d20 Damage Value flowcharts?

[fireinthedust]

I'm trying to get my head around the math of increasing damage by level in the d20 system.

Is there a chart (I can't find it) that covers damage by level?

As a rule of thumb, what are good values for single-attack effects, like traps or spells?

 

[riotshieldnation]

Are you looking for something like this (page 4)?

 

[kitsune9]

I can't answer for a 4e, but for Pathfinder and 3.x, I know of no rule of thumb for damage outputs by level. I remember a 2e supplement had a rule guide on creating your own spells that gave different damage dice by spell levels.

For Pathfinder, they have a trap creation guide. You can get that information here:

Traps - Pathfinder_OGC

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

IIRC, in 3.5 and d20 Modern, a single-use traps inflicts 2d6 damage per level, and a continuous trap inflicts 1d6 damage/level.

 

[Voadam]

The 3e DMG had a chart on max damage per spell level. I think it started at multiple targets being 5d6 at level 1 (magic missile/burning hands) then 10d6 at level 3 (fireball/lightning bolt) then 15d6 at level 5 (cone of cold) and so on. The even levels were ahead one step on the damage chart but for single target only spells IIRC.

 

[BriarMonkey]

If you are looking for what kind of damage is designed to be metted out against PCs, then Paizo's Beastiary had an appendix that tabled out the amounts of damage expected. It is also available on their PRD.

Hope it helps. Cheers.

 

[[OMENRPG]Ben]

I don't know how official or legitimate this was, but for years at any of my pre-4e groups we used single effect damage = (level + 5)x2 to (level + 10)x2.

This is sort of a sloppy hack for rules, but it was pretty easy to remember as a DM and felt like it fit nicely. Most 3.x characters had 6 hp per level or so, so this worked out alright. For example, a 3.5 fighter at level 10 would usually have around 80 hp. So, if we wanted a moderately damaging trap or one-shot spell or something, it would be 10(level) + 7 (moderate damage) = 17. And then 17 x2 = 34. A little less than half of his overall health. That could be potentially devastating to a weaker or less meaty PC.

I think a good rule of thumb is a solid "hit" on any PC should be roughly 1/5-1/2 of the PCs overall HP. So if the average HP across the party is 30, most attacks should be doing around 10 damage.

Is this what you were looking for?

 

[fireinthedust]

good answers.

let me check all the charts.

It's for a different game, but basically I'm checking the math so that I don't overkill everyone with on-the-fly attacks and traps. Last thing I want is Players going "pfft, fine hit me with that rock; I know you'll only do 3 damage".