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In Depth Critique of Part 3 of Basic Rules
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6352534" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>You mean this?</p><p></p><p>A 7th level Disintegrate does 13d6 + 40, or an average of 85.5. But zero damage on a save. Finger of Death does 7d8+30, or an average of 61.5. And half damage on a save.</p><p></p><p>Finger of Death obviously does more <em>reliable</em> damage than Disintegrate, Furthermore, if the chance to save is 9/20 or more (ie save on an 12 or less on the d20) then FoD does more expected damage than Disintegrate.</p><p></p><p>So I don't think your original comments are all that helpful. They imply that Disintegrate is subject to some sort of cap or HD limit. It's not. They imply that the absence of such a cap is part of what balances FoD at 7th level; it's not. What balances it is that for any target with a saving throw chance better than 40% (which will include most fighters, at least), it does more expected damage. And of course it can turn a target that it kills into a zombie. This would include any target reduced to 0 hp whom the GM deems to die at zero hp; or otherwise a target (including a PC) who takes surplus damage equal to their hit point maximum, which most of the time that would have to be a target with no more than 30-odd max hp.</p><p></p><p>Average hit points for a 13th level wizard will be 48 (12d6+6) or 54 (for the player who doesn't roll) before CON bonuses. Such a character's CON save, if unboosted by Stat or Feat, will be 18 (DC 8 + 5 stat + 5 prof for an attacking 13th level wizard). So expected damage from FoD is 57.8125 hp. The PC in question has a good chance of being knocked unconscious but is extremely unlikely to be killed by the spell. That's not SoD, and it's barely SoS (if the PC has a +1 CON bonus to hp then the PC's hit points increase by 13 to 61/67, and the expected damage drops to 56.25).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6352534, member: 42582"] You mean this? A 7th level Disintegrate does 13d6 + 40, or an average of 85.5. But zero damage on a save. Finger of Death does 7d8+30, or an average of 61.5. And half damage on a save. Finger of Death obviously does more [I]reliable[/I] damage than Disintegrate, Furthermore, if the chance to save is 9/20 or more (ie save on an 12 or less on the d20) then FoD does more expected damage than Disintegrate. So I don't think your original comments are all that helpful. They imply that Disintegrate is subject to some sort of cap or HD limit. It's not. They imply that the absence of such a cap is part of what balances FoD at 7th level; it's not. What balances it is that for any target with a saving throw chance better than 40% (which will include most fighters, at least), it does more expected damage. And of course it can turn a target that it kills into a zombie. This would include any target reduced to 0 hp whom the GM deems to die at zero hp; or otherwise a target (including a PC) who takes surplus damage equal to their hit point maximum, which most of the time that would have to be a target with no more than 30-odd max hp. Average hit points for a 13th level wizard will be 48 (12d6+6) or 54 (for the player who doesn't roll) before CON bonuses. Such a character's CON save, if unboosted by Stat or Feat, will be 18 (DC 8 + 5 stat + 5 prof for an attacking 13th level wizard). So expected damage from FoD is 57.8125 hp. The PC in question has a good chance of being knocked unconscious but is extremely unlikely to be killed by the spell. That's not SoD, and it's barely SoS (if the PC has a +1 CON bonus to hp then the PC's hit points increase by 13 to 61/67, and the expected damage drops to 56.25). [/QUOTE]
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