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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KenHood" data-source="post: 1464205" data-attributes="member: 4413">Me, too. Remember, I'm the guy who created the original GnG rules and didn't have any "softeners" for the magic system. You got hit with a 10d6 fireball, you got the whole 10d6 -- no odds equal 1s.It wasn't until a lot of folks started freaking out about their characters dying when they used the regular magic system that I added some suggestions for "softeners." By putting the dice cap in the rules, I head that off at the pass. And it looks like I'm making them softer....Uh, did I say "looks"? I meant, I really am making it softer. Yeah. That's the ticket.Anyway, the dice cap makes the difference between your character ending up dead from dragon's breath and ending up dead from dragon's breath. (You read that last sentence correctly.)At the lower ends of the damage spectrum, the dice cap allows you to make the difference between being disabled by a fireball and suffering serious injury from a fireball. For example, a 6d6 fireball becomes 4d6+4. Average damage 18. Unarmored human with 10 Constitution fails save. Splat! Disabled. Same person makes save. Splat! Seriously wounded. Screams a lot. That's about how a fireball should work in "real life" (tm).Switch to a 10d6 fireball. In revised GnG, it becomes 4d6+12. Average damage 26. Unarmored human with 10 Constitution fails save. Splat! Dead! Same person makes save. Splat! Seriously wounded.  Screams a lot more.Boppo the Barbarian with 18 Constitution (+4 Soak), +4 armor, and Damage Reduction 2/- (+2 Soak) has a total Soak of 10. He gets hit by the 10d6 fireball. Average damage 26. Boppo fails save. Suffers 26 - 10 = 16 points of damage. He's disabled. Boppo makes save. Suffers 13 - 10 = 3 points of damage. Lightly wounded. Singed and angry. Run, wizard, run!Boppo gets hit by great wyrm red dragon. Red dragon normally inflicts 24d10, average 132. In revised GnG, inflicts 4d10+80 damage, average 102. (Hey! Ken is sneaky. Adding flat damage modifiers significantly increases survivability at lower end of dice spectrum, but doesn't do jack squat at higher end. Whatta jerk!) Boppo fails save against red dragon breath. Suffers 102 - 10 = 92 damage. Incinerated. Boppo makes save against red dragon breath. Suffers 51 - 10 = 41 damage. Incinerated.Bye, bye, Boppo.Should Boppo have not been incinerated? No, no. Boppo should be incinerated when thrown in the equivalent of a furnace. This is, after all, the Grim-n-Gritty rules. Why is this dummy fighting a dragon?!Against area effect attacks with a lot of dice, your character should grab heavy cover. The kind that affords Improved Evasion when you're under it. That's how "real folks" would deal with dragon breath. They don't stand around and take it. They run away and hide.-----"Real Life" is a registered trademark of God.</blockquote>

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