Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Praceteom Nov 02, 2014 15:14:46	A question has come up during character creation in my gaming group concerning 5e Great Weapon Fighting and bonus damage dice.   The text reads as such:  Great Weapon Fighting When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.   The question at hand is whether or not this is intended to allow rerolls on bonus damage dice, such as the battlemaster fighter's superiority damage dice or a paladin's divine smite damage dice. Our DM currently thinks that the intended rule is that it is only supposed to let someone reroll weapon damage dice, and not bonus damage dice. I on the other hand believe it was intended to let you reroll any of the damage dice on qualifying attacks due to the fact that weapon damage is not specified. The specific wording on the half-orc racial Savage Attacks leads me to believe that if Great Weapon Fighting was intended to allow rerolls only on weapon damage dice that it would have been specified as such.   Savage Attacks. When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.   Does anyone have a clear ruling for this?
#2 OnlyNerdStuff Nov 03, 2014 0:05:12	Messrs. Mearls and Crawford have both indicated that a paladin's smite damage and a rogue's sneak attack damage are doubled on a critical hit.  I've been using that as a guide for GWF.  I asked for clarification via twitter but recieved no reply.   I'd definitely like to know if GWF grants rerolls on superiority dice and verify that they're doubled for a critical hit as well.
#3 paulstrait Nov 03, 2014 0:22:32	The text for criticals says "Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together."  GWF lets you reroll whenever you roll a 1 or 2 on any damage dice.  So it seems pretty clear that you get to reroll 1s and 2s on those extra damage dice you roll when you critical, because they are damage dice.
#4 mellored Nov 03, 2014 5:23:52	Yes.   Note that with a 2d6 weapon, GWF adds 1.4 damage per attack (including crits). Compaired to dualist which adds 2.   So rerolling on other extra damage is fine.
#5 OnlyNerdStuff Nov 03, 2014 14:07:53	Thanks for all of the input, everyone!!   While I completely agree that superiority dice, smite damage, and even the bonus damage from legendary weapons should be re-rolled on a 1 or 2, some players and DMs remain skepitcal that this was the intent.   GWF is a fairly popular feature of two fairly popular classes and this determines how it interacts and scales with several other abilities all the way through to the end-game.  It changes the damage output in a statistically significant fashion and that can be pretty dramatic across multiple dice for multiple attacks per round.   Considering some of the relatively minor issues and less likely situations upon which they've commented, it seems reasonable to look for an official ruling one way or another.
#6 paulstrait Nov 03, 2014 21:06:40	OnlyNerdStuff wrote:
#7 OnlyNerdStuff Nov 04, 2014 19:31:15	I asked over Twitter last week, but didn't see a response...  Though, I'm sure everyone has been busy!
#8 Elfcrusher Nov 05, 2014 22:03:14	On a side note, in another thread somebody proposed changing the rule so that on a 1 (instead of a 1 or 2) you change the value to the max value of the die.  I.e., a 1 becomes a 6, but a 2 stays a 2.  It's slightly better damage....about 0.2 more average damage on a d6....but makes for faster rolling.  I like it.
#9 ivstin Nov 06, 2014 18:34:23	I think rerolling the extra damage would be pretty sweet. However, as I read the text, my "editing Theses" brain points out some syntax of the sentence:   Great Weapon Fighting When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.   As written.   And with Syntactic direction it looks like this...   Great Weapon Fighting When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the [aforementioned melee weapon] die and must use the new roll. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.   Justification: "damage die" for an attack you make with a melee weapon syntactically suggests the die specifically for the weapon. Arguably, the usage of "for an attack" could be the syntactic focus, rather than "with a melee weapon."   Syntax in this situation is doubly ambiguous and could be cleared up with an extra word here or there. I would do some crazy grammar assignment with my gaming group and make them break it down then vote on an interpretation using Reese's and Hot Chocolate for or against.   Mmmm... Chocolatey Syntax.
#10 OnlyNerdStuff Nov 06, 2014 21:49:39	ivstin wrote:
#11 paulstrait Nov 06, 2014 22:39:24	ivstin wrote:
#12 Danny_Montanny Nov 08, 2014 7:57:06	Reroll all damage dice for the attack that resulted in a 1 or 2. So if a Hunter's Mark Smite (level 1) with a Greatsword was a critical hit and all dice came up 1 or 2, you would reroll the 6d6 and 4d8.
#13 abs1nth Nov 11, 2014 11:29:44	Elfcrusher wrote:
#14 paulstrait Nov 11, 2014 19:17:56	abs1nth wrote: