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<blockquote data-quote="lichmaster" data-source="post: 9600472" data-attributes="member: 6683330">Ah, I see your point now, and you're probably correct.The 70% figure is likely factoring in a fraction of damage not inflicted due to saves being passed or resistances, but there's no inclusion of number of targets affected. Also, it's not clear why the 70% reduction should be considered only when the AoE damage can be applied every round instead of once per combat.If we assumed the dragon could AoE every round, with the current indications (unless I'm mistaken, I don't have access to the paper handbook right now, I'm only relying on a5e.tools) would be able to do 60x0,7 = 42 AoE damage per round every round, which could indicate around 80-160 actual damage to the party every round.To be honest, I'm not really sold by 5e's damage and monster math, starting from the very first design choice/assumption that combat has to last on average 3 rounds and must result with one side losing all hps within that timeframe. In my experience combat tends to be way too swingy especially when large damage abilities come into play: one bad roll and combat can be FUBAR.I haven't had any need to design A5E monsters yet, but if I do, I will probably divide AoE damage by 3 before applying the 70% reduction and the other considerations (like reducing damage in the &quot;off&quot; rounds if burst damage is higher than the budget).So in your case the AoE would be 63/3 = 21 damage, and the other attacks would be 15 each. This makes it mathematically consistent</blockquote>

[QUOTE="lichmaster, post: 9600472, member: 6683330"] Ah, I see your point now, and you're probably correct. The 70% figure is likely factoring in a fraction of damage not inflicted due to saves being passed or resistances, but there's no inclusion of number of targets affected. Also, it's not clear why the 70% reduction should be considered only when the AoE damage can be applied every round instead of once per combat. If we assumed the dragon could AoE every round, with the current indications (unless I'm mistaken, I don't have access to the paper handbook right now, I'm only relying on a5e.tools) would be able to do 60x0,7 = 42 AoE damage per round every round, which could indicate around 80-160 actual damage to the party every round. To be honest, I'm not really sold by 5e's damage and monster math, starting from the very first design choice/assumption that combat has to last on average 3 rounds and must result with one side losing all hps within that timeframe. In my experience combat tends to be way too swingy especially when large damage abilities come into play: one bad roll and combat can be FUBAR. I haven't had any need to design A5E monsters yet, but if I do, I will probably divide AoE damage by 3 before applying the 70% reduction and the other considerations (like reducing damage in the "off" rounds if burst damage is higher than the budget). So in your case the AoE would be 63/3 = 21 damage, and the other attacks would be 15 each. This makes it mathematically consistent [/QUOTE]

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