Okay, so a thing I’ve been thinking about ever since the completion of Pathwarden is how to handle damage and accuracy rolls in the next games I’m making, Grim-, Cyber- and Godwarden, which will have a more severe tone.
So I’m thinking of ditching everything except the d20 rolls in the game, and simply adding an extra step to the final results. However, I think this is a good place to talk about the general benefits of both approaches, if any.
So currently, I’m using a modified version of Pathfinder 2e’s damage roll system:
PF2: You roll damage as XdY (like 3d8) and add a modifier if any. If the accuracy roll is +10 to target number, you double the damage.
PW: You roll damage similarly, but you keep the highest die (sometimes multiple) for the damage and add a modifier if any. If the accuracy roll is +10 to target number, you roll and keep an additional die.
The purpose was to allow me to increase the amount of dice rolled without increasing the maximum damage. Basically increase the feeling of power while only increasing actual power slightly (as the average gets higher).
However, I’m thinking of ditching this for the latter games, where instead each d20 to-hit roll instead has more steps, with a static base damage:
Grazing Hit (Miss by less than 5): Deal reduced damage
Solid Hit (Hit with 5+): Deal increased damage
Critical Hit (Hit with 10+): Deal greatly increased damage.
This is not only simpler and faster, but it does have some implications:
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Any on-damage effects will be more effective, and damage resistance will be stronger in turn (may ignore grazes entirely).
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Damage increases linearly, and I cannot do dice trickery to make the hits feel meatier (rolling a fistful of dice feels good).
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Leads to more damage counting because you can estimate better how much punishment you can take.
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Surviving on low HP is less likely due to grazes increasing overall hit rate.
So, what else would happen? I know I will redo my weapon traits (including damage traits that modify different damage tiers, like increasing Graze but lowering Solid).
What’s the benefits of keeping the die rolls? They do have the same thing baked in (A character with more dice is more likely to get that “solid” hit where as lower rolls are effectively “grazes”), the feeling is just different.