Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

So I was reading the be Melee rules pdf and I see that some weapon damage rolls are 1d-4 for a thrown rock. So does that mean if I roll 1-4 on the die the. I do no damage to an unarmored for even though I did hit with the rock or is there a minimum of 1 point of damage if I hit?

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

I've been assuming for these last 41 years that anything less than a zero is zero. I hope I haven't been doing it wrong. :)

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

Sheldore the Great throws a rock at WoloWizard. He rolls a hit on 3d vs DX and then rolls one die (1d-4). He rolls a 3 for no damage (3-4=-1).

The rock tears a small hole in WoloWizard's dickie of incredible immaturity. Enraged, he raises his wand and aims a fireball at Shedore's spot (er, hex).

And the battle goes on.

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

LOL
In theory, that fireball will be a Big Bang!

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

You're doing it right; the minimum damage is zero, not one.

Missile spells in the new Wizard are the first exception that has a minimum damage roll in TFT.

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

Curious, where is minimum damage == 0 specified?

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

Both Magic Fist and Fireball have this qualifying statement in their description:

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

It's not. It's a natural outcome of the math and in game logic assumptions. If I attack bare handed, doing 1d-4, and I roll a one. You can't do -3 damage to an enemy by in game logic, but you could do none, so that's what you do.

Missle spells calling out minimum damage implies this is not always the case, and are an exception to the base assumptions.

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

Yes, but it's still not insane or dimwitted to wonder in the absence of the rules actually stating or giving an example.

Before you rolled damage, you rolled to "hit". Melee even calls damage "hits"; congratulations, you know you've done some! Some people might well think that since the dice say you've scored some hits, the logical minimum is 1 hit rather than 0. Zero hits is the amount of damage you do on every miss -- and so those zero results should all taken care of by the to-hit roll, not the damage roll. Given that there's a known hit involved, the minimum could well be 1, as that's every bit as much "a natural outcome of the math and in game logic assumptions".

I don't think anyone is suggest that a -3 means your dagger stab should heal the enemy. The question is just whether the minimum is 0 or 1. I happen to think the answer is 0, but the rules don't actually say.

(For what it's worth, GURPS actually does specify minimum damage on a damage roll as 1 for most damage types, though 0 is still permitted for crushing damage. The "Rolling For Damage" section on Melee p11 could certainly stand one more sentence to clarify minimum damage in the case of a negative modifier. But that's not errata, per that thread's definition.)

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

I've taken both sides of the fence on this one in the past. I can see where a 1D6-4 weapon might be so weak that even a successful hit doesn't do significant damage (minimum of 0), or conversely that a weak weapon does minimal damage most of the time with a chance of doing a little bit more (minimum of 1). I'll defer to however it ends up spelled out in the rules, and hopefully it will be unambiguous.

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

Yes I am of the opinion that the minimum should be 1 point if you hit with a weapon not 0. I mean if I stab someone with a dagger they are going to take damage if I hit them I would think.

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

What about armor?

I could see an exception to the minimum damage = 0 concept, for, say, poisoned weapons -- in those cases, if you hit (even a character in armor), there should be at least some chance that the poison could take effect, even if the damage from the physical attack is 0.

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

If they have armor on then of course it is subtracted and can resulting in the damage being stopped by the armor but you still did damage. It just seems “wrong” counter intuitive to me to succeed on your roll to hit but roll 0 damage.

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

I'm not sure why you feel that way though. I've been in a number of fist-fights (in my MUCH younger -- and stupider -- days) and have frequently seen "hits" landed where zero damage was done. And that's the most likely situation in which this issue will crop up.

Re: Minimum Weapon Damage?
 

Don't think of it as "no damage" but rather as "no damage that contributes to death". You may have given the opponent a black eye or some bruises but these will not be fatal. This can lead to some good role-playing -does it arouse sympathy or revulsion?