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#1 doodle Jun 06, 2007 12:22:09

This post will try to blend the "fighter sucks", "CodZilla is doom", "splatbooks introduce power creep", and similar theories all into one thread. It isn't an easily quotable theory like the Stormwind Fallacy, but then I couldn't think of a synonym for fallacy. We start with the following assumptions (most of which are straight out of the DMG): 1) The game of DnD is structured around 4 encounters a day. 2) The most common type of encounter is combat 3) The game assumes a 4 member party made up of the iconic melee, healer, arcane caster, skill monkey. We will also assume that comparisons between classes are done both in terms of single class vs monster as well as single classes role in a party. We start with one assumed fact: an encounter cannot end in less than 1 round (in other words I am ignoring any ability classes have to bypass encounters - we're adventurers after all). In Core, a caster can generally end an encounter in 1 round. Using a wizard as an example, at level 10 they have 5th level save or die spells and will usually have the Spell Focus feat. With 22 or 24 in their casting stat, the DC for these save or die spells will be 22 or higher depending on items. As long as the caster has 2 of these spells (one fort save, one will save Hold Monster and Baleful Polymorph are examples) they will generally kill most CR 10 monsters in a single round (Fire Giant as an example - remember Core only so that includes core only monsters). There is not much SR at this level, and weak saves are at best +12 (barbed devil) with most in the +8 to +10 category (above listed fire giant). As the caster has intelligence and knowledge skills, I think it is reasonable to assume that they will have at least one spell prepared that targets each of the saves and knows which to use against which creature. In one round, using a save or die spell, a 10th level caster should have at least a 75% chance of killing a CR10 creature. Even using damaging spells (evocation) the ability to quicken a 1st level spell and then follow-up with a damaging spell and a rod of maximize (not unreasonable magic for the level), means the caster can do a minimum of 85 damage in a round (60 maximized fireball, 25 magic missile). A fighter, on the other hand, has no chance of killing anything in 1 round. If they are melee specced (and assuming an overall +3 weapon - +1 flaming acidic lets say). The best they can hope for is to charge into battle and hit doing around 30 damage (different builds will do different things, but assume WF, WS, GWF, and Power Attack). The next round, when they can full attack, they can do around 60 damage. An archer specced fighter, with a similar weapon and archery feats (including rapid shot, plus the WS tree) will get off a full attack, and can do in the order of 50 - 60 damage. This is of course, assuming the fighter actually hits. Most CR 10 creatures have over 100 hit points, so it takes the fighter 3 rounds to finish it off. At 20th level this only gets worse. The caster has access to more and better save or Die spells. In Core they will generally have both spell penetration feats and both spell focus feats. His casting stat has increased from 22 or 24 to 32 or 34. The DC for a level 9 save or die spell from a competent core caster will be a minimum of 29 with items and PrCs (ArchMage) able to push this well into the 30's. The SR check will be a minimum of 24 and can increase with items. The iconic Pit Fiend and Balor have a 50% chance (if not more) of dieing in 1 round. Even damaging spells can do a decent amount of damage in 1 round. A quickened, maximized scorching ray + a maximized polar ray will put out 162 damage in 1 round. Here is where the fighter starts to fall off. Compared to level 10, he only gets 1 more damaging feat (GWS) and items (Str enhancers and items enhancers). For our melee fighter assume his weapon is now +1 acidic, flaming, frost, sonic and his strength is in the same range as the casters casting stat. On his charge, he still only does around 40 damage, on a full attack 160 damage. Our archer is in the same boat, but with mighty bows stopping at +4, our Rapid Shotting Friend is now doing 135 damage on a full attack (hey not bad). Against our iconic Pit Fiend or Balor the fighter needs 2-3 rounds (assuming all attacks hit). That last bit, assuming all attack hit, is a big one. Using the weapon we have chosen, the fighter's to hit is: 20BAB +1ws +1gws +1magic +7main stat = 30/25/20/15. our iconic monsters have ACs in the 30's =( In reality only half the attack will hit doubling our kill time to 4 - 6 rounds. Doubling the casters kill time (to account for saves) only increases it to 2 rounds which is 2 -4 rounds more than the fighter. Now lets move on to splat books. If we've already established that a caster can kill an equivalent CR creature in 1 - 2 rounds, does it really matter what a splat book does? If I introduced a twinned, energy admixtured, maximized, quickened, arcane thesis'd scorching ray (which I think does around 400 damage) does it really matter? It still takes 1 round. The same with the plethora of SR eliminating, save increasing, feats / spells / items. We are still at 1 round to kill. At BEST the splatbook caster takes 1 round less to kill an equivalent CR monster (1 round versus 2 rounds). Now lets look at the fighter. Suddenly we have weapon style feats, Melee Weapon Mastery, Weapon Supremacy, etc. Using our same melee fighter above, if I just add 5 feats (which he has room for): improved bull rush, shock trooper, leap attack, melee weapon mastery, and weapon supremacy. I'm suddenly doing 122 damage and am guaranteed to hit anything less than AC43. With a few magic items I can up that charging damage to over 300. With multi-classing I can go even higher. Or I can take dungeon crasher + driving attack and actually bull rush the iconic pit fiend and balor. With splat books, the caster has gone from 1-2 rounds down to 1 round, but the meleer has gone from 4 - 6 rounds down to 2. With splat books, the most powerful characters are more or less just as powerful - you can't kill something in less than 1 round - after a certain point damage, save DC's etc. no longer matter. Conversely my melee character has gotten MUCH closer in power to the caster. At some point, more power means nothing - casters were almost at that point with Core. All splatbooks have done is increase the power of the weaker classes such that they can kill things almost as fast as the stronger classes. Me.