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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5504536" data-attributes="member: 2011">I see the grind problem as a bit of a monster hit point math problem.At level 1, the NPCs have ~30 hit points (sometimes somewhat less than this).At level 19, the NPCs typically have between 130 and 220 hit points.A 1st level PC averaging 10 points of damage will take out most same level NPCs with At Will powers in 5 rounds (60% chance to hit). He'll do it in 3 to 4 rounds on average if his encounter power hits. And, of course, the Strikers will do it faster, so a same level encounter doesn't actually last 5 rounds.The NPCs gained between 5 and 10 hit points per level. So in order to take out a foe in that same 3 to 5 rounds, a PC has to boost his damage per attack 2 to 3 points every single level (3 successful At Will and/or Encounter hits).A 19th level PC needs to average 45 to 75 points of damage to take out most same level NPCs with powers in 5 rounds (again, assuming a 60% chance to hit, less damage per hit if the to hit chance is higher).Sure, 19th level PCs can do some serious damage, but doing 45 to 75 on average for a non-Striker is pretty darn high. If a given 19th level PC is only averaging 30 points of damage, it will take him twice as long to take out the foe. And of course, not all PCs are super optimized either.WotC's solution to the hit point issue appears to have been to add a lot of offensive feats and other abilities to the game. It's not just Expertise, it's also Accuracy Wands, it's conditional boosts to hit, etc. It's Essentials Striker PCs that can easily be designed with 80+% chances to hit and high damage. It's Rogues and Thieves being allowed to do Sneak Attack damage outside their turn. It's magical items that improve crit chances. It's the ability to get one item that prevents OAs while charging, two more that boost damage to a charge, and a third that increases the chance to hit when doing so.It's not any one thing. It's a plethora of item, feat, powers, class, and racial abilities creep that on their own, are pretty minor. But when added together, the synergies can sometimes get pretty strong.And because WotC added so much offensive umph to the PCs, the game became too easy for players and too difficult for DMs to challenge their groups, especially at higher levels. So, WotC turned around and made the monsters average more damage (actually a good thing in my opinion), but they didn't change the hit point equation for monsters. Instead of adding 5 to 10 hit points per level, they should have probably added 3 to 6 hit points per level.So, the higher level arms race and grind tends to continue. Because the monsters now do more damage, players are forced to use Daily powers more often and earlier in the encounter. They are also forced to ignore many Encounter and Daily powers that just hit for damage and instead, focus on Encounter and Daily powers that seriously help the PCs or hamper the NPCs in some manner (or ones which target multiple foes) which in turn leads to another form of grind as more conditions are thrown out on the board. So, a boatload of interesting but less effective Encounter and Daily powers are ignored and probably not used in too many games.This too forces the game back to 3 or 4 encounters or the 15 minute adventuring day because players at higher levels are forced to use up resources faster.</blockquote>

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