It is quite simple:
A) Natural 20 means maximum damage.
B) Beat AC by 10 or more means double damage.
This has several advantages.
"A" gives you a quick, optimal result that is still within the expected boundaries. You can deal maximum damage at any time, but a natural 20 guarantees it. No "whiff factor". The average damage is not significantly impacted.
And "B" gives you:
- The fighter to get a small boost in damage, especially against weak foes, which is good.
- Armor becomes more important - going unarmored is now a terrible idea.
- The thief gains more damage with backstabbing. This is good for B/X but maybe unnecessary for AD&D. OTOH the B/X thief becomes a bit more frail due to light armor and low HP.
Both give more importance to strength bonuses and magic weapons, and even make two-handed 1d10 weapons a bit stronger (although a shield also becomes more important).
But what if both happen at the same time?
There are several solutions.
- Double maximum damage. This would occasionally allow a B/X fighter that usually deals 1d8+2 damage to deal 20 damage with a single blow.
- Double damage, but ONE of the dice is automatically maximum damage (i.e., 1d8+3 becomes 8+1d8+6). I like this solution because the maximum damage is still impressive, but the average is a bit lower.
- Double damage plus another attack. I like this one because it gives the fighter some cleaving.
A caveat: monsters will get more dangerous too.
This is not a HUGE problem IMO; I like dangerous monsters, and with multiple attacks monsters are likely to spread the damage a bit. But it is something to keep in mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment