Have you ever been involved in a combat encounter that made you tired of rolling dice? Have you rolled a high attack roll or a critical only to roll a low damage result? Have you hit a creature with your long sword and dealt 1 point of damage while the lucky wizard threw his dagger and delivered 4 points of damage to the same creature? If you have answered yes to one or more of these questions? Then base damage may work in your game.

Variant Rule: Base Damage

Have you ever been involved in a combat encounter that made you tired of rolling dice? Have you rolled a high attack roll or a critical only to roll a low damage result? Have you hit a creature with your long sword and dealt 1 point of damage while the lucky wizard threw his dagger and delivered 4 points of damage to the same creature? If you have answered yes to one or more of these questions? Then base damage may work in your game.

What's base damage? Base damage replaces the randomness of weapon damage, by providing a set amount of damage by weapon size and type.   The tables below show a weapons base damage followed by its maximum damage range.

            As the table above shows every weapon has a base damage rating and the number in parenthesis is the maximum damage the weapon can deliver, before any other bonuses that would normally increase the damage a weapon can deal per successful attack roll.  How does one deliver  maximum damage when using base damage? Instead of rolling damage dice for each successful attack roll, the rate at which the attack roll succeeds determines how much damage the weapon deals per successful attack roll.  When the character rolls a successful attack roll he increases the amount of damage the weapon delivers by one point for each point the attack roll succeeds by up to its maximum damage rating. See the example below.

            Bren the ranger is attacked by an lone orc scout. The orc scout is wielding a hand axe and gets a +2 bonus to his attack roll. The orc scout rolls a successful attack roll of 13 +2 =15 which is enough to hit Bren the ranger who is wearing Studded leather armor and has a dexterity bonus of +2 to his armor class rating. The hand-axe delivers its base damage rating of 3 points of damage, +2 points of damage from the orc scouts strength bonus to damage. Therefore Bren suffers 5 points of damage from the orc scout’s hand-axe attack.  Bren feeling the sting of the orc scouts axe, retaliates and attacks the orc scout with his long-sword. Bren rolls a successful attack roll of 18+2 from Brens attack bonus due to level, which is enough to hit the orc scouts armor class of 14. Bren delivers 8 points of damage from his long-sword attack to the orc scout. Bren cannot deliver 10 points of damage because the weapons maximum damage rating is 8. However, if Bren has a strength bonus or a damage bonus due to specialization he would add it to the total damage dealt by his successful attack roll.  

            As the table above shows every weapon has a critical threat range. Those without a number can only deliver a critical strike on a natural roll of 20. When using base damage the critical threat range does not change. However, the way in which we handle critical strikes does. Weapons with a critical strike range of 18-20 naturally have a greater chance of delivering critical damage. With the base damage rule critical threats and critical hits are determined differently. A character needs to roll high enough on his attack roll to deliver the maximum damage rating of his weapon, before a critical strike can be delivered.  See the example below.

            Rufus Harrowhill the halfling rouge, sneaks his way into a bandit camp. While pillaging through one of the bandits tents he realizes that he is not alone. The bandit leader has returned and Rufus is in his tent. The bandit leader draws two daggers, he's wearing a breast plate and seems quite nimble for a big fellow. Rufus draws his rapier and prepares to defend himself. The bandit leader makes his move and swings his blades at Rufus. Rufus narrowly escapes the whirling blades. Fearing for his life Rufus thrusts with his rapier and rolls a natural 18 on his attack roll which is within the critical threat range of his rapier. However, The bandit leaders armor class is 18 and since Rufus success rate will deliver 2 points of  base damage from his rapier. Rufus does not score a critical hit because he attack roll will not deliver the weapons maximum damage.

             However, if Rufus had rolled a natural 20 on his attack roll he automatically scores a critical hit because the weapon would deliver its maximum damage. However if the bandit leaders armor class was 19 Rufus would not score a critical hit because his weapon would not deliver its maximum damage rating. However, if Rufus receives a bonus to his attack roll of +2 his weapon will deliver its maximum damage versus an armor class of 18, and since the natural attack roll was an 18, Rufus will score a critical hit on the bandit leader and deliver 8 points of damage.  

            If you'd like to keep some randomness to how base damage works in your campaign I've included an optional rule here as well. Remove the restriction on critical hits only applying if a characters attack roll succeeds in applying a weapons maximum damage range. Instead if a character rolls what is required for the weapons critical threat range, apply it as a critical hit using the base damage rate delivered by the success of the attack.  Using the same example above we will display how this works in game terms.

            Rufus Harrowhill the halfling rouge, sneaks his way into a bandit camp. While pillaging through one of the bandits tents he realizes that he is not alone. The bandit leader has returned and Rufus is in his tent. The bandit leader draws two daggers, he's wearing a breast plate and seems quite nimble for a big fellow. Rufus draws his rapier and prepares to defend himself. The bandit leader makes his move and swings his blades at Rufus. Rufus narrowly escapes the whirling blades. Fearing for his life Rufus thrusts with his rapier and rolls a natural 18 on his attack roll which is within the critical threat range of his rapier. However, The bandit leaders armor class is 18 and since Rufus success rate will deliver 2 points of  base damage from his rapier, he will only deliver 4 points of damage on this critical hit.

             However, if Rufus had rolled a natural 20 on his attack roll he would deliver 8 points of damage on his critical hit. Now if the bandit leaders armor class was 19 Rufus would miss or fail to strike his opponent with his attack. Unless Rufus receives a bonus on his attack roll. Lets say Rufus rolls a natural 18 and receives a +2 to his attack roll, granting him a modified attack roll of 20.  The bandit leaders armor class in this scenario will be 19 +5 from armor, +3  from dexterity, and +1 from a ring of protection. Rufus scores a critical hit with his natural roll of 18, the modified result is a 20 meaning the attack roll is successful. The rapier will deliver 3 points of damage due to the success rate of the halflings' attack roll. Since the natural roll of 18 is within the critical threat range of weapon Rufus will deliver 6 points of damage to the bandit leader.

            Now as you can see this version of the base damage rule would apply a critical hit even if the character natural roll would miss as long as his modified roll hits. However, I have a third way this can be resolved. Which keeps some of the randomness associated with the second rule, but abides by the first rules maximum damage guidelines for determining a critical hit. We will use a new example below to demonstrate how the third optional rule applies.

            Keld the barbarian encounters a dreaded troll on the borders of the Fruztii lands on the Thillonrian Peninsula. Keld readies his battleaxe to meet the beast head on. The troll swings at Keld and misses with his first claw attack a natural roll of 4 +9 which results in a modified attack roll of 13, the trolls second claw attack  hits with a natural roll of 20 +9 which results in a modified attack roll of 29. The trolls base damage for its claw attack would be 3 half of the 1d6 listed in the monster manual entry. Keld's armor class is a 19, since the trolls attack hits and is a natural roll of 20 it has meet the critical threat range of its claw attack. The critical amount is x2 for the trolls claw attack. Since the trolls modified attack gives him a great deal of success on his attack roll his claw attack will meet its maximum damage rating of 6 meaning the troll has scored a critical hit. The troll has succeeded on his attack roll by 10 points after meeting the success rate for his claw attack 7 points remain. Instead of just doubling the claw attack add the remaining points from the attacks success rate to the damage dealt by the trolls attack. Since 7 points remain and the weapons maximum damage rating is 6, the troll will deliver 12 points of claw damage +6 from its strength bonus, which results in the troll delivering 18 points of damage on its critical hit.

            Keld fights back the sting of the trolls attack and swings his battle axe and hits with a natural roll of 20 + 10 which results in a modified attack roll of 30. A battleaxes base damage rating would be 4 Keld succeeds on his modified attack roll by 14 points and has rolled the critical threat range of his weapon. A battle axe critical amount is x3. Keld's  rate of success means the battle axe will deliver its maximum damage rating of 8 points of damage, meaning Keld has scored a critical hit on the troll. Instead of tripling the damage dealt by the battleaxe, add the remaining points from the attacks success rate to the damage dealt by Keld's attack. Keld's battleaxe will deliver 18 points of damage to the troll because the battleaxe triples it damage rating when it scores a critical hit. The maximum damage a battle axe can deliver before applying any other damage modifiers is 24. Keld will dliver 24 points of damage to the troll because his strength modifier is +4 to damage an additional +2 to damage from his battleaxe weapon specialization. If Keld's modified attack roll was 20 +6 he would succeed on his attack roll by 10 points. He would still deliver a critical hit because the rate of success would meet the weapons maximum damage rating. However, the damage delivered by the battleaxe's critical hit would be 12 points of damage. Remember a critical hit is scored when a weapons critical threat range is rolled on a natural attack roll and the rate of success allows the weapon to deliver its maximum damage rating.    

            Regardless of which rule you use in your campaign base damage reduces the amount of dice rolling in your game. This helps resolve combat quicker and makes critical hits more deadly than a regular hit in which the character has rolled high damage dice.  Base damage takes into affect the experience and skill of the character rather than just random damage rolls that ignore how successful the attack roll is. Critical hits are resolved quicker and only require one die roll as opposed to two. Then additional die rolls to determine damage.