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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 3748497" data-attributes="member: 710">That's yet another level of complexity. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Average Damage Per Round is a good approximation for mx+b, but if we now begin to look closer, we get to see that it's even more complicated.Attack Bonus clearly mostly affects Attack Power, but in D&D (thanks to trip, sunder and disarm for example) it can also affect your Staying Power (because you reduce the ability of an enemy to deal damage to you, just like a high AC does). But you give up Attack Power.Spells are also strange in this manner: As was pointed out in the first post, you can take a wizard out of a fight even if you never deal damage to him - the amount of spells cast per day limits is part of his staying power. So we have abilities that might help our staying power (like a defensive spell), but also reduce it. An we have offensive abilities that reduce the staying power, too. But that's not really _that_ important, unless you really want to make a perfectly balanced game system. The important part is that you have to consider the rate of advancement of the base numbers that are used. Which means, attack bonus and caster level on the Attack Power side, and hit points, AC, saves and spells per day. That is a good point, too. But the current D&D style doesn't fit a slower advancement at higher levels (to counter the quadratic improvement, you would need to use a quadratic rate of XP cost, meaning level 2 might cost 1.000 XP, Level 3 4.000 XP, Level 4 9.000 XP and so on). Part of the fun of the game is that the character improves regularly. Unfortunately, in D&D, these improvements come in big chunks (levels), which means if you delay getting another "chunk of improvement", you take out some of the fun. (Though that's not bad for everybody, because many might have enough fun playing their characters as he is and enjoying the stories and challenges.) So, If you (and your group) likes this, this might be a very good house rule for your Advancement XP chart. Non-level based games have it a bit easier here. You can purchase each advancement individually, so you can always improve a little bit (even if it is nothing compared to D&D, it feels like advancement and thus like a reward.) I have mostly experience with Shadowrun as a non-level based game, and it takes basically forever to change your character notably. If you're really lucky, you get 10 Karma points at the end of a longer session or adventure, and you might be able to advance two skills or maybe a weak attribute with that.But it's not that bad, because you also got a lot of money you can throw at new toys (read: better weapons, cyberware and maybe some magical equipment. Or just improve your lifestyle!). It doesn't really change your character _that_ much (not compared to magical items), but all these improvements still feel like something, even if they pale compared to the options and abilities you gain in D&D for a level. But it doesn't matter, because there is a reward, and you get it now, not after 5 adventures.</blockquote>

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