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General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Is "Shield" too powerful?
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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 4694276" data-attributes="member: 2011"><p>I saw your "save Second Chance for a crit" math.</p><p></p><p>Sound on the surface, but it ignores something fairly basic.</p><p></p><p>Say your PC gets hit twice in two encounters, each for normal damage (normal damage happens 90% of the time on a 50% chance to hit, critical damage happens 10% of the time on a 50% chance to hit).</p><p></p><p>The odds of 4 successful attacks hitting with normal damage (as opposed to critical damage on any of them) is 64%, a fairly common and high percentage of the time.</p><p></p><p>Using the "save Second Chance" strategy, the PC will get hit all 4 times and although he could have used Second Chance twice and only got hit twice, that did not occur. He takes 400% damage. He could have taken 200% damage. Even if the 4th attack would have been a critical, he would have taken 250% damage by using his Second Wind for the critical instead of 200%.</p><p></p><p>Saving a single extra 50% damage on a critical (approximately), but giving up entire encounter's worth of Second Wind is a mathematically bad strategy.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Spread over the lifetime of the PC, 10% of the times he gets hit, he will negate a critical. Since that will not happen every single encounter, he will lose a lot of Second Winds that he could have used.</p><p></p><p></p><p>And, this too is why APC does not get it. He too thought that saving Second Wind for a critical is important.</p><p></p><p>It's important for the PC to stay alive.</p><p></p><p>Sure, if you think your foe is a minion, a player would be smart to not use Second Wind on the off chance that a non-minion might hit him in the same encounter.</p><p></p><p></p><p>And, I read your section on k attacks remaining. I do think that a player could save Second Wind on the first few hits, waiting for that critical if he is fairly sure that he will get hit at least one more time.</p><p></p><p>But, that too is a guessing game.</p><p></p><p>The player does not have to use it on the first hit, but should use it somewhere in the first half of the encounter, if only to delay when he goes bloodied (where opponents might have other advantages against him).</p><p>But otherwise, it's a mistake to save it for too long over the long haul.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 4694276, member: 2011"] I saw your "save Second Chance for a crit" math. Sound on the surface, but it ignores something fairly basic. Say your PC gets hit twice in two encounters, each for normal damage (normal damage happens 90% of the time on a 50% chance to hit, critical damage happens 10% of the time on a 50% chance to hit). The odds of 4 successful attacks hitting with normal damage (as opposed to critical damage on any of them) is 64%, a fairly common and high percentage of the time. Using the "save Second Chance" strategy, the PC will get hit all 4 times and although he could have used Second Chance twice and only got hit twice, that did not occur. He takes 400% damage. He could have taken 200% damage. Even if the 4th attack would have been a critical, he would have taken 250% damage by using his Second Wind for the critical instead of 200%. Saving a single extra 50% damage on a critical (approximately), but giving up entire encounter's worth of Second Wind is a mathematically bad strategy. Spread over the lifetime of the PC, 10% of the times he gets hit, he will negate a critical. Since that will not happen every single encounter, he will lose a lot of Second Winds that he could have used. And, this too is why APC does not get it. He too thought that saving Second Wind for a critical is important. It's important for the PC to stay alive. Sure, if you think your foe is a minion, a player would be smart to not use Second Wind on the off chance that a non-minion might hit him in the same encounter. And, I read your section on k attacks remaining. I do think that a player could save Second Wind on the first few hits, waiting for that critical if he is fairly sure that he will get hit at least one more time. But, that too is a guessing game. The player does not have to use it on the first hit, but should use it somewhere in the first half of the encounter, if only to delay when he goes bloodied (where opponents might have other advantages against him). But otherwise, it's a mistake to save it for too long over the long haul. [/QUOTE]
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Is "Shield" too powerful?
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