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The Quadratic Problem—Speculations on 4e
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<blockquote data-quote="mmadsen" data-source="post: 3751509" data-attributes="member: 1645"><p>I think it's beyond dispute that the game is designed to have an exponential (2[sup]x[/sup]) power progression; that's what the EL system says.</p><p></p><p>For "brutes" like Fighters, power is a function of four things: to-hit probability, damage, avoid-hit probability, and hit points.</p><p></p><p>Without better equipment, a Fighter improves his to-hit probability by a factor of approximately 1.1, from level to level. It depends on the target, but if he had a 50-percent chance of hitting, he will have a 55-percent chance of hitting after adding a level. His damage likely won't increase at all (factor of 1.0). His probability of avoiding a hit also won't increase at all (factor of 1.0). His hit points, on the other hand, will increase dramatically at lower levels, then slowly at higher levels. That is, hit points increase linearly, but levels imply an exponential increase. Hit points improve by a factor of 2, 1.5, 1.33, 1.2, and so on, when they should just keep doubling -- if our goal is to maintain an exponential increase in power, and the other factors aren't already increasing at an exponential rate.</p><p></p><p>Of course, any combination of factors multiplying out to 2.0 meets our goal, so we could simply double hit points and improve nothing else per level, or improve all four qualities by a factor of 1.2 per level, or double damage per level and improve nothing else, or improve to-hit (BAB) and avoid-hit (AC) probabilities by a factor of 1.4 per level (+4 or so) and improve nothing else, or...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mmadsen, post: 3751509, member: 1645"] I think it's beyond dispute that the game is designed to have an exponential (2[sup]x[/sup]) power progression; that's what the EL system says. For "brutes" like Fighters, power is a function of four things: to-hit probability, damage, avoid-hit probability, and hit points. Without better equipment, a Fighter improves his to-hit probability by a factor of approximately 1.1, from level to level. It depends on the target, but if he had a 50-percent chance of hitting, he will have a 55-percent chance of hitting after adding a level. His damage likely won't increase at all (factor of 1.0). His probability of avoiding a hit also won't increase at all (factor of 1.0). His hit points, on the other hand, will increase dramatically at lower levels, then slowly at higher levels. That is, hit points increase linearly, but levels imply an exponential increase. Hit points improve by a factor of 2, 1.5, 1.33, 1.2, and so on, when they should just keep doubling -- if our goal is to maintain an exponential increase in power, and the other factors aren't already increasing at an exponential rate. Of course, any combination of factors multiplying out to 2.0 meets our goal, so we could simply double hit points and improve nothing else per level, or improve all four qualities by a factor of 1.2 per level, or double damage per level and improve nothing else, or improve to-hit (BAB) and avoid-hit (AC) probabilities by a factor of 1.4 per level (+4 or so) and improve nothing else, or... [/QUOTE]
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