Post by Zyraen on May 3, 2013 20:17:28 GMT 8
It is tempting to think of +2 bonuses and simple 10% increase on a d20 roll, but that is not actually a fair view of the effectiveness of such bonuses.
Consider, if you would hit on an 11+, what is a +2 bonus? It's a 50% chance, increased to 60%. So it is actually a 20% more chance.
But if you hit on a 5+ ie 80%, it only increases by 12.5% (10%/80%). Conversely if you hit on a 17+ ie 20%, it increases by a whopping 50%!
So we see that bonus attacks are basically a diminishing return. The more accurate you are, the less valuable it is, but if facing a tough enemy, it provides relatively huge benefits.
A similar principle applies to penalties. If you need a 11+ to hit and got blinded with -5, you went from 50% to 25%. That's a 50% reduction. And against a tough Boss that you only hit on a 15+ you get a -5, you reduce from 30% to 5%, a huge 83.3% loss.
So what does this mean? Bonuses and penalties both face diminishing effects on one end (almost certain hits) and greater impact at the other end (low hit chance).
For Players, increasing accuracy is more effective against tougher Opponents, and Attack Bonuses and Defence penalties are hugely more effective against them than against easy to hit enemies.
For GMs, consider the level gap between players and Bosses, and if the gap is big refrain from putting too many attack penalties like Darkness etc as it becomes a lot harder. Conversely if the Boss has low defenses, such defense bonuses and using Darkness etc to hide would be arguably more palatable, and this is one way to make a "lower" level Boss stronger, and memorably use terrain to his advantage without making the battle unwinnable.
Consider, if you would hit on an 11+, what is a +2 bonus? It's a 50% chance, increased to 60%. So it is actually a 20% more chance.
But if you hit on a 5+ ie 80%, it only increases by 12.5% (10%/80%). Conversely if you hit on a 17+ ie 20%, it increases by a whopping 50%!
So we see that bonus attacks are basically a diminishing return. The more accurate you are, the less valuable it is, but if facing a tough enemy, it provides relatively huge benefits.
A similar principle applies to penalties. If you need a 11+ to hit and got blinded with -5, you went from 50% to 25%. That's a 50% reduction. And against a tough Boss that you only hit on a 15+ you get a -5, you reduce from 30% to 5%, a huge 83.3% loss.
So what does this mean? Bonuses and penalties both face diminishing effects on one end (almost certain hits) and greater impact at the other end (low hit chance).
For Players, increasing accuracy is more effective against tougher Opponents, and Attack Bonuses and Defence penalties are hugely more effective against them than against easy to hit enemies.
For GMs, consider the level gap between players and Bosses, and if the gap is big refrain from putting too many attack penalties like Darkness etc as it becomes a lot harder. Conversely if the Boss has low defenses, such defense bonuses and using Darkness etc to hide would be arguably more palatable, and this is one way to make a "lower" level Boss stronger, and memorably use terrain to his advantage without making the battle unwinnable.