Just to make it easier to Ace a Low Level Opponent, with a Single Blow; at Max Damage.

Leave PC Hit Points, and Monster Stats as they are.

A high damage strike with a Dagger, currently leaves almost any opponent still standing.  Kobolds, Goblins, and Untrained NPCs should be totally vulnerable to a high damage strike from a Dagger.

I'm skeptical that someone would die from one stab of a kitchen knife.

I mean, they could kill, but you'd have to have the cooperation of the victim by them just standing there and that's a coup de grace attack (and fatal)

Quote from: JeremyR;1085247I'm skeptical that someone would die from one stab of a kitchen knife.

I mean, they could kill, but you'd have to have the cooperation of the victim by them just standing there and that's a coup de grace attack (and fatal)

A trained PC would have knowledge of human anatomy.  As with many things in life; it's all about the location.

Quote from: JeremyR;1085247I'm skeptical that someone would die from one stab of a kitchen knife.

I mean, they could kill, but you'd have to have the cooperation of the victim by them just standing there and that's a coup de grace attack (and fatal)

Part of the problem with trying to model injury in roleplaying games is trying to distinguish between a fatal injury and an instantly incapacitating one.

Most weapons can cause a fatal wound in a single blow, that's what they are designed to do. However, most blows do not cause instant loss of consciousness. This is seldom modeled in RPGs or entertainment media.

Someone can be stabbed in the gut deep enough to nick the abdominal aorta and bleed out over a couple minutes. Hell, I've even personally witnessed someone who was shot clean through the head continue to speak before they died.

It would be tricky to model that in a playable fashion. I can see two paths. Either use hit location rules with additional attached rules for wound severity or use a hit point range for simplicity.

All weapons would have the same maximum damage (instant death), but the "weaker" ones would have a more random range. Larger weapons would cap out the same way but would be less likely to roll low.

I'm just going to use good old hit points, though. I don't care how long it takes for a goblin to lose consciousness after a severing slash to his subclavian artery.

Quote from: Razor 007;1085232Just to make it easier to Ace a Low Level Opponent, with a Single Blow; at Max Damage.

Leave PC Hit Points, and Monster Stats as they are.

A high damage strike with a Dagger, currently leaves almost any opponent still standing.  Kobolds, Goblins, and Untrained NPCs should be totally vulnerable to a high damage strike from a Dagger.

Are you talking 5e D&D? Because there are attribute bonuses, critical hits, sneak attack dice etc to add to the damage die.

Good idea for the wrong reason.  A better reason is that then we wouldn't be using the d4.

Greetings!

Well, according to the book's suggested baseline of average hit points per hit dice, any given Commoner has 1d8 hit points; averaging a 4.

A Dagger does 1d4 damage. In a given melee, two quick stabs and the Commoner dies. If the attacker has +2 Strength modifier, they die in one strike.

That seems pretty reasonable to me.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

If you bump every weapon by one die step, you'll typically average +1 damage until you get to big weapons that have 2 or more dice.  In the long run, it would tend to hurt PCs; they will be fighting a lot of goblins in the course of their careers; giving all of those enemies a +1 to damage tends to hurt the PCs more than it helps them.  Many PCs are going to be able to kill weak opponents with a single blow without the +1 damage - any extra damage beyond what you need to kill them is effectively wasted....  

Depending on the edition, critical hits can model more dangerous weapons.  If a dagger does 2d4+STR on a critical, it is pretty likely to drop an opponent in a single hit.  Again and still, this tends to work out better for team monster.  When you're fighting 20 of something, there's a pretty good chance that at least one of them will score a critical hit.  If there are only 4-5 PCs, there's a pretty good chance of them scoring at least one critical per encounter, but not necessarily per round.

Quote from: S'mon;1085262Are you talking 5e D&D? Because there are attribute bonuses, critical hits, sneak attack dice etc to add to the damage die.

Any edition, any system, etc.  Most Classes don't get to roll Sneak Attack dice.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1085302Good idea for the wrong reason.  A better reason is that then we wouldn't be using the d4.

Exactly!!!

Quote from: Razor 007;1085232Just to make it easier to Ace a Low Level Opponent, with a Single Blow; at Max Damage.

Leave PC Hit Points, and Monster Stats as they are.

A high damage strike with a Dagger, currently leaves almost any opponent still standing.  Kobolds, Goblins, and Untrained NPCs should be totally vulnerable to a high damage strike from a Dagger.

So should humans. A knife can let plenty of your blood out. However, the first thing that happens when combatants meet is that the one with superior reach can attack and the other can't. That is the problem with knives and not, or not so much, damage.

If you rate weapons by damage dice, then players will choose weapons based on damage dice.

If you want low level foes to fail easier, give them less HP.

Or better yet, use morale rules so the Goblin with 2 HP left runs for his worthless goblin life.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1085372If you rate weapons by damage dice, then players will choose weapons based on damage dice.

If you want low level foes to fail easier, give them less HP.

Or better yet, use morale rules so the Goblin with 2 HP left runs for his worthless goblin life.

Yes to all three of these suggestions.

In fact, I prefer class damage to weapon damage for just this reason. If classes have static hit dice, why not static damage dice too? Monster's defaulting to a d8 seems even more reasonable in this case.

Or, we should just grow a pair and play OD&D where everything is a d6 as the Lord intended. (I'm guilty of liking OD&D more than I actually play it, sadly.)

Quote from: Beldar;1085254Hell, I've even personally witnessed someone who was shot clean through the head continue to speak before they died.

That's quite an anecdote to drop into an RPG discussion...

Quote from: Kael;1085376Yes to all three of these suggestions.

In fact, I prefer class damage to weapon damage for just this reason. If classes have static hit dice, why not static damage dice too? Monster's defaulting to a d8 seems even more reasonable in this case.

Or, we should just grow a pair and play OD&D where everything is a d6 as the Lord intended. (I'm guilty of liking OD&D more than I actually play it, sadly.)

I too like Original Dungeons & Dragons; with its 1d6-1, 1d6, and 1d6+1 weapon damage scale.  It helps keep the Dagger relevant.