This shouldn't be too hard to figure out, but when does the two attempts to hit from a full attack overcome the decreased likelihood of hitting resulting in a higher average damage?
Always. Say you have a 60% chance to hit, and deal 2d6 damage on a hit (numbers are arbitrarily made up for this, but still reflect the game). Each round you make a standard attack, you will do 7 (average of 2d6) ×0.6 damage, or 4.2 (actually slightly higher due to crits, but that's negligible). A full attack does 7×0.4, or 2.8 average, but it does that twice, for a total of 5.6 damage.
Slight correction to the above: if you have less than a 45% hit chance, don't full attack unless you have reduced penalties or more than two attacks. At 40% the two attacks do the same as one standard, and below that they're worse.
Solarians, soldiers, and operatives can full attack even with lower accuracy since they get 3+ and reduced penalties.
So if you hit on a 16 or less full attack, barring any alterations to number of attacks or other bonuses correct?
This is pretty good to know. I was discussing with my GM and I guess in the adventure path we are doing the moots are supposed to pretty much only single attack. It led me to believe that a full attack might not be as good as I had previously thought. However if I understood what you said correctly I was correct that there is definitely an advantage to full attacking in most cases.
Yeah, assuming you're a full BAB class, full attacking is generally better if you just want damage. There might be something else going on in a specific situation, by generally two attacks are better than one.
Actually I checked my math this means that if you hit on a 12 or less then you are better off full attacking not a 16, my mistake.
That looks right.
There are exceptions, of course, with an Operative's Trick Attack often equaling their DPR on a full attack (possibly exceeding it at low levels). Or an Envoy getting cool effects by expending a Move Action.
The previous analysis I saw on Trick Attack versus Full Attack suggests Trick is better against a single opponent, due to the debuffs and better accuracy, while Full is best against multiple opponents. This was including the third and fourth attacks.
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The previous analysis I saw on Trick Attack versus Full Attack suggests Trick is better against a single opponent, due to the debuffs and better accuracy, while Full is best against multiple opponents. This was including the third and fourth attacks.That looks right.
There are exceptions, of course, with an Operative's Trick Attack often equaling their DPR on a full attack (possibly exceeding it at low levels). Or an Envoy getting cool effects by expending a Move Action.
Indeed yes, just noting that there are exceptions.