Tuesday, November 27, 2018

House Rule: Uniform Damage for Monks

Just a quick note about monks (aka mystics). One thing I love about original Dungeons & Dragons and its descendants is the option to have uniform attack damage - 1d6, regardless of the length or type of the weapon. This makes for extreme portability (as players would only need to bring a d20 and a few d6s), especially when coupled with the digest-sized books used by oD&D and many of its clones (White Box immediately springs to mind).

This table isn't in any way a brilliant idea, but it's definitely something I wanted to jot down. Instead of using the funny dice for open hand damage, monks can use only d6s with the following table; to stick to pure, unadjusted d6 rolls, simply ignore the "pluses".
Level Damage
1 1d6
2 1d6+1
3 1d6+2
4 1d6+3
5 1d6+4
6 2d6
7 2d6+1
8 2d6+2
9 2d6+3
10 2d6+4
11 3d6
12 3d6+1
13 3d6+2
14 3d6+3
15 3d6+4
16 4d6

4 comments:

  1. Are you keeping the whole "strike a X" aspect of monks? (Strike as a silver weapon, strike as a magic weapon, etc)

    As an aside, I do love the mystic class from BECMI, even if it is a little...wonky...to say the least.

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    1. Depends on which edition I'd be running. The RC has it, but oD&D doesn't; I'd probably try it rules-as-written, at least at first. That particular ability is one I've dropped from my own "perfect" iteration of the rules, considering their numerous other advantages.

      And I also like the BECMI/RC mystic, but I wish the editors had just given all of them acrobatic skills and built the XP penalty into the advancement table. Considering their huge advantages even without acrobatics, advancing at the same rate as a fighter is a bit extreme to my taste.

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  2. This progression is a little rough, given that 1d6+4 is better average damage than 2d6. Most RPGs that go from pips to dice (like the d6 System) even, I think, equate +3 to an extra die, so that a progression will go 1d6, 1d6+1, 1d6+2, 2d6 (although you could just as easily keep 1d6+3 in there since it clocks in at half a point of damage less than 2d6).

    So, just for the sake of elegant math, for my part I'd smooth out the progression and have it be something like: 1d6, 1d6+1, 1½d6, 2d6, 2d6+1, 2½d6, 3d6, etc.

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    Replies
    1. I thought of going with the D6 System steps at first, but at the time I decided that the higher maximum damage at the top levels was a bad thing. You do have a point about the averages, though, so I might switch it back in whatever "final" form these rules take.

      ...plus, it's highly unlikely that I'll ever run a game that actually needs the table as high as 8th level, let alone 16th. ;D

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