SMOOSH JUICE
Exploding Dice: A Simple House Rule to Make TTRPG Combat Faster & More Thrilling — Domain of Many Things
Exploding dice: Make combat faster and more exciting with this one simple house rule
Word up my dice squirrels. Todays tip is short and sweet, like a caramel coated Gimli son of Gloin.
A common complaint about crunchy tactical combat games like 5e and Pathfinder is that battles can become a slog.
There are a number of things that you can do about this, such as using more interesting situations for combat encounters, lowering everyone’s HP, unbalancing the encounters, and telegraphing monster attacks. But I also have a neat little house rule I use that’s really simple to incorporate.
Damage dice explode, for everyone
When you roll the highest number in a given dice for damage or healing, you get to roll another dice of equal value. This stacks, meaning every time you roll max damage, you roll another die, potentially indefinitely.
This adds an element of unpredictability to combats, and it’s a more satisfying critical hit than the traditional natural 20 approach. It also means that it’s technically possible, though very unlikely to one shot something big and hairy, with unlimited possible exploding dice.
In fact, we also use the traditional house rule that a natural 20 equates to max damage, this compliments my rule because max damage neatly triggers the exploding dice house rule too.
Nothing beats the moment a player rolls an exploding die, then another, then another – the whole table erupts. And just when they think they’ve peaked, BOOM, another max roll! No one stays in their seat when that happens. But of course, the dice gods giveth and taketh away. The first time a goblin crits and it suddenly snowballs into a knock down? That’s when the real fear sets in.
There’s another benefit too, it further differentiates the weapons in a satisfying way. Big weapons with bigger dice do more damage on average, but smaller weapons like a dagger are more swingy because they have more chance of an explosion, not only is this really thematic and satisfying, it also keeps these smaller weapons very relevant.
Conclusion
And that’s it, I did tell you it was simple! Give it a go, I think you’ll love the effect, and be sure to tell me how it went!
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When you roll the highest number in a given dice for damage or healing, you get to roll another dice of equal value. This stacks, meaning every time you roll max damage, you roll another die, potentially indefinitely.
“Master Luke, you’re standing on the…”
“I will not give up my favourite decoration” Jabba interjects in booming Huttese “I like Captain Solo where he is…”
With lightning speed, the force flares through Luke’s outstretched fingers, ripping the blaster from the guards holster into his grasp.
A common reason I hear for folks being turned off from OSR games is their perceived or real deadliness. Most folks getting into the TTRPG hobby these days are the children of Matt Mercer, and following Critical Role as their primary example, so it’s natural they’re sold on the idea that TTRPGs are supposed to be a long interactive story with traditional structure, and deep and satisfying character arcs.