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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mike Sullivan" data-source="post: 1007382" data-attributes="member: 9824">Did you even read my post?  I demonstrated, in the simplest possible terms, why, in this case, you can do that just by comparing per-hit damage rates.  I worked out a full example with the extraneous to-hit rates and demonstrated that it gave exactly the same result as the simpler example that ignored to-hit rates.Yes, Anubis.  I know.  I also know the difference between comparing two cases in which one case incurs a to-hit penalty, and the other does not.If you're comparing, for example, two weapon fighting to one-weapon fighting, you have to include to-hit rates because the attack bonuses of otherwise comparable characters are, by necessity, different between a one-weapon fighter and a two-weapon fighter.If you're comparing two characters who have the same fighting style, but simply use two different weapons -- as we are doing, then the to-hit chances neatly cancel themselves out.Yet another way of looking at this is that what we've been comparing is something of the form crit multiplier * (base damage + damage bonus).  So:Falchion base damage = fc (it'd be 5 in the real world)Falchion damage bonus = fdFalchion crit multiplier = fmGreatsword base damage = gc (it'd be 7 in the real world)Greatsword damage bonus = gdGreatsword crit multiplier = gmSo, what we've been comparing is of this form:fm * (fc + fd) > gm * (gc + gd)If we wanted to, we could add two additional factorsFalchion chance to hit = faGreatsword chance to hit = gafa * fm * (fc + fd) > ga * gm * (gc + gd)However, we're assuming that we've got comparable characters.  In that case, fd = gd, and fa = ga.  So we can simplify the inequality:fa * fm * (fc + fd) > fa * gm * (gc + gd)And then cancel out the fa'sfm * (fc + fd) > gm * (gc + gd)And we see we're back where we started.Once again:  You're not wrong that chance to hit is important.  In this particular instance, it doesn't impact the analysis.</blockquote>

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