D&D 4E Is it just me, or do damaging effects suck in 4E?

[hong]

No no, imagine a world where the warlock does that AND the ranger does his thing too. And then imagine three other characters.

Imagine all the people... sharing all the love....

 

[Family]

So, how much damage CAN be thrown down by a level 19 character in one round?

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Incidentally, for those who have some game experience under their belts, has the new system actually delivered on its promise of faster combats? How long would you estimate those 12 rounds taking, real-time, in a typical dining-room-table game?

I've played two sessions of Keep on the Shadowfell. First session was about 4.5 hours that included three combats and probably 2 hours of RP and 1 hour of goofing off, breaks, etc. The combats actually ran a little longer (in both rounds and game time) than 3e, but much of that was people getting used to their characters.

In the second session, we played about six hours. Figure about 1 hour RP and goofing off and another hour exploring and checking things out, and we got in five combats. Again, the combats took a fairly long time, but I had two brand new players (who picked up characters that were played by others in the previous session). Still some learning curve.

I suspect that over time things will move faster. It's taking a significant amount of time for new players (one had never played D&D in any incarnation) to get a handle on everything. The more experienced players are quicker, but there's still a fair amount of trying to figure out the best place to move and the best power to use.

I'm definitely having fun, and the monster powers are neat, but combats drag a lot longer than I would like. Hopefully that will fade with time as people learn more about the game.

 

[Sojorn]

So, how much damage CAN be thrown down by a level 19 character in one round?

Well, assuming that you spend an AP and get... 5 crits in a row and roll max damage on all your crit dice... A level 19 ranger can do about 300 damage in one round.

Mind, that's something like a 1 in 3.2 million chance for the 5 crits, much less maxing all the damage dice.

Oh, and they have 15 ongoing too. Whee.

 

[Family]

Let me rephrase that then, assuming average damage rolls...etc. And I'm throwing down the gauntlet here so "about" ain't gonna do it.

 

[Sojorn]

Welp, I've got nothing.

15 per at-will, 25 per encounter. Depending on, like, EVERYTHING.

 

[Ten]

Remember that against a solo, you have 5 people all blowing their most damaging dailies followed by using an AP to shoot off their second most powerful daily. We are talking about even classes like the Wizard, who aren't designed to do single target damage dealing can do almost 100 damage in a single round.

Assuming the best of circumstances the party can knock out around 500HP off a 1300 HP red dragon's HP on the first round.

 

[hong]

Here's an example of a 5-ranger party blowing away a fen hydra (solo monster) in 4 rounds. This is an extreme case, but it indicates that the "shock" is not entirely gone from 4E combat.

http://forum.rpg.net/showpost.php?p=8941702&postcount=98

 

[HP Dreadnought]

Nope--you roll one attack roll per creature, but one damage roll total. So a grand total of 122 rolls.

If you're attacking 121 creatures you ought to be minions if the DM is doing is job. Just roll them in batches of 10. . . they're minions after all. They're going to get reduced to just a handful of guys in short order by a competent wizard.

Try handling 121 combatants of approximately equal power level to yourself in 3E!

 

[Surgoshan]

Of course, if the DM were doing his job, 121 Lich Vestiges (highest level minion I could find) wouldn't be bunched into the smallest possible space. However, 121 Lich Vestiges goes a little over the XP budge for even a level thirty encounter.

So you'd be facing 121 Angel of Valor Legionnaires or Legion Devil Legionnaires. But they wouldn't be a challenge, because they'd only hit your average fighter's AC on a natural 20.

Le sigh.