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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="boredgremlin" data-source="post: 2211424" data-attributes="member: 31646">Those systems all lower the threat range of weapons to either 20 or 19-20. Most of them either ditch improved crit altogether or make it only improve the crit by 1 pt.  1) Your forgetting that Armor has a high DR. 2) The "average warrior" is not a 20 STR half orc barbarian. But even if so. power attack penalizes the to hit so its usually not that great an idea, it also makes confirming crits a lot less likely so its an even worse idea in this system then normal. Power attack with a 2 handed weapon does double damage not triple. So even taking away his entire +8 BAB only gives him +16 damage. For 2d6+7 (str)+16 full penalty. for 25 to 37. Mean. But, an 8th level character probably has full plate (8 DR or so). A hit might still kill the fighter. 3) Your to hit sucks. 8 BAB, -8 (+0 BAB), Str +7 ( though i think you cant count your STR bonus to hit when using power attack), charge +9. (We arent figuring magic. Then i just take fortification armor and no longer worry at all about your criticals), weapon focus +10. Fighters AC bonus under that system is usually +6 at that level AC 16, non magic large shield AC 18,  dodge feat AC 19, dex +1 AC 20. So you only have a 50% chance to hit. Less to critical because you also have to confirm. Now any smart fighter uses full expertise to defense for fighting a raging barbarian and waits for his rage to wear off. Now the AC is 25. So you only have a 25% chance to hit and again rather less to actually confirm a critical. These numbers drop a further 15% once your rage ends. 4) The barbarians AC is probably also +6 since he is a warrior and thats the best one the system gives at that level. AC 16, dex +2 AC 18, maybe dodge AC 19. But you charged AC 17. The fighters BAB is +8 base, +4 strength (+12), weapon focus +1 (+13). Meaning the fighter only needs a 7. Or a 65% chance to hit. That compares rather favorably to your 25% dont you think? The damage is less but the amount of hits equals out especially with the lower DR of the barbarian because of his light armor. 5) what this all means is that a lower level character with VP/WP has more HP. Because the WP usually adds to VP. A higher level character has potentially less HP because of criticals. This adds survivability at low levels, keeps it fairly even at mid levels, and makes all combat still dangerous at high levels. That suits some DM's styles and not others. 6) and totally off topic but the smart fighter still usually wastes the smelly barbarian if he shows a little patience.</blockquote>

Verification