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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 514223" data-attributes="member: 3146">The difference is that, as attack bonusses and armor classes get higher, the same stat increase becomes proportionally more significant.Let's look at an example. Against an attacker with a +0 attack bonus, an armor class ten character will be hit 55% of the time. If you give him a large shield, his armor class goes up to 12 and now he only gets hit 40% of the time. Overall, that results in about a 17% reduction in the amount of damage the character takes.Now, let's see what happens when a character wearing full-plate gets the same two points of armor class. His armor class goes up to 20 which results in a 67% reduction in the amount of damage taken from the same foe.The same two points of armor class are dramatically more effective for the second character than for the first.Applying the example to melee characters, let's take our three fighters: Str 10, str 14, and str 18. All are 1st level fighters with weapon focus: greataxe attacking an orc (AC 14 in scale mail). According to <a href="http://www.public.asu.edu/~tarchon/munchkin.html" target="_blank">http://www.public.asu.edu/~tarchon/munchkin.html</a>the average damage/round work out as follows:Str 10: 3.2Str 14: 5.7Str 18: 8.9In this example, the difference between the str 10 and the str 14 fighter is an average of 2.5 points of damage. The difference between the str 14 and the str 18 fighter is an average of 3.2 points of damage. Clearly in this case, going from str 14 to str 18 makes more of a difference than going from str 10 to str 14.More important, however, is the qualitative difference. The strength 18 character will drop max hit point 1st level fighters (or average hit point second level fighters) with a single average damage blow. The strength 14 character will need 2 rounds to do this. The str 10 character will also drop such foes on average in two hits (6.5+6.5=13). Consequently, the str 18 character (assuming he has cleave) will often drop three or four foes in two rounds. The strength 14 character will usually only drop one in two rounds (because after cleaving into the second on round 2, he'll often need a second attack in order to finish him).At higher levels, this qualitative distinction remains. At 4th level, a bull's strengthed 18 str fighter will dish out 15.9 points of damage/round against AC 18. The 14 strength character dishes out 11.1 The 18 strength fighter is much more likely to cleave through his opposition quickly than the 14 strength--even with bull's strength. (And here, it's worth pointing out that the 14 str fighter has no chance of cleaving through opposition without bull's strength but the 18 str fighter does.</blockquote>

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