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Yakk
2008-05-30, 02:20 PM
4e seems to have a power damage curve that is pretty tight.

The curve for at-will, per-encounter, and daily abilities is different.

Fighter, level 1:
At will does Stat vs AC for [W]+Stat*[1.5 to 2.0] at level 1, or it has a minor non-damage effect in exchange for some of the Stat*X damage.

Daily at level 1 does as much as 3[W]+Stat damage with a minor side benefit (in the Fighter's case, it is reliable). For a greater side-effect, the attack instead does 2[W]+Stat damage. The side-effect for these powers is quite nice.

Encounter at level 1 does about 2[W]+Stat*[1.0 to 2.0] with a minor side effect. The one that does Stat*2.0 requires two to-hit rolls in sequence to land. Some encounter abilities do 1[W]+Stat damage, but they have a seriously nice side effect (knock prone).

...

Fighter, level 10:
Daily is 3[W]+Strength with a nice side effect. You could probably justify 4[W]+Strength with a downside...
Encounter is 3[W]+Strength with a downside (like -2 to hit, and no side effect), or 2[W]+Strength with a decent side effect, or 1[W]+Strength with really really nice side effects (like a 3 range burst that shifts all enemies near you, and then does a 1[W] burst on them).


...

Fighter, level 20:
Daily is 5[W]+Strength ish
Encounter is 3[W]+Strength ish
At-will upgrades at level 21.

...

Fighter, level 30:
At-will attacks have upgraded to 2[W]+Stat*(1.5 to 2.0) in general.

Encounter is about 4[W]+Strength*(1 to many), with extra nice side effects.

Daily caps out at 7[W]+Strength.

...

Generally, "miss" damage is worth as much as "hit" damage, balance-wise. Hitting multiple targets, both for damage, is worse than hitting one target for all of the damage. Area damage is discounted seriously.

...

So a very rough damage curve for PC powers might look like:


_ 7[W]
D
DDD _ 6[W]
DDDDDD
DDDDDDDD _ 5[W]
DDDDDDDDDDD
DDDDDDDDDDDDE _ 4[W]
DDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEE
DDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEE _ 3[W]
DDDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
DDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE _ 2[W]
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW _ 1[W]
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW _ 0[W]

123456789012345678901234567890
1 2 3

in terms of [W]eapon dice. (each die is 2 high on the above table)

Does this line up with the Paladin, Ranger and Rogue?

What about the non-weapon classes?

As an aside, the above curve is roughly:
At Will = 1 + 1*(L/30)^2
Encounter = 2 + 2.5*(L/30)^2
Daily = 3 + 4*(L/30)^2

More work needs to be done to confirm if this is what the Rogue/Ranger/Paladin powers are like, to look in more detail at how the powers actually advance (instead of in 10 level chunks), and to compare with the "spellcasting-type" classes who don't use weapons...

Azerian Kelimon
2008-06-01, 01:12 PM
Some things kill this curve.

First off, most classes seem to have a first peak at level 15. Look at the fighter: He gets Dragon's Fangs, a daily that is pretty much on par with striker damage. The ranger gets a power that grants him unlimited attacks as long as he doesn't miss. The rogue can both move and damage MANY enemies with one power.

Then there's the ultimate peak at 29, where the classes show their true colors. For example, there's assasin's point, or the incredible Storm of Destruction (Which is off your charts. It does 10W+2STR. Eat that, No Mercy.).

Then, we have the problem that each class has a Secondary Role (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81963), the tack it takes on it's primary role. As you can see if you take a look at their powers, the fighter tack is Striker, the paladin tack is leader, and the wizard tack is Striker too. You have to factor that in the calculations.

Hope that helps a bit.