General Discussion

[cidbahamut]

Re: D&D

enchanted equipment

Gotcha.

I thought maybe the campaign was letting you start using 5d6 for your ability scores or something.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: D&D

Nah. 4d6 drop the lowest. Re-roll 1's.

[Armando]

Re: D&D

Hey Yyg, I don't suppose there's any way I could persuade you into letting me change my level 1 feat at some point, is there? I picked it not knowing it didn't stack with other people's shield AC, or that I couldn't use heavy shields.

[Mezlo]

Re: D&D

He should let you repick since you're still learning and it won't really affect the storyline thus far.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: D&D

Its alright with me. Once you guys ding level 2, there will be no adjusting.

[Mezlo]

Re: D&D

I'm still picking out my skills... I think I have them finalized in Pathfinder now...

[Firewind]

Re: D&D

While Adding more HD does decrease your chances of hitting drastically high numbers, it also increases your floor. With 10d10 you guarantee yourself no less than a 10 while 1d100 poses a threat of 10>.

This is why having good modifiers and plusses to attack and damage rolls is really nice. It boosts your floor further and in the case of damage it allows you to go over the max damage if you roll it. Having plusses to hit stuff is always nice too since each plus is essentially negating a point of the enemy's AC.

A Ranger with a +5 Longbow for example is always going to be doing at least 6 damage her hit before Damage Reduction effects purely due to the weapon enchantment bonus. Said Ranger will also be able to hit for 13 with a maxed out damage roll for an attack which is a lot nicer than the 8 max damage without a positive mod. Essentially that +5 made that Ranger's damage per hit go from 1-8 to 6-13 which is a MASSIVE difference, especially when you factor in buffs, full attacks, class abilities that boost damage, crits etc. It also brings down the damage range from 8 to 7 which is also a nice thing.

Said Ranger is also getting at least +5 to hit so the attack rolls are also buffed accordingly. Let's say this Ranger is 16th level. His BAB would be +16/+11/+6/+1. With the +5 bow however it's essentially going to mean a Ranger is guaranteed 22/17/12/7 for each roll in a full attack and could potentially end up with rolls of 42/37/22/27 assuming natural 20's for each roll before buffs. While there are far more variables that go into making attack rolls, knowledge of an enemy's relevant defence stat does mean than you can easily work out the probability of your attacks hitting a target, and also you can work out your average damage and if it's worth say, using up one of your high level spells slots to finish off someone when a lower level spell will finish them off.

Great example from a campaign I've played is a Wizard wasting a Disintegrate spell on a Lich whom was only at 20 HP. He could have saved that spell and used a lower level spell that would average 20 damage on a hit and used that instead to conserve resources.

It's also why having good skill modifiers is important since a lot of the time you can end up with skill mods high enough to make it so the only reason you roll on a skill check is to check for a 1 or 20 if the circumstances could lead to it failing.

Basically a good player squeezes every last circumstantial bonus they can get from the DM because every plus counts

[Armando]

Re: D&D

@Firewind: That's why I'm gonna take Power Attack at level 2. I'll take 2 damage over -5% hit rate in almost every situation. If my hit rate is already so low that another -5% is an issue I might as well just use Total Defense and not bother putting myself in harm's way.

Its alright with me. Once you guys ding level 2, there will be no adjusting.

Can I ditch my shield and pick a two-handed weapon too or is that a bit too retroactive? Without Saving Shield I'm not all that interested in shields at all. I could just not use mine and use the morningstar two-handed but then I'd rather be using a reach weapon to keep things away from me. If we'll reach a town soon I'll just wait though.

[Firewind]

Re: D&D

Power Attack is really nice at later levels where BAB outscales AC. At ealier levels it really depends but it's required anyway for any melee class since it does unlock a lot of very nice feats.

It's actually one reason why I constantly asked Ygg who was within 30ft even though my Rogue's shortbow range is 60ft. Point Blank Shot gives me +1 to hit on anyone within 30ft which is very nice for low level Rogues since their BAB is +0 at 1st level and +1 at 2nd. it also lets me apply Sneak Attack on ranged damage if they're within 30ft and are flat footed or otherwise can't apply their dex to AC.

[Armando]

Re: D&D

At ealier levels it really depends

By my math my hit rate would have to be pretty terrible for Power Attack not to be a net gain. If I use my 1d8 Morningstar (average 4.5 damage) two-handed I'd get 7.5 damage on average. Power Attack would add another 3 damage, which is a 40% increase. To break even, the -5% hit rate has to drop my hit rate to 71.4% of its original value (0.714 * 1.4 = 1). I'd need a hit rate of 15% or lower before Power Attack for the penalty to outweigh the benefit (10/15 = 66.67%) Like I said, at that point I'm better off using Total Defense. Plus, if I'm at 5% my hit rate can't get any worse, so there's only 2 AC values (the ones for 10% and 15% HR) where Power Attack is disadvantageous.

If I'm using it one-handed then the threshold goes up to 20% Hit Rate instead of 15%. Still a pretty good deal though!

[Yygdrasil]

Re: D&D

There's a special place in hell reserved for you Armando... Ready... Set...

Let f be the function given by f(x)= e^(-2x^2) (read as e raised to the negative 2 x squared)

1.) Find the first four non-zero terms as well as the general term of the power series for f(x) about x=0.

2.) Find the interval of convergence of the power series for f(x) about x = 0. Show the analysis that leads to your conclusion.

3.) Let g be the function given by the sum of the first four nonzero terms of the power series for f(x) about x=0. Show that l f(x) - g(x) l < 0.02 for -0.6 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 0.6.

... Go!

---------- Post added at 08:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:59 PM ----------

I'll give you the answer if you can't solve it by Saturday.

[Armando]

Re: D&amp;D

To be clear: you're only squaring the x, right? Or did you mean to square the entire (-2x) term? Either way I have to go to the gym now but I might take a stab at it when I come back.

There's a special place in hell reserved for you Armando

Don't hate me, hate the dude that made Power Attack so good =P

[Yygdrasil]

Re: D&amp;D

(read as e raised to the negative 2 x squared)

e raised to the -2x squared

[Taskmage]

Re: D&amp;D

-2x² or (-2x)²? There's a big difference. 6x² of difference.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: D&amp;D

e^(-2x^2)