Let's Math AD&D: Average Damage By Class

I've been thinking about AD&D combat lately, which means I've been making charts and spreadsheets and wearing pocket protectors and trying to avoid Ogre. Anyway, I looked at how the AD&D weapon chart and the proficiency by class worked together.

This has nothing to do with the post, I just felt weird doing a text only post :)

Now, before I begin, I'd like to explain the situation I find myself in. Playing games online is slightly difference from playing in person. In particular, I've noticed that the games I play in tend to have very simple combat. I rarely if ever see a battle map, probably due to technological limitations, so combat is static. Turns spent engaging in combat mechanics (As opposed to, say, any given cockamamie scheme the players have come up with to defeat the monster without risking bodily harm) are largely spent saying a hundred variations of "I attack with my sword." Most of the various fiddly bits of combat vs AC, reach, shooting into a melee, ect, simply aren't used. Initiative is a flat roll, usually a d6, sometimes with a Dexterity modifier, but never involving weapon speed or spell casting times. This means that a weapon's stat line is often reduced to just a damage number, and for this reason I'm just evaluating the damage capabilities, and not taking into account weapon speed, reach and miscellaneous.

Format: X/Y, where X is damage to small or medium targets, and Y is damage to large targets. So like if I say "4.5/5 DPR" I mean that the weapon deals 4.5 damage per round to small or medium targets, and 5 damage per round to large targets.

FIGHTERS, RANGERS, PALADINS, ASSASSINS

• One-handed weapon: broad sword: 5/4.5 DPR
• Two-handed weapon: heavy lance: 6/10.5 DPR.
• Two-handed weapon that you can expect to actually use: two-handed sword: 5.5/10.5 DPR
• Missile weapon: tie between arrows or javelins: 3.5/3.5 DPR
• Highest possible damage: two-handed sword: 10 damage

CLERICS

• One-handed weapon: morning star: 5/4.5 DPR
• Two-handed weapon: lucern hammer: 5/3.5 DPR.
• Missile weapon: sling bullets: 3.5/4.5 DPR
• Highest possible damage: lucern hammer: 8 damage

DRUIDS

• One-handed weapon: scimitar: 4.5/4.5 DPR
• Two-handed weapon: lucern hammer: 5/3.5 DPR.
• Missile weapon: sling bullets: 3.5/4.5 DPR
• Highest possible damage: lucern hammer: 8 damage

MAGIC-USER, ILLUSIONIST

• One-handed weapon: dagger: 2.5/1.75 DPR
• Two-handed weapon: quarter staff: 3.5/3.5 DPR.
• Missile weapon: dart: 1.75/1 DPR
• Highest possible damage: quarterstaff: 6 damage

THIEF

• One-handed weapon: long sword: 4.5/6.5 DPR
• Two-handed weapon: Not usable by class
• Missile weapon: sling bullets: 3.5/4.5 DPR
• Highest possible damage: long sword: 8 damage

MONK

• One-handed weapon: tied hand axe or jo stick: 3.5/2.5 DPR
• Two-handed weapon: bardiche: 5/7.5 DPR
• Missile weapon: heavy crossbow: 3/4.5 DPR
• Highest possible damage: bardiche: 8 damage

OKAY BUT WHAT IS YOUR POINT

Let's see how Fighters, Thieves, Clerics and Magic-Users stack up.

• Fighters and Clerics can both reach a respectable 5 DPR with one handed weapons, with Thieves trailing just behind at 4.5. Magic-Users trail at a lowly 2.5.
• Fighters are able to reach 6 DPR with two-handed weapons, followed by Clerics at 5 and Magic-Users at 3.5. Thieves do not use two-handed weapons.
• Fighters, Clerics and Thieves can reach 3.5 DPR with missile/thrown weapons, while Magic-Users only reach 1.75 DPR.
• Fighters can use the highest damage weapons, capable of dealing up to 10 damage. Clerics and Thieves can deal up to 8, and Magic-Users can deal up to 6.

YES, AND?
Okay, well, look at that again. Fighters (d10 HD) can deal 10 damage. Clerics (d8 HD) can deal 8 damage. The thieves and magic-users (d6 and d4 HD) actually get bumped up one dice to 8 and 6 damage, respectably. Note the tendency to bump damage up, not down. It's also worth pointing out that missile weapons almost never compare to melee weapons in terms of damage, the fighter maxing out at 6 damage with a bow compared to 10 with a melee weapon. It's also a flatter progression, with clerics and thieves able to deal 5 damage, and magic-users dealing up to 4.

Now, this is interesting in a game being run with super simplified combat, in that if weapons are reduced to simply a damage number, then there is no reason to not chose the most damaging number. In that case, why not just remove the weapon tables completely and just base damage off of the class?

This is one of those incredibly simple ideas that I'm positively sure someone else has come up with before I, but here is how I would use it:

Characters wielding one handed weapons deal damage equal to their hit dice. Two handed weapons (or one-handed weapons held with two hands) increase the die by one size. "Light" weapons (daggers, knives, spiked gauntlets) and improvised weapons (broken bottle, fire place pokers) decrease the dice by one size, as do all missile weapons. Anything dealing less than 1-3 damage rounds up to that point. No change based on the size of the opponent. How does this look now?

• The strongest combat class, the fighter, would deal 1-10 with a long sword, 1-12 with a two-handed sword, 1-8 with a dagger and 1-8 with a bow. His average DPR, in order, is: 5.5, 6.5, 4.5, 4.5.
• The weakest melee class, the magic-user, now deals 1-4 with a longsword (well, he isn't proficient with it, but this is just for illustrating my point), 1-6 with a two handed sword, 1-3 with a dagger, and 1-3 with a bow. His DPR, in order, looks like this: 2.5, 3.5, 1.75, 1.75

Special Cases: Barbarians (from Unearthed Arcana) with two handed weapons get a +1 to hit and deal 2-13 damage (Maybe +2 to-hit and damage? I should look over that class description again). Monks unarmed damage always rounds up to be at least equal to a light weapon.