I have spent several posts considering making a single roll for attack and damage, and even more posts considering Critical Hits.
But what if we combine both?
But what if we combine both?
Here's what I am thinking: if you beat AC by 10 or more, you deal maximum damage.
But if you beat AC by 11 or more, you add the excess damage (e.g., +4 damage at if you beat AC by 14 and so on).
Beating AC by 10 or more is something that RARELY comes up, EXCEPT for strong fighters against weak/unarmored foes.
So Conan could maybe defeat a horse with a single punch - although it is unlikely.
(Or defeat a sorcerer with a chair, if you want an example from the books).
But your average magic-user is unlikely to get much out of this (on the contrary, if he has no armor, this puts him in more danger!)
What if you get a natural 20? I dunno, maybe you get maximum damage regardless of margin, or double damage, or add five points to damage, or count it as 25, etc.
Effects:
- Fighters get stronger.
- A thief's sneak attack gets better.
- Big monsters get scarier.
- Combat get deadlier and less predictable.
I like them all.
Maybe something else I'm missing? Let me know, Anyway, just a random thought for now.
I've been considering this sort of thing lately because I've always felt an awesome to hit roll should equate to awesome damage but I keep coming to the following conclusions:
ReplyDelete1. the additional fiddliness undoes the time savings of ditching the damage roll.
2. every time the players roll it is dramatic and thus a bit of fun.
So this kind of thing might work well on the DM side (where some folks just use average damage anyway and where the DM would know how it works well enough that the fiddle isn't a problem) but probably not on the players side.
I never really tested anything though. Curious how your ideas turn out.
I definitely agree that there are some trade-offs there.
DeleteIn my current campaigns, the combats are big and happen often, so skipping the damage roll helps.
Currently, I am only using natural 20 = max damage, which speed things up a little without added fiddliness.
I did run an extensive 5e campaign using average damage for monsters, however, and that worked well too.
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ReplyDeleteI know I’ve commented this before, but I also am intrigued by playing with d20 one-roll attack & damage rules. Frostgrave has a very functional approach (opposed d20 + Fight/Shoot and winner deals total - opponent’s AC in damage) but it involves addition, comparison and subtraction every time. A bit heavy for my tastes!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds odd, but I am keanest on a ‘blackjack’ style roll-high-under with descending AC (dAC, 2-9): roll d20 equal or under opponent dAC + attack bonus to hit, damage is natural roll. Can incorporate parries by making melee opposed roll and only highest hit deals damage. Resolves very quickly, especially if you note your roll-under target down for Flesh / Leather / Chain / Plate to even avoid the addition.
Expected damage is equal to a conventional to-hit roll with d6 damage when target is <=6 (eg against chain with +1 bonus), and above that climbs so you get some automatic damage scaling at higher levels.
Lastly, can make crit = roll of target and either add flat bonus damage (eg +5) or multiply x2 or treat target as unarmored etc. If your target exceeds 20 use the Pendragon rule of getting 20 (+X), where you add X to the natural roll: increases damage by +X on every attack and increases crit chance (as modified 20+ is a crit).
Another benefit with this method: can resolve squad vs squad combat quickly by rolling handfuls of d20 and just totalling the hits and applying damage figure by figure (round off remainder). This is one of the quickest methods I’ve found to handle 10+ combatants a side without giving up on the fundamental abstraction of HP.
I really like this method of "the number you rolled = damage", simplifies things immensely.
DeleteAnother aspect I enjoy is that even a goblin can survive being hit by a 10th-level fighter that COULD slay a war horse with a single blow.