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Message: <blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 7082556" data-attributes="member: 12377">Not in D&D, but in Savage Worlds. What happens is, large numbers of enemies suddenly become much more lethal, because the damage is so much more swingy. Throw several goblins with d6 weapons at the party and odds are good that at least one of them will have a d6 that explodes 3-4 times. Consider each explosion is roughly equivalent to a crit, you're increasing the number of crits by around 15% (more or less; larger dice have fewer explosions but they are worse when they happen). I've seen many a robust hero felled by a black swan of exploding d6s.I think the way D&D does hit points should soften this blow. Once the characters have a few levels under their belts, they should be able to absorb the swingy damage much better. OTOH if you're a fan of simulation, the swingy damage greatly improves the city militia's odds against the ancient red dragon.You should probably also let healing dice explode, like from cure wounds or healing word, and maybe even hit dice.Also, you might consider NOT applying the exploding damage to area effects. These tend to have a lot of damage dice, so exploding dice basically becomes a free damage upgrade for those spells because the dice will explode almost every time (I'm looking at you, 8d6 fireball). Of course, maybe that would be unfair to spellcasters, since the weapon-users and the goblins they are fighting have both gotten a damage boost. I'm more worried about the reverse scenario, when an enemy spellcaster drops an area effect on a couple of party members, that exploding dice could be really really bad. Maybe you could have the exploding dice of area effects only apply to the creature closest to the origin point of the area; that way only one party member gets screwed by the exploding dice.In short, I think exploding dice in D&D is a fine idea, if you want to increase swingyness, unpredictability, and lethality. It should give characters more incentive to avoid combat.</blockquote>

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