Preview: Brutal Ability

[abyssaldeath]

Statistically that may be true, but it's much more exiting to reroll a 1 because of the chance to roll max no matter how remote.

 

[jaelis]

Heck, you could have just made it 3d4.

 

[Syrsuro]

Heck, you could have just made it 3d4.

(Hoping you are kidding)


No, because that would have an entirely different distribution.

Among other things, your odds of rolling max would drop from 1 in 10 to 1 in 64.

Carl

 

[Cadfan]

[W], so far, doesn't include flat bonuses. It only includes dice. So making it deal 1d10+2 would mean that when dealing 2[W] you would only get 2d10+2, instead of 2d10+4.

They could make this a new addition to the rules for [W] value, but why bother? Some of us think that rerolling our 1s is kind of cool.

 

[abyssaldeath]

@Syrsuro: It depends, are we talking die as in [w] or die as in a single physical die. I don't believe I have seen a developer clarification on that particular issue yet.

 

[Mengu]

Rerolling is fine, but honestly, I'd just take the shortcut of rolling once. I know we have some players who would be rolling that 1d12 like a half dozen times. 1d10+2 gets you to the same place faster. If it makes you feel better, grab a d10, and pencil in a 1 in front of the 1 and the 2. Voila, no more 1's and 2's.

I'm only half joking. I wonder how long it will be before a dice company comes out with brutal dice sets.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I like the reroll mechanic. I like these weapons. I don't like the trend of rerolls for everything under the sun. We're only two months out, so I don't think we can call it a trend yet. But I fear rerolls will become for 4e what attack bonuses became for 3e: too common, too easy to obtain, and incredibly abusable.

 

[Evil DM]

It should be a d10+2.

For the matter of maximum damage. Yes.
Because 1d12+1 has an increase in maximum damage, what you do not have with 1d12 brutal 2.

Because it gives you a second chance to roll max.

That is more a psychological issue as noted before. That does not come into account for the average value, why it is called average....

Rerolling is fine, but honestly, I'd just take the shortcut of rolling once. I know we have some players who would be rolling that 1d12 like a half dozen times. 1d10+2 gets you to the same place faster. If it makes you feel better, grab a d10, and pencil in a 1 in front of the 1 and the 2. Voila, no more 1's and 2's.

I second that. Despite there might be a lost in flavor I like to see the 4th edition bein' faster.

So I think if (a big if) I will buy the adventurer's vault I might houserule that.

Cheers, Evil DM.

 

[Bison]

Rerolling is fine, but honestly, I'd just take the shortcut of rolling once. I know we have some players who would be rolling that 1d12 like a half dozen times. 1d10+2 gets you to the same place faster. If it makes you feel better, grab a d10, and pencil in a 1 in front of the 1 and the 2. Voila, no more 1's and 2's.

I'm only half joking. I wonder how long it will be before a dice company comes out with brutal dice sets.

changing 1 to 11 and 2 to 12 would make for a much more powerful weapon than just rerolling 1's and 2's. since rerolling a 1 could give you any result from 3-12 (avg 7.5) and the same with a 2, as opposed to a definate 11 or 12

edit (my average for 3-12 was too high, fixed it to 7.5)

 

[Syrsuro]

changing 1 to 11 and 2 to 12 would make for a much more powerful weapon than just rerolling 1's and 2's. since rerolling a 1 could give you any result from 3-12 (avg 8.5) and the same with a 2, as opposed to a definate 11 or 12

No it doesn't.

The odds of getting any particular number between 3 and 12 are the same in all three of the following cases.

1) Roll d12, reroll any value less than or equal to 2.

2) Roll d10, add 2.

3) Modify a d10 so that the 1 is renumbered 11 and the 2 is renumbered 12.

In all three cases, you have exactly the same odds (1 in 10) of the final value being any specific value (including max).

The only differences are pschological.



The real question is: What is the RAI (as opposed to the RAW) for weapons with more than one die contributing to [W]. The RAW says: "reroll any die", and I think this clearly states reroll 1s and 2s on both dice of a weapon that does 2d4. But this can have a much greater effect in such a case (the weapon now does an average of 7, as opposed to an average of 5, gaining 2 points on average rather than only one).

I suspect the RAW should have been worded so that you either only reroll one of the dice if both are lower than the threshold OR (more likely, and easier) you reroll both dice if the total value is lower than the threshold. This seems like a clear case where errata is needed.

Carl