Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Slit518 Jan 20, 2015 19:49:06	It's the sequel thread! 1d8 or 2d4?
#2 Tempest_Stormwind Jan 20, 2015 20:53:20	Just to get the mandatory data out of the way. And setting aside that, as yet, there are no 2d4 weapons...   Averages: 1d8: 4.5 (sd 2.29) vs 2d4: 5 (sd 1.58) Great Weapon Fighting: 1d8: 5.25 (sd 1.92) vs 2d4: 6 (sd 1.41) Savage Attacker: 1d8: 5.81 (sd 1.88) vs 2d4: 5.89 (sd 1.31)   Once again, numerically, it seems to go to the multiple dice on all fronts (higher means, lower standard deviations, and of course lower chances of rolling poorly, since, as I argued earlier, a good roll rarely improves the game as much as a bad roll ruins it.)     Also, I know I said I liked the click of rolling dice together last time. This time, I favor 1d8 for the opposite reason - d4s are little caltrop traps, just waiting to hurt players who don't notice they've fallen on the carpet. D8s behave much nicer on the table and on the floor. At least in this case, the visceral preference isn't the same as the numerical one, so...     (Minor aside: At one point I built a 3.5 character optimized around the idea of the most reliable damage you could manage. I opted for a 2d4 weapon expressly because of this - it had the tighest spread of all dice, so closely focused on its mean. Plus, there were 2d4 weapons in two-handed varieties, which was important to how the build worked. The fact that an unavoidable, inevitable death-dealer happened to be armed with a scythe certainly didn't hurt the style points.)
#3 CFK Jan 20, 2015 22:40:11	I discussed it with my party just last sunday.   There I also opted that it's a psychological thing, "shuffling" 1d8 in your hand isn't very omnious, where 2d4 sounds like pure evil. I demonstrated by holding and playing with 1d20 and with 2d4. All members said that the 2d4 gave them the feeling of something thats gonna hurt them soon.   But all psycho-babble aside, I'd go for the 2d4. For all the reasons already said in the 1d12-vs-2d6 thread.
#4 Azylynne Jan 21, 2015 2:39:44	Personally I hate 2d4 and much prefer 1d8, as a GM. The "pyramid" d4s are a bit harder to pick up and just feel more odd than rolling a d8.  So for mass combat where I roll a lot of dice and try to speed up combat rounds, I prefer the d8 over 2d4.  I even changed a few of the basic mobs to do d8 damage just for ease and efficiency for me.