                             MICHAEL'S DAMAGE RULES

                                       by
                                Michael S. Davis
                             <davism01@hotmail.com>
                         <davism01@msumusik.mursuky.edu>


One of the problems with TSR's AD&D game (all editions) has been the unrealistic representation of weapon damage based on an opponents size. It's a problem my most recent gaming group has addressed with the following house rule, which I have further modified since we implemented it.
     The problem stems from the fact that, in general, weapons cause more damage to larger than man-sized opponents than to man-sized or smaller opponents.  But when you think about it realistically, this is reversed from what should be.  For example, a two-handed sword, as presented in the PHB, will cause 1-10 points of damage to anyone roughly 7' tall or smaller and 3-18 points to anyone over 7'.

Now consider the following realistic description:  A two-handed sword has a blade length of about 4 feet.  Now, said blade being swung at a human (approx. 6 feet tall) has a good chance of cutting said human in two at the waist, while the same blade swung at a stone giant (approx. 18 feet tall) will, at most, have enough power behind it to sever a limb.  Now, it is quite obvious that the damage done by that blade to a human is going to be more significant than the damage done to the stone giant, but in TSR's system, it's the other way around.
     In order to address this problem, my friends and I have implemented a simple rule:  In all cases of weapon damage, the smaller of the two damage codes listed is assigned to the "Large" category while the larger damage code is assigned to the "Small/Man-sized" category.  In cases where a weapon does the same damage to either category, the "Large" damage code has a -2 to the die roll, with the minimum damage from a successful attack being 1 (thus a javelin thrown at a human will do the listed damage of 1d6 while the same javelin thrown at the above mentioned stone giant will do 1d6-2).

This system has two main benefits:
1) It introduces a greater level of realism to the game with a minimum of fuss.
2) It makes larger creatures more intimidating and challenging.

As always, TSR, AD&D, and all materials listed from these sources are trademarked by TSR, Inc., and used without their permission.

     Thanks for your attention.
