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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 2639147" data-attributes="member: 3146">I disagree with your analysis of the 10/10/10/10/10/14 paladin vs the fighter. (Though you're right to point out that the fighter will have trouble getting good use out of all his feats--Barbarian would have been a better example). The basic problem that the paladin faces vis a vis the fighter is that he will do far less damage than the fighter less often. Against a 1st level orc warrior in studded leather, the 1st level fighter will hit 55% of the time for 6.5 points of damage per hit. That's an average damage/round of 3.575 excluding crits. The paladin will hit 45% of the time for 4.5 points of damage. That's 2.025 average damage per round. By sixth level--the point where you think the paladin will be improving vis a vis the fighter, assuming he picks up a +1 longsword and Weapon Focus, he'll be attacking at +8/+3 for 5.5 points of damage per hit. 7.45 average damage per full attack. The fighter, OTOH, will be attacking at +10/+5 for an average of 9.5 damage per hit. 14.75 points of damage per full attack. The paladin is so far behind the fighter in terms of damage dealing that he's hardly even playing in the same game.Now, in this case, the problem isn't nearly as much the 16 point buy as it is the way those 16 points are distributed. Let's imagine for a moment that the paladin takes a 12 strength and a 12 charisma. Now, he's attacking at +2 for 5.5 points at first level 2.75 points of damage per round. At 6th level, he's got +9/+4 for 6.5 points of damage. 9.45 points of damage per full attack. In both cases, the paladin has closed the offensive gap between him and the fighter considerably--enough that his defensive and healing abilities might be more relevant.This analysis plays into the example you propose with the 25 point paladin. I notice that you spread out your ability scores into what looks like a pretty reasonable spread for a paladin. A fighter, on the other hand, is not going to be well served by the 14, 14, 13, 12, 10, 10 spread you propose for the paladin. The fighter is probably better off just going Str 16, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 8. If we want to avoid dump-statting in both examples (though part of the principle of MAD is that characters who suffer from it have fewer dump stats), we could make that 16, 10, 14, 13, 10, 10. Either way, the point is that the effective ability spread for the MAD character is more spread out than the effective ability spread for a non-MAD character.</blockquote>

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