Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="GMMichael" data-source="post: 6138644" data-attributes="member: 6685730">This is where it gets interesting, boss.  The first iteration of protection (armor), was that you would get to roll it anytime you took damage.  This meant that each die of warrior damage would be reduced by one die of armor protection (if the target had armor).  It also meant that one spell, and potentially a handful of damage dice, would also get only one roll of protection.  /Usefulness of Warrior.  (Note that the warrior gets extra actions at about the same rate as the spellcaster, and each action roughly translates into a die of damage.  Note also that there is no damage bonus for strength, only attack bonus).So I says - why not apply protection to each die of damage?  That way, the caster can't significantly out-damage the warrior.  Does this reduce the effect of additional damage dice?  Yes.  But the game has a minimum damage rule.  So even if your damage dice don't exceed the protection dice, you still do one point of damage per die.Now I realize that this can result in the following situation:A first level noble brat carries a heavy shield, and wears full platemail into battle.  (Protection: d4+1 and d10+4.  Take half=12)A tenth level caster assumes a defensive posture behind his apprentice, and casts Quake for 10d8 Physical damage.The first level noble can parry, with a bonus of probably 2 (d20+2).The tenth level caster casts Quake with a bonus of about 8 (d20+8).Caster takes half, and gets 18 on his contest.  Noble rolls with a 20% chance of avoiding all damage.If caster succeeds, each die of damage (d8) goes up against the nobles average of 12 protection.Likely outcome is that the caster does a minimum of one damage per damage die, or 10 damage.First level noble loses over half of his health (which is probably around 12).Distribute versus focus-fire: this is a judgment call by the caster in many cases.  If he has a bunch of wimpy enemies, or a situation where he needs a big boom, he can go ahead and spread out the damage dice.</blockquote>

Verification