[RPG] Which attack yields higher average damage

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I am playing a fighter in a (heavily homebrewed) D&D campaign. The way the DM and I have created my character she has the option of using her main weapon, a quarterstaff, either one handed or two handed.

One Handed: 1d8 + 6

Two Handed: 1d10 + 4

At the moment the two have an identical +9 to hit. I took dueling as my fighting style so have a +2 to the one-handed attack.

To my (mathematically challenged) eye this seems fairly useless since the two are nearly identical in damage. I'd like to argue for a different setup but I would like some hard numbers to show to my DM to argue my case (or perhaps show me that I'm totally wrong).

What is the average amount of damage each of those attacks will do?

Best Answer

The average roll of any single die can easily be calculated by taking the the sum of all faces and then divide by the number of faces. Luckily, this always comes to 0.5 × HIGHEST_NUMBER + 0.5. So for a d8, the average will be 4 + 0.5 = 4.5 and the average for a d10 will be 5 + 0.5 = 5.5.

This means for your attacks it's

  • 1d8 + 6 = 4.5 + 6 = 10.5 average
  • 1d10 + 4 = 5.5 + 4 = 9.5 average

Thus, using it one-handed is superior. Using it one-handed also allows you to do other things with your other hand - such as wielding a shield, or a second weapon - making it even more superior.