Star Wars vs D&D playtest!

[Donovan Morningfire]

Maybe it's just me, but running a "non-optimized" Jedi against an "optimized" fighter (and lets' face it, the delve characters were built to take best advantage of their classes' cool new 4e features) doesn't seem like a level playing field.

My rule of thumb from testing various builds against each other from my Mutants & Masterminds days was "rule of 10," where you assume every d20-based roll made has a result of ten, and damage is bonus plus mathematical average of the die roll (i.e. 1d10+6 = 12, 2d8+4 = 13, 3d6 = 11).

I'm tempted to try this myself using a bunch of 1st level SWSE characters built on 28 points and randomly pitting them against the various D&D delve characters, just to see what happens.

 

[Blue]

The dwarf runs for 7 squares. Total distance 13. She wants to close the distance, but not let the Jedi get first hit.

The Jedi uses Surge (UtF check 15; +2 move) and moves 8 squares. Total distance 5.

Why did they move so little? 4e and, IIRC, SW both allow converting a standard action down to a move action. I don't have the SW book handy, does Surge take more then a minor action? Unless it is, the jedi should have been able to charge (using 4e charge rules) and attacked with their lightsaber that round.

Cheers,
=Blue(23)

 

[Victim]

My rule of thumb from testing various builds against each other from my Mutants & Masterminds days was "rule of 10," where you assume every d20-based roll made has a result of ten, and damage is bonus plus mathematical average of the die roll (i.e. 1d10+6 = 12, 2d8+4 = 13, 3d6 = 11).

Wow, that seems like a stupid assumption, since as probabilities shift from a 50% chance to a 55% chance (or vice versa), the results of the simulation go from 0% to 100%. Modifiers within a certain narrow range have a massive, disproportionate impact, and modifers in other parts of the range are completely meaningless. A 40%-chance to hit isn't really negligible - it might not be something to count on in a single round, but in a multi round fight it will probably do something.

Lacking context, we can't really anything about the optimization of the 4e test characters. However, it is notable that many of the powers used by the 4e characters are geared toward multiple opponents, so they're not exactly doing much in this context. As such, it seems like accepting some non optimal choices for the Jedi is pretty reasonable.