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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Comparative defence scores - explain the math to me.
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<blockquote data-quote="Starfox" data-source="post: 5109700" data-attributes="member: 2303"><p>Two opponents each has 100 hp and do 20 damage with each attack, having a 50% chance to hit. This means they do an average of 10 damage to each other each round, scoring a mutual (average) kill on round 10. </p><p></p><p>One of these has the option of taking +2 AC or +2 to hit.</p><p></p><p>Assuming he takes +2 AC, the opponent's average damage per round goes from 10 to 8. After 10 rounds, he will have done 100 hp to his opponent, having suffered 80 hp himself.</p><p></p><p>Assuming he takes +2 to hit, his average damage goes from 10 to 12. After 9 rounds he has done 106 damage while suffering 90 damage himself. This is not quite as good a result as he got with the AC bonus, but the difference is very small.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Lets do this again, but starting with a 20% chance to hit. Each warrior will do 4 average damage and the fight will start at 25 rounds.</p><p></p><p>Assuming you take +2 to hit, average damage goes to 6. It now takes 17 rounds to do 102 damage, suffering 61 damage in return. While with +2 AC, he takes 2 damage from each blow, killing the enemy in 25 rounds after having taken 50 damage. Again, the defensive option is better, but slower.</p><p></p><p></p><p>What I did this for was to show something else, however; that the effect of the +2 bonus was significantly more important at 20% base chance to hit than it was at 50% base chance to hit. The amount of hit points the winner had at the end of the 50% chance fight was 20; the remainder in the 20% base chance fight was 50 - two and a half times as much! THIS is the most important result, and it why its called escalating returns - the same bonus is worth more as you get to more extreme values.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Starfox, post: 5109700, member: 2303"] Two opponents each has 100 hp and do 20 damage with each attack, having a 50% chance to hit. This means they do an average of 10 damage to each other each round, scoring a mutual (average) kill on round 10. One of these has the option of taking +2 AC or +2 to hit. Assuming he takes +2 AC, the opponent's average damage per round goes from 10 to 8. After 10 rounds, he will have done 100 hp to his opponent, having suffered 80 hp himself. Assuming he takes +2 to hit, his average damage goes from 10 to 12. After 9 rounds he has done 106 damage while suffering 90 damage himself. This is not quite as good a result as he got with the AC bonus, but the difference is very small. Lets do this again, but starting with a 20% chance to hit. Each warrior will do 4 average damage and the fight will start at 25 rounds. Assuming you take +2 to hit, average damage goes to 6. It now takes 17 rounds to do 102 damage, suffering 61 damage in return. While with +2 AC, he takes 2 damage from each blow, killing the enemy in 25 rounds after having taken 50 damage. Again, the defensive option is better, but slower. What I did this for was to show something else, however; that the effect of the +2 bonus was significantly more important at 20% base chance to hit than it was at 50% base chance to hit. The amount of hit points the winner had at the end of the 50% chance fight was 20; the remainder in the 20% base chance fight was 50 - two and a half times as much! THIS is the most important result, and it why its called escalating returns - the same bonus is worth more as you get to more extreme values. [/QUOTE]
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Comparative defence scores - explain the math to me.
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