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Message: <blockquote data-quote="orsal" data-source="post: 2475844" data-attributes="member: 16016">Generally, whichever department you're weaker in is the one you'd do better to increase. Being able to hit more often isn't worth a lot if you don't do much damage when you do hit. Being able to do a lot of damage when you do hit isn't worth a lot if you hardly ever hit. So if you carry a greatsword but typically fight high-AC creatures that (with your current BAB and STR bonus) you can only hit on a roll of 19-20, try to hit more often. If you use a light weapon, with Weapon Finesse and a good Dex (so pretty good chance to hit but little damage) go for the damage. Here's a simple way to calculate, for a given situation, which +1 will help you more. (If you have Power Attack, this tells you whether to use it.) Let X be the number of results on your attack roll that will hit. Let Y be your average damage per hit (remember to include the possibility of criticals in computing this). Then your average damage per attack is (X/20)*Y. If you want to maximize this, adding 1 to X will add Y/20 while adding 1 to Y will add X/20. So increase X if Y is larger, and increase Y if X is larger. This is a little simplified. If you're fighting a large army of mooks, a single hit even without the extra damage is likely to fell someone, so the extra damage could be wasted. On the other hand, if your opponent's AC is so high that rolling a 20 only hits because of the automatic hit rule, then the extra +1 to hit is wasted. If you're choosing a feat, rather than choosing for a specific situation, ask yourself: on average, do I find myself with lower average damage or lower number of ways to hit?</blockquote>

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