damage ranges instead of dies

[Aphael]

I would like to have an in-game option to turn between displaying "3d6" and "3-18" in any appropriate place, mostly damage dies. would be a time-saver when trying to calcutate on the fly counts like 33d12.
And what do you think?

[Nerdanel]

I don't care as long as it won't be the default. The added compiling time would be minimal. I prefer the dice notation since it's a lot more expressive. 3d6 and 1d16 + 2 both have the same range (3 - 18) but I would say the former is preferable of the two because the damage is more dependable on average. It's a lot less likely to hit for 3 hp damage several times in a row with the former weapon.

[Maylith]

I voted no, though if implemented, I could live with it if it were merely an option that could be left turned off.

The thing is, damage die expressions are far more..... er, expressive (sorry!), just as Nerdanel has described. You lose information if you multiply it out. If you want to know max damage, just do the math. I'm not all that good at doing simple math in my head, but that is what your pencil (or your calculator) is good for. I'd rather keep the damage dice the way they are.

Edit: grammar

[Faeryan]

I just have to agree with those already spoken.

[boucman]

to elaborate a little, the dice doesn't express a meer damage range, there is also a probability factor comming in

if you throw 1d6, all result are equiprobable, however, with 2d6

2 is 1/1
3 is 2/1 1/2
4 is 1/3 2/2 3/1
5 is 4/1 3/2 2/3 1/4
6 is 5/1 4/2 3/3 2/4 5/1
7 is 6/1 5/2 4/3 3/4 2/5 1/6
8 is 6/2 5/3 4/4 3/5 2/6
9 is 6/3 5/4 4/5 3/6
10is 6/4 5/5 4/6
11is 6/5 5/6
12is 6/6

as you can see, and as anybody doing paper RPG knows, 7 is the most common result, and the extreme resul are very unlikely.

the range is failry easy to get anyway, NdX is range [N : NX]
it would be interesting to have the average somwhere though...

[petebull]

It's already there.

uppercase 'i' and weapon gives a calculated value.

Enter a weapon shop and the shopkeeper happily calculates all the values for you.

[Neil]

Weapon inspection, or better the weapon comparison service in towns, should give all the digested information you need.

As others have pointed out, though, damage dice convey more information about the distribution of damage than a range.

So I don't see this feature coming in anytime soon. I wouldn't rule it out, though.

And besides, if you're going to use an Alchemist and take advantage of bugs (only way you're getting crazy dice like 33d12), you should be willing to do some math!

[Aphael]

First and main thing: I was thinking rather about quick comparison of available spells. 33d12 I saw one time with Manathust (or Nox?). Try to compare them in store. Or inspect.

[Guest]

And besides, if you're going to use an Alchemist and take advantage of bugs (only way you're getting crazy dice like 33d12), you should be willing to do some math!

I think thaumaturgists can get dice like 33d12.

[Neil]

Ah ok, I was wrong indeed. I was thinking weapons and forgot spells, which is funny because I'm much better with magic-using characters than weapon-using ones.