Analysis of Damage Scaling with Level

[citricking]

So I made some more charts comparing how damage scales as characters level. To do this I made a Fighter and calculated how much damage their full attack was expected to do against targets two levels lower, at their level, and themselves. They were assumed to get boosts from spells, items, and feats.

Here's the document.

[Draco18s]

Oh hey, Power Attack is lower than SSS pretty much across the board.

[Cellion]

Nice! I've started my own calcs, so this'll be a good check for me.

Some comments:

Brutal Finish; pg 151 wrote:

Your final blow can make an impact even if it rebounds off a

foe’s defenses. Make a Strike with the required weapon. After
the Strike, your turn ends. The Strike deals one extra weapon
damage die, or two extra weapon damage dice if you’re at least
18th level. The Strike also gains the following failure effect.
Failure You deal damage equal to one weapon damage die of
the required weapon. Increase this to two dice if you’re at
least 18th level.

It looks like your calcs assume multiple Brutal Finishes, but this press attack ends your turn.

You also haven't included Desperate Finisher, which will add another press attack per round that stacks with haste.

[citricking]

Whoops, that's a huge mistake. Thank you very much. I'll update it tomorrow.

[Shisumo]

You might also try running sp instead of ps, because the penalty stacking seems much more effective if you use Power Attack as your second shot.

[citricking]

Well power attack doesn't have an attack penalty after level 6, so it's best to use it the first attack. The difference just doesn't seem to be worth the action loss.

I fixed the Brutal Finish mistake, but this won't be complete until I add Exacting Strike.

[citricking]

Updated with Exacting Strike, it didn't add as much as I thought it would, but it was a little better than certain Strike.

[Classic_DM_]

I love this type of analysis. Thank you for putting time and energy into this.

[vagrant-poet]

Myscha_sleddog wrote:

I love this type of analysis. Thank you for putting time and energy into this.

Yes, you are a champion of the people.

[shroudb]

Good job as always.

What I keep from the charts it seems like most routines (apart from simple sss ofc) seem to produce comparable results.

If that's the case, then that's really nice.

[frolic]

Sorry, I can't read spreadsheet, but I don't think you included the Furious Focus (level 6) feat that makes your second attack -5 instead of -10.

[citricking]

frolic wrote:

Sorry, I can't read spreadsheet, but I don't think you included the Furious Focus (level 6) feat that makes your second attack -5 instead of -10.

I didn't right it down, but it's effects are included from level 6.

[MongrelHorde]

Draco18s wrote:

Oh hey, Power Attack is lower than SSS pretty much across the board.

... Did you look at the spreadsheet? It's glorious, and their doing God's work. And that's not at all what the analysis shows.

It shows SSS scales better with more To-Hit (or lower AC enemies). And Power Attack is not great at certain breakpoints (i.e between 4 and 6).

Finally the disparity between Power Attack and SSS between 1 and 5 is closer than what they have modeled, as striking, then power attacking is the more optimal routine before Furious Focus.