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Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6983291" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Huh? That's not true as a general proposition. It depends on the base chance to hit or to be hit (which is then being modified by the +2).</p><p></p><p>@Ahskelon's example of +2 being a benefit was when it increased the chance to hit from 40% to 50% - a 25% increase in hit chance and hence (if everything else is equal) in DPR.</p><p></p><p>But if your AC is such that you are hit only on a nat 20, then a +2 increase is worthless.</p><p></p><p>Or if your AC is such that you are hit on a 3 or better, than a +2 increase (taking that to 5 or better) reduces the enemy's hit chance from 18 in 20 to 16 in 20, which is a 1/9 reduction in the chance to be hit and hence a 12.5% increase in effective hit points. Whether that is worthwhile or not will depend on how precious hp are as a commodity to the PC, but it seems not as worthwhile as a 25% increase in DPR, as (if hp are your hard limit on actions) it's only half the increase in efficiency.</p><p></p><p>The best time to get a +2 increase in AC is if the monster hit you only on (say) a 17 or so, and you take that to a 19 or so. That is a halving (or thereabouts, depending on the precise numbers) of the chance to be hit, and hence a doubling (or thereabouts) of effective hp. But that is not likely to be the case at the sorts of AC being tossed around by [MENTION=6774887]Ashkelon[/MENTION] (17, 18, 19).</p><p></p><p>Looking at the SRD, a CR 7 Stone Giant has +9 to hit, and a CR 1/2 Gnoll has a +4 to hit. Against the former, taking AC from 17 to 19 takes the hit chance from 13 in 20 to 11 in 20, which is about a 19% increase in effective hp. Against the latter, the same AC boost reduces the hit chance from 8 in 20 to 6 in 20, which is about a 33% increase in effective hp.</p><p></p><p>What the value is of an average increase in effective hp of (say) 25% is hard to analyse in the abstract - for some tables hp per day might be the main constraint on adventuring, for others spells per day, for yet others the GM's story inclinations.</p><p></p><p>One way in which it strikes me as potentially inferior to a 25% increse in DPR is that the latter leads to a faster turn-around of the action (you do 5 rounds worth of work in 4 rounds). Whereas the former leads to a slower turn-around of the action (you take only as much damage in those 5 rounds of work as the quick person would take in 4 rounds). Too much of that will lead to the same "grind" issues as afflicted 4e parties with too many leaders and low-DPR defenders, and not enough strikers or high DPR defenders/controllers.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6983291, member: 42582"] Huh? That's not true as a general proposition. It depends on the base chance to hit or to be hit (which is then being modified by the +2). @Ahskelon's example of +2 being a benefit was when it increased the chance to hit from 40% to 50% - a 25% increase in hit chance and hence (if everything else is equal) in DPR. But if your AC is such that you are hit only on a nat 20, then a +2 increase is worthless. Or if your AC is such that you are hit on a 3 or better, than a +2 increase (taking that to 5 or better) reduces the enemy's hit chance from 18 in 20 to 16 in 20, which is a 1/9 reduction in the chance to be hit and hence a 12.5% increase in effective hit points. Whether that is worthwhile or not will depend on how precious hp are as a commodity to the PC, but it seems not as worthwhile as a 25% increase in DPR, as (if hp are your hard limit on actions) it's only half the increase in efficiency. The best time to get a +2 increase in AC is if the monster hit you only on (say) a 17 or so, and you take that to a 19 or so. That is a halving (or thereabouts, depending on the precise numbers) of the chance to be hit, and hence a doubling (or thereabouts) of effective hp. But that is not likely to be the case at the sorts of AC being tossed around by [MENTION=6774887]Ashkelon[/MENTION] (17, 18, 19). Looking at the SRD, a CR 7 Stone Giant has +9 to hit, and a CR 1/2 Gnoll has a +4 to hit. Against the former, taking AC from 17 to 19 takes the hit chance from 13 in 20 to 11 in 20, which is about a 19% increase in effective hp. Against the latter, the same AC boost reduces the hit chance from 8 in 20 to 6 in 20, which is about a 33% increase in effective hp. What the value is of an average increase in effective hp of (say) 25% is hard to analyse in the abstract - for some tables hp per day might be the main constraint on adventuring, for others spells per day, for yet others the GM's story inclinations. One way in which it strikes me as potentially inferior to a 25% increse in DPR is that the latter leads to a faster turn-around of the action (you do 5 rounds worth of work in 4 rounds). Whereas the former leads to a slower turn-around of the action (you take only as much damage in those 5 rounds of work as the quick person would take in 4 rounds). Too much of that will lead to the same "grind" issues as afflicted 4e parties with too many leaders and low-DPR defenders, and not enough strikers or high DPR defenders/controllers. [/QUOTE]
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