House Rule: Damage

Damage is handled differently from typical games in my campaign.  Str and Dex determine your damage die, not your weapon, as indicated on the table below.  No damage modifier is granted by high Str, since damage is a direct function of your Str score.

Score: Damage

3: 1d2

4-5: 1d3

6-8: 1d4

9-12: 1d6

13-15: 1d8

16-17: 1d10

18: 1d12

On the table above:

• Str determines melee damage.
• Dex determines missile damage.
• Str and Dex averaged (STR+DEX/2) determines thrown weapon damage.
• Weapons grant modifiers to the damage roll, since they are simply tools to enhance the natural death-dealing ability of the human body (tables to be provided later detailing the modifiers).

Open Ended Damage:  When the maximum number on any damage die is rolled, it is rolled again and totaled.  Thus, if a character (or monster, for that matter) rolls 1d6 for damage and gets a 6, the die is rolled again.  If a 4 is rolled, then total damage from the attack is 10, plus any weapon modifier.  The process repeats until a maximum roll is not made.  If, instead of a 4, a 6 had been rolled on the second die roll, a third roll would be made and added to the current total, which would be 12.   Weapon modifiers are added to the roll just once, however. Note that critical hit rules are abolished in my campaign because of this.  This rule makes criticals redundant since any hit can do more damage.  Open ended damage applies to both PCs and NPCs, whether monster or otherwise.

Note that magical damage - breath weapons, magical spells, wands, etc. - is not open-ended.  It is rolled normally.  Falling damage and things of that nature, however, are open-ended.