Hi all,

The DM for the group I'm part of has implemented a more variable damage system for combat.

To do this we talked it over and the final decision was that the weapon damage would be as per the weapon damage in the book (e.g 5 for hand weapons) but you roll the Str or other Stat to get the final result. This roll is using Fortune Dice and any results (hammer or empirial eagle) is another 1 to the damage.

So far it seems to work very well. It means that the really hard hitting monsters may only just catch you or they get an awesome result and do a lot of damage. Much more interesting.

So as I understand it at best you do what is considered to be normal damage. Most of the time you'd be doing less then normal damage. But does your toughness and armour always come into effect? I can see situations where you are up against tougher opponents and frequently you'd be doing no damage, besides the base 1 for just connecting. I mean even as it is there are opponents in the game that my players are only hitting for base damage. It just seems like this would slow the game down without really adding much to it. Perhaps if you used Yellow dice instead for the roll then you'd sometimes be doing less then your stat +weapon in damage but other times you'd be doing more then your stat+weapon damage due to some of the dice with + on them. But even then it would basically average itself out over the long hall to just doing average damage for the most part and you aren't really any further ahead.

But then again I don't know what the goal in your game really is. For us we just use the over damage rule where extra success up to your skill level will increase the damage if they aren't triggering other effects. That way typically you hit for normal damage but occasionally you do an extra point or 2.

I second Krysst, that Yellows would better serve. I like the ida of more random damage, but... in my opinion, the system isn't deadly enough -- especially as compared to previous editions. The chance of yellows exploding hammers would do well for the massive hit out of nowhere that I so miss. R.I.P. Ulric's Fury.

On the other hand, combat pools can be slow as is and one more roll adds that much more time that other players aren't in the spotlight (my group doesn't have enough wherewithal to get excited about other players' rolls, sadly).

Also, I'd forgotten about that optional rule for extra damage and plan to integrate that by my next session.