Needing Help

[A Powerful Necromanc]

See, I roll well. Obscenely well. Every battle, most players anticipate MANY criticals against them, and I've even removed my screen to verify that I am indeed rolling like this.

As such, I am prone to more TPK than any other DM in my local area, and have never believed in fudging the rolls.

Is there a feisable way other than giving my player's more HP via a more generous level 1 HP distribution method I've used? (Constitution score + max HP from hit dice)

This happens, of course, unless I'm rolling for neutral or friendly NPCs who get nonstop 1's.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Is there a feisable way other than giving my player's more HP via a more generous level 1 HP distribution method I've used? (Constitution score + max HP from hit dice)

Are your players complaining about your rolls after you removed the DM screen? If not, then let it go and worry about other stuff that is more important.

If they are complaining about your luck, why change the game and potentially unbalance it? Just use another method of rolling ... like have the players roll for you. They touch the dice, and you abide by what happens. That way you aren't rolling and your "luck" isn't impacting the game.

 

[Aus_Snow]

For 3e, I use Con score + full HD at level 1 as well. That reduces (but doesn't totally disallow) lethality, I've found.

But if that doesn't do the trick, either get new dice (f'rex, GameScience Dice) or maybe try something like Action Points, Conviction from True20, Hero Points from Mutants & Masterminds, or the like.

Oh, and along the lines of what NLF was saying (AFAICT): http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/playersRollAllTheDice.htm

Other than that. . . dunno.

 

[GlassEye]

I use defense checks for AC instead of rolling to hit. It is part of the 'Players Roll All the Dice' that Aus_Snow linked above. It works well. (I switched because I had the opposite problem than you: I couldn't roll a hit ever.)

 

[A Powerful Necromanc]

Yes, but I'd also like to avoid my players being able to surmise my altered stats on monsters (Since I only vaguely go by the MM, find them too be too feeble).

Fixes lots of problems, like players using out-of-character knowledge on monsters (since the party is all VERY experienced) as well as fixing perceived problems.

The idea of using action points (I know them from D20 modern, thought they worked out well there) is actually... workable.

Another thing I've tried is one "Dm's grace" per three levels. Which equates to something like... One would-be critical goes slightly awry, turns into a normal hit. Or, instead of dying due to this effect or another, the person is left in dire straits (dying, or at 1 con or what have you) instead.

There's still the chance of player mortality to show the danger of death (Which makes the adventure fun) without nonstop deaths occuring.

Also, what exactly makes those particular dice... special? Apart from the spiffy d3 and d5. (I have a total of eight complete sets, three on temporary loan)

 

[Aus_Snow]

Also, what exactly makes those particular dice... special? Apart from the spiffy d3 and d5. (I have a total of eight complete sets, three on temporary loan)

I don't know, except for what I've seen, read and heard online. And that's basically along the lines of those dice being particularly well balanced, compared to most (or perhaps all) others out there.

I was sort of half kidding, and now that I know you have access to eight sets of dice. . . well, the possibility that it's your dice at fault seems, er, even less likely. But if you're ever in the market for more dice, I've heard nothing but good things about those ones. Might get around to buying a couple of sets myself, one of these days.

 

[concerro]

See, I roll well. Obscenely well. Every battle, most players anticipate MANY criticals against them, and I've even removed my screen to verify that I am indeed rolling like this.

As such, I am prone to more TPK than any other DM in my local area, and have never believed in fudging the rolls.

Is there a feisable way other than giving my player's more HP via a more generous level 1 HP distribution method I've used? (Constitution score + max HP from hit dice)

This happens, of course, unless I'm rolling for neutral or friendly NPCs who get nonstop 1's.

Do you roll like that with all your dice or just certain ones? I am asking because not all dice are created equally and some have a fair amount of imbalance. I have had dice that got me 20's about 15 % of the time, and I had one that abnormally landed on either the number 3 or the number 20 a lot more times than it should have.

 

[ValhallaGH]

I realize that it seems anathema to you, but you might want to go back to using a screen, and institute a GM rule of "No more than one crit, per character, per encounter". So instead of rolling 14 crits on the cleric, you only let the foes crit him once; the other 13 are simply normal hits.
This would mitigate your issues, though your players would still be taking an unusually large number of hits.

Good luck. Too frequent TPKs aren't much fun.