D6 Damage

 

I remember reading in my earliest copy of D&D how there was an option where every player would roll a single D6 for damage regardless of weapon being used. Back them I thought it was a bit odd. I wondered why you'd have all the different weapons, and then make them all the same. That was because I was a fresh newbie roll-player focused entirely on the rules rather than considering story.

These days I'm much more story focused so the idea of D6 damage matters much less to me. Today, I'd rather have an historically accurate spear and shield combo, that's more important that carrying a D12 two handed sword. That extra damage is less of a concern to my style of play.

Within the rules of the game the D6 damage makes sense in the low levels, when a D6 can kill PCs and monster alike. I'm not so sure it would work at the higher levels. Once monsters get into the 80+HP level that D6 limitation is going to make combat into an incredible slog. AND that slog dose worry me, narrating too many rounds where a lowly D6 is rolled for damage would grind even the best story teller to dust. 

I'm not sure even having a D12 for damage scales well, but as PCs progress they tend to add a lot of plusses to damage from magical weapons, so there is some level of scaling there. Therefore if you allow the plusses and mods to be applied to that D6 you'd at least get the same scaling effect as they level. So I hope the D6 rules allows for that.

Please let me know below if you've used the D6 rule, and how it turned out for you.