SangoProduction
2019-08-13, 07:57 PM
In a recent thread, someone showed me the Craven. (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/the-craven) This is such a crazy concept that I am actually intrigued enough to do all this mathematical comparison.
So, spend 1 gold to deal 1 damage (per level) is his basic Sell-sword. Very much a turn off...at first.
Then you realize that the basic +1d6 elemental enchantments cost at minimum +2000 gold. And to scale it further, you have to pay an exponentially increasing cost. Now, admittedly, Sell-sword only works once per round. But...
Let's assume a maxed out weapon at level 20. Let's say 70% chance to hit with the first strike, 45% with the second, 20 with the third, and 5% with the fourth (natural 20). No miss chance just AC. And not a lot either.
So, a steel weapon with +1 Corrosive Flaming Frost Speed Vicious Wounding (1 con dmg ~= 10 hp dmg): It costs 200,300, and adds 28.5 damage, and 1 attack.
Placed against the chance to hit
19.95 + 19.95 + 5.7 + 1.425 = 47.025
So, each point of damage is worth 4,259.44 gold
Considering that this basic Sell-sword ability can only spend up to his level in damage, and only once per round, he can only put out 20 damage per round. With a 70% miss chance, the ratio, instead of 1:4k is 7:10.
You'd have to attack 2800 times in order to spend as much on this attack as spending on a weapon.
But wait, it gets better.
Gold rush, after level 18, grants a +1 enhancement bonus per gold piece thrown as a Std Action. And grants a +3 (enhancement) to damage per coin thrown. Already that's a bunch better than the basic Sell-sword, but it can stack.
However, since we are now using an actual weapon, we need to compare the base (1d4) to the base of the Greatsword (2d6 + let's say 3 size increases. It's level 20 after all. So 6d6.)
2.5 vs 21 average weapon damage.
It's going to take 6 gold a strike just to make up that difference (not counting the bonus to hit yet). So, we just subtract that amount of gold from the effective total amount thrown at an enemy for the purpose of comparing damage.
So, 14*3 = 42 (which I guess is 12d6 worth of average damage) + 20 from Sell-sword. And now, since we've got a +5 enhancement bonus (or maybe +20. I...am not totally sure), we are only losing 5% of the average damage.
So now the expense ratio is 14.7:10.
You now deal more damage per round, more securely, and a shoot ton more efficiently. Given 40 gold per attack, it'd take about 5000 attacks in order to equal the expense in buy that bloody weapon. 6200, if we're going based on damage.
(Quick note: the table implies that the enhancement bonus to damage is supposed to stack with the weapon's enhancement bonus, since it says gold rush (1:4). But the text contradicts that, by saying they are both enhancement bonuses. And surely it doesn't actually allow for a +20 weapon. There's only so much silliness I am able to accept.)
Again, this is all before any build-specific things or optimization, which presumably both could do, really. Unless it involved charging.
So. Yeah. Who'd have thought the class who's whole concept is spending gold to get one-time benefits actually gets to hoard more gold than normal martial types?
So, spend 1 gold to deal 1 damage (per level) is his basic Sell-sword. Very much a turn off...at first.
Then you realize that the basic +1d6 elemental enchantments cost at minimum +2000 gold. And to scale it further, you have to pay an exponentially increasing cost. Now, admittedly, Sell-sword only works once per round. But...
Let's assume a maxed out weapon at level 20. Let's say 70% chance to hit with the first strike, 45% with the second, 20 with the third, and 5% with the fourth (natural 20). No miss chance just AC. And not a lot either.
So, a steel weapon with +1 Corrosive Flaming Frost Speed Vicious Wounding (1 con dmg ~= 10 hp dmg): It costs 200,300, and adds 28.5 damage, and 1 attack.
Placed against the chance to hit
19.95 + 19.95 + 5.7 + 1.425 = 47.025
So, each point of damage is worth 4,259.44 gold
Considering that this basic Sell-sword ability can only spend up to his level in damage, and only once per round, he can only put out 20 damage per round. With a 70% miss chance, the ratio, instead of 1:4k is 7:10.
You'd have to attack 2800 times in order to spend as much on this attack as spending on a weapon.
But wait, it gets better.
Gold rush, after level 18, grants a +1 enhancement bonus per gold piece thrown as a Std Action. And grants a +3 (enhancement) to damage per coin thrown. Already that's a bunch better than the basic Sell-sword, but it can stack.
However, since we are now using an actual weapon, we need to compare the base (1d4) to the base of the Greatsword (2d6 + let's say 3 size increases. It's level 20 after all. So 6d6.)
2.5 vs 21 average weapon damage.
It's going to take 6 gold a strike just to make up that difference (not counting the bonus to hit yet). So, we just subtract that amount of gold from the effective total amount thrown at an enemy for the purpose of comparing damage.
So, 14*3 = 42 (which I guess is 12d6 worth of average damage) + 20 from Sell-sword. And now, since we've got a +5 enhancement bonus (or maybe +20. I...am not totally sure), we are only losing 5% of the average damage.
So now the expense ratio is 14.7:10.
You now deal more damage per round, more securely, and a shoot ton more efficiently. Given 40 gold per attack, it'd take about 5000 attacks in order to equal the expense in buy that bloody weapon. 6200, if we're going based on damage.
(Quick note: the table implies that the enhancement bonus to damage is supposed to stack with the weapon's enhancement bonus, since it says gold rush (1:4). But the text contradicts that, by saying they are both enhancement bonuses. And surely it doesn't actually allow for a +20 weapon. There's only so much silliness I am able to accept.)
Again, this is all before any build-specific things or optimization, which presumably both could do, really. Unless it involved charging.
So. Yeah. Who'd have thought the class who's whole concept is spending gold to get one-time benefits actually gets to hoard more gold than normal martial types?