Jonathan Tweet
Adventurer
Another factor to consider is that reliability and consistency matter a lot to whichever side has the advantage. The underdog in a fight benefits from increased randomness, while the favored group benefits from a lack of surprises. In RPGs, the PCs are almost always the favored side. A disadvantage of a single large attack compared to two small attacks is that the single attacks are more likely to produce an unlikely result. When balancing 3E, we tried to take this factor into account, but it's a slippery one.