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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Obryn" data-source="post: 6020586" data-attributes="member: 11821">Yes, which kind of illustrates the problem in taking the raw numbers in isolation.In 1e, a starting Fighter has ... we'll call it 8 hit points for average of a d10, +2 for Constitution.  His AC will be 3, we'll say, for Splint + Shield.  A Goblin will have d8-1 hit points, or an average of 3.5.  He'll take 4.  His AC is 6.  The goblin needs an 18 to hit the Fighter.  The Fighter needs at worst a 14; if he has an attack bonus from Strength or there's specialization, it's lower.  We'll give him a 17, so he needs a 13 to hit and deals 1d8+1 with his sword.A goblin's average damage is 3.5.  He has a 15% chance of hitting, for a DPR of just above 0.5 hit points.  On average the Fighter will last 16 rounds, though with the nature of a d20, it's swingy.  On the other hand, the Fighter hits 40% of the time for an average of 5.5 damage, or 2.2 DPR.  The goblin will probably last 2 rounds on average.Now, let's take a typical 4e Fighter vs. a 4e Lvl 1 Goblin Cutthroat.  The Fighter let's say has a hammer & shield, and a Con of 16.  This gives him 31 HP.  His AC is ... let's call it 19 for Scale + Large Shield, the best he can buy.  It should be high - he's a defender.  Before feats, he has a +6 to-hit, and deals 1d10+4 damage.The Goblin has a +6 attack bonus, so hits on 13+.  Without combat advantage (hard to get one on one) he deals 1d6+5 damage.  This gives him a 3.4 DPR.  The Fighter will last somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 rounds - less, actually, than a decently-equipped 1e Fighter.  The Fighter hits the goblin's 15 AC on a 9, or 60% of the time.  This gives him a DPR of 5.7.  With the Goblin's 30 hit points, it will take him north of 6 rounds, on average, to kill the goblin if all he uses are basic attacks or most at-wills.  Throwing in an Encounter or Daily changes this, naturally, but only by a round or two.So yeah.  The math says the 4e fighter's a more even match for a simple level 1 goblin. <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=":)" />-O</blockquote>

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