PlanetADnD.com

Whether from certain magical weapons, backstabs, charges, etc, there are instances in game where someone needs to double (or even triple/x4/x5) his damage.

A) Do you add in all bonuses before doubling, or like with many of the magical weapons specifying 'double, do you double the WEAPON damage, then add in all mods (magic, str/specialty etc)?
B) if it specifies double 'weapon damage' do you feel that the magic of the weapon should also get doubled? Or not??
C) do YOU Prefer to roll the damage twice for that 'double' or just roll once and multiply it??

I'm a simple DM

If you roll a nat 20, double damage 2 x your rolls, then add all bonuses. Roll again...

If you score another natural 20, that's x3 your roll, add all bonuses ... roll again ... rinse and repeat.

I don't recall what RAW was on the treatment of damage bonuses in 2nd ed, but these days mostly playing 5e, I only double the dice, not the pluses.

When doubling the dice, I roll twice as many dice rather than multiplying the result of a single roll. It gives a nicer spread (bell curve) of results, and it's just more fun to roll more dice.

Lyrwik wrote:I don't recall what RAW was on the treatment of damage bonuses in 2nd ed, but these days mostly playing 5e, I only double the dice, not the pluses.

When doubling the dice, I roll twice as many dice rather than multiplying the result of a single roll. It gives a nicer spread (bell curve) of results, and it's just more fun to roll more dice.

So if (for example) i hit a large foe with a footman's mace (D6+1 normal damage), that's a +2 mace, which i am specialized in and have 18/45 str..
Would that IYO be 2d6 +8 (+1 weapon, +2 magic, +2 spec, +3 str)?
Or be 2d6+9 (+1 for weapon x2, +2 magic, +2 spec, +3 str)

Twould seem you'd be nerfing those weapons that are Xd+1 if its just the D that gets multiplied.

On a 20 the character automatically hits - always. The only exceptions are creatures requiring silver/magic.

Upon a roll of a 20, the character then rolls a d6, with the following results:

1) Max Damage.
2) Double Damage - (Roll + Modifiers) x 2
3) Triple Damage - (Roll + Modifiers) x 3
4) Normal damage + Enemy stunned for 1d4 rounds (enemy may save at the end of each of their turns to end the stun)
5) Normal damage + Disable One Source of Damage and/or Limb (maybe break the enemy's weapon, chop off an arm, claw, etc).
6) "DM's Choice" - generally this means the character kills the enemy.

Characters and NPC's who have 1/2 or more of their starting HP may make a saving throw (against DM in 2nd edition, or Con save for 5th) against critical effects if they are a higher level than the character/NPC which scored the critical - upon a successful save they take maximum damage from the hit.

Tiger

Nice.. On that '6-dms choice, meaning the pc kills a monster', What if its the Monster scoring the 20//6 on a pc?

BTB you double/triple/etc only the rolled damage, then add in any magic/STR or other bonuses. So BTB, a thief at 8th level with a +2 shortsword and a STR 17 (+1 dam) who does a successful backstab (x3 damage) would roll his d6. Say he rolls a 4. He triples that to 12, then adds the +2 for the magic sword and +1 STR for a total of 15 pts. of damage.

I double/triple/etc EVERYTHING! So that thief would add his roll of 4 and his +2 magic and his +1 STR for a total of 7, then triple it to 21 pts. of damage.

If the weapon itself (like broad swords/morning stars) does d6+1/d4+1, do you double the +?

Gark, if a monster 20|6's a PC - and the PC is of lower level than the monster, or fails their save, they are generally killed yes. It basically gives every monster a 1/120 chance to apply a "save vs death" effect into the fight, or just a 1/120 chance to off a PC. Happens - but its pretty rare. There are some exceptions as well - occasionally I will have DM's choice not be a kill. Maybe it shatters a magical weapon, applies some sort of permanent disability (loss of ability scores, etc). But the same can be said when the characters roll a 20|6. Its not always a kill - but it usually would be.

Tiger

garhkal wrote: So if (for example) i hit a large foe with a footman's mace (D6+1 normal damage), that's a +2 mace, which i am specialized in and have 18/45 str..
Would that IYO be 2d6 +8 (+1 weapon, +2 magic, +2 spec, +3 str)?
Or be 2d6+9 (+1 for weapon x2, +2 magic, +2 spec, +3 str)

Twould seem you'd be nerfing those weapons that are Xd+1 if its just the D that gets multiplied.

As mentioned, I've mostly played 5e in recent years (hard to find decent 2nd ed players around here), so that hasn't been an issue, as I can't think of any weapons in 5e that have a +1 in the base damage. However, I think it would be reasonable to double it as well, since that +1 is really part of the base damage roll, rather than a +1 in the same sense as a magical weapon or strength bonus.

Well in 1/2e you see it quite a bit. Just using the 1e phb as a rundown, we've got Horseman's flail (d4+1/d4+1)
footman's flail (d6+1/2d4),
Hammers (d4+1/d4),
Lance medium (d6+1/2d6),
Lance heavy 2d4+1/3d6),
Footman's mace (d6+1/d6),
Morning stars (2d4/d6+1),
Partisans (includes bohemian ear spoons d6/d6+1),
Footman's military pick (d6+1/2d4),
Horseman's military pick (d4+1/d4),
Heavy xbow quarrels (d4+1/d6+1),
Sling bullets (d4+1/d6+1),
Spetums (d6+1/2d6),
Broad swords (2d4/d6+1),
and lastly Tridents (d6+1/3d4).

Garhkal wrote:

If the weapon itself (like broad swords/morning stars) does d6+1/d4+1, do you double the +?

Yes, but it would look like this - assuming a weapon's base damage is 1d6+1 (say, a spetum). Let's say it's a spetum +2 (magic weapon). Let's assume the wielder has a STR 17, giving him a +1 damage. The player rolls his dice and rolls a natural 20. Then he rolls his damage. He rolls a d6 and gets a 5. Then we add the +1 for the base damage (d6+1), then we add the +2 magic bonus and the +1 STR bonus for a total of 9, doubled becomes 18 pts. of damage.

Copy that. For me, i go with (in that septum's case) roll the d6 twice (or roll 2 of them), add in +2 (from the +1 doubled) of the weapon, then +4 (the magical bonus doubled), +1 (str)..