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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nemesis Destiny" data-source="post: 5412850" data-attributes="member: 98255">I suppose that this has always been true of D&D, and RPGs in general, but something about 4th edition really drives this point home: hitting is everything.Maybe it's the way 4e makes the action economy feel more compressed. Maybe it's the way that most fights in our first 4e game turned into an infuriatingly long whiff-fest. Maybe it's that this is the first time I've really started examining the rules with an eye toward how they work. Nevertheless, it's very obvious that hitting really matters.Big damage numbers look good on your sheet, but it means nothing if you can't connect.So, basically, you should be actively hunting down every single useful hit bonus you can possibly find. I know not everyone will, but it is important. Not everyone will, and in a way, it may detract from the playing experience those gamers have. Perhaps it should have been hard-coded into the rules that everyone gets expertise right from the start, but they didn't think of that. It makes sense that those feats get given out for free. By making those feats have an extra rider, it makes them feel less like a tax (like finding out the government owes YOU money), but they are still pretty vital. I sort of hate it that the designers give you this resource to customize your character (feats), and then print feats that are not only so-good-that-you-would-be-silly-not-to-take them, but basically necessary to keep up with the game's [flawed] math.I mean, sometimes it matters less than other times, and I have an interesting and extreme example I would like to share.[sblock=lengthy anecdote]Our gaming group currently has 2 active parties in the same region. They are allies, for the most part, but one group is [was at the time] level 2, and the other has [at the time] a range of level 7-9. For story reasons, one of the level 2 characters was accompanying the higher-level party across the countryside when they were waylaid by their enemies. The encounter included, among other things, summoned undead bears (level 7 brutes).At one point during the fight, the lower level character, a Tempest Fighter dual wielding shortswords ended up flanking a bear with the highest level character from the other group, a 9th level Weaponmaster wielding a powerful (+3) bastard sword and shield. Even without flanking, the Weaponmaster could hit the undead bear's AC on a roll of 2 or better. He was built for it; 22 Strength, accurate weapon, expertise, and weapon talent. Surprisingly though, the Tempest was holding her own. With CA, she was still hitting on an 8 or better, against a monster 5 levels higher than her. She had 17 Strength, accurate weapons, +1 magic, expertise, and a +1 from tempest technique.Now, of course, the bear could hit her on a 6, and due to roleplaying reasons she kept foolishly marking it. She got clobbered a few times, but made it through without dying.[/sblock]I'm not entirely sure what I was trying to say anymore, but I'm sure it's somehow relevant to a point I was trying to make.</blockquote>

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