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Min/Max 3.x / Re: (melee) bard customization for specific party
« on: March 03, 2014, 12:26:35 PM »
I'll try to give more substantive comments later, but first I want to highlight something else.
Words of Creation is much, much stronger than Dragonfire Inspiration. I don't understand how Dragonfire Inspiration can be not appropriate for a given optimization level and Words of Creation be appropriate for same.
The difference between the damage added by plain inspire courage and that added by Dragonfire Inspiration isn't that large. If you have a weapon with a 20/x2 threat range and use Power Attack on all the attack bonus from plain inspire courage, you get 2*1.05*bonus = 2.1 damage. Added to the 1 damage plain courage gives, you get 3.1 damage/point of inspire courage bonus. Dragonfire Inspiration gives 3.5 damage/point of inspire courage bonus. (There's a rigorous argument showing this is a valid comparison, but it's involved and requires some knowledge of multivariable calculus and linear algebra. I'm going to include it in an updated version of my Power Attack handbook.) That means Dragonfire Inspiration multiplies inspire courage's damage by about 1.13. That's significant but not huge, and it's elemental damage which has some downsides. Words of Creation straight-up doubles the damage from inspire courage. Even if you believe that it doesn't affect the bonus from inspirational boost and the badge of valor, over the first four levels or so it still takes inspire courage from +3 to +4, and over 20 levels from +6 to +10 without any other items or abilities that increase inspire courage. Thus, early on, Words of Creation multiplies inspire courage's damage by about 1.33, and in the long run by about 1.66, at least.
words of creation (6)
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I skipped dragonfire inspiration because this group doesn't play at a high optimization level - inspire courage will do
Words of Creation is much, much stronger than Dragonfire Inspiration. I don't understand how Dragonfire Inspiration can be not appropriate for a given optimization level and Words of Creation be appropriate for same.
The difference between the damage added by plain inspire courage and that added by Dragonfire Inspiration isn't that large. If you have a weapon with a 20/x2 threat range and use Power Attack on all the attack bonus from plain inspire courage, you get 2*1.05*bonus = 2.1 damage. Added to the 1 damage plain courage gives, you get 3.1 damage/point of inspire courage bonus. Dragonfire Inspiration gives 3.5 damage/point of inspire courage bonus. (There's a rigorous argument showing this is a valid comparison, but it's involved and requires some knowledge of multivariable calculus and linear algebra. I'm going to include it in an updated version of my Power Attack handbook.) That means Dragonfire Inspiration multiplies inspire courage's damage by about 1.13. That's significant but not huge, and it's elemental damage which has some downsides. Words of Creation straight-up doubles the damage from inspire courage. Even if you believe that it doesn't affect the bonus from inspirational boost and the badge of valor, over the first four levels or so it still takes inspire courage from +3 to +4, and over 20 levels from +6 to +10 without any other items or abilities that increase inspire courage. Thus, early on, Words of Creation multiplies inspire courage's damage by about 1.33, and in the long run by about 1.66, at least.