My problem with Mighty Deeds

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Ravenheart87
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My problem with Mighty Deeds

Post by Ravenheart87 »

Something that bothers me about mighty deeds is that the deed die determines the attack bonus for the round. Up until level 7 the deed die is a simple die roll, with a minimum value of one. This might result in situations where the thief or cleric has constantly better attack bonuses, than the warrior. I don't want the warrior to be only better with attack bonuses on average, but always. I tried to write a chart where I juggle with dies and bonuses, until I found a simple house rule for my problem.

I'm thinking about changing the warrior's attack bonuses to constant values (for example +1 per level), and using the deed die's roll only for extra damage and to see if deeds succeed. What do you think about it?
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fym66
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Re: My problem with Mighty Deeds

Post by fym66 »

1) It's your game, so go crazy!
2)The swingy nature of DCCRPG kind of likes the warrior having a strange attack bonus from round to round. If that's too swingy for you, change as needed. The Dark Master will not take your books away.
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Ravenheart87
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Re: My problem with Mighty Deeds

Post by Ravenheart87 »

fym66 wrote:1) It's your game, so go crazy!
2)The swingy nature of DCCRPG kind of likes the warrior having a strange attack bonus from round to round. If that's too swingy for you, change as needed. The Dark Master will not take your books away.
I'm not afraid to house rule, I'm more interested in opinions or better solutions. As I mentioned above it's not the swingy nature of the attack roll that bothers me, but having sometimes weaker attack bonus than a thief. :)
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Re: My problem with Mighty Deeds

Post by Gameogre »

In play it tends to be rather....random. sure there are 1's but also all the rest of the numbers. The higher the die the more varied the number.

Now one house rule I heard about was to keep the deed die a D4(not sure why it started with a D4) and just give a flat bonus to hit when the number would have gone up. So starting at like 5th level the Warriors bonus to hit would go up to +1 as well as D4 deed die ect...

I didn't see how that played out but it did keep deeds more down to earth.
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Ravenheart87
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Re: My problem with Mighty Deeds

Post by Ravenheart87 »

Gameogre wrote:In play it tends to be rather....random. sure there are 1's but also all the rest of the numbers. The higher the die the more varied the number.

Now one house rule I heard about was to keep the deed die a D4(not sure why it started with a D4) and just give a flat bonus to hit when the number would have gone up. So starting at like 5th level the Warriors bonus to hit would go up to +1 as well as D4 deed die ect...
I do see a problem with this approach. You can't make rank 5-7 deeds with a d4.
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Weisenwolf
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Re: My problem with Mighty Deeds

Post by Weisenwolf »

I think you are looking at this from the wrong perspective.

The bonus to hit confered by the deed die is not a stand alone thing it is part of the 'to hit' roll. A first level Warrior rolls a D20+D3 whilst a first level Thief or Cleric rolls just a D20, a fourth level Warrior rolls a D20+D6 whilst a fourth level Thief or Cleric a D20+2. Thus the Warrior has more chance of hitting a similar target than the Thief or Cleric :wink:

Also because armour classes start at 10 and go up from there the relative advantage enjoyed by the Warrior over the Thief and Cleric increases as the armour class goes up. Consider a plate armoured opponent with a shield; armour class 19. The fourth level Thief/Cleric can score a maximum of 22 so has 4 chances of hitting. The Warrior can score a maximum of 26 so has 8 chances of hitting. Yes the maths is a bit more complicated than I am portraying it but the simple fact is that the Warrior has an enormous advantage by having a deed die because his chance to hit is significantly higher. To take it to an extreme if the above opponent had a +3 Agility modifier the Thief and Cleric would only hit on a natural 20 (As often as they fumble in fact; ouch :? ) while the Warrior still has 5 chances to hit the same target and three of those chances will be criticals :twisted:

It's the same principal as comparing +2 to hit with +1 die (To D24). Both will increase your average roll by +2 and the bonus of +1 die could indeed be nothing because you can still roll a 1 but +1 die is far more useful because of the mathematics of armour classes; it increases the number of chances you have to get over the targets armour class.

And of course the Warrior has a greater chance to critical, rolls better critical die, adds the deed die to damage too, is more likely to have a strength 'to hit bonus', may be using his 'lucky weapon', has access to a greater range of weapons and of course the ability to do a 'Mighty deed of arms' :shock:

If armour classes started with smaller numbers this would be different but they don't so it isn't :lol:
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Re: My problem with Mighty Deeds

Post by Rick »

Personally, I'm at peace with it as is, just like I'm okay with an average zero level gongfarmer's trowel (d4) occasionally doing more damage than a Warrior's two-handed sword. It's not perfect, but it favors quick & simple over slower & more complex, and that's more my preference these days.
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Re: My problem with Mighty Deeds

Post by Ravenheart87 »

Good point, Rick.
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Re: My problem with Mighty Deeds

Post by GnomeBoy »

I would think the simplest fix for what you're talking about would be to give the Warrior a minimum result for the 'to hit' aspect of the Deed Die, and leave the Deed portion of the roll as it is.

So if a 4th Level Warrior is rolling to hit something, he rolls 1d20 +1d6 as normal, but in 'reading' the d6:

• The 'to hit' factor is always at least a 4 — but could be a 5 or a 6.

• The Deed works if the die comes up as a 3 or higher, just as in the rules as written.


This makes the Warrior a bit more powerful, but perhaps not so much as to be a problem and steal limelight from other players.
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