Design & Development: Simplifying dice pools

[MerricB]

"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..." - Design & Development, Designing the Delve, pt 1

Most DMs? Oops. I've managed to ignore a good time-saver. (Should it be "some" DMs, or some other term that makes me think that I haven't been stupid?)

Oh well. Absolutely loved this article. So interesting to see the characters David Noonan built, and his thoughts on why they are the way they are.

(I also quickly set up a list of dice simplifications on my site: 4d4-20d4; 5d6-20d6; 5d8-20d8).

Cheers!

 

[blargney the second]

I'm really impressed that he fit that broad an array of 20th level PCs on a single side of a single sheet.
-blarg

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Most DMs? Oops. I've managed to ignore a good time-saver. (Should it be "some" DMs, or some other term that makes me think that I haven't been stupid?)

A lot of folks have been using "most" as a synonym for "some" of late, IME.

 

[blargney the second]

You mean "most folks", right Whizbang?

 

[Mouseferatu]

I don't know if "most" DMs do this; I've never even heard it suggested before.

But I may well snag it myself. Adding up the dice has been a huge time-waster in my groups recently. This may just fix a good chunk of the problem.

 

[Corsair]

I don't know if "most" DMs do this; I've never even heard it suggested before.

But I may well snag it myself. Adding up the dice has been a huge time-waster in my groups recently. This may just fix a good chunk of the problem.

It's only a problem if you can't do math quickly. I suppose this could ve very helpful for DMs who roll many dice, but my DM already uses a laptop with a die roller (the one from the wotc site actually) to solve that problem on his end.

Speaking as the resident arcane caster, when I fire of an empowered orb of force for 21d6, or a disintegrate for 28d6, you bet your britches I'm rolling those dice. I've never played a caster this high, and in DnD half the fun is rolling all those dice I've been collecting for years!

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Why would anyone not want to roll that many dice for damage? That is a ton of fun right there. Pitching 20d6 and watching the look of horror on the players faces as a bunch of them turn up 6's. But looking at the chart and seeing simplifications for 5d6? This may come off as insulting but if you can't add 5d6 quickly you are probably going to have a lot more problems DM'ing 3e than dice rolling.

At that point why not just use average damage or something like that?

Speaking as the resident arcane caster, when I fire of an empowered orb of force for 21d6, or a disintegrate for 28d6, you bet your britches I'm rolling those dice. I've never played a caster this high, and in DnD half the fun is rolling all those dice I've been collecting for years!

So true.

 

[Pants]

Why would anyone not want to roll that many dice for damage? That is a ton of fun right there. Pitching 20d6 and watching the look of horror on the players faces as a bunch of them turn up 6's. But looking at the chart and seeing simplifications for 5d6? This may come off as insulting but if you can't add 5d6 quickly you are probably going to have a lot more problems DM'ing 3e than dice rolling.

Personally.
I recently ran a fight with an Eye of the Deep Beholder against the PC's. The beholder can create a cone of cold ray at 10th or 12th level each round. Sure, the first time when the characters encounter it, they're going to be all 'Oh sh*t, look at all the dice!' but after the 4th or 5th round, it can get tedious rolling all those dice and adding them up.

Obviously, YMMV but that's just my experience.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Personally.
I recently ran a fight with an Eye of the Deep Beholder against the PC's. The beholder can create a cone of cold ray at 10th or 12th level each round. Sure, the first time when the characters encounter it, they're going to be all 'Oh sh*t, look at all the dice!' but after the 4th or 5th round, it can get tedious rolling all those dice and adding them up.

Obviously, YMMV but that's just my experience.

I've never had that kind of problem. The dice rolling is the most exciting part of our sessions usually.

And won't that system eliminate the really low rolls? Those always really get my players fired up when I have a real crap roll on something that does big damage.

 

[GSHamster]

I've used stuff like this before. Like if you have to roll 15d6, just roll 5d6 and multiply by 3.

I don't usually have all 15 dice, so it's quicker to just multiply, rather than roll multiple times.