D&D 5E Getting Rid of Variable Weapon Damage- An Immodest Proposal

[aco175]

What about damage by class, I thought I seen that here before. You r class helps to determine how good you are with a weapon. A wizard stabbing something with a dagger or sword deals 1d4 and a fighter with the same weapon deals 1d10, assuming that the fighter is better trained how to use it. You can expand it from there with a feat or class ability bumping the die to get away from just grabbing a level of fighter.

Is there any connection to speed factor with weapons? I remember swinging a sword to get the more damage but it was slower compared to a dagger.

 

[LoganRan]

The fact that there is no correlation between skill/attack rolls and damage output has always bugged me.

You roll a 19 to hit? Awesome! Too bad you rolled a 1 on your damage. Better luck next round.

I have long been a proponent of having damage work thusly:

• a weapon has a fixed damage value, for example, let us say that a normal sword (i.e. a longsword) has a damage value of three points
• the damage a weapon does is increased by the value the attack roll exceeds the minimum value required to hit. For example, a Fighter attacks with a longsword and needs a '12' on the d20 to hit, said fighter rolls a '16' which exceeds the value required to hit by four thus adding four points of damage to the base damage of three
• I have never been a firm believer that high strength should significantly increase the damage done with a melee weapon, so I would either eliminate any bonus altogether (unlikely) or dramatically reduce the value it adds
• the attacker's level should increase the damage done with a weapon which will be reflected in the fact that a higher level fighter will have a lower minimum value required to hit an opponent thus increasing their odds of exceeding the minimum and adding damage per the rule in point two above
• '20's are not critical hits in this system

An example of the rules above might work like so...

1st level fighter with a 16 STR (+1 to damage in my imaginary ruleset) attacks an orc and needs a '13' to hit. The fighter rolls a '16' on the d20 resulting in a total of 7 points of damage (3 for longsword base damage, 1 for Strength bonus and 3 for exceeding the target number by three).

7th level fighter with a 16 STR (+1 to damage again) attacks and orc and needs a '7' to hit. The fighter rolls a '16' on the d20 resulting in a total of 13 points of damage (3 for longsword, 1 for Strength and 9 for exceeding the target number by nine).

NOTE: I should point out that I prefer the use of multiple dice for task resolution (e.g. 3d6) rather than a single d20 to create a more 'bunched' range of values so that the numbers would not scale quickly out of hand as one would be less likely to roll the higher values (16+) on 3d6 than on a single d20.

 

[Jack Daniel]

As soon as you decide to give two-handed weapons more damage output than one-handed weapons, you have a variable weapon damage system.

And if you don't do that, why in the world would anyone ever favor a two-handed weapon over a one-handed weapon and a shield or second weapon?

 

[Jacob Lewis]

NOTE: I should point out that I prefer the use of multiple dice for task resolution (e.g. 3d6) rather than a single d20 to create a more 'bunched' range of values so that the numbers would not scale quickly out of hand as one would be less likely to roll the higher values (16+) on 3d6 than on a single d20.

I have been working on a system using 3d6 for some time, but it would completely derail the thread. But it's nice to hear I'm not the only one thinking that way.

 

[Mezuka]

I have been working on a system using 3d6 for some time, but it would completely derail the thread. But it's nice to hear I'm not the only one thinking that way.

Fantasy AGE is 3d6 and it does a style similar to D&D. They also have Modern AGE and for sci-fi The Expanse AGE. I played all three for the last 2 years. Look it up.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Fantasy AGE is 3d6 and it does a style similar to D&D. They also have Modern AGE and for sci-fi The Expanse AGE. I played all three for the last 2 years. Look it up.

Seen it. They use 3d6, and that is where similarities end. You should know by now, I prefer doing things myself.

 

[Mordhau]

As soon as you decide to give two-handed weapons more damage output than one-handed weapons, you have a variable weapon damage system.

And if you don't do that, why in the world would anyone ever favor a two-handed weapon over a one-handed weapon and a shield or second weapon?

Yeah

You can abstract it into categories.

You can base damage off class like in 13th Age (but even there you still have catergories of damage. The Fighter does d10s with 2 handed weapons and d8s with 1 handed ones.)

But completely static damage is overly simplistic for little gain and emergent problems. Aside from shields, the moment a player realises they can do the same damage with a dagger while concealing the dagger, or having room to carry more loot, is the moment the dagger becomes the best weapon.

 

[Umbran]

A. Do you prefer variable weapon damage or static weapon damage?

Given that I have fun with D&D and with games in which the weapon itself is merely a narrative element, I'm fine either way.

C. Would you like a system that made variable weapon damage dependent on the wielder, and not the weapon?

See above.

 

[MGibster]

Given that I have fun with D&D and with games in which the weapon itself is merely a narrative element, I'm fine either way.

I'm going to have to agree with my esteemed colleague here. After some consideration, so long as I have interesting choices to make during combat, I don't really care about how the damage is rolled. If I'm having fun I'm not going to care that we're all rolling a d8 or something.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Having played a fair amount of OD&D I can say that it's pretty much half a dozen of one and half dozen of the other. With variable weapon damage, you'll always pick the rapier (or equivalent strength based two handed great weapon or crossbow or whatever). There is an optimal obvious choice.

Though, when I played OD&D and B/X using a d6 for all weapons basically meant always using spears and polearms since, if all weapons do the same damage, why not use the weapons that have reach and allow you to fight from a rank back. That's especially useful when a bunch of hirelings are about. Then you also have a dagger for when you are in the front rank or space does not permit the spear/polearm, also doing the d6.