The "Size Discount for ST -- Why?" Discussion

[Tallor]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

"Alright, genius, but what if you started at DX 20?"

Okay, so the problem with DX 20 is that it basically always hits and always defends. The only way to get past it is to use deceptive attacks that bring you back, more or less, to the center of the bell-curve. And the ratio of deceptive attack penalty to defense penalty is the same as the ratio between attack and defense: 2 to 1. This means that a character with DX 25 is twice as likely to hit someone as someone with DX 20. Look, DX 25 defends with a 15 while someone with DX 20 defends with a 13. Apply a -10 to both attacks, and you end up with... 15 and 10, just like before, and a defense of 10 and 8... just like before.

I'd like to note that a DX 20 character still has a defense of Nil against attacks from behind, and they'd only have HP 10 to stay alive! Furthermore, a no-armor DX build would find swarms of weak goblins particularly dangerous, since they don't have the DR to deflect their spears and end up taking -2 to flanking attacks! Just a thought for countering that build without being cheesy. :P