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Lazy Monster Damage – Subtract 3, Add 1d6 – Sly Flourish Patreon Podcast

🕑 Added 2024-02-01 23:48:12 +0000 UTC

Comments

Tim Kreider

You could maintain illusion for big damage by rolling a fistful of d6s but one is a different color and that’s the only one you’re actually reading

Michael Shea

You're right. It's actually 0.5 points. The average of 1d6 is 3.5. I'm happy to give monsters the extra half a point of damage. I just feel like monsters can mostly use the help.

Redbeard

I've been a fan of "Perkinsean Notation" since I first heard about it; however, I ended up realizing that the -3 results in an average that's 1 point higher than the actual static damage, which makes sense because 3 isn't the average of 1d6. Once I started subtracting 4 instead, the results ended up matching published static damage (minus some mathematical inconsistencies like the Cloud Giant's morningstar attack). Minor point but worth noting. With that in mind, it's also as easy to use any sized die (maybe you want to match listed die types or just scale with damage output) by using 1d6 + the monster's static damage - the average of 1dX. For example, to match listed die types, the following notation... 28(4d8+10) becomes 1d8+23, and 28(3d10+11) becomes 1d10+22 Or for larger dice pools like 18d6, you might consider using a d20 to create a larger but still easily manageable spread. Anyway, I appreciate all the work you do for the community.