Rith the Wanderer
First Post
Saying that an 18 in your main attack stat is completely necessary to not lose is an exaggeration, but it is much more useful than it was in 3e. Yeah, you gain half your level to attacks, but enemies gain their level to defenses. Go through the MM and calculate what a character with an who started with an 18 and put points in it whenever possible, items of that monsters level, proficiency bonus if applicable, and add half the monsters level rounding down. This gives you about a 10 or 11 to hit, plus or minus a couple points depending on what defenses you'll be attacking (will defense will usually have a better chance, AC on soldiers and Fort on brutes will almost always have less).
If you did this with a 3e fighter looking at it's first or second attacks, you'd have at least 90%, probably a 100%. It would probably end up around 60% total over all four attacks, but that would be because the last one would always miss. The difference is your still doing damage every turn, where in 4e your not, you've just got the one attack and you better hit with it.
Having those two less points means a 5% higher miss chance for the rest of your characters career. This is almost never worth whatever you would put those 5 point buy points into. It is much more likely that it would be worth those extra 7 points if you are doing it organically (no race bonus) especially considering you've already spent a good amount just to get to the 16.
If you did this with a 3e fighter looking at it's first or second attacks, you'd have at least 90%, probably a 100%. It would probably end up around 60% total over all four attacks, but that would be because the last one would always miss. The difference is your still doing damage every turn, where in 4e your not, you've just got the one attack and you better hit with it.
Having those two less points means a 5% higher miss chance for the rest of your characters career. This is almost never worth whatever you would put those 5 point buy points into. It is much more likely that it would be worth those extra 7 points if you are doing it organically (no race bonus) especially considering you've already spent a good amount just to get to the 16.