Help with a Dwarven Fighter Build (12th)

[Korak]

Upgrade complete

I have the expected damage formula corrected now to account for the situations where a 20 auto hits, and a 17-20 will confirm, and to properly handle the situations where a 20 autohits, and only a true 20 will confirm. It will take me a few minutes to propagate it through the whole spreadsheet and redo the results. Thanks for the extra sets of eyes. When you get stuck in those formulas you can sometimes forget an important detail.


Here it is. In the case mentioned above, the difference was minimal: the power critical build lost 4 points on average on the hasted full attack, still a significant upgrade. I also plugged in a level 8 melee with +17 to hit and +11 to damage with a keen greataxe versus an ac 23 target, subject to crits of course: w/o power critical, avg dmg = 44 on hasted full attack... with power critical, avg dmg = 58.

I'll parse out the part of the formula that adds critical hit damage. Threat Range for this formula = the lowest number that will crit i.e. 18 for a scimitar.

If AC-AtkBonus > 23, then add (0.0025 * additional crit damage) + expected average damage,

else if AC-AtkBonus > 19, then if PowerCritical = Yes, add ((0.05 * ((25-(AC-AtkBonus)) * 0.05)) * additional crit damage) + expected average damage,
else add (0.0025 * additional crit damage) + expected average damage,

else if AC-AtkBonus < 3, then add (0.95 * ((21-ThreatRange)*0.05)) * additional crit damage + expected average damage,

else add ((1-((AC-AtkBonus)/20))*(((21+(4*PowerCritical[0 or 1])-ThreatRange)*0.05) * additional crit damage) + expected average damage

I also have a factor in there that will set additional crit damage to 0 if the target is not subject to crits.

Play around, let me know if I missed anything.

 

[Lamoni]

The problem is that power critical will matter at best 2% of the time for a 19-20 weapon... 10% of the time you'll roll a threat, and at best 20% of the time power critical will be the thing that makes the difference. 10% * 20% = 2%.

I say at best, because in cases where you hit automatically or miss automatically regardless of power critical, it does you no good.

That isn't exactly true about it making a difference only 2% of the time. You decided to ignore power attack in your formulas and having a +4 to confirm a critical can change the optimal power attack. So even if it only helps the confirmation 20% of the time on 10% of your hits, the fact that it can change your power attack means it still makes a difference on the attacks that you would confirm anyway or where you didn't even score a crit.

Also, because you ignored power attack you said that it helps none at all where you automatically hit or miss regardless of power critical. When you use power attack, you usually lower your to-hit chance so that you no longer automatically hit so that comes up very seldom. Also, your calculations of an average of one point more damage per hit also changes with power attack. Power attack makes the criticals even more beneficial.

It is probably also important to say that while in theory, power critical can have a big impact in the amount of damage with optimal use of power attack, power attack is very hard to optimize during a fight. I see the feat as being nice. Not as good as GWS, but probably about equivalent to Weapon Focus.

 

[The Souljourner]

You make a good point about its interaction with power attack. I guess now I'll have to make up my own power attack calculator, just so I can figure it out.

Still... it seems highly unlikely that adding power critical to the equation would increase full attack damage by 25%, which is what was said originally. Of course, it was what I would consider an uncommon occurance - that your total attack bonus is actually higher than the opponent's AC. In my games, I rarely see that... simply because it makes the fights too easy. When you can power attack for -10 and hit more than 50% of the time, the fight is going to be over quick regardless of power critical.

Anyway, I'll work up my own sheet... not that I think yours is wrong, but just so it's easier for me to understand.... plus it's fun

-The Souljourner

 

[Creamsteak]

Play around, let me know if I missed anything.

Could you fix the error related to having a 0 base attack bonus? You should add a "yes/no" option on power attack, and if power attack is no then the power attack and average damage lookups should function differently.

 

[Korak]

Could you fix the error related to having a 0 base attack bonus? You should add a "yes/no" option on power attack, and if power attack is no then the power attack and average damage lookups should function differently.

It doesn't account for a base attack of 0 because it is designed for characters with the power attack feat, which requires at least one base attack to use.

As for a yes/no toggle... simply set the power attack multiplier to 0. That has the same effect.

 

[Korak]

Anyway, I'll work up my own sheet... not that I think yours is wrong, but just so it's easier for me to understand.... plus it's fun

-The Souljourner

I understand. There were some other utilities around that I had at least heard of, but I wanted to make my own; becuase I knew I would have a great time figuring it out.