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Message: <blockquote data-quote="El Jefe" data-source="post: 2744031" data-attributes="member: 19990">If I understand this right, for a PL 10 character vs. another PL 10 character, your offense is maximized if you build to about an 11 attack/9 damage.  You have the max 39% chance to damage a 10 defense/10 toughness character, and no matter how your opponent builds his defense, your odds are never worse than 9.5% (for the bizarre example of a 10 defense/0 toughness character).  Offense is self-limiting, since the farther one strays from 11/9, the weaker one's attack gets.  This is strictly true for a "normal" (10/10) defender, but it's also true that the chance to do damage against a randomly-generated defender declines.  For example, a 0/20 offense would have an average against a random opponent of (38.5+37.5+36+34+31.5+28.5+23.75+19+14.25+9.5+4.75+4.75+4.75+4.75+4.75+4.75+4.75+4.75+4.75+4.75+4.75)/21=15.46% chance of doing damage,vs. an 11/9 which would have a (14.25+19+23.75+28.5+31.5+34+36+37.5+38.5+39+39+38.5+37.5+36+34+31.5+28.5+23.75+19+14.25+9.5)/21=29.21% chance.  Moreover, the worst an 11/9 offense would ever do would be 9.5% (against a somewhat freakish 20 defense/0 toughness).That's actually good, because it shows that the game system encourages balanced characters, at least as far as offense goes.The game changes, however, when defending.  If you want to minimize your opponent's chances of doing damage, the "best" build is the 20 defense/0 toughness, followed by 19/1, 18/2 and (tie) 0/20 and 17/3.  Here's where restricting the trade-off makes sense.  For example, our 11 attack/9 damage character is only 31.5% likely to damage a 15 defense/5 toughness, vs. 39% vs. a 10 defense/10 toughness.  That's slightly better than having a +1 on every attack!Now, consider trying to optimize offense to beat a 15 defense/5 toughness.  The "best" combinations are 16/4 and 17/3, neither of which is allowed if trade-offs are limited to +/-5.  A 15/5 offense has a 38.5% chance/attack of damaging a 15/5 defender, which is near-optimal.Now, lest you think everyone would rush to build 15/5 offenses, consider that it only has a 19% chance/attack to damage a 5/15 defender, which effectively gives the 5/15 defender a +4 advantage (compared to a 15/5 defender against a 15/5 offense).  But a 5/15 defender is "beaten" by a 5/15 offense (38.5%).So, offense tends to drive to the center of 11/9, but defending tends to drive toward the "corners" of 15/5 or 5/15.  Also consider that an 11/9 offense never does worse than 31.5% against a 15/5 defender, and also does 34% against a 5/15 defender.Yeah, probably more math than you want to think about on a holiday (if you're in the US) morning.  But food for thought, at any rate.PS.  I wonder how all this changes when you consider PL 10 characters vs. higher-level villains.</blockquote>

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