Glancing Blows: 1/2 dmg on a just miss

[Whiskeyjack8044]

Some of my players hate how long combat is, others don't like how safe 5e is. I've been thinking of ways to improve their experience.

I was thinking that if an attack misses by 4 or less the players (and enemies) could deal 1/2 damage. This would make combat go by faster and also make it more deadly. Plus it makes missing a bit less disappointing.

Any affect or class feature that requires a hit would not work if damage was dealt this way. Also, Glancing Blows can not reduce a creature below 1hp.

Spells with attack rolls could be tricky, can you guys spot any problems with this?

[stoutstien]

How many rounds/ turns do you typically see in an encounter? IMO combat in 5e can be slow in terms of time but in actually actions it's very quickly.

[Amnestic]

Page 242 of the DMG has 'success at a cost' subsection which isn't marked as a variant rule but kinda could be. Example given is missing an AC by 1 or 2 still has the attack go through but the enemy disarms you in the process.

Could be something to consider in addition to the glancing blows, so instead of being flat "50% damage" stuff there's some additional variance in combat depending on how it's flowing.

[Rara1212]

I think it would actually make combat take even longer. Now you'd need to check and see if any attack that misses misses by X or less. Then you roll damage and divide it.
I don't think missed attacks take much time, you just roll an attack, ask if it hits and otherwise roll your other attacks or end your turn.

[Whiskeyjack8044]

I think it would actually make combat take even longer. Now you'd need to check and see if any attack that misses misses by X or less. Then you roll damage and divide it.
I don't think missed attacks take much time, you just roll an attack, ask if it hits and otherwise roll your other attacks or end your turn.

We play on Roll20 so it's pretty easy to tell by how much they miss. If you think of HP as a timer then every little bit of damage is running down the clock. Doing no damage doesn't take any time off the clock.

[Chronic]

If it's just a 50% damage on a miss, I see several problems arising. The first one is that high AC is now less efficient. While martial with high AC might avoid 2/3 or even more of the attacks with the usual system, they would consistently take damages now, while ranged and classic caster tend to have low ac and rely and distance and positioning to survive. One solution would be to give damage reduction to armor types, but that might defeat the point of getting faster. Also scaling value might be necessary to balance it.

[C-Dude]

Some of my players hate how long combat is, others don't like how safe 5e is. I've been thinking of ways to improve their experience.

I was thinking that if an attack misses by 4 or less the players (and enemies) could deal 1/2 damage. This would make combat go by faster and also make it more deadly. Plus it makes missing a bit less disappointing.

Any affect or class feature that requires a hit would not work if damage was dealt this way. Also, Glancing Blows can not reduce a creature below 1hp.

Spells with attack rolls could be tricky, can you guys spot any problems with this?

If you think of HP as athletic fatigue instead of a 'jug of life', this would work. Even if an attack misses, the stress of it almost connecting is going to wear down the combatant's reserves and make it harder for them to avoid the next strike. This goes for spells too; I'd say half damage and no additional effects applied.

If you're looking to get a little experimental, I'd recommend pairing it with an adjustment to death saving throws. Instead of 0 hp = roll for dying, once a creature hits 0 hp they start taking damage to attributes. Use where the creature is struck to figure out which attribute takes the damage (or roll 1d6), and then make 0 in attribute = death. I know it might seem a little weird for 0 CHA = death, but when you consider that would come from a busted-up face, it makes a little more sense.
I know 5e doesn't really do ability score damage, but if you treat them like extra hit points (and make players replenish them first, like their actual HP and through the same means) it could make a nice, tangible representation of scarring injury.


EDIT: For the armor problem, deduct AC-10 from the damage of the glancing blow. Somebody in plate will take 8 less damage per glancing blow than an unarmored target.

[Warwick]

TBH this seems needlessly complex. Lowering enemy HP and raising enemy damage (either directly or via tactics that improve their effective damage) will serve to make combat both faster and more dangerous. Generally speaking, if you want to speed up combat, you want less table math, not more (even if roll20 makes it easy to check for miss-by-1, you still have to roll damage and reduce it by half, which takes up table time).

[Cikomyr2]

EDIT: For the armor problem, deduct AC-10 from the damage of the glancing blow. Somebody in plate will take 8 less damage per glancing blow than an unarmored target.

I like this variant. It helps fighting Dex as the godstat, by making dex-less armor less absorbant of damage.

[Kane0]

On any miss that isnt a natural 1 deal minimum possible damage

[Mork]

If it's just a 50% damage on a miss, I see several problems arising. The first one is that high AC is now less efficient. While martial with high AC might avoid 2/3 or even more of the attacks with the usual system, they would consistently take damages now, while ranged and classic caster tend to have low ac and rely and distance and positioning to survive...

This is a good point, if not getting attacked at all becomes the most viable strategy, players (and intelligent monsters) might keep a lot of distance and try to shoot the other one down. Which may very well take even more time.


In general slow combat has more to do with the people at the table than actual 5e edition. Especiallty if you are on roll 20 and your attack roll is just a click of the button. If you don't have it already think of having macros for initiative, and the most standard attacks for all players and monsters. At my tables, the people that know their charachters and set this up take on average 30 sec to 1 minute a turn. At that speed combat usually doesn't take more than half an hour.
And off course in general try to have players think about their turns before it is actually their turn. And if you are playing in real life, roll attack and damage at the same time. If you are trhowing a fireball roll damage while the DM is rolling save etc.

[Avonar]

I think it's an interesting idea, though perhaps limit it to 1 or 2 below AC? With bounded accuracy, 4 below AC generally means you rolled pretty badly, in which case the glancing blow doesn't really fit?

[DevilMcam]

It's an interesting Idea, but i think it could backfire quite hard on the players.

In a Gamist point of view the Playes have to defeat all the ennemies while using as little resources as possible (HP beeing the base resource available to everyone).
If you are playing a low AC High HP/resistance barbarian this won't be much of a problem to you.
If you however are playing a lower HP, Higher AC Fighter, then glaning hits are becoming dangerous for you (depending on the numbers of the fight, having glancing hits might double the damage that fighter takes).
If you are playing a wizard counting on the shield spell for his defenses you are going to be in trouble. Most of the hits that usually miced you will glance and chip at your precious pool of very few HPs so you need to use more Slots on defence. And the big hits will likely only be turned into a glancing hits not a miss.

As far as HPs are concerned, most of the hits are according to the base rules, Glancing hit. HPs are naratively (as far as PCs are concerned at least) your ability to turn those direct hits into glancing hits. A level 5 fighter is not able to get Slashed in the chest 3 times with a geatsword without issues. He is able to duck out of the way at the last moment to only get bruised pr scratched. and his Stamina (HPs) Allow him to do that about 3 to 4 time without resting. wounds doesn't magically close during short rest, you just clean your bruises and recover the stamina that lets you keep fighting.

I don't think however it will help any combat getting faster.

[NaughtyTiger]

Ooh, this is nice.
Parallels the mage's save for half damage effects.

I would add that glancing blows do not add riders, like restrain on hit or paladin smites....