Assumptions:
1) The average monster AC is 14 (ruffly -2 for Artillery and Brutes and +2 for Soldiers, Elites and Solos).
2) The average character starts with an 18 in their primary attack ability score and will increase it at every opportunity (4/8/14/18/24/28).
3) Enhancement bonus is by half tier (aka Item tier).
4) Feat, class, and proficiency bonuses to attack are static (they do not scale/increase as a character levels) so I could pretty safely ignore them. I won't, not completely, I 'll just go with the larger +3 proficiency bonus and ignore the rest.
The workspace for attack bonuses is 1/2 level + ability modifier + proficiency bonus + enhancement bonus + feat/class/misc. This generates a table of values from 1 to 30 that scales (albeit awkwardly) from a +8 at level 1 to a +32 at level 30. The issue is that if you subtract the attack bonus (for that level) from the average AC (for that level) you get an ever increasing number. 7 at level 1 up to 12 by level 30; that's an increase of 5 over 30 levels (or 1 every 4).
I can think of three reasons for this. The first is that as your damage increases the designers thought it would be a good idea to lower the chance to hit so that your dps does not change (at least no very much). I didn't run the numbers for this because it is very obviously wrong. If dps stayed the same then hit points should not increase, since they do, this theory is out.
The second idea I had is that the system is broken. I have not played beyond level 10 (the difference is only 9 by that point) so I don't know if this could be true. Throughout the heroic tier you have few (comparatively) options/powers available to you so combat is a grind. Either purposely or accidentally the numbers keep 4e a grind through out all levels. A topic for another post, but the epic tier monsters and XP numbers are slanted up a considerable amount (to compensate for the damage increase and to slow your insane over powered behind down some) - why increase you damage just to slow you down, some one felt it epic meant big numbers without going anywhere.
Why slow the game down? This makes no sence to me, so my third idea is that I am missing something. Am I?
1) The average monster AC is 14 (ruffly -2 for Artillery and Brutes and +2 for Soldiers, Elites and Solos).
2) The average character starts with an 18 in their primary attack ability score and will increase it at every opportunity (4/8/14/18/24/28).
3) Enhancement bonus is by half tier (aka Item tier).
4) Feat, class, and proficiency bonuses to attack are static (they do not scale/increase as a character levels) so I could pretty safely ignore them. I won't, not completely, I 'll just go with the larger +3 proficiency bonus and ignore the rest.
The workspace for attack bonuses is 1/2 level + ability modifier + proficiency bonus + enhancement bonus + feat/class/misc. This generates a table of values from 1 to 30 that scales (albeit awkwardly) from a +8 at level 1 to a +32 at level 30. The issue is that if you subtract the attack bonus (for that level) from the average AC (for that level) you get an ever increasing number. 7 at level 1 up to 12 by level 30; that's an increase of 5 over 30 levels (or 1 every 4).
I can think of three reasons for this. The first is that as your damage increases the designers thought it would be a good idea to lower the chance to hit so that your dps does not change (at least no very much). I didn't run the numbers for this because it is very obviously wrong. If dps stayed the same then hit points should not increase, since they do, this theory is out.
The second idea I had is that the system is broken. I have not played beyond level 10 (the difference is only 9 by that point) so I don't know if this could be true. Throughout the heroic tier you have few (comparatively) options/powers available to you so combat is a grind. Either purposely or accidentally the numbers keep 4e a grind through out all levels. A topic for another post, but the epic tier monsters and XP numbers are slanted up a considerable amount (to compensate for the damage increase and to slow your insane over powered behind down some) - why increase you damage just to slow you down, some one felt it epic meant big numbers without going anywhere.
Why slow the game down? This makes no sence to me, so my third idea is that I am missing something. Am I?