Iāve been using the OL system for a while now, and Iāve noticed a couple of issues with dice explosions and their results.
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Massive Explosions and exceptional success devalue bane attacks. With a massive explosion, not only do you deal massive damage, you also get to apply a bane as bonus. With a bane attack, you donāt do more damage, the bane isnāt more effective, nor is it harder to resist. You could roll a 50 on a bane invoke just to have it resisted before it even does something. Itās not so much that bane attacks are useless (though I would argue some become obsolete once you reach higher attribute scores), but a massive dice explosion should feel good when making a bane attack, not give players a feeling of ādamn, that could have been damageā.
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Same for boons. Like with banes, no matter how high you roll, boons always have the same effect (as long as itās over the required PL). Sure itās still a success, but every explosion here is accompanied by a feeling of āthat could have been moreā.
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They can escalate too much (in my opinion). Iāve seen it and Iāve heard it from other people, including GMs. You plan out a tanky character or an epic boss, only to have it get killed in 2 hits due to some ridiculous explosions.
Solutions I would suggest :
Exceptional success could use a bit of tweaking. Bonus banes could be limited to half the attribute score. (possible exception of bane focus). I might even go as far as to put an upper limit on how much damage a single attack can do based on the attribute score, but that feels a bit like a hamfisted solution.
Banes and boons could also use some rules/guidelines when it comes to exceptional success and bonus effects. I suggest something along the lines of invoking at a higher PL, a free sustain for a round, an automatic failed resist/disadvantage on resist rolls.