WotC made the mistake of trying to fix the math problems with feats, so that PCs that do not take the feats are effectively screwed. Unlike WotC, I want to fix this within the game mechanics so that all PCs get these benefits, not within the feat system where only the PCs who take the feats get the advantage.
1) PCs gain +1 to hit at Paragon and again at Epic level.
2) PCs gain +1 to defenses (except AC) at levels 11 (Paragon), 16, 21 (Epic), and 26.
3) PCs in Light Armor gain +1 to AC at Paragon and again at Epic level.
4) PCs in Light Armor use their primary ability score for their stat bonus to AC.
5) PCs in Heavy Armor gain +1 in masterwork bonus for each +1 in enhancement bonus. The normal masterwork bonuses do not apply.
6) The mega-to hit and defense feats in PHB II (and future sources) such as Weapon or Implement Expertise or Epic Lightning Reflexes are not allowed.
Explanations:
1) The monster's defenses go up by +1 per level or +29 from level 1 to 30. To hit goes up by +25 or 4 less. So, a slight boost of +2 to hit by level 21. The rest is picked up via synergy bonuses of additional powers and feats and paragon/epic abilities. Some people prefer the +1 per tier solution. That's probably ok too.
2) The monster's to hits go up by +1 per level or +29 from level 1 to 30. Defenses go up by +22 to +25 or 7 (never bumps stat) to 4 (always bumps stat) less. So, a boost of +4 defense by level 26. Additionally, stats could be low to begin with.
3) Light Armor has the same issue as #2. But, the house rule boost is not as great due to the ability of PCs to go from Cloth to Leather, Leather to Hide, to gain specialization, etc.
4) This already occurs for several core classes. But now, a Cleric can be in Leather or Hide armor and not be forced into Chain. Ditto for an Invoker. Some of the new classes like Sorcerers are screwed since they use a secondary stat for AC. A 30th level Soldier (+37) hits a starting Dex 16 pushed every time 30th level Sorcerer in +6 Starweave Cloth (AC 40) on a 3. The player had a high secondary stat and pushed the stat every time and still gets hit by a same level creature on a 3. This house rule pushes this to 4 (in this example, but could push it from a 2 to a 4 with a starting 14 Dex). House rule #3 pushes this to a 6. Getting Leather Armor pushes it to 8, etc. Still easy to hit, but not near automatic. Note: I understand that nobody will take Chain with this house rule, but nobody wanted to be behind the curve with Chain anyway. Clerics were screwed from day one. Chain is like Cloth. Nobody really wants it and it's just a pain that it's in the game system. But, I can see a DM not wanting this house rule.
5) Heavy Armor is the only armor/defense that is balanced at certain levels, it just has a step function problem (i.e. going from +3 heavy armor to +4 jumps the AC of the PC by 3 and again from +5 to +6, it's not a smooth function which means the PC gets hit more often for many levels until they acquire the super armor). The core magic/masterwork jumps are: +1, +1, +1, +4, +1, +4. I'm just changing it to: +2, +2, +2, +2, +2, +2. The reason WotC added the masterwork concept is that they had to boost AC for PCs that did not add in an ability score modifier, but this is not a balanced way to do it. A 17th PC can get hit on a 5, put on +1 better armor and then only get hit on a 9. That's too big a jump for +1 better armor.
6) Epic Lightning Reflexes, Epic Great Fortitude, and Epic Iron Will are +4 that stacks with everything. I am effectively doing the same +4 with house rule #2, but no 3 feats required, just to balance it out. The Expertise feats add +1 per tier, but I think +1 per tier is too much, so I have house rule #1 instead.
Btw, one thing that bothers me about this. I wrote to WotC in 2007 after the 4E announcement telling them that I would be happy to check their math. I said that I would put together Excel spreadsheets and show them exactly where they might have problems at all levels. They ignored my letter.
It ticks me off that they refused help to identify problems with their math and they still have such serious flaws. I'm not bothered that they did not have me do it, who cares who did it? I'm bothered that they didn't do it themselves or have someone do it for them, even after being warned that it could happen. After all of their assertions that the math now works at all levels pre-release, they still screwed up.
Guess all "the math now works" talk pre-release was just that. Talk. They should have actually sat down with the real numbers instead of just talking about it.
High level is pretty grindy and uses up a lot of heals, just because the PCs have a harder time hitting and an easier time getting hit. Their design goal of speeding up the game totally fails at high Paragon and Epic levels.
I don't think that the odds at high level should be the same as low level due to how many options players have. Creatures should be slightly harder to hit and PCs should be slightly easier to hit without the PCs using up resources. But they shouldn't be off by 4 to 7. That's just plain flawed. -2 is a better amount to be off at high level. Losing 5% to hit and/or defense every 4 to 5 levels is a bug.
And, it's ok for PCs to make up this -2 with feats or powers, etc., even to the point that it is +1 or +2 afterwards. Monsters at high levels have many hundreds of hit points. It's ok to be hitting 50% of the time at level one and 60% of the time at level thirty using resources, just because the monsters can hack it.
Want another example? Look at a Tarrasque. It has a defense delta of 17 between Fort and Will. That's just plain bad design. One PC's attack almost never works and another PC's attack almost always works. Yeah, that's a lot of fun.
The rest of the splat books will now have a bunch of "temporary fix" feats for this such as "If you hit your foe with xyz attack, you are +1 to your next attack", etc. But, this type of fix fails. If one has a hard time hitting in round one, they will rarely get the boost in round two. It doesn't address the real problem.
1) PCs gain +1 to hit at Paragon and again at Epic level.
2) PCs gain +1 to defenses (except AC) at levels 11 (Paragon), 16, 21 (Epic), and 26.
3) PCs in Light Armor gain +1 to AC at Paragon and again at Epic level.
4) PCs in Light Armor use their primary ability score for their stat bonus to AC.
5) PCs in Heavy Armor gain +1 in masterwork bonus for each +1 in enhancement bonus. The normal masterwork bonuses do not apply.
6) The mega-to hit and defense feats in PHB II (and future sources) such as Weapon or Implement Expertise or Epic Lightning Reflexes are not allowed.
Explanations:
1) The monster's defenses go up by +1 per level or +29 from level 1 to 30. To hit goes up by +25 or 4 less. So, a slight boost of +2 to hit by level 21. The rest is picked up via synergy bonuses of additional powers and feats and paragon/epic abilities. Some people prefer the +1 per tier solution. That's probably ok too.
2) The monster's to hits go up by +1 per level or +29 from level 1 to 30. Defenses go up by +22 to +25 or 7 (never bumps stat) to 4 (always bumps stat) less. So, a boost of +4 defense by level 26. Additionally, stats could be low to begin with.
3) Light Armor has the same issue as #2. But, the house rule boost is not as great due to the ability of PCs to go from Cloth to Leather, Leather to Hide, to gain specialization, etc.
4) This already occurs for several core classes. But now, a Cleric can be in Leather or Hide armor and not be forced into Chain. Ditto for an Invoker. Some of the new classes like Sorcerers are screwed since they use a secondary stat for AC. A 30th level Soldier (+37) hits a starting Dex 16 pushed every time 30th level Sorcerer in +6 Starweave Cloth (AC 40) on a 3. The player had a high secondary stat and pushed the stat every time and still gets hit by a same level creature on a 3. This house rule pushes this to 4 (in this example, but could push it from a 2 to a 4 with a starting 14 Dex). House rule #3 pushes this to a 6. Getting Leather Armor pushes it to 8, etc. Still easy to hit, but not near automatic. Note: I understand that nobody will take Chain with this house rule, but nobody wanted to be behind the curve with Chain anyway. Clerics were screwed from day one. Chain is like Cloth. Nobody really wants it and it's just a pain that it's in the game system. But, I can see a DM not wanting this house rule.
5) Heavy Armor is the only armor/defense that is balanced at certain levels, it just has a step function problem (i.e. going from +3 heavy armor to +4 jumps the AC of the PC by 3 and again from +5 to +6, it's not a smooth function which means the PC gets hit more often for many levels until they acquire the super armor). The core magic/masterwork jumps are: +1, +1, +1, +4, +1, +4. I'm just changing it to: +2, +2, +2, +2, +2, +2. The reason WotC added the masterwork concept is that they had to boost AC for PCs that did not add in an ability score modifier, but this is not a balanced way to do it. A 17th PC can get hit on a 5, put on +1 better armor and then only get hit on a 9. That's too big a jump for +1 better armor.
6) Epic Lightning Reflexes, Epic Great Fortitude, and Epic Iron Will are +4 that stacks with everything. I am effectively doing the same +4 with house rule #2, but no 3 feats required, just to balance it out. The Expertise feats add +1 per tier, but I think +1 per tier is too much, so I have house rule #1 instead.
Btw, one thing that bothers me about this. I wrote to WotC in 2007 after the 4E announcement telling them that I would be happy to check their math. I said that I would put together Excel spreadsheets and show them exactly where they might have problems at all levels. They ignored my letter.
It ticks me off that they refused help to identify problems with their math and they still have such serious flaws. I'm not bothered that they did not have me do it, who cares who did it? I'm bothered that they didn't do it themselves or have someone do it for them, even after being warned that it could happen. After all of their assertions that the math now works at all levels pre-release, they still screwed up.
Guess all "the math now works" talk pre-release was just that. Talk. They should have actually sat down with the real numbers instead of just talking about it.
High level is pretty grindy and uses up a lot of heals, just because the PCs have a harder time hitting and an easier time getting hit. Their design goal of speeding up the game totally fails at high Paragon and Epic levels.
I don't think that the odds at high level should be the same as low level due to how many options players have. Creatures should be slightly harder to hit and PCs should be slightly easier to hit without the PCs using up resources. But they shouldn't be off by 4 to 7. That's just plain flawed. -2 is a better amount to be off at high level. Losing 5% to hit and/or defense every 4 to 5 levels is a bug.
And, it's ok for PCs to make up this -2 with feats or powers, etc., even to the point that it is +1 or +2 afterwards. Monsters at high levels have many hundreds of hit points. It's ok to be hitting 50% of the time at level one and 60% of the time at level thirty using resources, just because the monsters can hack it.
Want another example? Look at a Tarrasque. It has a defense delta of 17 between Fort and Will. That's just plain bad design. One PC's attack almost never works and another PC's attack almost always works. Yeah, that's a lot of fun.
The rest of the splat books will now have a bunch of "temporary fix" feats for this such as "If you hit your foe with xyz attack, you are +1 to your next attack", etc. But, this type of fix fails. If one has a hard time hitting in round one, they will rarely get the boost in round two. It doesn't address the real problem.
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