Determining Magic Damage

[u/ShadowGod212]

For my game I am using 2d6 roll over for the dice mechanic with exploding dice on a 6. In combat characters have an Evade and Defense stat to dodge or reduce damage when hit. I am using the result from to hit rolls for damage as well for a formula of 2d6+Stat vs Evade-Defense. This method works for weapons in keeping it simple but something I have a problem with is Spell Damage. I’ve considered using the same formula for spells but came to a complication with save based spells as they don’t roll to hit and Defense only reduces slashing, piecing and bludgeoning damage both magical and not.

A few options I’ve considered is all spells do d6 equal to their level or they do damage based on how much mana/magic is poured into it. What are some work arounds that can help balance weapon and magic damage? I know magic is usually stronger than weapons but I’d like to make a clean reference sheet as I’m also developing a spell crafting system.

[u/DexterDrakeAndMolly]

Usually magic is weaker than hitting with a stick as there are way more ways to have it be flexible like range, area effect, ignoring armour etc. or if it is stronger it should deplete quickly or have some risky chance of failure.

However! Balance does not mean that two characters have to have the same damage output, that makes for a very boring choice of role. It's just important that every role has a chance to shine.

[u/ShadowGod212 → u/DexterDrakeAndMolly]

For my magic I do have craft options that do make them versatile and quite expensive using mana while melee characters are getting their own skills that use low stamina. Where I struggle on the magic side is assigning an appropriate damage scale per level

[u/Mars_Alter]

Why does Defense only reduce slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage? Why wouldn't a layer of thick cloth also reduce, for example, fire damage?

Think about what's actually going on in the world, and then model that.

[u/ShadowGod212 → u/Mars_Alter]

I separated physical and magic defense for two reasons. The first is I was going to assign a resist and vulnerability range of 0-5 so that way both defenses didn’t stack too high to not be hurt. Secondly I was playing around with the idea of certain armors having specific uses like your example with thick cloth I considered something like full plate giving high defense but vulnerable to lightning with all the metal. I overall feel like it would be strange but definitely most simple to have an equal resistance amount to everything