I'm working on creating a striker class for my home brew. Most striker classes have bonus damage dice they can use to enhance the amount of damage they do, but the avenger instead has a class feature which virtually guarrantees that the character will hit (the character gets to roll twice at an average 50% chance to hit).
Here's what I was thinking:
The new striker class has a class feature called "Target Lock."
The character spends a minor action to declare a lock on a target. The target lock starts at 10. Each time the character rolls to attack the target & the number on the d20 is higher than her current lock, the lock number gets set to the higher number.
Before the character rolls to make an attack, the character may choose to substitute the target lock number for her roll. If she does, the lock resets to 10.
Input?
So, if I roll a critical hit, then on my next attack, I'm guaranteed a second critical hit?
yes, which should result in less crits than an avenger gets (since the second crit is more likely to be wasted due to target death)
Ok, let’s see if that’s a bad thing.
Here’s a 1st level warlock. Let’s assume a 50% hit rate on an at will which does 1d8 points of damage (4.5 average) & he’s using a +1 implement (+1d6 damage on a crit).
The warlock makes 20 attacks, 10 of which miss. That leaves us with 10 successful attacks, one of which is a crit. That means the warlock did (4.5 power damage + 3.5 curse damage) x 9 + (8 power damage + 3.5 curse damage + 3.5 bonus crit damage) = 87 points of damage over the course of 20 attacks.
With the suggested mechanics for the target lock, let’s assume that a target lock of 10 automatically hits, so what the player is really rolling for is to see if she crits. Over the course of 20 attacks, the character should crit once, which means that the target lock could grant the character one additional automatic crit.
Assuming the character is using an at-will which does 1d8 points of damage (4.5 average) & he’s using a +1 implement (+1d6 damage on a crit)...
The character did (4.5 power damage x 18) + (8 power damage + 3.5 bonus crit damage) x 2 = 104 points of damage over the course of 20 attacks.
Huh, if the character never crits, he’ll do (4.5 power damage x 20) = 90 points of damage over the course of 20 attacks, which is very close to what the warlock did.
What if we somehow cut out crits? (4.5 * 19) + (8 + 3.5) = 97 damage… k, so even one crit blows the curve. Any suggestions?
Ok, let’s see if that’s a bad thing.
Here’s a 1st level warlock. Let’s assume a 50% hit rate on an at will which does 1d8 points of damage (4.5 average) & he’s using a +1 implement (+1d6 damage on a crit).
The warlock makes 20 attacks, 10 of which miss. That leaves us with 10 successful attacks, one of which is a crit. That means the warlock did (4.5 power damage + 3.5 curse damage) x 9 + (8 power damage + 3.5 curse damage + 3.5 bonus crit damage) = 87 points of damage over the course of 20 attacks.
With the suggested mechanics for the target lock, let’s assume that a target lock of 10 automatically hits, so what the player is really rolling for is to see if she crits. Over the course of 20 attacks, the character should crit once, which means that the target lock could grant the character one additional automatic crit.Assuming the character is using an at-will which does 1d8 points of damage (4.5 average) & he’s using a +1 implement (+1d6 damage on a crit)...
The character did (4.5 power damage x 18) + (8 power damage + 3.5 bonus crit damage) x 2 = 104 points of damage over the course of 20 attacks.
Huh, if the character never crits, he’ll do (4.5 power damage x 20) = 90 points of damage over the course of 20 attacks, which is very close to what the warlock did.
What if we somehow cut out crits? (4.5 * 19) + (8 + 3.5) = 97 damage… k, so even one crit blows the curve. Any suggestions?
That would probably do it. You're more accurate than an avenger, but the avenger has crit-fishing going for them. Amplifies the difference.
What it'd also mean, practically speaking, is that this character never misses with Encounter or Daily powers, because you'd always get a lock in before you'd trigger one.
Even worse; it means she can always wait for a crit-lock before triggering a Daily, so expect at least half of her dailies to crit.
I doubt you'll ever be able to balance that one when the character starts multiclassing, even if it's moderately possible to balance the class itself.
Don't underestimate the awesome power of knowing what you'll roll before you pick the power you use.
Here's a better mechanic to simulate the "target lock".
Every time you attack your "chosen target", you get a cumulative +1 if your miss or +2 if you hit to your attack rolls against it for the rest of the combat (or until it dies). This simulates the idea that you're analyzing and then exploiting your opponent's weakenesses in his defense with every attack. Thematically, this would fit better if the class's attacks mostly all targeted the same defense.
Letting someone take ten every round in combat could become unbalanced if you get someone that focuses purely on their +to Hit. At 1st level with a 20 attack stat and implement expertise, you've got a +6 to hit, with as a 16 for 'taking ten' hits every standard 1st level monster and most 2nd and 3rd. Especially if they can target Will.
Perhaps it ought not be usable simultaniously. Or even not reset to ten, but to the last attack rolled. Since you don't roll when using Target Lock, it sets to 0 and you must roll again?
I'm actually not worried about garaunteeing that the character gets a 100% hit rate.
Statistically speaking, avengers get 2 attacks against their oath of enmity target. Given an average of 50% chance to hit x 2 tries = 100% success rate.
If it's good enough for WotC, it's good enough for me
Besides, if my assumptions were correct, it does end up donig more damage than a warlock, but not too terribly much more (although the crit thing still bothers me).
What if I initially set the lock at 5?
Statistically speaking, avengers get 2 attacks against their oath of enmity target. Given an average of 50% chance to hit x 2 tries = 100% success rate.
?
No. No. Just... No.
50% with two tries gives you 75% chance to hit.
The chances of both attacks missing is 50% * 50%, which is 25%. Which means the chance of at least one hit is 75%.
(Otherwise things would get nasty when the Avenger could roll three times. D'you think he'd hit 150% of the time?)
No. No. Just... No.
50% with two tries gives you 75% chance to hit.
The chances of both attacks missing is 50% * 50%, which is 25%. Which means the chance of at least one hit is 75%.
(Otherwise things would get nasty when the Avenger could roll three times. D'you think he'd hit 150% of the time?)
Lol, sorry. I guess my player's avenger lulled me into the mistake. I swear that guy never misses his oath of enmity target!
Anyway, I'm leaning towards the following for this new class feature:
"Spend a minor action to declare a lock on a target. The target lock starts at 5. Each time you roll to attack the target & the natural number on the d20 is higher than your current lock, the lock number gets set to the higher number. Before you make an attack roll, you may choose to substitute the lock for the attack roll. If you do, the lock is reset to 5. Also, if you score a critical hit on the target, the lock is reset to 5.
You may lock on only one target at a time. If you declare a lock on a new target, you lose your lock on the earlier target."
Instead of resetting to 5 on a crit, how about the next attack automatically hits, but does not crit? For a feat you could get half the effect of a crit (setting all dice to Brutal 50%).
Don't underestimate the awesome power of knowing what you'll roll before you pick the power you use.
Very good point
Locking it to the same attack type might work
if you crit an at-will you can auto crit an at-will
if you crit an encounter you can auto crit an encounter or at-will
if you crit a daily you can auto crit an daily, encounter or at-will
auto crit dailies still rock, but you can't spam them.
"Spend a minor action to declare a lock on a target. You may lock on only one target at a time. If you declare a lock on a new target, you lose your lock on the earlier target.
The target lock starts at 5 at the beginning of the encounter. Each time you roll to attack the locked target, you may choose to replace the lock number with the natural number on the d20. The lock number remains set until the end of the encounter or until you use the lock.
Before you make an attack roll, you may choose to substitute the lock number for the attack roll. If you do, the lock is reset to 5. Attacks using the lock number cannot be critical strikes."
the reason I decided to do away with lock-attacks being crits is because according to my math (see earlier post), even one crit puts the lock-striker's damage about 10 points above the warlock's damage (which I was using as my model). This solution doesn't do away with the possibility of crits, but it does reduce the lock-striker's accuracy from 100% to a more manageable rate. That should bring the lock-striker more into a comparable range with the warlock.
Thanks for all the help!