The poor, old, forgotten d12? (And d10.)

[Quasqueton]

Something that has kind of bugged at me for a while now, is why does "dice progression" for things like damage by size not follow the dice we have access to?

By the books:
Increasing damage =
1d2 becomes 1d3
1d3 becomes 1d4
1d4 becomes 1d6
1d6 becomes 1d8
1d8 becomes 2d6
2d6 becomes 3d6
3d6 becomes 4d6
etc.

Why the apparent break down at 1d8? Why doesn't it continue. . .
1d8 becomes 1d10
1d10 becomes 1d12
then, since the next die jumps all the way up to d20, it could increase in the number of dice. . .
1d12 becomes 2d8
2d8 becomes 2d10
2d10 becomes 2d12
2d12 becomes 3d8
etc.

Why does a greataxe use d12 instead of 2d6 like the greatsword? The greataxe seems to be the only purpose of the d12 in D&D now. And the only time the d10 gets used for other than percentile rolls is for the waraxe and bastard sword.

I figure there's got to be a well thought-out reason for this, but I can't see it myself. I mean, everyone who has D&D dice has a d12 (and a d10), so why not add them to the standard progression of rolling?

Quasqueton

 

[Ragin' Halfling]

1d8 becomes 1d10
1d10 becomes 1d12
then, since the next die jumps all the way up to d20, it could increase in the number of dice. . .
1d12 becomes 2d8
2d8 becomes 2d10
2d10 becomes 2d12
2d12 becomes 3d8
etc.

2d6 is often thought better than 1d12 because they have the same maximum but at minimum the d6's do twice as much damage as the d12.

Also they use the current scale because with yours, you start repeating values as it climbs higher. 2d12 has the same maximum as 3d8. With the default scale there are no repeating values. The current scal is also easier to do on the fly.

Well, that's my opinion and reasoning.

 

[Quasqueton]

"2d12 becomes 3d8"

I should have said 2d12 becomes 4d8?

The current scal is also easier to do on the fly.

But see, I don't think so. I just advanced a behir to the next size catagory, and his breath weapon normally does 7d6 damage. Does that go up to 7d8 at the next size?

This is what prompted my post here. The current standard doesn't seem to be intuitive.

And the d12 and d10 get very little love from the big creatures of the game.

Quasqueton

 

[Ragin' Halfling]

Dragons have special rules for advancement. Check out the epic level handbook for rules about advancing dragons past what is in the MM.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

See, I go just the other way. I wish they'd get rid of d12s entirely and find a way to restrict d10s to just percentile rolls. Maybe deep-six the d8 too; a real red-headed stepchild of a die if ever there was one. Philosophically, I want as few kinds of dice as possible. It helps the newbies to not have to figure out what each kind of die is for. I could see doing a whole game with just d4s, d6s, d10s (for the occasional percentage) and d20s. The others rarely ever get used anyway, except for certain weapons and for hit dice.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Blasphemy! We need more dice, not fewer! I want to need d3s, d5s, d7s, d30s, d100s whatever! The reason I fell in love with D&D as a kid was all those cool lookin' dice: "Wow! What are all those weird dice for! Neat!"

 

[Xeriar]

In the 2d10 system I'm making, weapons do dice of damage based on size and damage based on the type of weapon.

Tiny weapons to 1 die, small 2, medium 3, large 4... and so on.

Bludgeoning weapons do d12, slashing d8, piercing d4. Half-sizes increase the die type one step (or add a die in case of bludgeoning).

Piercing weapons do x4 crits, slashing x3, bludgeoning x2 (crits are also based off of how well you make the attack roll - there's no threat range).

 

[Xeriar]

See, I go just the other way. I wish they'd get rid of d12s entirely and find a way to restrict d10s to just percentile rolls. Maybe deep-six the d8 too; a real red-headed stepchild of a die if ever there was one. Philosophically, I want as few kinds of dice as possible. It helps the newbies to not have to figure out what each kind of die is for. I could see doing a whole game with just d4s, d6s, d10s (for the occasional percentage) and d20s. The others rarely ever get used anyway, except for certain weapons and for hit dice.

Why not just use one of the myriad of single-die systems then?

d6, Shadowrun and Tri-Stat make sole use of the d6.

L5R, 7th Sea, and the Storyteller games make sole use of the d10. I think Ars Magica does too but I don't remember quite right.

 

[d4]

stand up for polyhedral rights! all dice have value and shouldn't be discriminated against!

i like d12s. of course, i like playing barbarians too, so they get a fair amount of use from me.

as far as restricting the dice used, i'm usually against that... the only game i really like nowadays that only uses one type of die is M&M (d20). games like GURPS or HERO (d6s) or Storyteller (d10s) seem boring to me because you only get to roll one kind of die.

 

[Xeriar]

Deadlands is on the opposite end of the spectrum here, where all dice (and cards) do indeed see an equal amount of use