Strength of humanoids and damage by weapon type

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

How do you DM strength of the different humanoid types and damage by weapon type?

For example, is the damage done by a kobold versus a bugbear with a spiked club (treat as morning star) the same or different?

[foster1941]

The DMG offers these guidelines for humanoid strength (on p. 15):

By way of comparison, kobolds will have an average strength rating of 9, goblins 10, orcs 12, hobgoblins 15, gnolls 16, bugbears 17, ogres 18, and trolls a strength rating of 18+. Gnomes have an average strength rating of 10, dwarves 14, elves 12, halflings 8, and giants 19 and up.

Because AD&D only gives damage bonuses (or penalties) at the extreme ends of the curve, it's not applicable in most of these cases. The MM already states that ogres get +2 bonus to weapon damage, which corresponds to their having an 18 strength. Likewise, trolls' claw attacks at 1d4+4 seemingly incorporate the damage bonus for having 18/xx strength. It doesn't mention a +1 to damage from non-leader gnolls or bugbears, but it probably makes sense to give them one (in addition to implicitly being able to wield their 2d4 damage bastard swords, morning stars, and pole arms one-handed). Giants' strength is kind of incorporated into the damage values in the MM, but in order to make things more consistent in my house rules I changed their damage values to include the bonus for str 19-24 (e.g. I have frost giants (str 21: +9 damage) do 2d6+9 instead of the MM's 4d6).

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

Dec 14, 2017 13:24:06 GMT -5 foster1941 said:

The DMG offers these guidelines for humanoid strength (on p. 15):

By way of comparison, kobolds will have an average strength rating of 9, goblins 10, orcs 12, hobgoblins 15, gnolls 16, bugbears 17, ogres 18, and trolls a strength rating of 18+. Gnomes have an average strength rating of 10, dwarves 14, elves 12, halflings 8, and giants 19 and up.

Because AD&D only gives damage bonuses (or penalties) at the extreme ends of the curve, it's not applicable in most of these cases. The MM already states that ogres get +2 bonus to weapon damage, which corresponds to their having an 18 strength. Likewise, trolls' claw attacks at 1d4+4 seemingly incorporate the damage bonus for having 18/xx strength. It doesn't mention a +1 to damage from non-leader gnolls or bugbears, but it probably makes sense to give them one (in addition to implicitly being able to wield their 2d4 damage bastard swords, morning stars, and pole arms one-handed). Giants' strength is kind of incorporated into the damage values in the MM, but in order to make things more consistent in my house rules I changed their damage values to include the bonus for str 19-24 (e.g. I have frost giants (str 21: +9 damage) do 2d6+9 instead of the MM's 4d6).

That's the quote I was looking for in the DMG for typical humanoids strength - I couldn't remember of the top of my head where it was to refer to.

It is interesting that the bugbear description includes that they sometimes even use maces as missle weapons - I'm gonna try to remember those MMI range guidelines in case a strong PC tries to do something similar. I don't remember using a bugbear that way against PCs, but it would be a fun surprise!