Auto-success is too high

[hcobb]

Master Fencer who does nothing has a 4.63% chance to be hit by a random swing at adjDX zero (5 or less on three dice as per ITL 9)

Master Fencer who does his master defend move has a 6.08% chance to be hit by a random swing at adjDX zero (14 or less on six dice as per ITL 9)

His masterful talent has made it easier to hit him.

Fix is to reduce the auto success numbers at ITL 9 by one for four dice and higher.

Dice Old% New%
1 100% 100%
2 2.78% 2.78%
3 4.63% 4.63%
4 5.4% 2.7%
5 5.88% 3.24%
6 6.08% 3.59%

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Fix is to reduce the auto success numbers at ITL 9 by one for four dice and higher.

That just means the anomaly is from 4d to 5d. If you want more dice to always reduce, it should be:
1d: auto-success 1 (16.7%)
2d: auto-success 3 (8.3%)
3d: auto-success 5 (4.6%)
4d: auto-success 7 (2.7%)
5d: auto-success 9 (1.5%)
6d: auto-success 11 (1.0%)

That's nice and easy to remember, too; auto-success is dice*2-1.

[larsdangly]

I think this element of 'swinginess' to Melee combat is pretty important. It, combined with the limitations on stat totals and relatively high lethality of many weapons, are what keep the game competitive, risky and interesting for everyone playing. If you have effectively no chance of losing then the person across the table from you has effectively no chance of winning; definitely 1 and probably both people will feel they are wasting their time.

[Shostak]

There are some things about auto-success that don't feel right or are just weird given the way other resolutions work. For instance, a roll of exactly 14 being an auto-hit with a thrown weapon when trying to miss--you have a better chance of an auto hit, double-, and triple damage when trying to miss than you do when trying to hit! It has not yet come up in my recent games, but back in the day, we simply ignored this whole rule and stuck with the wording that your weapon falls in the hex of an enemy you were trying to miss if you fail your DX roll: you don't get a chance to hit them.

It is similarly weird when deviating from the 3d6 mechanic; it is easier to auto-fail or auto-succeed on 4 dice than on 3, and easier yet on 5 dice. Again, back in the day, we kept the same auto-fail, auto-succeed numbers as for 3d so that it was far easier to fail on 4d than on 3, and your chances of auto-success diminished greatly.

[TippetsTX]

I'm testing out the following adjustments...

On 3 dice - auto-hit on 4 or less, crit on 3 only (for double damage)

On 4 dice - auto-hit on 7 or less, crit on 4 or 5

On 5 dice - auto-hit on 9 or less, crit on 7 or less (triple damage on a 5)

On 6 dice - auto-hit on 12 or less, crit on 9 or less (triple damage on a 6)

Etc.

Auto-miss and fumbles on the top end will use the same spread (i.e. on 5 dice, auto-miss on 26 or higher with fumbles on 28 or greater).