Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8074736" data-attributes="member: 6779196">The idea behind adding strength to damage with bows and crossbows is that a stronger character can draw/load a higher pound bow. If you want to go full simulationist, you could have bows with different poundage that have minimum strength requirements and damage bonuses. So, for example, your basic bow would have a minimum strength of 10 and a +0 damage modifier. For every +1 you add, increase the strength requirement by 2, or if you need a bow your 8 strength character can use, it has -1 to damage. Of course, that amounts to a lot of extra bookkeeping for an effect that is functionally not any different than just adding Strength mod to bow attacks, so you just have them do that and assume characters always buy bows that are appropriate for their Strength.The same logic can more or less be applied to crossbows. Granted, you can use assistive devices like windlasses to allow you to load crossbows of much greater weight than you would otherwise be able to, but ultimately a stronger person could still handle a higher-pound crossbow. Give crossbows a bigger damage die than bows to account for the mechanical assistance, and you’re good to go.Firearms are a different matter. I don’t think there’s any reasonable way to justify strength increasing damage with firearms. My preference is instead to make firearms force a Dex save. Casters get the choice between cantrips that require spell attacks and cantrips that force a save, this would offer martials a choice between weapons that require weapon attacks and weapons that force a save. The DC could be 8 + Dex mod + Prof bonus, and the firearm would do no damage on a successful save.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 8074736, member: 6779196"] The idea behind adding strength to damage with bows and crossbows is that a stronger character can draw/load a higher pound bow. If you want to go full simulationist, you could have bows with different poundage that have minimum strength requirements and damage bonuses. So, for example, your basic bow would have a minimum strength of 10 and a +0 damage modifier. For every +1 you add, increase the strength requirement by 2, or if you need a bow your 8 strength character can use, it has -1 to damage. Of course, that amounts to a lot of extra bookkeeping for an effect that is functionally not any different than just adding Strength mod to bow attacks, so you just have them do that and assume characters always buy bows that are appropriate for their Strength. The same logic can more or less be applied to crossbows. Granted, you can use assistive devices like windlasses to allow you to load crossbows of much greater weight than you would otherwise be able to, but ultimately a stronger person could still handle a higher-pound crossbow. Give crossbows a bigger damage die than bows to account for the mechanical assistance, and you’re good to go. Firearms are a different matter. I don’t think there’s any reasonable way to justify strength increasing damage with firearms. My preference is instead to make firearms force a Dex save. Casters get the choice between cantrips that require spell attacks and cantrips that force a save, this would offer martials a choice between weapons that require weapon attacks and weapons that force a save. The DC could be 8 + Dex mod + Prof bonus, and the firearm would do no damage on a successful save. [/QUOTE]

Verification