High HP feel a little too high?

[Falling Icicle]

Go back to considering Magic Missile to be one round's worth of damage. So, at level 30, one round's worth of damage is about 12.5(25 divided by 2 to account for the chance of missing). 6d6 averages to 21. So a successful crit is nearly two rounds worth of damage. Let's cut it back to one round, on the grounds that sometimes we won't get to apply full damage because we killed the enemy with it. Under that assumption, every critical hit shortens the combat by at least one round. Given that the length of combats is what we're discussing here, that is not insignificant.

So the battle takes 19 rounds instead of 20, a 5% reduction in time. Yes, that is insignificant. And the point remains, even with all these daily powers and the potential for crits, combat at high levels is still taking alot longer than combat at low levels, due to the HP scaling far exceeding damage scaling. Nobody really has managed to dispute that point, and that was the entire matter of discussion. Remember, the 1st level Wizard was doing 33% of a creature's HP in a single attack, but only 9% at level 30. The extra 2 points of damage, on average, from the MS crit, doesn't even come close to restoring that balance. Even if the 30th level Wizard scores several crits, it wouldn't be enough.

I really think that 1/2 level should add to damage, just as it adds to everything else. That simple solution would go a long way toward fixing this problem.

 

[keterys]

I honestly expected half level to add to damage, myself... but I also didn't expect to see things like that Manticore's Volley where you get to hit someone three times in one turn and add in most of your damage bonuses to each.

Abilities like that wouldn't deal well with +half level damage.

 

[Dragonstriker]

Remember, the 1st level Wizard was doing 33% of a creature's HP in a single attack, but only 9% at level 30. The extra 2 points of damage, on average, from the MS crit, doesn't even come close to restoring that balance. Even if the 30th level Wizard scores several crits, it wouldn't be enough.

Tell me again because I missed your explanation - why are you using a wizard whose role is to damage and inflict conditions on multiple enemies over large areas in your examples, since you appear to dismiss the fact that the damage is spread over multiple enemies as meaningless*?
Wouldn't it be more appropriate in your damage to a single target scenario to actually use a striker, whose role is to damage a single target?
Meteor swarm doesn't do the most damge to a single target, true, but none of the 7[W] powers the other classes get have Area Burst 5 either.
Rather than worrying about the damage output of a single character, it would be more relevant to worry about the damage output of the party.

*I'm assuming that you don't just want to have the wizard be the win button like before.

 

[keterys]

Well, as an exercise in curiosity:

At level 15, the character has close enough to as many abilities for a regular fight as at 29 - just a few dailies really separate.

So, Elf Ranger / Battlefield Archer / Demigod
Lvl 15: +4 Vicious Longbow, Dex 22, Wis 20
Lvl 29: +6 Vicious Longbow, Dex 28, Wis 26

Lvl 15: Pinning Strike, Hawk's Talon, Cut and Run, Combined Fire (Immediate), then Twin Strike
Lvl 29: Lightning Shot (Immediate), Manticore's Volley, Triple Shot, Combined Fire (Immediate)

Lvl 15: Attacking a generic level 15 mob, it has 8 * (15 + 1) + (13 + (15/2)) = 148 hp, say, and the ranger has a 60% chance to hit. A 1W + Dex attack deals 1d10 + 6 (Dex) + 4 (Enh) + 2 (Feat), avg 17.5, +2d8 quarry to one attack per round, 5% of attacks are crits for 22 (base) + 16 (quarry) + 4d12 or 64 usually, 48 to 2nd+ crits per round. +5.5 (10 crit) per additional W.
Round 1: Pinning Strike - 30.62 avg
Round 2: Hawk's Talon (85% hit) - 29.3 avg
Round 3: Cut and Run - 30.62 avg
Round 4: Twin Strike - 23.6 avg
Round 5: Twin Strike - 23.6 avg
Any Round: Combined Fire (Immediate) 24.825 avg

So, 5 rounds.

Lvl 29: Attacking a generic level 29 mob, it has 8 * (29 + 1) + (13 + (29/2)) = 268 hp, say, and the ranger has a 60% chance to hit. A 1W + Dex attack deals 1d10 + 9 (Dex) + 6 (Enh) + 3 (Feat), avg 23.5, +3d8 quarry to one attack per round, 5% of attacks are crits for 28 (base) + 24 (quarry) + 6d12 or 91 usually, 67 to 2nd+ crits per round. +5.5 (10 crit) per additional W.
Round 1: Manticore's Volley - 66.2 avg
Round 2: Triple Shot - 56.3 avg
Round 3: Twin Strike - 32.0 avg
Round 4: Twin Strike - 32.0 avg
Round 5: Twin Strike - 32.0 avg
Any Round: Combined Fire (Immediate) 31.95 avg
Later Round (when it is bloodied): Lightning Shot (Immediate) 31.95 avg

So, 5 rounds.

That does not appear to be a drastic increase in time taken.