The new weapon damage dice system prevents weapons with 2dX damage from existing. The Greatsword now deals the same damage as a Greataxe, and Versatile is a weaker property than Sweep.
Before, the Greatsword has 2d6 damage and traded explosive damage for consistency. Now, they don't have that advantage any more.
I personally think the current weapon damage system is fine, but others have expressed a concern that the d12 can bring some real feel bad moments, especially for the Barbarian, and are keen to introduce the 2d6 Greatsword back into the system.
With the change to the potency rune system, a 1d12 weapon eventually becomes 6d12, and a 2d6 weapon would become 12d6.
On average, a 1d12 weapon does 6.5 dmg while a 2d6 weapon does 7 dmg. The potential loss of damage is 0.5 -> 3 dmg as the game progresses, plus the minimum damage loss is between 1 -> 6 dmg. (2 -> 12 on crits).
These numbers may not seem large, but static damage bonuses are hard to come by in PF2, and the loss of average damage due to die size is not insignificant.
While I'm firmly in the camp that 2dX weapons need not be reintroduced to the game, I think a compromise could be reached to help 2H-weapon users feel better about their choice and prevent low moments when they get unlucky with their damage rolls.
My proposal: Introduce a weapon property similar to the Brutal property in D&D 4e. It could guarantee a higher minimum result on the die, like turning 1s and 2s into 3s.
If we just copy the Brutal property, the average damage of a 1d12 Brutal 2 weapon would be 7.5, higher than a 2d6 weapon and requiring players to reroll dice.
If we guarantee the minimum result on a 1d12 roll is a 3, the average damage increases only slightly, from 6.5 to 6.75, but we can mitigate the low moments of a minimum roll and provide a slight incentive for those who want to roll large numbers to stick with 2H-weapons.
Thoughts?
