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

[RealAlHazred]

I've not read all of the comments in this thread, but I've previously given weapon damage a lot of thought. I don't like the way Critical Hit rules generally work, but I like the occasional vast swinginess in damage. So I propose an even more Immodest Proposal (positively Indecent, if I may) -- even more variable weapon damage.

Under my system, a shortsword does 1d30/1d6 damage. Yes, that's a "divided by" symbol sandwiched in there between the stalwart d6 and the Greatest Die, the d30. On average, you'll get a number between 1 through 4. About two-thirds of the time, you'll get damage between 0 and 5; in-game, I would call 0 a "glancing blow" -- you hit (enough to deliver a touch spell, perhaps, or whatever) but not with enough force to make a difference. Just over 90% of the time, you'll get a number between 0 and 15; so, you'll do between 6 and 15 points of damage about a quarter of your hits, which seems like good, solid strikes. And 8.4% of the time, you'll do between 16 and 30 points of damage -- a Critical Hit, derived "organically" by the dice rolls for damage.

The only real trickiness of this system is figuring out how damaging you want the weapons to be. You can get a wide variety of results depending on how far you want the swinginess to go. David G. Weeks worked it out in his article, "Same Dice, Different Odds," in Dragon #94 (February 1985), and includes a chart with equivalents -- for instance, you can replace a d10 damage roll with a d30/d8, d20/d4, or 3d8/d6 and get wildly different ranges of numbers.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I've not read all of the comments in this thread, but I've previously given weapon damage a lot of thought. I don't like the way Critical Hit rules generally work, but I like the occasional vast swinginess in damage. So I propose an even more Immodest Proposal (positively Indecent, if I may) -- even more variable weapon damage.

Under my system, a shortsword does 1d30/1d6 damage.

While I appreciate any indecent proposal (life is too short for false modesty!), I have to take issue with this one.

A d30 has one good use- as a marble. It has no other uses.

 

[RealAlHazred]

While I appreciate any indecent proposal (life is too short for false modesty!), I have to take issue with this one.

A d30 has one good use- as a marble. It has no other uses.

...

Dice at 10 paces at high noon, then?

EDIT:

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

...

Dice at 10 paces at high noon, then?

Oh, I'm ready.

Kanye the Giant is going to roll a natural 20 and slap your di... arms off.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Hmmm... I see I misremembered the shortsword damage. Ah well, that's why we have charts.

Weapon	Cost (gp)	Weight (Coins)	Damage	Qualities
Battle axe	7	50	d20/d6	Melee, Slow, Two-handed
Club	3	50	d8/d4	Blunt, Melee
Crossbow	30	50	d20/d8	Missile (5’–80’ / 81’–160’ / 161’–240’), Reload, Slow, Two-handed
Dagger	3	10	d30/d20	Melee, Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–20’ / 21’–30’)
Hand axe	4	30	d20/d8	Melee, Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–20’ / 21’–30’)
Holy water (vial)	25	-	d30/d10	Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–30’ / 31’–50’), Splash weapon
Javelin	1	20	d20/d12	Missile (5’–30’ / 31’–60’ / 61’–90’)
Lance	5	120	d20/d8	Charge, Melee
Long bow	40	30	d20/d8	Missile (5’–70’ / 71’–140’ / 141’–210’), Two-handed
Mace	5	30	d12/d4	Blunt, Melee
Oil (flask), burning	2	-	d20/d6	Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–30’ / 31’–50’), Splash weapon
Pole arm	7	150	3d8/d6	Brace, Melee, Slow, Two-handed
Short bow	25	30	d12/d4	Missile (5’–50’ / 51’–100’ / 101’–150’), Two-handed
Short sword	7	30	d30/d12	Melee
Silver dagger	30	10	d30/d20	Melee, Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–20’ / 21’–30’)
Sling	2	20	d12/d6	Blunt, Missile (5’–40’ / 41’–80’ / 81’–160’)
Spear	3	30	d20/d8	Brace, Melee, Missile (5’–20’ / 21’–40’ / 41’–60’)
Staff	2	40	d20/d12	Blunt, Melee, Slow, Two-handed
Sword	10	60	d30/d10	Melee
Torch	1 (for 6)	-	d12/d6	Melee
Two-handed sword	15	150	d30/d8	Melee, Slow, Two-handed
War hammer	5	30	d20/d8	Blunt, Melee

 

[DeviousQuail]

Hmmm... I see I misremembered the shortsword damage. Ah well, that's why we have charts.

Weapon	Cost (gp)	Weight (Coins)	Damage	Qualities
Battle axe	7	50	d20/d6	Melee, Slow, Two-handed
Club	3	50	d8/d4	Blunt, Melee
Crossbow	30	50	d20/d8	Missile (5’–80’ / 81’–160’ / 161’–240’), Reload, Slow, Two-handed
Dagger	3	10	d30/d20	Melee, Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–20’ / 21’–30’)
Hand axe	4	30	d20/d8	Melee, Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–20’ / 21’–30’)
Holy water (vial)	25	-	d30/d10	Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–30’ / 31’–50’), Splash weapon
Javelin	1	20	d20/d12	Missile (5’–30’ / 31’–60’ / 61’–90’)
Lance	5	120	d20/d8	Charge, Melee
Long bow	40	30	d20/d8	Missile (5’–70’ / 71’–140’ / 141’–210’), Two-handed
Mace	5	30	d12/d4	Blunt, Melee
Oil (flask), burning	2	-	d20/d6	Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–30’ / 31’–50’), Splash weapon
Pole arm	7	150	1d10	Brace, Melee, Slow, Two-handed
Short bow	25	30	d12/d4	Missile (5’–50’ / 51’–100’ / 101’–150’), Two-handed
Short sword	7	30	d30/d12	Melee
Silver dagger	30	10	d30/d20	Melee, Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–20’ / 21’–30’)
Sling	2	20	d12/d6	Blunt, Missile (5’–40’ / 41’–80’ / 81’–160’)
Spear	3	30	d20/d8	Brace, Melee, Missile (5’–20’ / 21’–40’ / 41’–60’)
Staff	2	40	d20/d12	Blunt, Melee, Slow, Two-handed
Sword	10	60	d30/d10	Melee
Torch	1 (for 6)	-	d12/d6	Melee
Two-handed sword	15	150	d30/d8	Melee, Slow, Two-handed
War hammer	5	30	d20/d8	Blunt, Melee

Might as well be walking around with your shoulders and ankles showing.

Is polearm missing a numerator?

 

[RealAlHazred]

Might as well be walking around with your shoulders and ankles showing.

Is polearm missing a numerator?

Yeah, weirdly I guess I never had a player take a polearm in OSE so I never updated it. It's fixed now.

 

[Jolly Ruby]

What if weapon damage varied according to the target? Something like "spear: d6. 2d6 against mounted combatants" or "dagger: d6. 2d6 against if you are grappling the target, or if the target is grappling you" or even "axe: d6. 2d6 against trees and treelike beings"

If somebody suggested this before, sorry, I didn't read all the pages.

 

[p_johnston]

A. Do you prefer variable weapon damage or static weapon damage?
B. Would we be so uncaring about cutting trees down if they could scream? Maybe, if they screamed all the time, and for no good reason?
C. Would you like a system that made variable weapon damage dependent on the wielder, and not the weapon?

A) I do prefer variable damage if for no other reason then to give my less used dice their weekly workouts. The poor D12 needs to occasionally see sunshine also.
B) are you kidding? If trees screamed all the time I would be more likely to cut the leafy leafers down!
C) So I do like this idea. 13th age does something kinda similar where each class does different damage with different classes of weapons. So a barbarian with a dagger does 1d4 but a rogue with a dagger does 1d8. It also had weapons divided into groups instead of just listing each and every one. I really enjoyed having it be a bit more freeform where players were able to pick whatever weapon fit the character instead of having 6 rapiers in the party because it's the only d8 dex weapon. Honestly I think that you could simplify things to the questions of One Vs Two handed and Melee Vs Range and just have each class do different damage depending on which square the weapon lands in. The Dex Ranger wants to use a club instead of a rapier? Sure. The Barbarian wants to wield an uprooted small tree instead of a greataxe? Have at it.

 

[Clint_L]

A. Do you prefer variable weapon damage or static weapon damage?
B. Would we be so uncaring about cutting trees down if they could scream? Maybe, if they screamed all the time, and for no good reason?
C. Would you like a system that made variable weapon damage dependent on the wielder, and not the weapon?

A. Variable, but simpler than what is currently in place.

B. If? I assume that they are screaming as hard as they can, all the time.

C. I kind of like the concept, though I want to know what you propose so that 2h weapons aren't obsolete.