Using Attack Roll for Damage

[DrSamsara]

I'm a big fan of encapsulating as much information into the dice roll as possible. I particularly like it when the quality of the attack roll impacts or even determines the amount of damage. Thus, I'm considering a house-rule that you use the attack roll to figure damage as well. One of the neat things about BASH is since you usually use different stats to hit and damage, you still get some variety this way. Also, since targets get to roll to avoid being hit, you avoid the "Glass Ninja" effect.

Are there any drawbacks to this that I'm not thinking of? I know this would remove one of the uses of Weapon Mastery (is that it? I'm blanking. You know what I mean); that's fine by me. Anything else?

[Heroglyph]

I think you are thinking of Attack Weak Point. It allows the attack & damage roll be the same if they spend a hero point.

I have thought about adopting this myself, but never did. I am not sure if it would throw anything else off or not.

[MrJupiter]

That sounds like a cool idea (but I also am not sure of the effect on gameplay). One less roll would definately make each panel progress a little quicker.

Maybe the Attack Weak Point could be boosted by allowing the player to spend that Hero Point to gain a +5 Result Bonus to damage (which is 5 times what others without this power would gain by spending a Hero Point!). I don't think that this would be too extreme.

[Heroglyph]

Or maybe let them re-roll the dice and take the better of the two (the same way a skill specialty works)

[BASHMAN]

1 drawback: making Attack Weak Point less useful.

Another is the miss / miss / miss / KO effect that it could have on combat; unless that's something you want.

Also would the same rule apply to Defense / Soak?

[Nestor]

Another is the miss / miss / miss / KO effect that it could have on combat; unless that's something you want.

As opposed to the smack/whiffle effect that inevitably occurs when you roll like a god to hit then putz out on the damage roll.

That does bring out another wrinkle, one that I've encountered in other games that combine hit and damage into one roll. It removes the distinction between agile light attacks and clumsy powerful attacks.

An analogy could be an epee vs. a broadsword. One has bonuses to hit while the other to damage. With one roll, both become the same thing.

An alternative that I've seen used as a compromise in other systems is to allow any "overkill" from the to-hit roll be used as a bonus to damage. For example (using a system that determines the roll using successes), if you need two successes to hit the bad guy and roll five, the extra three successes are factored into the damage done.

[DrSamsara]

Because you use different multipliers for the attack and damage, this wouldn't have quite the same Epee vs. Braodsword issue as you get in some other systems. The Epee may roll high, but it has a lower multiplier so it doesn't neccesarily do as much damage.

[BASHMAN]

How about this idea for a house rule:

Every 10 you beat the opponent's Defense by, you get a +1 Dice Bonus on the damage roll?

[MrJupiter]

How about this idea for a house rule:

Every 10 you beat the opponent's Defense by, you get a +1 Dice Bonus on the damage roll?

That's a pretty cool idea. It might favour high agility-type charcters though, but would be a definate help to them when they are fighting a tough brick. It would definately be helpful for Normals without the benefit of high stats!

[Nestor]

Because you use different multipliers for the attack and damage, this wouldn't have quite the same Epee vs. Braodsword issue as you get in some other systems. The Epee may roll high, but it has a lower multiplier so it doesn't neccesarily do as much damage.

I suppose, but frankly the real time-waster is not the extra roll, it's figuring out all the modifiers and doing the math, so simply removing a dice roll really wouldn't get us much.