This poll is assuming that the critical rules are using the dnd beyond rulings for critical hits rather than the popular house rule of just double damage so 1d12 crits are far more effective. This poll should be based on how you build a character for a campaign rather than the statistical advantage as both options have even more variance in what they are good at, and builds can significantly alter the viability of an option.
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Just a goober doing my own work when I want to. I like the idea of not just high fantasy dnd.
You can reach me over discord as well, Handle is royalsupsi as well
I am open to work on joint homebrew projects, just DM me.
All my projects so far are in the extended signiture
If you roll a 20 on the d20 for an attack roll, you score a Critical Hit, and the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. A Critical Hit lets you roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers. See also “Playing the Game” (“Damage and Healing”).
Depends on the character for me. If you have any features that add an extra weapon damage die on critical hits, the d12 is better. If you want consistency, 2d6 will have less instances of minimum or maximum damage (if you graph your damage rolls, 1d12 should be a flat line, where 2d6 becomes a bell curve).
The official rules for critical hits would have a 2d6 become a 4d6, there are numerous other reasons why a 2d6 is better than a d12 but it mostly comes down to consistency and average damage, a 2d6 just does more damage and more consistently does average damage (5~9).
If we are comparing the melee weapons (so not considering Musket which is ranged). The applicable weapons here are:
Greataxe (1d12) - Cleave
Greatsword (2d6) - Graze
Maul (2d6) - Topple
Greatsword is just inherently better than Greataxe, the exception comes down to the weapon mastery. For all barbarians or an Oath of Vengeance Paladin, Graze becomes a very weak option due to the high availability of advantage (reckless attack and vow of enmity), it is also a weaker option for Oath of Devotion Paladin too due to their higher attack rolls (sacred weapon). However for an Oath of Devotion Paladin, Maul becomes a better option due to Topple while for Barbarians and Oath of Vengeance, Using a greataxe is better when vs. 2 or more hostile creatures due to cleave.
This all said, if going for Cleave, Halberd is just a significantly easier option to use for getting cleaves and it goes well with Polearm Master to use the occasional bonus action or reaction where a bonus action or reaction might not have been available before. So overall Greatsword or Maul are better than Greataxe except when the user already has advantage in which case there can be some edge cases where Greataxe could be better when facing multiple creatures.
My personal opinion (not based on stats) would be, if you have a feature like Savage Attacker or Great Weapon Fighting, I'd favor 1d12 because the risk of rolling low is reduced. 1d12 always feels more fun just because I so rarely roll a d12 any other time, but after enough rolls of 1-3 I end up changing back to 2d6 just for consistency. I'm yet to play a character like this with weapon mastery though, so that would probably factor in too.
I picked 2d6 for the reason it feels better as a player to roll 2 di than 1. It makes me feel like I’m doing more damage or always crit as a 2nd rouge sneak attack. But that’s my opinion
I picked 2d6 for the reason it feels better as a player to roll 2 di than 1. It makes me feel like I’m doing more damage or always crit as a 2nd rouge sneak attack. But that’s my opinion
I mean, ultimately it's about what you find fun. That's as valid a reason as any.
My personal opinion (not based on stats) would be, if you have a feature like Savage Attacker or Great Weapon Fighting, I'd favor 1d12 because the risk of rolling low is reduced. 1d12 always feels more fun just because I so rarely roll a d12 any other time, but after enough rolls of 1-3 I end up changing back to 2d6 just for consistency. I'm yet to play a character like this with weapon mastery though, so that would probably factor in too.
With Great Weapon Fighting you should favor 2d6 over 1d12. The numbers verilyraze posted for the averages with GWF are correct of 8 for 2d6 and 6.75 for 1d12. That only tells part of the story though. With GWF the min for 2d6 is 6 and the min for 1d12 is 3. The d12 has a 41.67% chance to roll below the minimum damage of 2d6. The tradeoff is a higher chance for the bigger numbers. The d12 has a 25% chance to roll 10 or higher where 2d6 has an 8.33% chance.
It's more just a personal preference for me I think. 1d12 promises more extremes whilst 2d6 is more consistent in the middle, so if I have a feature to mitigate the chance of rolling low, that just feels more fun to go with 1d12 in that situation. I must admit, I had also forgotten that GWF got changed to make 1s and 2s count as 3 instead of rerolling when I made that initial comment, so I'd probably still favor 2d6 in that situation with the new rules.
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This poll is assuming that the critical rules are using the dnd beyond rulings for critical hits rather than the popular house rule of just double damage so 1d12 crits are far more effective. This poll should be based on how you build a character for a campaign rather than the statistical advantage as both options have even more variance in what they are good at, and builds can significantly alter the viability of an option.
Just a goober doing my own work when I want to. I like the idea of not just high fantasy dnd.
You can reach me over discord as well, Handle is royalsupsi as well
I am open to work on joint homebrew projects, just DM me.
All my projects so far are in the extended signiture
Extended Sig
I picked d12, because how often do you get to use the thing. Nice to see it show up in the rotation.
Depends on the character for me. If you have any features that add an extra weapon damage die on critical hits, the d12 is better. If you want consistency, 2d6 will have less instances of minimum or maximum damage (if you graph your damage rolls, 1d12 should be a flat line, where 2d6 becomes a bell curve).
The official rules for critical hits would have a 2d6 become a 4d6, there are numerous other reasons why a 2d6 is better than a d12 but it mostly comes down to consistency and average damage, a 2d6 just does more damage and more consistently does average damage (5~9).
If we are comparing the melee weapons (so not considering Musket which is ranged). The applicable weapons here are:
Greataxe (1d12) - Cleave
Greatsword (2d6) - Graze
Maul (2d6) - Topple
Greatsword is just inherently better than Greataxe, the exception comes down to the weapon mastery. For all barbarians or an Oath of Vengeance Paladin, Graze becomes a very weak option due to the high availability of advantage (reckless attack and vow of enmity), it is also a weaker option for Oath of Devotion Paladin too due to their higher attack rolls (sacred weapon). However for an Oath of Devotion Paladin, Maul becomes a better option due to Topple while for Barbarians and Oath of Vengeance, Using a greataxe is better when vs. 2 or more hostile creatures due to cleave.
This all said, if going for Cleave, Halberd is just a significantly easier option to use for getting cleaves and it goes well with Polearm Master to use the occasional bonus action or reaction where a bonus action or reaction might not have been available before. So overall Greatsword or Maul are better than Greataxe except when the user already has advantage in which case there can be some edge cases where Greataxe could be better when facing multiple creatures.
My personal opinion (not based on stats) would be, if you have a feature like Savage Attacker or Great Weapon Fighting, I'd favor 1d12 because the risk of rolling low is reduced. 1d12 always feels more fun just because I so rarely roll a d12 any other time, but after enough rolls of 1-3 I end up changing back to 2d6 just for consistency. I'm yet to play a character like this with weapon mastery though, so that would probably factor in too.
2d6 is (7,8,8.94,9.22) with (neither,GWF,SA,both)
d12 is (6.5,6.75,8.49,8.52) with (neither,GWF,SA,both)
I picked 2d6 for the reason it feels better as a player to roll 2 di than 1. It makes me feel like I’m doing more damage or always crit as a 2nd rouge sneak attack. But that’s my opinion
I mean, ultimately it's about what you find fun. That's as valid a reason as any.
pronouns: he/she/they
With Great Weapon Fighting you should favor 2d6 over 1d12. The numbers verilyraze posted for the averages with GWF are correct of 8 for 2d6 and 6.75 for 1d12. That only tells part of the story though. With GWF the min for 2d6 is 6 and the min for 1d12 is 3. The d12 has a 41.67% chance to roll below the minimum damage of 2d6. The tradeoff is a higher chance for the bigger numbers. The d12 has a 25% chance to roll 10 or higher where 2d6 has an 8.33% chance.
It's more just a personal preference for me I think. 1d12 promises more extremes whilst 2d6 is more consistent in the middle, so if I have a feature to mitigate the chance of rolling low, that just feels more fun to go with 1d12 in that situation. I must admit, I had also forgotten that GWF got changed to make 1s and 2s count as 3 instead of rerolling when I made that initial comment, so I'd probably still favor 2d6 in that situation with the new rules.