Hit Probability is a Slippery Slope

[essenbee]

The death of roleplaying encapsulated in a single thread!

 

[Lord Ernie]

So... as I understand it, this whole thread comes down to a couple of things.

1. Attack and AC curve in such a way that high levels no longer result in auto-miss or auto-hit depending on your BAB.
2. Ability scores and racial influences matter strongly across the board (related to point 1)
3. At all levels, PC's need to work together to survive.

Hrmmm...


Awesome.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

(late to the party and probably not adding anything new) Assuming your boost your primary ability score every time you have the chance (2 times at heroic, 3 times at paragon, and 3 times at epic), you will get a +4 bonus to attacks over 30 levels from your ability score increases alone. On top of that, you get a +6 bonus from your magical weapnon/implement, and a +15 bonus from your level.
This gives you a +30 bonus to attack over 30 levels, or an average improvement rate of +1/level.

Monster attacks and defenses are calculated as BASE SCORE + Level according to the DMG guidelines.

So hit probabilities will stay in the same range over all levels, assuming equal level foes.

 

[eamon]

(late to the party and probably not adding anything new) Assuming your boost your primary ability score every time you have the chance (2 times at heroic, 3 times at paragon, and 3 times at epic), you will get a +4 bonus to attacks over 30 levels from your ability score increases alone. On top of that, you get a +6 bonus from your magical weapnon/implement, and a +15 bonus from your level.
This gives you a +30 bonus to attack over 30 levels, or an average improvement rate of +1/level.

+4...+6...+15 = ...+30 ?

And technically, going from level 1 to 30 is an improvement of just 29, not 30, which is significant given the small size of the gap which does open between monsters an PC's.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

+4...+6...+15 = ...+30 ?

And technically, going from level 1 to 30 is an improvement of just 29, not 30, which is significant given the small size of the gap which does open between monsters an PC's.

Er, uh...

Quick, look behind! Is that a flying undead cow?

*runs away, never to be seen again*

 

[jaldaen]

+4...+6...+15 = ...+30 ?

I think he just assumed a +5 for the base primary ability score (and forgot to say so)... which would make it +30, right? If it is +4, then it'd be +29 as stated earlier in the thread.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think he just assumed a +5 for the base primary ability score (and forgot to say so)... which would make it +30, right? If it is +4, then it'd be +29 as stated earlier in the thread.

No, nice trying to help me, but I was really that incompetent. I was only interested in the progression over 30 levels, the static bonus at 1st level is compensated by the static bonus to Defense or attacks for the monsters.

 

[timbannock]

So... as I understand it, this whole thread comes down to a couple of things.

1. Attack and AC curve in such a way that high levels no longer result in auto-miss or auto-hit depending on your BAB.
2. Ability scores and racial influences matter strongly across the board (related to point 1)
3. At all levels, PC's need to work together to survive.

Hrmmm...


Awesome.

You been sig'd!

 

[Ceylin]

The story isn't that different when it comes to defenses. A heavily armored character increases his AC by +27, but a lightly armored character only by +25. Again, there are paragon paths and epic destinies which compensate a little, but not enough: monster attacks scale better.

Is there something I'm missing, or are PC's doomed to meet ever more difficult foes, as they level (which might not be a bad thing...)?

Not totally correct - lightly armored also gets +27 (+4 from main stat (ideally), +2 from masterwork, +15 from level, +6 from magic enhancement)

Also theres the armor proficiency feats for another +1, so thats +28 now, so almost there.

I still can't account for the 4 points in the attack roll however. Other than the whole array of abilities your allies are granting you during the encounters. Of course many of those grant equivalent values to defense, which scaled better.