Optimum Level of Deceptive Attack

[Jeminai]

Originally Posted by dublindog

while I've never run across such a high defense in a real game, I assume it's possible and so there's no reason not to include all possible defense scores.

Nice post. thanks for that.

I have run Star Wars games where fencing can be used with Force Sword (+3 to retreating parries) and levels of Enhanced Parry (lev 2) coupled with Precognitive parry(+1 to melee parries) and Combat reflexses stacked on top of characters with high skill (20) and BLAMO, one has a Parry score of: 19 (effective)

It works out though, since the other jedi they were fighting could stack feints on deceptive attacks, following rounds where they evaluated. Penalties in the -8 to -12 region were not uncommon.

Again thanks for the chart.

[dublindog]

I bumped the chart out to Effective Skill 30 and Defense 23+.

http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/7...eattackfix.png

Remember, these are effective skills, so even if you are in a high powered game, you're better off buying advantages with your skill value over 16.

Here's the benefit chart:

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/1...eattackben.png

As you can see, at Effective Skill 30, the bottom of the chart is 0 and remains so all the way down.

[lexington]

What do you mean by "percent benefit"?

[dublindog]

Originally Posted by lexington

What do you mean by "percent benefit"?

If your initial odds of a landed blow (attack succeeds, defense fails) are 50% [Skill 15 against Defense 10], you look on the first chart and see that you can take 1 Level of DA (-2 skill, -1 defense) and improve your odds of a landed blow to 53.07%. This is a percent benefit of 3.07%.

So, I'm not using initial probability as the denominator. If you wanted to in this case, it's a 6.14% improvement. But since the actual important number is the final odds of landing a blow, I'm using straight probability out of 100.

So, you can ADD the "Percent Benefit" to the initial chance of landing a blow to find the resulting optimized chance using DA.

[kure]

I DO like stuff like this, but i can see some flaws on this table.

if I have skill like 20, why ever should I get only deceptive attack 1?

result will be Attack 18 and defense penalty -1

when all rolls 17+ is fail anyway, it have no benefit to have net skill 18.

If your initial odds of a landed blow (attack succeeds, defense fails) are 50% [Skill 15 against Defense 10]

is it?
defense roll 10- alone have 50:50 or 50% chance,
but there is also chance of failing 15- attack roll which affect result.

[Lupo]

A really interesting work...

Allow me to make some observations:

1) often, a Deceptive Attack will grant a very minor benefit. It is somewhat less useful than I thought. E.g., for attack skill in the 15-17 range, a DA improves your chances to hit by +5%/+10% AT MOST.

2) if the enemy best defense is not Dodge, the DA benefit will be even lower than the tables indicate. That's because forcing your enemy to use up his Parries/Block will penalize his further defenses; so having your attacks Blocked or Parried is often better than risking to fail them outright with a DA. (because other fighters could, and will, attack your enemy forcing him to use his lower dodge).

3) For very good defenses VS not-so-good attacks, the "best DA option" is often not intuitive at all, and it changes weirdly. E.g., if you are facing an enemy with an effective Defense of 16, and your attack skill is 16, your best option is an ordinary (not Deceptive) attack. But if your attack skill is either 15 or 17, your best option becomes a -6/-3 Deceptive attack!

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by dublindog

I bumped the chart out to Effective Skill 30 and Defense 23+.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6105/...eattacklar.png

Remember, these are effective skills, so even if you are in a high powered game, you're better off buying advantages with your skill value over 16.

Here's the benefit chart:

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/1...eattackben.png

As you can see, at Effective Skill 30, the bottom of the chart is 0 and remains so all the way down.

Very very nice and interesting.

thanks a lot

celjabba