Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Simulating Variable Weapon Damage

Exploring Weapon Damage Part II

Here are some results of all that number-crunching that went into last post, a hit table that simulates using “variable” weapon damage by altering the hit chances for AC 9 to 2 but rolling 1d6 for damage on all successful hits.

Chart 9a: Simulating Variable Damage by Hit Chance
Simulated
Die
Armor Class
9[10]
8[11]
7[12]
6[13]
5[14]
4[15]
3[16]
2[17]
1d4
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
1d6
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
1d8
8
9
10
11
11
13
14
15
1d10
6
7
8
8
9
11
12
13
Note: the 1d6 isn’t simulated but is included on the chart for reference. 

Chart 9b: Comparing true damage dice to simulated damage dice
Damage
Die
Average Likely Damage with True Roll
Average Likely Damage with Simulated Roll
d4
0.9375
0.9625
d6
1.3125
1.3125
d8
1.6875
1.6843
d10
2.0625
2.056

Example of use:  using a “d4” weapon to attack roll a d20 to hit on the row for d20 and when you hit roll 1d6 for damage (do the same with the other types of notational damage but only rolling 1d6 for actual damage). Over the course of multiple combat rounds the different hit chances will come very close to producing the same average likely damage  (as per Chart 9b).

Charts 9a and 9b show how significant higher damage weapons are in the common variable weapon damage used these days. We also see what variable weapon damage means, when a weapon does 1d4 points of damage or 1d8 points of damage (when playing with such notation) due to the inherent abstract nature of classic RPG combat we aren’t just saying “Weapon A does this much damage when it strikes a target” what we are actually say is  “Weapon A will provide the opportunity to inflict this much damage on a target during combat”.  So a d8 weapon isn’t necessarily inflicting more damage because it is inherently more awful in the types of wounds it inflicts but it offers the user more opportunity to inflict wounds.

Here’s a cleaner version of attack matrix for damage by hit chances that just replaces the dice notation for damage with relative verbiage should anyone want to make use of such a mechanic but doesn’t want it cluttered up with dice notation for dice not being used.

Damage Class Attack Table
Damage
Class
Armor Class
9[10]
8[11]
7[12]
6[13]
5[14]
4[15]
3[16]
2[17]
Light
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Medium
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Heavy
8
9
10
11
11
13
14
15
X-Heavy
6
7
8
8
9
11
12
13


4 comments:

  1. Considering this, it would be simple convert the final result as below:
    -Light: -2 to hit
    -Medium: no modfier
    -Heavy: +2 to hit
    -X-Heavy: +4

    On a few cases (Heavy hitting AC 5; X-Heavy hitting AC 6 or 5) the I idea I propose will be off by 1 point, but I think it's negligible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would definetly do the trick inside the 9 to 2 Ac range. I went with the chart above as because of weapoon vs Ac modifiers which do get pickywiith one point here and there (if anyone bothers with them).

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    2. What about different ACs? Would those modifiers be too off?

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    3. A flat -2 to +4 outside the range would be too off beyond the 9-2 ac range.

      Delete