Energy Enhancements are too good at +1 (math)

[Nail]

14 damage on average when you have 50% to hit is a much more reasonable number.

That number doesn't mean as much as you think it does.

 

[Nail]

Sorry...my comparison didn't show a +3 weapon, just two +2 weapons. Let's try that again:

assume Ftr 8, full attack, Str 21, Focus & specialization

includes iterative attacks and criticals

                        25% hit    50% Hit    75% Hit
longsword +3:            7.2        15.2       23.1
longsword +2:            5.2        12.6       20.0
longsword +1, +1d6 fire  5.1        12.9       21.6
longsword +1, +1d4 fire  4.8        12.2       20.3

.....again: +1d4 energy damage is not worth the +1 bonus. +1d6 energy damage is.

....IMHO, obviously.



EDIT: the "% hit" are based off of the +1 flaming swords. The +2 sword hits 5% more often, and the +3 sword hits 10% more often.

 

[domino]

Does the number crunching take into effect that fact that a fighter that hits 75% of the time with a normal weapon will hit more often with the +2 weapon than with the +1 +energy one?

 

[Nail]

Yep! The two fighters have different total attack scores....different only by the difference in "+" of their weapons.

Their average damage scores, obviously, are quite different.

 

[Nail]

In fact, now that you mention it, that chart I posted isn't clear in that regard, is it? Oopps. I use the %hit values of the flaming swords.....which means the +2 sword hits 5% more often, and the +3 sword hits 10% more often.



(except for the corner cases of needing a 20 to hit, or only missing on a 1, etc.....)

 

[jaker2003]

+1 vs +1.5 vs +2

If energy abilities like flaming are worth about +1.5 @ +1d6, maybe we should consider bumping it up to +1d8 to increase the average damage by 1?

also, how well do the [energy] burst abilities fit their +2 costs?

 

[dedicated]

Pretty well considering in 3.5 the highest threat range you can have is 15-20 (1/4 of the time)

 

[jaker2003]

Pretty well considering in 3.5 the highest threat range you can have is 15-20 (1/4 of the time)

and if we also bump up the die size for the burst, how would it fit the +2 cost then?

 

[Evilhalfling]

Well ignoring the math -
the oppertunity cost for having to activate a weapon is huge, I would say that this easily counteracts the damage gain.
The one time I used an energy weapon, in the hands of the EG it was never activated. And the players sold it off without using it. They got far more joy from the +2 outsider bane (far realm) - called the sword of normality.

 

[Len]

the oppertunity cost for having to activate a weapon is huge, I would say that this easily counteracts the damage gain.

I disagree. When we're tromping around in a dungeon, we keep our weapons at the ready and activated. It turns out that characters usually don't need to spend an action to fire 'em up. (Except for my Shadowdancer character. My DM ruled that Hide in Plain Sight doesn't work properly if you're holding a flaming sword.)