As Rag mentions, your alternative version of Empowered Spell is similar to RAW Empowered only when your Cha modifier is close to the die's average of the spell (e.g., 3 or 4 for a d6). As your Cha modifier increases, your alternative suggestion becomes much more powerful (essentially Maximizing a spell)
E.g., Burning Hands = 3d6
- Normal average = 3*3.5 = 10.5
- Normal empowered: Each die's average into 4.25 (rerolling 1-3s leads to outcomes of 3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 4, 5, 6) for total damage of 12.75
- Alternative empowered with Cha of +3: Each die's average is 4 (possible outcomes of 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6) for total damage of 12
- Alternative empowered with Cha of +4: Each die's average is 4.5 (possible outcomes of 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6) for total damage of 13.5
- Alternative empowered with Cha of +5: Each die's average is 5.167 (possible outcomes of 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 ,6) for total damage of 15.5
(AoE spell, so all damages are per target)
E.g., Fireball = 8d6
- Normal average = 8*3.5 = 28 damage
- Normal empowered. Each die's average is 4.25 - 34 damage
- Alternative empowered with Cha of +3: 4*8= 32 damage
- Alternative empowered with Cha of +4: 4.5*8= 36 damage
- Alternative empowered with Cha of +5: 5.167*8= 41.3 damage (Remember, this is damage per target for an AoE spell. If you target 6 enemies and half save, you'll actually be dealing 41.3*4.5~186 total points of damage which is ~33 more points of damage compared to "Normal" empowered fireball)
I would suggest that your alternative "no manual rerolling" version of Empowered simply automatically reroll 1s and 2s. (Oh wait, this implementation feels familiar. I feel like I've seen it in some other game...)
You could also make it dependent on the die size: reroll 1s and 2s for d6s, also reroll 3s for d8s, etc...
Last edited by mrfuji3; 27/05/22 05:01 PM.
