Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Precision Strike: How to calculate
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6818513" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Well, the really critical section of the maneuver is this one, underlined:</p><p></p><p>"<em><strong>Precision Attack.</strong></em> When you make a weapon attack roll against a creature, you can expend one superiority die to add it to that roll. <u>You can use this maneuver before or after the attack roll, but before any effects of the attack have been applied.</u>"</p><p></p><p>Assuming you don't have a DM who dickishly "applies the effects" before you have a chance to think about it, this means that you'll be adding the die only in situations where you think you've failed the roll, but only by a moderate margin--in other words, attacks in the (very very roughly) 5-12 region depending on the enemy's AC. A rolled 5 is unlikely to hit even a low-AC enemy early on (2+5+3 = 10, which will miss most enemies), whereas a rolled 12 is very likely to hit most things (2+12+3 = 17, few enemies at level 3 will have an AC of 18 or higher). This range might rise, slightly, as you get into very high levels where enemies could have an AC of 20 or more, but I doubt it would go much higher than that. I think it's also fair to assume that a Battlemaster is going to pay attention to things like the rolled number for their allies' attacks--if they see a rolled 11 hitting, they won't bother spending the dice for numbers higher than that, but <em>will</em> shift their acceptable range to match. Same for seeing a rolled 15 miss. (Assuming the characters have the same total attack bonus, which is ~fairly~ likely.)</p><p></p><p>So the range from 5 to 12 is 8 faces of the d20, shifted around contextually depending on the player's observations. We assume, then, that this means 40% of the time, when it's available, the Battlemaster adds (die/2) to their attacks, and that all of those attacks would <em>normally</em> miss. If the rolled number is at the low end (5), then the BM is adding +4/5/6 (depending on level) to that attack. This turns a rolled 5 (= 10 total) into a rolled 14/15/16--enough to hit <em>most</em> moderately-armored targets; similarly, it turns a rolled 12 (= 17 total) into a rolled 21+, which hits nearly everything. So we can assume that most of these attacks hit; let's call it 75%.</p><p></p><p>Hitting 75% of the 40% of attacks that would have always missed before translates to (.75)*(.40) = .30, a 30% increase to hit. This is both a relatively high estimate (because I assumed all of those 40% of attacks *always* would miss without it) and a relatively low estimate (because I rounded down the average Superiority Dice value). On the whole, I'd say it's a good number, but if you want to be very conservative, you could call it a 20% to 25% increase in number of successful attacks and you would almost certainly not be over-estimating the true result. 15% sounds like an excessively low estimate to me, if we're assuming very shrewd use.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, there are at least three different axes of variation that make it impossible to truly "calculate" the amount of increase. Shrewd play on the player's part, variations in the target AC, and whether the PC's numbers remain "in step" with the growth of average enemy AC over time. The first, of course, is the most meaningful reason--if we assume a less-shrewd player, many of the dice may be wasted, resulting in a reduced benefit.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 6818513, member: 6790260"] Well, the really critical section of the maneuver is this one, underlined: "[I][B]Precision Attack.[/B][/I] When you make a weapon attack roll against a creature, you can expend one superiority die to add it to that roll. [U]You can use this maneuver before or after the attack roll, but before any effects of the attack have been applied.[/U]" Assuming you don't have a DM who dickishly "applies the effects" before you have a chance to think about it, this means that you'll be adding the die only in situations where you think you've failed the roll, but only by a moderate margin--in other words, attacks in the (very very roughly) 5-12 region depending on the enemy's AC. A rolled 5 is unlikely to hit even a low-AC enemy early on (2+5+3 = 10, which will miss most enemies), whereas a rolled 12 is very likely to hit most things (2+12+3 = 17, few enemies at level 3 will have an AC of 18 or higher). This range might rise, slightly, as you get into very high levels where enemies could have an AC of 20 or more, but I doubt it would go much higher than that. I think it's also fair to assume that a Battlemaster is going to pay attention to things like the rolled number for their allies' attacks--if they see a rolled 11 hitting, they won't bother spending the dice for numbers higher than that, but [I]will[/I] shift their acceptable range to match. Same for seeing a rolled 15 miss. (Assuming the characters have the same total attack bonus, which is ~fairly~ likely.) So the range from 5 to 12 is 8 faces of the d20, shifted around contextually depending on the player's observations. We assume, then, that this means 40% of the time, when it's available, the Battlemaster adds (die/2) to their attacks, and that all of those attacks would [I]normally[/I] miss. If the rolled number is at the low end (5), then the BM is adding +4/5/6 (depending on level) to that attack. This turns a rolled 5 (= 10 total) into a rolled 14/15/16--enough to hit [I]most[/I] moderately-armored targets; similarly, it turns a rolled 12 (= 17 total) into a rolled 21+, which hits nearly everything. So we can assume that most of these attacks hit; let's call it 75%. Hitting 75% of the 40% of attacks that would have always missed before translates to (.75)*(.40) = .30, a 30% increase to hit. This is both a relatively high estimate (because I assumed all of those 40% of attacks *always* would miss without it) and a relatively low estimate (because I rounded down the average Superiority Dice value). On the whole, I'd say it's a good number, but if you want to be very conservative, you could call it a 20% to 25% increase in number of successful attacks and you would almost certainly not be over-estimating the true result. 15% sounds like an excessively low estimate to me, if we're assuming very shrewd use. Unfortunately, there are at least three different axes of variation that make it impossible to truly "calculate" the amount of increase. Shrewd play on the player's part, variations in the target AC, and whether the PC's numbers remain "in step" with the growth of average enemy AC over time. The first, of course, is the most meaningful reason--if we assume a less-shrewd player, many of the dice may be wasted, resulting in a reduced benefit. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Precision Strike: How to calculate
Top