The Essentials articles are atrocious.

[Cadfan]

fuzzlewump- Technically, Umbran is talking about people's perception of their character's performance, not their character's actual performance. He's saying that your character changes so often that it mentally "resets" in your mind, causing you to feel like you have many small, insignificant samples of attack rolls instead of one large, significant sample that composes your character's entire career.

And I should probably note, I don't actually like CharOp. I think they focus with monomaniacal zeal on single aspects of a character (like maximizing damage, or AC, but never balancing both), because that lets them make better comparisons. And while they're great with numbers, they tend to be not so great with words.

Occasionally that means its fun to poke at them, I had a good time pointing out to everyone that their allegedly objective, inarguable interpretation of the flight rules allowed for floating rhinoceri, but questionable rules interpretations do limit the usefulness of some of their work.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

So, you avoid combat advantage, weapon expertise, weapon proficiency bonus, high main stat because "odds are meaningless"? You can't have both at the same time. Either you avoid things that improve your odds because they are "meaningless" or you see value in the odds. Which is it?

see again you guys try this all or nothing thing...

I take combat advantage when I can, but if I don't have it I don't flip... I take weapon expertise if it is what I am looking for, but not with every character, I do generaly only use weapons I am proficiency in, and I almost always start with a 16 in my prime stat and up I up it more often then not...

Why would I HAVE to ovide these things? Oh becuse it is all or nothing.

see this is the diffrence between optimized and not... I play for the fun of it. I have even played a Dwarf fighter that started with a 15 str and weilded an AXE... and at level 16 I did not have expertise... my two at wills where Duil strike, and the invgrating at will... I fought with 2 war axes. and wore leather armor

edit: I also multi into cleric for some wisdom attacks

 

[Cadfan]

GM- he's fixating on your constant use of the word "meaningless." He's saying that if you believe that the odds are "meaningless" you wouldn't spend time pursuing better odds.

Essentially he's reading your very all or nothing language, and taking you at face value.

As for what you "have" to do... You don't "have" to do anything. You can play however you want. But when you tell me that the odds are "meaningless" because what matters is results, I'm going to constantly point out that the results are dictated by the odds, and that there's no black box between "odds going in" and "results coming out" that makes the former suddenly irrelevant. Play how you like, but don't try to tell me that the math of the game doesn't affect your experience at the table. Obviously it does.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

sure strike is the best at will to get rid of a single minion with least risk to harm yourself...

and careful attack is the worst at will, because it compares to twin strike and is strictly worse.

About the math: 30 rolls... the minimum to apply statistics. Lesser number of rolls and all you remember are the few hits with high damage... how you got there doesn´t matter...

 

[WalterKovacs]

Hiring freelance authors has resulted in far less than stellar Essentials articles for Dragon Magazine, so yes, I would reason that this is not working out for the publication.

There is some subpar (in your opinion) work ... therefore the entire venture is a failure. Goodbye baby, we need to get rid of this bathwater ASAP.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

GM- he's fixating on your constant use of the word "meaningless." He's saying that if you believe that the odds are "meaningless" you wouldn't spend time pursuing better odds.

the odds are only meaningless in the aftermath...AKA you have double my chance to win...but I win more then twice as much as you...how does it make you feel better that you had better chances???

As for what you "have" to do... You don't "have" to do anything. You can play however you want. But when you tell me that the odds are "meaningless" because what matters is results, I'm going to constantly point out that the results are dictated by the odds, and that there's no black box between "odds going in" and "results coming out" that makes the former suddenly irrelevant. Play how you like, but don't try to tell me that the math of the game doesn't affect your experience at the table. Obviously it does.[/QUOTE]

but you are saying X at will is better then Y...becuse on avragre X does 1.8 dpr better...

keep in mind a sure strike hits more often for less damage, the melee basic hits less often for more damage... so they are diffrent.

I do wish the power was slightly diffrent, but there are times a fighter might want that power...

 

[Garthanos]

sure strike is the best at will to get rid of a single minion with least risk to harm yourself...

Right it has a "very narrow" window of usefulness and recommending it with out serious explanation of that kind of thing is irresponsible... plus placing much importance on "least harm to yourself" ... is not necessarily what you want to encourage in somebody learning.. the archetype is a defender.
You want to make sure you don't have an ally like a striker helping you.. because you are defending yourself so much better than you are defending him allowing the combat advantage may be the better option ... even if you are risking more harm to yourself it is a team game now.

and careful attack is the worst at will, because it compares to twin strike and is strictly worse.

Yup but sure strike has no reason to be compared to it.... unless one is building a hybrid or multiclass character.

 

[Cadfan]

It should also be noted that, if your goal is killing minions, Cleave is probably a better choice.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Ok, so its the worst for the fighter. I actually agree.

Team game... i allow them to hit me better is not what i think is a good idea in a team game sry. I rather push him aways from my mate or punish him when he attacks my teammate.
My damage output raises to striker level, when i am not beeing attacked. the striker also needs to be hit sometimes or you are doing your job for just one encounter per day and you are becoming a liability for your team. AKA as healing sponge.

AC of strikers is 16 at least at lvl 1. Fighters AC with shield is 19. And i am not willing to use brash strike to get back to a lower overall defense than i would have with a great weapon. I would only using it on a two handed weapon build where i don´t really care about defense.

Your playstyle can be different, but don´t tell new players it is a good idea to be easier to be hit as defender...

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It should also be noted that, if your goal is killing minions, Cleave is probably a better choice.

I spoke explicitely of a single minion. So your comment is actually wrong.