Double check my houserules?

[Tequila Sunrise]

Whoops. Thank you and Tequila Sunrise. That's why I came here.

I see the format I should be using is on page 138 of the DMG 2 with a +1 at levels 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27.

A side note on page 138: That sidebar was rather sloppily written, because it actually overpowers racial attack powers (which already have scaling bonuses) and potentially overpowers Grab and Bull Rush (if a player thinks to take the Improved " " feats from PHB2).

Not that it's a big deal to fix: just 1) drop the usual scaling racial bonuses and turn the feats into flat +2 bonuses or 2) don't apply inherent bonuses to racial attacks, grab or bull rush. (I prefer #1 myself.)

I haven't heard anyone talk about getting rid of the defenses feats. I don't think they're seen as "must-have" like the expertise feats are.

They're not absolutely-must-have-essential-you're-gimping-yourself-by-not-taking-them like Expertise, if only because rocket tag is marginally more fun than turtle-up. But I do consider Paragon and Robust defenses to be something that should clearly have been built into the game's math just like Expertise.

I myself give Paragon and Robust Defenses away to my players for free, as I do the Expertise bonuses. (And wish the other DMs in my group would wise-up about feat taxes in general. )

 

[DanmarLOK]

Using average damage makes a big difference in combat speed, especially the DM's turn. My players use it as well. I do tack on +1/2 level damage to all single target attacks, +1/4 level to dual target attacks and +1/8 level for AOE attacks to both sides as well. Add +2 to hit on both sides across the board and I've not seen any issues with 'grind' up to level 10. Combat is snappy and fearsome when at 9th level creatures are hitting, average, of high teens to 20+ damage.