Background: Player attacks and non-AC defenses (or NADs) do not scale properly with level. Monster attacks and defenses increase by 1 per level, but players increase by 1 every even level. Attribute boosts and enhancement bonuses don't fully make up for the discrepancy between monsters and players, and as level increases, the gap widens. Currently, the following feats are used to fix this flaw: Weapon Expertise, Implement Expertise, Focused Expertise, Paragon Defenses, Robust Defenses, and Epic Fortitude, Epic Reflexes, and Epic Will
Below is an example of how various scores degrade:
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Example of Degradation
Drow Sorcerer - Leather Armor (highest AC masterwork available), Dagger, generic magic items equal to level after lv1, stats 12 12 16 10 8 16, Boost Dex/Cha every time, No PP or ED
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Attack & Defense Values |
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Level Comparison |
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| Level |
AC |
Fort |
Reflex |
Will |
Attack |
AC |
Fort |
Reflex |
Will |
Attack |
| 1 |
16 |
11 |
14 |
16 |
4 |
15 |
10 |
13 |
15 |
3 |
| 4 |
19 |
14 |
17 |
19 |
7 |
15 |
10 |
13 |
15 |
3 |
| 6 |
21 |
16 |
19 |
21 |
9 |
15 |
10 |
13 |
15 |
3 |
| 8 |
23 |
17 |
21 |
23 |
11 |
15 |
9 |
13 |
15 |
3 |
| 11 |
25 |
20 |
24 |
25 |
13 |
14 |
9 |
13 |
14 |
2 |
| 14 |
28 |
22 |
27 |
28 |
16 |
14 |
8 |
13 |
14 |
2 |
| 16 |
31 |
24 |
28 |
30 |
18 |
15 |
8 |
12 |
14 |
2 |
| 18 |
32 |
25 |
29 |
31 |
19 |
14 |
7 |
11 |
13 |
1 |
| 21 |
35 |
27 |
33 |
34 |
22 |
14 |
6 |
12 |
13 |
1 |
| 24 |
37 |
29 |
35 |
36 |
24 |
13 |
5 |
11 |
12 |
0 |
| 26 |
40 |
31 |
36 |
38 |
26 |
14 |
5 |
10 |
12 |
0 |
| 28 |
42 |
32 |
38 |
40 |
28 |
14 |
4 |
10 |
12 |
0 |
| 30 |
43 |
33 |
39 |
41 |
29 |
13 |
3 |
9 |
11 |
-1 |
| Total Degradation over 30 levels |
-2 |
-7 |
-4 |
-4 |
-4 |
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The Issue: Fixing degradation with feats causes several issues:
1.
Powers still not fixed: Racial powers, some paragon path powers, and miscellaneous item powers still aren't fixed by Expertise feats.
2.
Expertise feat taxes: Expertise feats are so powerful and necessary as to be a "feat tax". That means the feat will eventually become an optimal choice for every reasonably conceivable character build, since hitting is generally essential. If every character should get this feat eventually, it is not a choice. This goes against the design concept of a feat.
3.
Multiple weapons/implements: Anyone who wants to use multiple weapons and/or implements is taxed with Expertise feats multiple times. The new feat "Versatile Expertise" alleviates this concern, but leaves many combinations suffering such as any two weapon or two implement combination.
4.
Levels 1-4: At levels 1-4, players who take Expertise feats have attack bonuses ahead of the curve.
5.
Non-AC defense taxes get incurably low by late paragon: Non-AC defenses become incredibly easy for monsters to hit starting around Paragon. It is very difficult for a player to get all of their non-AC defenses to be comparable to a monsters of equal level. Monster attacks against NADs are typically 2 or 3 lower than attacks against AC, but by Epic a character's lowest NADs can get up to 10 or more behind AC. As the chart above indicates, NADs degrade by between -4 and -7. This results in characters getting hit extremely easily, and getting hosed by certain monsters or game scenarios. Some encounters or scenarios seem to ignore this design flaw and treat NADs like they are 2 lower than standard AC, which puts some parties in extremely deadly situations. In late Paragon, where the problem is endemic, a PC has Paragon Defenses and feats like Iron Will, which are generally inadequate to boost their lowest NADs to comparably to early heroic levels.
6.
Non-AC defense feat tax: To fix the NAD issue in Epic requires 2 or 3 feats (Robust Defenses and Epic Will or Fortitude or Reflexes for your lowest NAD or two lowest NADs).
7.
Good Non-AC defenses can get too high: If a character boosts their best NAD with Epic Will, Fortitude, or Reflex, they can boost it to very high levels. Combined with items that can boost a NAD by 3, you can build a character with a nearly a unhittable NAD. Even the "ok" NADs can get boosted to very high levels.
The Solution - Errata the Levelup Chart: All of these feats could be eliminated simply by updating the levelup chart. The issue with poor non-AC defenses could be eliminated as well. Here's how:
Three Simple Errata to the Levelup Chart:1. +1 to all attacks at 5th, 15th, and 25th level - This eliminates the need for all Expertise feats while also taking care of racial powers and other miscellaneous powers.
2. +1 to Fortitude, Reflex, and Will at 11th and 21st level - This eliminates the need for Robust Defenses and Paragon Defenses. Simple, elegant automatic scaling, and now there's only one problem left...
3. +1 to Fortitude, Reflex, or Will at levels 5th, 15th, and 25th - This mostly eliminates the need for Epic Reflexes, Fortitude, and Will. The feats Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, and Great Fortitude (and their epic equivalents) can find function again to fill in the gaps.
Please confront the mathematical game flaws head on and deal with them in one sweeping errata to the Levelup Chart. Fix the problem once and fix it right and never have to deal with it again. The current "patchwork" solution instead leaves the game taxing players to cover up flaws (or allowing them to suffer), cheapening the meaning of feats, makes character creation more esoteric, and clutters the character builder.
What to do After the Errata - Innocuous Proposals: The proposals below are suggestions for what to do with feats/powers after the levelup chart is errataed. These are not definitive solutions, they're just to demonstrate that eliminating the feats isn't necessary and changing them isn't difficult.
Expertise Feats - +1 feat bonus to basic attacks with the selected weapon(s)/implement(s).
Paragon Defenses - Leave alone. (This is the lightest offender, isn't too powerful, and as a feat bonus doesn't raise the optimization ceiling)
Robust Defenses - Conditional, untyped bonus, such as until the end of your next turn when you spend an action point.
Epic Fortitude, Reflexes, Will - +2 untyped bonus; or +3 feat bonus, etc. (This reduces the upper limit on your best NADs by 2 or 3 points, reigning in the NAD optimization ceiling).
Racial powers - New attack powers are coming out with scaling of +3/+6/+9. These powers will need to be errataed to +2/+4/+6. This will save you work since it is far easier to errata the few powers that use this new scaling than to go back and errata all past +2/+4/+6 powers to use the new system.
