Enhanced grenades?

[Avianmosquito]

So, I'm running an early industrial setting, and I have a quick thing I want a few opinions on. I presently have hand grenades detonate the round after being lit and deal 5d6 damage within 20 feet with a reflex DC of 15. I know weapons and it runs pretty well for lower levels, but I'm not quite sure how that's going to work out at higher levels. Do I need enhanced grenades for higher levels, or is this good?

[Zakerst]

That depends on how much they cost and what niche you want them to fill. If you want them to be a cheap replacement for fireball then it's going to need to scale. If you want them to just be a way for mundanes to fight swarms and mobs effectively, then static damage is fine.

[tyckspoon]

That's roughly a minimum-value Fireball, with a delay on it going off that'll make it more tactically difficult to place and work around. That's good for about as long as a minimum caster level Fireball would be; maybe levels 1-7 would be interested in that, especially if the world otherwise has very low magic availability or lots of combats against multiple weak opponents. Lower levels than could actually cast Fireball will of course be more interested, and the higher they go past when Fireball becomes a regular option the less interesting those grenades are.

If you want your players to be interested in throwing grenades at higher levels, yes, you need some kind of enhanced weaponry for them to play with. The basic grenades would remain as potentially very handy minion and hireling items, tho, since they present a pretty decent way for otherwise kind of wimpy followers to contribute to higher-level combat where they don't have much hope of hitting bigger threats.

[Avianmosquito]

That depends on how much they cost and what niche you want them to fill. If you want them to be a cheap replacement for fireball then it's going to need to scale. If you want them to just be a way for mundanes to fight swarms and mobs effectively, then static damage is fine.

Both, really. I need them to be an easy AoE attack for mundanes, so parties aren't as reliant on arcane casters. This way, they can hit evasive enemies or enemies in cover at range, and can damage multiple opponents for a good amount of damage.


That's roughly a minimum-value Fireball, with a delay on it going off that'll make it more tactically difficult to place and work around. That's good for about as long as a minimum caster level Fireball would be; maybe levels 1-7 would be interested in that, especially if the world otherwise has very low magic availability or lots of combats against multiple weak opponents. Lower levels than could actually cast Fireball will of course be more interested, and the higher they go past when Fireball becomes a regular option the less interesting those grenades are.

If you want your players to be interested in throwing grenades at higher levels, yes, you need some kind of enhanced weaponry for them to play with. The basic grenades would remain as potentially very handy minion and hireling items, tho, since they present a pretty decent way for otherwise kind of wimpy followers to contribute to higher-level combat where they don't have much hope of hitting bigger threats.

So, I'm thinking +1d6 and +1 DC per enhancement level, up to +5 for a max of 10d6 and DC 20. Sound good?