Reference Day for ability comparisons

[Aaron Underhand]

Prompted by this thread

"Highest consistent, plausible DPR possible "

I thought I would share with the board the "Reference Day" which I use for comparisons of builds for characters I'm actually planning to play.

Note this reference day is based on DMG and is supposed to be campaign and DM independent - we all know how variable things can be, so I tried to come up with something which would test/stretch every aspect of the game and allow me to look carefully at what I would have in play.

Second disclaimer - I'm a huge spreadsheet nerd, my current analysis spreadsheet for an existing character has 22 separate tabs on it...

So the reference day:

Start - assume just completed long rest


Exploration encounter - long term travel, searching, exploring
Combat encounter (surprised) 5 rounds
Combat encounter 5 rounds

Short rest


Combat encounter 5 rounds
Combat encounter (surprised) 5 rounds
Exploration/Social encounter - both relocation and social interaction

Short rest


Combat encounter 5 rounds
Social encounter - reporting back, justifying actions, obtaining rewards

For each encounter I assume 5 rounds plus an "aftermath" to calculate healing and status removals. For each turn I look at action/bonus and possible reactions.

Bottom line I assume 25 rounds of combat a day, so a potential maximum of 75 casts or attacks in a combat environment. Plus 3 extended opportunities to use actions in social or exploration context. I try to balance resource use across all 8 encounters, and thus know in any encounter my "budget" for actions.

This is why when I'm working out DRP I'm looking at 25 rounds of combat.

My baseline target "competitive" DPR for a real game is a linear interpolation of 10 at first level to 60 points at 20th level of effective damage (Average damage adjusted for expected hit probability). Most of my builds are below this until about level 5...


Interested in others' thoughts on this

edited for typos

[MrStabby]

As a thought aid... Yeah, use it if you like.

Unfortunately DPR spreadsheets are almost worthless for evaluating how 80% of the game works.

I wouldn't use a reference day for example, because deviations from the average are so important. Use 7 different days. One average. One short. one long. One average but with unevenly spaced rests. One with no opportunity for short rests. One short and with foreknowledge it will be short so can tailor resource expenditures to forseen encounters. One long with an unexpected night attack during a rest at end of the day.