Laser Weapon Damage Per Round


Advice


I did up a comparison of the various classes of laser weapons (pistol, rifle, cannon and sniper rifle). Since lasers seemed to be the most common in the game, hopefully this is a useful comparison. These assume a character at 5, 10 and 15th level. Where there was no on level weapon, I chose the nearest in level and broke ties to the weapon doing the highest damage.

To allow a useful comparison with full attack and deadly aim, I based everything on an unmodified chance to hit. That means if you have a 100% chance to hit, you have a 90% chance with deadly aim, 80% with full attack and 70% if combining full attack and deadly aim. This does not include a base chance to hit over 100%. Rolled damage was figured by taking the midpoint of the dice, (so 2 for a d4, 3 for a d6). Damage is in damage per round.

What I found: Deadly Aim can be important if you are using small arms (which only get 1/2 level bonus damage instead of level bonus damage). Deadly Aim can start increasing pistol damage as low as a 40% chance to hit and is at it's most useful when a character will not be making a full attack.

For larger weapons, deadly aim is useful to increase alpha damage when shooting mooks with bad AC. The larger the base (dice generated) damage the less useful deadly aim becomes.

A sniper rifle does more damage than full attacking with a longarm when the base to chance to hit is less than 50%! That means a level 5 diasporan laser rifle fired as a standard action is likely to do more damage to a boss than full attacking (the highest damage mode) with a longarm.

At both level 10 and level 15 a sniper rifle does more damage than full attacking (the highest damage mode) with a laser cannon when there is less than a 50% chance to hit.

If you can get the chance to hit over 50% full attacking with longarms and heavy weapons are a better choice.

Here;s the full table, though I suspect the forum is going to make it unreadable:

Laser Pistol Base Chance to Hit 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
2d4 (4)+2 = 6 0.6 1.2 1.8 2.4 3 3.6 4.2 4.8 5.4 6
2d4 (4)+2 +2 = 8 Deadly Aim 0 0.8 1.6 2.4 3.2 4 4.8 5.6 6.4 7.2
2d4 (4)+2 = 6 Full Attack 0 0 1.2 2.4 3.6 4.8 6 7.2 8.4 9.6
2d4 (4)+2 +2 = 8 Full Attack +DA 0 0 0 1.6 3.2 4.8 6.4 8 9.6 11.2
3d4 (6) +5 = 11 1.1 2.2 3.3 4.4 5.5 6.6 7.7 8.8 9.9 11
3d4 (6) +5+5 =16 DA 0 1.6 3.2 4.8 6.4 8 9.6 11.2 12.8 14.4
3d4 (6) +5 = 11 Full Attack 0 0 2.2 4.4 6.6 8.8 11 13.2 15.4 17.6
3d4 (6) +5+5 =16 Full Attack +DA 0 0 0 3.2 6.4 9.6 12.8 16 19.2 22.4
5d4 (10) + 7 = 17 1.7 3.4 5.1 6.8 8.5 10.2 11.9 13.6 15.3 17
5d4 (10) + 7 +7 = 24 DA 0 2.4 4.8 7.2 9.6 12 14.4 16.8 19.2 21.6
5d4 (10) + 7 = 17 Full Attack 0 0 3.4 6.8 10.2 13.6 17 20.4 23.8 27.2
5d4 (10) + 7 +7 = 24 Full Attack +DA 0 0 0 4.8 9.6 14.4 19.2 24 28.8 33.6
Laser Rifle
2d6 (6) + 5 = 11 1.1 2.2 3.3 4.4 5.5 6.6 7.7 8.8 9.9 11
2d6 (6) + 5 +2 =13 DA 0 1.3 2.6 3.9 5.2 6.5 7.8 9.1 10.4 11.7
2d6 (6) + 5 = 11 Full Attack 0 0 2.2 4.4 6.6 8.8 11 13.2 15.4 17.6
2d6 (6) + 5 = 11 Full Attack +DA 0 0 0 2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2
5d4(10) +10 = 20 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
5d4(10) +10 + 5 = 25 DA 0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15 17.5 20 22.5
5d4(10) +10 = 20 Full Attack 0 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32
5d4(10) +10 = 20 Full Attack+DA 0 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
7d4 (14) + 15 = 29 2.9 5.8 8.7 11.6 14.5 17.4 20.3 23.2 26.1 29
7D4 (14) + 15 + 7 = 36 0 3.6 7.2 10.8 14.4 18 21.6 25.2 28.8 32.4
7d4 (14) + 15 = 29 Full Attack 0 0 5.8 11.6 17.4 23.2 29 34.8 40.6 46.4
7D4 (14) + 15 + 7 = 36 Full Attack + DA 0 0 0 7.2 14.4 21.6 28.8 36 43.2 50.4
Artillery Laser
2d8 (8) + 5 =13 1.3 2.6 3.9 5.2 6.5 7.8 9.1 10.4 11.7 13
2d8(8) +5 +2 =15 0 1.5 3 4.5 6 7.5 9 10.5 12 13.5
2d8 (8) + 5 =13 Full Attack 0 0 2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2 20.8
2d8(8) +5 +2 =15 Full Attack + DA 0 0 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21
3d8 (12) + 10 = 22 2.2 4.4 6.6 8.8 11 13.2 15.4 17.6 19.8 22
3d8 (12) + 10 + 5 = 27 0 2.7 5.4 8.1 10.8 13.5 16.2 18.9 21.6 24.3
3d8 (12) + 10 = 22 Full Attack 0 0 4.4 8.8 13.2 17.6 22 26.4 30.8 35.2
3d8 (12) + 10 + 5 = 27 Full Attack + DA 0 0 0 5.4 10.8 16.2 21.6 27 32.4 37.8
4d8 (16) + 15 = 31 3.1 6.2 9.3 12.4 15.5 18.6 21.7 24.8 27.9 31
4d8 (16) +15 +7 = 38 0 3.8 7.6 11.4 15.2 19 22.8 26.6 30.4 34.2
4d8 (16) + 15 = 31 Full Attack 0 0 6.2 12.4 18.6 24.8 31 37.2 43.4 49.6
4d8 (16) +15 +7 = 38 Full Attack + DA 0 0 0 7.6 15.2 22.8 30.4 38 45.6 53.2
Laser Sniper Riffle
2d8 (8) + 5 =13 1.3 2.6 3.9 5.2 6.5 7.8 9.1 10.4 11.7 13
2d8(8) +5 +2 =15 DA 0 1.5 3 4.5 6 7.5 9 10.5 12 13.5
4d8 (16) +10 = 26 2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2 20.8 23.4 26
4d8 (16) +10 + 5 = 31 DA 0 3.1 6.2 9.3 12.4 15.5 18.6 21.7 24.8 27.9
6d8 (24) +10 = 34 3.4 6.8 10.2 13.6 17 20.4 23.8 27.2 30.6 34
6d8 (24) +10 + 5 = 39 0 3.9 7.8 11.7 15.6 19.5 23.4 27.3 31.2 35.1


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Yeah, the formatting makes this kind of impossible to read. Your conclusions do seem sound, though.
Also, as an aside, the average roll on a d6 isn't 3, it's 3.5. I don't know if this would change your conclusion, but this can make quite a difference.


Nixitur wrote:

Yeah, the formatting makes this kind of impossible to read. Your conclusions do seem sound, though.

Also, as an aside, the average roll on a d6 isn't 3, it's 3.5. I don't know if this would change your conclusion, but this can make quite a difference.

Yeah. I realized that but it was late. The forum won't do tables. I guess I could link the spreadsheet. Can I link in a picture.

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