if you deconstruct the damage expressions on the character sheet, you’ll see that the average damage is about the same.</p><p></p><p>We wanted the Delve to be an hour of concentrated D&D, and the time-consuming arithmetic of high-level damage ate into actual play too much. I really didn’t want the spellcasters adding up 20d6 every single round. And while the big dice expressions are tough on players, the DM has it even worse. The CR 22 black dragon has a breath weapon that deals 24d4 points of acid damage. Even if you efficiently “chunk” the dice together, you’re still looking at fourteen or fifteen operations, which will make the game grind to a halt. And only the most masochistic DM would enjoy adding all those dice up.</p><p></p><p>So we decided to just codify what most DMs (and to a lesser extent players) have been doing for years. We rebuilt the damage expressions so that the dice accounted for about one-third of the output and the constant (the number after the plus) accounted for the remaining two thirds. And I rounded up to the next 5, just to make it look even simpler still.</p><p></p><p>That’s something you’re going to see more from us in future products: rational dice expressions that assume you’ve got better ways to spend your time than doing a lot of arithmetic in your head. Yeah, we know it’s fun for you to drop a big pile of twenty 6-siders on the table. But it’s only fun the first time, and everyone else at the table is waiting for their turn while you’re having fun with dice. The game flows better (and you get quicker gratification for your high-level effects) if you convert those unwieldy “20d6 points of damage” expressions to more rational “one-third dice, two-thirds constant” expressions. If you’re playing in a mid- to high-level game, try it out. </p><p></p><p>-DM Jeff</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DM_Jeff, post: 4224975, member: 3687"] Sure! [url]http://64.223.12.31/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060929a[/url] And in fact here is the exact text I was referring to in that article: [B]Dice Expressions I Wouldn’t Wish on My Worst Enemy[/B] Another weird thing: You might notice that the damage for the rogue’s sneak attack, the wizard’s meteor swarm, and other high-level effects isn’t the “plus 10d6 sneak attack” or “6d6 four times” that you’re used to. But if you deconstruct the damage expressions on the character sheet, you’ll see that the average damage is about the same. We wanted the Delve to be an hour of concentrated D&D, and the time-consuming arithmetic of high-level damage ate into actual play too much. I really didn’t want the spellcasters adding up 20d6 every single round. And while the big dice expressions are tough on players, the DM has it even worse. The CR 22 black dragon has a breath weapon that deals 24d4 points of acid damage. Even if you efficiently “chunk” the dice together, you’re still looking at fourteen or fifteen operations, which will make the game grind to a halt. And only the most masochistic DM would enjoy adding all those dice up. So we decided to just codify what most DMs (and to a lesser extent players) have been doing for years. We rebuilt the damage expressions so that the dice accounted for about one-third of the output and the constant (the number after the plus) accounted for the remaining two thirds. And I rounded up to the next 5, just to make it look even simpler still. That’s something you’re going to see more from us in future products: rational dice expressions that assume you’ve got better ways to spend your time than doing a lot of arithmetic in your head. Yeah, we know it’s fun for you to drop a big pile of twenty 6-siders on the table. But it’s only fun the first time, and everyone else at the table is waiting for their turn while you’re having fun with dice. The game flows better (and you get quicker gratification for your high-level effects) if you convert those unwieldy “20d6 points of damage” expressions to more rational “one-third dice, two-thirds constant” expressions. If you’re playing in a mid- to high-level game, try it out. -DM Jeff [/QUOTE]
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