Kicking around an idea to streamline combat. Tell what you think!

[Ken Murikumo]

Hey folks!

Just looking for input on something i came up with recently. It's going to be implemented in my next game unless you guys can foresee the system crashing and burning.

Anyways: The core of this system is that you don't roll damage die, instead you take average rounding up (d4 is 3, d6 is 4, and so on). You would also calculate minimum and maximum damage on things. The end result would be like following: a martial using a greatsword with an 18 strength would have damages like 6 for minimum (poor), 12 for average (normal), and 16 for maximum (great).

Now, for what to do with those number:
Instead of getting a flat +10 to your AC, you instead roll a d20. So a normal attack becomes an opposed roll. If the attacker just manages to beat the enemies AC he deals minimum (poor) damage. If the attack is more than 5 over the enemies AC he deals average (normal) damage. If it's over 10, then maximum (great) damage.

Spells will follow the same rule, but for instead of AC, it's saving throws. Severely failing a saving throw will deal max damage. just barely failing it will yield minimum damage.

I know this will not solve all problems as far as combat speed is concerned, but i think it will mitigate time spent counting dice and adding all bonuses & die together.

So again, just looking for input: Good, bad; doesn't matter as long as it's constructive!

[ComaVision]

This would probably be faster (at least once people got used to the less-avg-more damage method). However, a lot of people just like rolling damage.

EDIT: I also misunderstood your text. Having two people roll one dice may very well not be faster than one person rolling attack and damage. If you wanted to go this way, you'd be better off having three static ACs. (Beating normal AC = average, beating normal by 10 = max, beating normal AC less 10 = min) However, this also makes power attack wayyy better because the min damage will still be big vs a smaller AC target. You're better off leaving AC unchanged IMO.

[Gallowglass]

Haven't you just replaced one roll with another roll?

in system as is, you attack someone, you roll a hit roll against a static target number (AC) then, if you hit, roll damage to subtract from a pool of hitpoints (taking into account DR, hardness, etc.)

in your proposal, you attack someone, you roll a hit roll, while the other party rolls a defense roll, then you have to compare the two and do some math and based on that math subtract one of three static numbers from a pool of hitpoints (taking into account DR, hardness, etc.)

those static numbers will shift over the course of combat due to outside criteria (bard's songs, buff spells, changing out what weapon you are using, power attacking, etc.) So, you will be modifying on the fly the static numbers you had to calculate before the game started.

So, you haven't really offloaded any math to before the combat successfully. And instead of the attacker rolling two rolls, you have both the attacker and attackee making one roll each.

Its in interesting idea, but I don't think it will succeed in making things faster.

It sounds like your biggest perceived problem right now is either lots of damage dice (fireball) or PCs who are taking a long time readding up their bonuses each round (power attack, bard song, etc.). It may be simpler to enforce them using a dice roller app for large dice pools and help them with a pencil tracker to keep track of bonuses more efficiently. Also I find it helpful to say "Okay, player A, its your initiative, Player B you are on deck" to get them thinking about what they want to do before their turn.