Immortal's Handbook continuation thread continuation

Anubis said:
Yes, let's! This is where you lose the argument! For the sake of simplicity, let's compare fighters here.
No, this is where you spout nonsense, and don't actually compare the characters...




Wrong. Level 1 MIGHT have a 21 AC. The Level 5 character will have Full Plate and a Large Steel Shield will have AT LEAST AC 20, most likely 21 or 22.

1st level fighter, 18 dex, chainshirt, large wooden shield, AC 20.
5th level fighter, 10 dex, Full Plate, large steel shield, AC 20. 22 if both are magical (remember he has a finite buget for magic items)

They look pretty even to me, maybe 5th level fighter with an advantage. But remember the reduced mobility of heavy armor.




You forgot to factor in magical weapons here.
Lets see.. fighter level 1, BAB +1, relavant ability score +4, total +5

Fighter level 5, BAB +5, total +5. Magic weapon may give him +6.


Slightly. This one you get.
This one I don't get. Level 5 fighter will have weapon specialization. So we're comaring 1d8+4 to 1d8+2, doesn't seem a doubling of damage to me.



Only if you bump up the cost of the Cloak of Resistance.
No! The first level guy will have better PERIOD. 1st level fighter saves Fort +6, Ref +4, Wil +4. 5th level fighter with cloak +2 (almost half his money, you're gonna lose out on weapon and armor if you take a +2 cloak, but hey, you wanna be competitive)
saves on level 5 base Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +1. Even given a +2 cloak, the saves are only 6, 3, 3, which are behind the level 1 in 2 saves!


The Level 5, if a spellcaster, will have better spells.
Not really! He'll have at most an 11 in his casting stat, which means he casts level one spells at 5th level caster, but with save DCs 11. The 1st level caster casts level 1 spells at 1st level caster but with save DCs 15. Ya know, that's sick, but there is no major advantage here to the 5th level.



Not a big deal, these rarely come into play AT ALL.
Ability checks don't come into play? Oh yah, I forgot, you don't use skill checks.



This depends on too many factors to make such a claim.
Actually, the level 1 favors here. The skills he puts 4 ranks into, compared to the skills the 5th level guy puts 8 ranks into, mean they both have a +8 total. However, the skills they put no ranks into, the 1st level gets +4 over the 5th level's +0. Also, the armorcheck penalty of our 5th level is 2 higher than the 1st level's, so all skills that get armor check penalty, like most of the fighter skills, the 1st level has an edge in. As for your "too many factors"... Do you panic when you see more than 2 factors for something? You made this same arguement for save DCs and saving throws.



It'll be a bit more than double.
Lets see.. 1st level fighter, 18 con, 14 HP. 5th level fighter 10 con, 32 Hp. Just a bit more than double for our fighter. I think UK was within his rights to claim 32 was approximatly 28.



Correct. This is the biggest factor right here.
Only if his class abilities don't depend on his abilite scores to work, like spells, or paladin abilities, or feats (they have reqs..) or uncanny dodge or... Looks like rangers, barbarians and rogues are the only ones with decent class abilities at 5th level.


This is the second biggest factor.
But this can't be a factor! You've already factored it in to the ac, attack, and saves equations!!! You don't get to factor it in more than once.. nice try.



Actually, the opposite is true. The Level 5 character would win EVERY TIME. NO EXCEPTIONS. By your system, they should be 50/50. NO WAY. I would bet my checking account on this.

Really?!!?! Hmm.. how much ya got, and how can I be sure you'll pay up? Cause my fighter will run away and shoot you with his bow, until you die. Considering his run speed is 120 and yours is 60.

You still have yet to address the ogre situation. Since you're tyring to build a system that works at ALL levels, that includes levels 1-3. This system does NOT work at levels 1-3, as proven by the CR 3 ogre. Heck, a Level 1 character with 18 in every score will not even beat an ogre UNLESS it's a Wizard or Sorcerer that gets real lucky with the sleep spell.

The fact remains that the system can't be perfect for all levels. But, having said that, look at a level 10 fighter with 18s and a level 14 fighter with 10s. I don't think it's 50/50 anymore, in fact, I give the level 10 the best odds. More hp(59.5 + 40 vs 81.5), better saves, same attacks, more damage... Better feats (he actually makes prereqs).

And another problem with the 18s in all scores is that at least 2 scores don't mean anything to a fighter's ability to fight. And you can throw out wisdom for ogre fights, ogres don't force will saves. So it's not an acurate comparison for these two charcters, since the 18s all stats fighter is good against magic attacks, whereas the ogre only does physical attacks.

Anyways, I got work to do. I'm outie

Eldorian Antar
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Hi Anubis mate! :)

...I know Eldorian already replied making similar points but lets just double check everything:

Anubis said:
Yes, let's! This is where you lose the argument! For the sake of simplicity, let's compare fighters here.

Okay.

Anubis said:
Wrong. Level 1 MIGHT have a 21 AC. The Level 5 character will have Full Plate and a Large Steel Shield will have AT LEAST AC 20, most likely 21 or 22.

Note that the fighter is probably the best foil against this first factor Anubis could have picked. Any-non fighter type class and we are way ahead.

Anubis said:
You forgot to factor in magical weapons here.

At best you could have +1 (but I suppose we should remove the equipment factor then) meaning that any class other than a fighter type is still behind.

Again note that the fighter is probably the best foil against my argument here. Any non-fighter type class is lagging well behind.

Anubis said:
Slightly. This one you get.

Again note that the fighter is probably the best foil against my argument here. Any non-fighter type class is lagging well behind.

Anubis said:
Only if you bump up the cost of the Cloak of Resistance.

Not at all. At best you can officially only have a +1 Cloak of Resistance. Remember a +2 cloak would be 4000 GP which is more than 25% of the characters total wealth.

Which means every class is behind on saves (even if you dish out cloaks of resistance like confetti).

...and we know how much store you put into saving throws. :)

Anubis said:
The Level 5, if a spellcaster, will have better spells.

Certainly, but all of his DCs will be lower by at least 2.

Anubis said:
Not a big deal, these rarely come into play AT ALL.

Every bit of evidence is pertinent to the whole.

Anubis said:
This depends on too many factors to make such a claim.

I think Eldorian already covered this one well enough. I was going to give it even, but it seems our 1st-level character is stronger in this department too.

Anubis said:
It'll be a bit more than double.

Again Eldorian already outlined this fairly.

You have less than double for d4 HD; double exactly for d6 HD; and slightly more for other HD figures. Therefore my supposition of 'approximately double' was spot on.

Anubis said:
Correct. This is the biggest factor right here.

Its certainly the biggest balancing factor, up to now we were way ahead.

Anubis said:
This is the second biggest factor.

We already included these above.

Anubis said:
Actually, the opposite is true. The Level 5 character would win EVERY TIME. NO EXCEPTIONS. By your system, they should be 50/50. NO WAY. I would bet my checking account on this.

I'll only ask this favour once...please, please, never go to Las Vegas. :(

Anubis said:
You still have yet to address the ogre situation.

The Ogre actually works out at CR 4 using the updated system.

Once I fixed the wealth problem, everything fell into line.

Anubis said:
Since you're tyring to build a system that works at ALL levels, that includes levels 1-3. This system does NOT work at levels 1-3, as proven by the CR 3 ogre.

Ker-ching! So you are telling me it does now work!? :D

Anubis said:
Heck, a Level 1 character with 18 in every score will not even beat an ogre UNLESS it's a Wizard or Sorcerer that gets real lucky with the sleep spell.

Nonsense.

Remember of course that we are in no way adding ability scores that take advantage of the fighters specialities - yet we are still getting comparable results!
 

Hey Clay_More mate! :)

Clay_More said:
On from the skills to the ability scores....

:D

Clay_More said:
Anyways, I am still pondering (& thinking) about the aspect of undead deities (Ie. deities that arent merely supportive of undead, like Orcus, Wee Jas, Vecna, but Undead themselves). Will you include some explanation of how the aspect of undead deities work?

Its all explained on page one of chapter one. :D

Clay_More said:
I have always figured that gods are outsiders, made of energy or something similar. Since outsiders have problems becoming undead, gods would have even greater problems. Mainly, I would think that their energy wouldn't be able of being affected by Negative Energy. Thats just IMO off course :)

If I tell you now I will just be spoiling the surprise. :)

Clay_More said:
Im definitely going to be at Gencon UK, perhaps only 3 days, but still.

Great news mate! :D

Clay_More said:
Hope to hook up with ya (and who-ever is going there as well).

Absolutely! I am sure there will be more than 20 ENWorlders this year.

Clay_More said:
They should make a special Enworld café or something there (should be enough Enworlders at the convention to make it plausible)...

In the upcoming weeks we can always arrange how to meet up.
 

Hi all! :)

Just finished off the divinity templates today and noticed the following (almost identical) comparisons in terms of relative power:

Worm that walks = Hero-deity

Pseudonatural* = Quasi-deity

Paragon = Demigod

Demilich (+ Lich) = Lesser God

*At a 5-8 Hit Dice

NB. All the above are without Portfolio Templates of course. ;)
 

Ogre as CR 4? Well considering a Level 1 character with all 18s will be CR 5, this still proves your system wrong.

Hell, just the fact that NONE of the classes use *all* of the ability scores in significant ways proved you wrong as well. Every piece of evidence goes to show that ability scores, although they "matter", they do NOT effect CR or any other such rating.

You say it works at all levels, and I have proven you wrong time and again. Get over it! Take out the ability scores and move on! You can't win!

Sheesh! :rolleyes:
 

Wow! This endless debate of the mechanics of CR is getting to be pretty dry stuff. ;)

Anyone want to talk about their current or future campaigns? :)
 

Look, Anubis, suck it up. Upper Krusts measured words and well presented evidence is kicking your rantings ass. He's won this argument by a mile. Cope.

Although I will admit that he may need to tweak the way he measures CR... Ability score 10/10/10/10/10/10 should have no modifier to CR at all.
 

Well, a little bit dry indeed. Anyone have some topless pictures they would like to post?

Hey UK, dunno if you saw the messages in the Necromancy PDF post, seems I might have something to do in the future :)
 

Hi Anubis mate! :)

Anubis said:
Ogre as CR 4? Well considering a Level 1 character with all 18s will be CR 5, this still proves your system wrong.

You are simply taking advantage of the fact that 1st-level characters are more fragile in general (not having the same safety margin of error to protect against the inevitable 'lucky' blow), rather than any incorrect assessment of ability scores.

Anubis said:
Hell, just the fact that NONE of the classes use *all* of the ability scores in significant ways proved you wrong as well.

Wouldn't that actually vindicate me even more, since inevitably a character will apply ability scores to their strengths!?

Anubis said:
Every piece of evidence goes to show that ability scores, although they "matter", they do NOT effect CR or any other such rating.

Clearly you are wrong. They do matter significantly. As I have shown.

The question was never "do they matter?", but rather "can we avoid incorporating them?".

Personally I still say it might be possible, but I am still not comfortable leaving things to chance.

Anubis said:
You say it works at all levels, and I have proven you wrong time and again. Get over it!

Aren't you being somewhat hypocritical here?

Anubis said:
Take out the ability scores and move on! You can't win!

Sheesh! :rolleyes:

Are you sure you're in the right thread? :D
 

Hi bing mate! :)

bing said:
Wow! This endless debate of the mechanics of CR is getting to be pretty dry stuff. ;)

Agreed. I don't mind debating mechanics of course but when you are going over the same ground time and time again I can see how it can seem like someone just cast Enervation on you. :D

bing said:
Anyone want to talk about their current or future campaigns? :)

When we get the IH finished Thrin is going to help Mephisto's faction conquer the Nine Hells.
 

Remove ads

Top