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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xeviat" data-source="post: 7226993" data-attributes="member: 57494">Hi everyone. I've been fiddling with some things, but I realized that I'm not 100% sure of my own starting assumptions in one specific area of game balance. In an earlier thread discussing the balance between different Fighting Styles, I am not sure where the theoretical balance point should be between offense and defense. I'm not going to look at specific numbers here, and perfect balance may not be attainable, but I'd like to know where everyone's thoughts lay.Imagine we have identical characters fighting each other, except one is armed with a longsword and a shield and one is armed with a greatsword (and both have applicable fighting styles, or no fighting styles). Who should win? Initially, I'd say I'd want there to be as close to a 50/50 shot for either.But, D&D is balanced more around Player vs the challenges of the world (PvE, not PvP, to borrow the MMO terms). A character geared for defense is going to try to maximize the number of enemies that attack them, to extend the benefits of their defense to the whole party; likewise, a character geared for offense is going to try to avoid engaging multiple opponents to minimize the vulnerability of their low defense.Basically, it comes down to this: When comparing the two characters against each other, where should the balance point lay? Should the greatsword wielder deal more "DPR" against the shield bearer because they're more vulnerable to attacks from multiple enemies? Or should the greatsword wielder deal less "DPR" against the shield bearer because their increased damage against static ACs is going to lead to suffering less attacks over all since they disable their opponents faster?Hitting perfect balance isn't possible. There are too many variables. I've been playing with the math to see how things go, but I need a whole table to track two characters against multiple ACs and with various damage bonuses (representing growing Str and Magic mods). Ideally, things should be as close to balanced at the +5 mod point because that's where the majority of the game is going to be (20 mod, or 18 mod and +1 weapons).Thankfully, most players don't think that much. A 3% difference in damage doesn't matter to them. This is more theoretical. I'm curious what you value.</blockquote>

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