[Variant Rule] Path of War Manuever Nerf - Multiplying flat bonuses on crits

[Throndir]

Since a few people have expressed the craziness of Path of War and manuevers, time to bring in suggested 'fixes'. Altogether, I prefer not to house-rule too many things, at the same time, I suppose its might be a necessary evil due to the fact we're allowing everything third party.

For this nerf, should we allow flat damage bonuses granted by boosts, strikes, counters, and even stances be multiplied in terms of crits or any other ability/feat that specifies damage multiplication? Feats remained unaffected. This only applies to manuevers (boosts, strikes, counters, stances).

Normal x3 crit as per RAW:
1d4*3 (weapon) +2*3 (enhancement) + 1d6 (stance) +6*3 (strike) + 4*3 (boost) = 3d4 +6 +1d6 +18 + 12 =3d4 +1d6 +36

With this nerf:
1d4*3 (weapon) +2*3 (enhancement) + 1d6 (stance) +6 (strike) + 4 (boost) = 3d4 +6 +1d6 +6 +4 = 3d4 +1d6 +16

As usual, at least for games I DM, results of the poll will be what I go with.

[Throndir]

As reference, if the normal crit rules aren't clear. The only dice roll that is multiplied is weapon damage. Any other abilities that you have that grant extra dice rolls, do not stack. Flat damage bonuses, as per RAW, are the only damage increases that multiply on crit. This includes, but is not limited to:

Strength bonus, power attack, enhancement bonuses, Solar Wind Style, any other strike/counter/feat/boost that give a flat damage increase rather than dice roll.

Multiplying Damage

Sometimes you multiply damage by some factor, such as on a critical hit. Roll the damage (with all modifiers) multiple times and total the results.

Note: When you multiply damage more than once, each multiplier works off the original, unmultiplied damage. So if you are asked to double the damage twice, the end result is three times the normal damage.

Exception: Extra damage dice over and above a weapon's normal damage are never multiplied.

For minmaxers, generally if you have a choice between +1d6 damage or +3 damage, it's better to go with +3 if you're a crit build, as that multiplies, but 1d6 does not.

[Linwelin]

Though I do tend to side with RAW in cases like this, I consider PoW and the like to be an exception. There is already so much power built into Martial kits that allowing for already strong boosts to benefit from crits is overkill. For those playing such kits, like myself, I'm sure this doesn't appeal to you; but I'm sure you can agree when I say that these classes are vastly stronger than other source material.

It's either we take small nerf like these to avoid breaking the game, or we limit maneuver combos (which I feel is too extreme in the other direction, because THAT part of martial classes is what promotes creativity).

If not, we end up ostracizing ourselves from the bulk of the guild when it comes to the missions. Though the idea of being part of an elite squad is appealing, it doesn't fit most of our character concepts, nor the general idea of the guild.

[Dan-e]

Personally, I believe that discovering loopholes in rules and/or optimizing character concepts to be impressive and enjoyable; even to the point where I have competed with friends to see who could min/max the most in the past. However, I do also find that this process hinders one's own ability to think creatively on the spot and come up with unique and interesting solutions to combat challenges as opposed to consistently leveraging methods of mass damage. I think we'll be doing ourselves a better service, in terms of both story and game play, by not overpowering the opponents so readily.