How much does an arbitrary +1 Story bonus affect %chance to hit?

[Eyada]

After reading several posts on various forums concerning a 4E version of Stunting (from Exalted), I'm tempted to implement it. However, I am unsure what sort of effect arbitrary Story bonuses to attack rolls will have on combat.

Right now, I'm probably going to end up with:
+1 Story bonus possible on every attack. (ie, once per turn.)
+2 Story bonus possible once per Encounter.
+3 Story bonus possible once per Day.

To be frank, I am hideously bad at mathematics, and I don't even know where to begin when attempting to calculate how these bonuses would affect %chance to hit for the PCs. As such, I am here to appeal for aid from some of you more number-savvy ENWorlders.

If anyone would be willing to calculate what %bonus a +1 to attacks amounts to, I would be extremely grateful. I'm looking for mechanical methods of encouraging roleplaying to bring some of my players out of their shells, so to speak, but I don't want to be giving massive boosts to the PCs attack power.

Many thanks to anyone who is willing to help out.

 

[Mengu]

The much safer way to do this would be:

+1 damage bonus once per encounter.
+2 damage bonus once per day.

You could increase this to +2/+4, and +3/+6 at paragon and epic levels.

Attack bonuses, however infrequent, can be baneful. Getting a +3 attack bonus once per day means, one of your daily powers is pretty much going to hit once per day. I would shy away from such bonuses, story or not.

 

[JohnBiles]

Right now, I'm probably going to end up with:
+1 Story bonus possible on every attack. (ie, once per turn.)
+2 Story bonus possible once per Encounter.
+3 Story bonus possible once per Day.

To be frank, I am hideously bad at mathematics, and I don't even know where to begin when attempting to calculate how these bonuses would affect %chance to hit for the PCs. As such, I am here to appeal for aid from some of you more number-savvy ENWorlders.

It's pretty simple. You add +5% to your chance of hitting for every +1 bonus on a d20 roll. (100/20=5)

So once per turn they could add 5%, once per encounter 10% and once per day 15%.

 

[Eyada]

It's pretty simple. You add +5% to your chance of hitting for every +1 bonus on a d20 roll. (100/20=5)

So once per turn they could add 5%, once per encounter 10% and once per day 15%.

Now that you say it, I can't believe I couldn't see that before.

Thanks for the help.

The much safer way to do this would be:

+1 damage bonus once per encounter.
+2 damage bonus once per day.

You could increase this to +2/+4, and +3/+6 at paragon and epic levels.

Attack bonuses, however infrequent, can be baneful. Getting a +3 attack bonus once per day means, one of your daily powers is pretty much going to hit once per day. I would shy away from such bonuses, story or not.

That does seem like a reasonable approach. I think I'll playtest it next session and see how it works versus the +to attacks.

I'm looking to make this a mechanical replacement for granting small XP awards for good roleplaying, but I suspect a bonus to attacks may be too imbalancing, as you stated.

Thanks for the helpful input, both of you.

 

[GoLu]

It's pretty simple. You add +5% to your chance of hitting for every +1 bonus on a d20 roll. (100/20=5)

So once per turn they could add 5%, once per encounter 10% and once per day 15%.

This is entirely true, although keep in mind that you normally have around a 50% chance of hitting, so +5% would make it 55%, a 10% increase.

That said, I recommend checking out page 42 of the DMG. And I second the notion to switch that to a damage bonus, since chance to hit is so tightly controlled in 4e. You could also expand on the action point / milestone rules, giving non-paragons more things to do with action points and more benefits from hitting milestones.

 

[dervish]

If prefer to use the rules somewhat as written and not give players bonuses to use as narrative control. This causes epic situations to arise from great luck or great planning. Makes for fewer, but more tremendous streaks of luck.

That said, I think you could adopt a system for variable attack bonuses. To keep things in balance I would give everyone a flat -1 and then have a "bonus pool" that refreshes every encounter (or day?), of which you can apply a maximum of, say, +3 to any single attack.

Another idea would be refilling points per milestone and also increasing the maximum bonus to a roll by +1. Thus you can load up on more energy for the final fight of the day (thus you go nova in the last fight instead of the first).

This would add complexity and make daily powers more powerful, thus encouraging more resting and shorter "workdays". Not my player's cup of tea, but I can personally see why it would be intresting to introduce some more resource management into the game.

 

[Dave Turner]

Don't forget that 4e is much more finely balanced than 3e was. Once you throw in things like Elven Accuracy (and the Feat which boosts the re-roll), a Wizard's Wand, or Action Surge (is that the name of the Human Feat which gives a hit bonus for action points?), you drift closer to "guaranteed hit" territory. It's no problem if you're comfortable with this type of move. I mention it so that you think about it if you haven't already.

 

[generalhenry]

DMG p42 is much cooler than generic + to hit.

Just let them stunt.