[PF] Sanity Check? Question About 16th Level Fighters

[Andaer]

Hey all, doing some analysis and collected some data about a regular old fighter's attack bonus and damage at level 16, and I've run into a bit of a weird thing.

People are saying fighters should have a +31ish to hit before power attack. but this article (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary/monsterCreation.html) says the average AC of a CR 16 monster is 31. So does that mean a fighter has, on average, a 100% chance to hit something of their CR? That sounds insane to me, because that's the result for an unoptimized base class.

Is this normal or is my data just bad?

[AvatarVecna]

Hey all, doing some analysis and collected some data about a regular old fighter's attack bonus and damage at level 16, and I've run into a bit of a weird thing.

People are saying fighters should have a +31ish to hit before power attack. but this article (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary/monsterCreation.html) says the average AC of a CR 16 monster is 31. So does that mean a fighter has, on average, a 100% chance to hit something of their CR? That sounds insane to me, because that's the result for an unoptimized base class.

Is this normal or is my data just bad?

That average AC value is probably why people suggest a +31 for your best attack, because that means you have no reason not to take a PA tradeoff. Keep in mind that +31 is your best attack, and your full attack is more like +31/+26/+21/+16; +31 vs AC 31 means you'll hit 95% of the time, whereas +16 vs AC 31 means you'll hit 30% of the time. If you wanna use your PA tradeoff often and still get every hit, you'd do well to pump your to-hit even higher.

[Boggartbae]

Seems normal to me. Melee characters in my games never seem to miss, but most monsters use HP as their primary defensive stat, so even hitting with every attack it takes a while to kill anything.

If it ever becomes an actual issue in game and the fighter is just butchering all the monsters with ease, then consider giving them concealment, or setting up encounters where the fighter can't, well, fight.

[Andaer]

That average AC value is probably why people suggest a +31 for your best attack, because that means you have no reason not to take a PA tradeoff. Keep in mind that +31 is your best attack, and your full attack is more like +31/+26/+21/+16; +31 vs AC 31 means you'll hit 95% of the time, whereas +16 vs AC 31 means you'll hit 30% of the time. If you wanna use your PA tradeoff often and still get every hit, you'd do well to pump your to-hit even higher.

Damn, good to know thanks. It sort of still boggles my mind that you can reliably have MORE than perfect to-hit.


Seems normal to me. Melee characters in my games never seem to miss, but most monsters use HP as their primary defensive stat, so even hitting with every attack it takes a while to kill anything.

If it ever becomes an actual issue in game and the fighter is just butchering all the monsters with ease, then consider giving them concealment, or setting up encounters where the fighter can't, well, fight.

Good to know it's normal, and thank for the suggestions!

[Vhaidara]

Damn, good to know thanks. It sort of still boggles my mind that you can reliably have MORE than perfect to-hit.

Bear in mind that no matter how high you pump accuracy, without rerolls you can't get more than 95%, because natural 1s are always a miss.

[Andaer]

Bear in mind that no matter how high you pump accuracy, without rerolls you can't get more than 95%, because natural 1s are always a miss.

Good point, that helps out what I'm doing, actually