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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5276405" data-attributes="member: 82106">There is still a 'treadmill' effect though. That arises out of the way 4e monsters have fixed and monotonically increasing numbers for most everything. It makes encounter design a lot less of a headache, but it also means you are ALWAYS not useful if you can't keep your to-hit number increasing and you never see a big advantage from doing so. The core math of say 1e AD&D wasn't actually much different from 4e, but because the AC of monsters didn't increase in any kind of fixed relationship to their other abilities you could often run into monsters at 10th level that had AC similar to 3-4th level monsters. Under those conditions having a higher to-hit number was actually meaningful in a concrete way. Now its only meaningful in some abstract sense where you can hit goblins really easily at 10th level, except you'll never SEE a goblin at 10th level! In the old days my 10th level fighter might EASILY see a Hill Giant at 10th level, which is still a threat because it can do a LARGE amount of damage and has a high to-hit, but your level and str and magic and whatever also means you hit it often as well. The differences between monsters thus is much more dramatic (between characters too). 4e ends up feeling samey at all levels and monsters often feel like they are almost the same as all the other monsters.The problem with the idea that it means less to hit better against lesser defenses really doesn't work out either. It is only marginally less important and in fact disposing of these higher damage monsters faster by hitting them more often can be even MORE rewarding. You could afford to wiff a bunch before, the consequences were trivial at high level. That isn't really true anymore. Greater damage outputs just increase combat intensity, putting more of a premium on hitting often and hard. It may shift the equation a bit in favor of damage bonuses, but not much.The whole design of the game fosters the desire to hit 10% more often. A few slight tweaks are not going to measurably change that. I totally agree the changes to monsters are a good thing, but don't overestimate what it does for the game.</blockquote>

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