New Way to One-Shot Orcus

[FireLance]

Previews for August and Beyond is up and gives a new way to one-short Orcus, even on a miss.

All you need is the new Warlock daily, one final sacrifice, a Dark pact warlock, and several hundred allies within 5 squares of the warlock (some will probably need to fly).

It will also be interesting to see how the new Brutal property interacts with Vorpal. In the specific case mentioned, instead of rolling 1d12 and re-rolling on a 1 or a 2, I think it would be neater just to roll 1d10+2.

 

[Runestar]

11x11x6-1 = 725 allies.
So you could in theory deal up to an extra 725d12 damage.
Now, to start thinking of how to garner that many...

 

[keterys]

Thankfully, there's that rule in the DMG about how you can't count more than a few allies at once for powers.

 

[Stalker0]

the new brutal property is pretty cool...although I to me "consistent" is a better term for what it does.

 

[Celtavian]

They killed Alustriel. Wow. I had heard they had killed all the Chosen as well as Mystra. I wonder who will still be around.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

the new brutal property is pretty cool...although I to me "consistent" is a better term for what it does.

I don't know... There's a fair chance you have to reroll your damage every attack - I don't like that.

 

[Jhaelen]

11x11x6-1 = 725 allies.
So you could in theory deal up to an extra 725d12 damage.

I'm just glad this power is in a Forgotten Realms sourcebook, so it'll never make an appearance in any of my campaigns.

the new brutal property is pretty cool...although I to me "consistent" is a better term for what it does.

I dislike the rerolls. Why not just set the damage at 1d10+2?

 

[Evil DM]

I dislike the rerolls. Why not just set the damage at 1d10+2?

I second that. But not for the +2.

1. On a statisctical point of view you can do more damage if you are allowed to reroll your dice. So you do another 5.5 points of damage in your case of using a d10.

2. Why I agree? Because I like the 4th edition for reducing the amount of dice rolling (e.g. erasing full attacks with x times of attack rolls). And now another roll? Even more if you roll 1s or 2s on and on?
So in the terms of 4th edition I would see something like:
Brute 2: If you roll a 1 or 2 with the damage roll you do half the weaon damage (rounded down).

Speeds up combat again and keeps you making more damage than usual.

Cheers, Evil DM.

 

[firesnakearies]

But the property as written specifically makes vorpal weapons a lot better, and I imagine that was at least part of the aim.

Using those other solutions wouldn't help vorpals at all.

 

[DracoSuave]

Um, no.

Your outcomes are as follows with a brutal 2 d12:

Roll a 1 or 2 and reroll. 1/6 chance
Roll a 3 to 12 and keep it. 5/6 chance, equal opp

If you reroll, you get the same chance as above.

Now, to figure out your probabilities after all is said and done.

Rolling a 3 to 12, each outcome has the same probability to occur, 1/n. We don't know what n is yet, we have to solve for that.

Rolling a final result of 1 or 2, however, has a probability of 0/n. This is an impossible event, as if it ever occured, you'd not have reached a final result.

There are no other outcomes.

So you have 10 possible outcomes each with the exact same probability.

10/n = 1. n = 10.

So you have 1/10 chance of each outcome happening.

1d10+2 has 10 possible outcomes, each with 1/10 chance of occuring, and also creates the same series of integers, from 3 to 12.

In other words, the results, statisticly, between 1d12 brutal 2 and 1d10+2 are the same.

However, 1d12 brutal 2, unlike 1d10+2, does not interact with -other- effects that reroll 1's. Also, unlike 1d10+2, there's no confusion/ambiguity/counterintuitivity/hard math with how you deal with x[W] where x > 1.


1d10+2's average damage, by the way, is 7.5. Brutal 2 1d12's average damage is also 7.5 by no small coincidence....

However, if you wish for expedience, and want to roll 1d10+2 instead, statisticly it's the same. Just remember to add the 2 in for each [W] component in your powers and you'll do fine.

Also 1d10+2 works the same for vorpal as well, so long as you remember the 2 is part of the die and gets added in on the re-rolls for Vorpal.