dave2008
Legend
OK, I missed in the OP where you said you where accounting for misses. I thought your 2nd post specifically said straight DPR
D&D 5E Quantifying AOE impact
- Thread starter FrogReaver
- Start date
FrogReaver
The most respectful and polite poster ever
methinks you are having a very off day. DPR always takes into account hit rate 
Esker
Hero
Of course, if we change the above example so that the enemies only had 3N HP, then:
With nothing:
3 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 10 turns
With AoE (N per target):
3 + 2 + 1 = 6 turns
With 3N Single Target Damage in Round 1:
3 + 2 + 1 = 6 turns
So the AoE was as efficient as single target damage. Basically the difference was that the diffuse AoE damage per target was enough that it got the party within killing distance of the first enemy.
With nothing:
3 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 10 turns
With AoE (N per target):
3 + 2 + 1 = 6 turns
With 3N Single Target Damage in Round 1:
3 + 2 + 1 = 6 turns
So the AoE was as efficient as single target damage. Basically the difference was that the diffuse AoE damage per target was enough that it got the party within killing distance of the first enemy.
Esker
Hero
It also seems to me that these examples may be being overly generous to single target damage, since 100% spillover is the absolute best case. Essentially we're treating single target damage as though it can optimally become multi-target damage when it is advantageous. To some extent, single target damage can become multi-target damage, since we're treating it as a monolith when in fact it's likely coming from 5 or 6 discrete attacks, but it definitely can't do so 100% efficiently, especially in scenarios where someone would even consider using a fireball (namely the enemies' HP are relatively low compared to the party's damage output).
FrogReaver
The most respectful and polite poster ever
I think this is just showing what happens where single target damage doesn't actually kill the enemy in an even number of rounds and where the AOE brings it to that point.
My thoughts are that the actual impact of an AOE is going to be somewhere between this and what we found in the first example because aoes have variable damage and saving throws for half.
FrogReaver
The most respectful and polite poster ever
AOE suffers the same issue.
Also, Single target suffers the same issue whether AOE is involved or not.
Esker
Hero
I don't think that's the difference. In both the 4N/enemy case and the 3N/enemy case, we wound up with one enemy having N HP left in the last round -- that is, there was N overkill damage in both cases.
FrogReaver
The most respectful and polite poster ever
If fireball does N and the enemy has 3N and the part does 2N then there is no overkill damage by the party. Will take 3 turns to kill the enemies. Maybe I've misread your example?
Esker
Hero
Only if it does the killing damage. But that's the best case for it. If we are assuming it is used in the first round to soften up a bunch of enemies and kill none, then it has no overkill.
Esker
Hero
Oh, sorry, yes, that's right. I was comparing the single target damage in the first scenario to the single target damage in the second scenario: both wind up with N overkill damage. But yeah, the AoE eliminates the overkill in the second scenario, but not the first.
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