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The final word on DPR, feats and class balance
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<blockquote data-quote="Sacrosanct" data-source="post: 7438805" data-attributes="member: 15700"><p>I'll be honest. I never agreed with the hard line "DPR is king" or comments like, "The hard minmaxing fact remains: offense is the best defense. Removing the foe's hit points is the goal of combat. If you play a fighter or other martial your primary job is this and nothing but this...Everything else is just words." anyway.</p><p></p><p>It's not true. Often, yes, but often, no it's not. For one, a fighter's job is whatever you want it to be, which can be damage dealer, but can also be tank. A tank role is not uncommon to the gaming community, and it's job is very much not "do as much damage and nothing but damage."</p><p></p><p>Secondly, that statement is only true if you reset all your resources after every encounter. And as we all know, that doesn't happen. To put it in simple terms:</p><p></p><p>If you have 20 HP and do 5 hp of damage every round, and your opponent has 20 HP and does 5 hp every round and you always win initiative, then:</p><p></p><p>scenario 1:</p><p>you increase your damage by 3, so it takes you 3 rounds to kill your opponent, suffering 10 hp yourself (since it only gets you twice because your third attack goes before it's third attack.). You end the battle with 10 HP remaining</p><p></p><p>scenario 2:</p><p>you reduce the damage it inflicts by 3. So it takes you 4 rounds to kill your opponent, and it is able to hit you 3 times for 6 total points. It takes an extra round, but you end the encounter with 14 HP;</p><p></p><p></p><p>Obviously defense is the better option here. I've made this argument every time I see or hear someone say offense is always the best no questions. because it's not. And I wish people would stop making it.</p><p></p><p></p><p>*For an added bonus, "removing the foe's HP is the goal of combat" is also not true, and speaks volumes of the narrow point of view one has making that argument. The point of combat is to overcome your opponents as unscathed as possible. Many times that's removing their HP. Many times it's taking them out in other ways, like sleep, or control, or whatever. And other times it's bypassing the encounter completely. </p><p></p><p>The root of the problem as I see it, is that people making those sorts of arguments view D&D like a computerized combat sim, where it's just one set of math against another, and are either unable, or unwilling, to realize how in a game limited only by imagination, there are other ways D&D is played.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sacrosanct, post: 7438805, member: 15700"] I'll be honest. I never agreed with the hard line "DPR is king" or comments like, "The hard minmaxing fact remains: offense is the best defense. Removing the foe's hit points is the goal of combat. If you play a fighter or other martial your primary job is this and nothing but this...Everything else is just words." anyway. It's not true. Often, yes, but often, no it's not. For one, a fighter's job is whatever you want it to be, which can be damage dealer, but can also be tank. A tank role is not uncommon to the gaming community, and it's job is very much not "do as much damage and nothing but damage." Secondly, that statement is only true if you reset all your resources after every encounter. And as we all know, that doesn't happen. To put it in simple terms: If you have 20 HP and do 5 hp of damage every round, and your opponent has 20 HP and does 5 hp every round and you always win initiative, then: scenario 1: you increase your damage by 3, so it takes you 3 rounds to kill your opponent, suffering 10 hp yourself (since it only gets you twice because your third attack goes before it's third attack.). You end the battle with 10 HP remaining scenario 2: you reduce the damage it inflicts by 3. So it takes you 4 rounds to kill your opponent, and it is able to hit you 3 times for 6 total points. It takes an extra round, but you end the encounter with 14 HP; Obviously defense is the better option here. I've made this argument every time I see or hear someone say offense is always the best no questions. because it's not. And I wish people would stop making it. *For an added bonus, "removing the foe's HP is the goal of combat" is also not true, and speaks volumes of the narrow point of view one has making that argument. The point of combat is to overcome your opponents as unscathed as possible. Many times that's removing their HP. Many times it's taking them out in other ways, like sleep, or control, or whatever. And other times it's bypassing the encounter completely. The root of the problem as I see it, is that people making those sorts of arguments view D&D like a computerized combat sim, where it's just one set of math against another, and are either unable, or unwilling, to realize how in a game limited only by imagination, there are other ways D&D is played. [/QUOTE]
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