Last week’s Legends & Lore column by Monte Cook discussed issues related to rule complexity. Many have suggested in that past that 4th Edition is too complex, which is one of the primary reasons for combat encounters grinding to a halt. The problems with complexity become more prevalent as the players advance in level to the degree that DMs face problems creating combat encounter that can challenge the party. This week’s Legends & Lore column expanded on the issue of complexity by asking, “What can you do on your turn?” The topic of 4th Edition’s complexity and how a rumored 5th Edition will resolve those issues is hotly debated, and the Legends & Lore columns only add to the speculation.

It is at these times that I enjoy delving into data and analyzing things before adding my two cents of opinion to the conversation. There are several assumptions that are behind claims that 4th Edition is too complex and becomes increasingly unmanageable as the party advances in level, which culminates in Epic Tier combat encounters that take longer to run and longer to design. Let’s examine a few of the assumptions:

Combat includes too many moving parts and the parts move more dramatically as the players advance in level.

Players gain more options in combat as they advance in level.

Players gain more powerful options (i.e., status effects) in combat as they advance in level.

Below, data is presented that address these assumptions.

Introduction

My goal is to examine combat in terms of complexity including number of player options and the degree of the power of their options as they advance in level. I previously analyzed combat encounters for a Level 3 party, which found that the average turn for each player lasted over two minutes. However, the assumption that complexity, player options and degree of powerful options increases with level advancement has not been described with specific data (to my knowledge). I tasked myself with adding data to the discussion.

Method

For this analysis, I quantified the powers of a four-player party over the lifespan of a campaign. I selected one Class from each Role in the game – Controller, Leader, Defender, Striker. Each available At-Will, Encounter and Daily power available within the Class was coded in terms of the applicable status effects and other power options. The analysis started November 20, 2011 and concluded November 27, 2011; powers were viewed through the online Character Builder. As a result, earlier or later versions of errata are not included in the analysis.

Powers were coded into several categories. First – and the least complicated – was the status effect the power applied to an enemy (or enemies). For example, if a power indicates that it does 1(W) + 6 damage and target is blinded, then the power would be coded to include the Blinded status effect. Powers can have more than one applicable status effect as in this example: 2(W) + 8 damage and target is slowed and knocked prone. In this example, the power would be coded to include both Slowed and Prone status effects. Because powers often have multiple status effects, the tables below include more status effects and other conditions than the total number of power. Another way to state this is that a Druid may only have 12 choices for the Level 3 Encounter Power, but those 12 powers could produce up to 20 status effects.

Initially, I only planned to code status effects for each power, but found that there are a multitude of other power options that grant players bonuses and impose penalties on monsters. Other than status effects, powers also alter a wide array of gaming mechanics. I coded additional conditions from powers into the following categories:

Ongoing damage – Deals additional damage each round.

Deals additional damage each round. Movement – PC or ally can move freely or forces movement upon an enemy or enemies (e.g., push, pull, slide, teleport); also covers the creation or removal of difficult terrain.

PC or ally can move freely or forces movement upon an enemy or enemies (e.g., push, pull, slide, teleport); also covers the creation or removal of difficult terrain. Healing – PC or ally can heal or regenerate.

PC or ally can heal or regenerate. Combat Advantage – Enemy or enemies now grant combat advantage

Enemy or enemies now grant combat advantage Penalty – Any negative modifier applied to an enemies or enemies, such as -2 to defenses or vulnerable 5 cold damage.

Any negative modifier applied to an enemies or enemies, such as -2 to defenses or vulnerable 5 cold damage. Bonus – Any positive modifier applied to PC and/or allies, such as +2 to defenses, +1 to speed or + Dexterity Modifier to damage.

The list of additional conditions above is not exhaustive, but presents a clearer picture of power capabilities compared to only coding applicable status effects.

Quiz Answers

Before moving forward, I wish to follow-up on my post last week that presented a preview of the data I collected. I was curious if players of 4th Edition could correctly identify the Role of a character only by the number and type of status effects their powers apply to enemies over the course of a campaign. The data posted in the previous article was collected from a Druid (Controller), Fighter (Defender) and Rogue (Striker). The majority of voters correctly identified two of the three Roles of the characters presented.

The first character presented was a Druid (Controller). The Druid presented the most difficult challenge as only 43% of the respondents (30 out of 70) correctly identified the Role as Controller. Respondents answered Defender (26%), Leader (17%) and Striker (14%), which means the majority (57%) thought the status effects represented something other than a Controller.

Respondents that left comments indicated they were swayed by the number of powers that caused Prone and Dominated as reasons for selecting Controller.

The next profile presented was from the Fighter (Defender). The vast majority of respondents (81%, 50 out of 62) correctly identified the Role from the status effects applied by powers. The remaining 12 respondents selected Controller (10%), Striker (8%) and Leader (1%). The Defender was the easiest for respondents to correctly identify, although 19% of respondents selected a Role other than Defender.

Respondents that wrote comments suggested the large number of powers that applied Marked conditions was the primary reason for selecting Defender. While other status effects can be found throughout other Roles, the ability to apply the Marked effect is a distinctly Defender-ish quality to most players of 4th Edition. I find this result interesting, and will return to it in more detail in a few paragraphs below.

The final profile presented in the quiz was derived from a Rogue (Striker). Respondents were just able to achieve a majority as the question was correctly answered by 31 out of 60 (52%) selected Striker. Of course, this means that 48% of the respondents selected something other than Striker. The most common incorrect responses were Leader (23%), Controller (17%) and Defender (8%).

One of the commenters, Michael Lee, indicated the primary reason for selecting Striker was the result of the lone Unconscious ability in the Heroic Tier, “I suspect [it] is a Rogue because of the Daily that makes the opponent unconscious (Knockout Blow or something like that). It’s a fairly unique power and one that sees play at my table.” The ability to knock an enemy Unconscious in Heroic Tier is rare, as it does not appear on the Controller or Defender profiles above. Another commenter, QuirkyDM, considered Striker, “I went controller. There are a lot of stun, daze, slowed and prone. Though I see there is a single marking power there, so maybe it should be striker instead.”

I was unable to complete the final profile for the Cleric (Leader) before posting the quiz. I imagine the Leader’s profile would have been another challenge for the majority of respondents to properly identify. The profile contains multiple effects that blind, daze, dominate, immobilize, mark, knock prone, restrain, slow, stun and weaken enemies. The lack of multiple powers that mark would likely eliminate Defender, but I would imagine the answers would be somewhat evenly split between Controller, Leader and Striker.

Before moving on to the rest of the results, I would like to discuss the following table, which summarizes the available status effects for the four-player party made up of a Cleric (Leader), Druid (Controller), Fighter (Defender) and Rogue (Striker).

As mentioned above, Marked is a distinctly Defender-ish ability. In addition, the Fighter (Defender) also has a significantly higher amount of powers that cause Prone. The Fighter also has the most powers that cause Immobilized, but the difference is not as significant compared to the options available to other Roles. The only other significant difference between the Roles is found in the Blinded category. The Cleric (Leader) can Blind with 13 powers, which is more than double the next highest Role (Defender: 6). I wonder if this is simply a Cleric-centric ability, or if Leaders as a whole are more likely to have powers that apply Blinded status effect. Perhaps someone else can explore in more detail. Finally, the Cleric (Leader) and Druid (Controller) have multiple powers that Dominate but neither the Rogue (Striker) or Fighter (Defender) have Dominate powers. On the surface, the lack of Dominate powers for Defenders and Strikers is logical.

A somewhat surprising finding is that no other status effect is distinctive in terms of how often it is caused by one Role or the other. The Rogue (Striker) has the most Stun powers but it is not by a wide margin. All Roles have powers that can cause an enemy to be Blinded, Dazed, Immobilized, Prone, Restrained, Slowed, Stunned and Weakened. As a result, those status effects are not special since all players – in any Role – have powers that can cause them.

Results

The answers to the quiz are just a small subset of the data collected. The remaining results are presented below. The tables below present a list of Status Conditions, which were taken from the Dungeon Master Screen 2 and how often they are applied by character powers per level. For example, a Druid has 12 Encounter Powers to choose from at Level 7. Of those powers, six apply status effects (1 Dazed, 1 Dominated, 2 Grabbed, 1 Prone, 1 Retrained). In addition to the status effects, the 12 powers also create 14 Power Options, which you can conceptualize as Benefits (2 Movement, 4 Combat Advantage, 4 Penalty, 4 Bonus). The 12 Level 7 Encounter Powers have a total of 20 Power Options (i.e., benefits) that can be applied to combat. The Powers and Power Options are totaled at each Tier. Please click on each image for a sharper picture of the data.

The powers for each character above have been coded by the level of each power, starting with the Level 1 At-Will powers and ending with the Level 29 Daily powers. Missing from the analysis are powers granted by Feats, Racial Abilities, Magic Items, Utility Powers, Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies. I declined coding these items because there are simply too many combinations. The above results picture the bare-minimum in terms of a player’s power choices. To understand the full options in the arsenal of an Epic Tier player, I encourage you to visit the insane Stat Block for a Level 30 Fighter created by The Hydra DM.

The first thing that is immediately clear is that almost every single power listed above does something other than damage. For example, the Druid (Controller) has 201 powers that can be selected during Level 1-30; only 4 (2%) just cause damage. One might think the following, “Well, that makes sense, Controllers are always doing something to the battlefield. They are named Controllers after all.” Fair point, but below are the total number of powers for each of the remaining Roles followed by the percentage of those powers that only cause damage and do not produce some type of effect:

Defender – 277 (6%)

Striker – 213 (7%)

Leader – 279 (3%)

The number of powers that apply status effects do not tell the entire story, as each power a player has at his or her disposal creates an additional feature that benefits the party in some way including but not limited to tactical movement to a more advantageous position, healing, providing bonuses to hit monsters or fend off incoming attacks. To determine just how many power options exist for each Role, I analyzed the data in two ways.

The first step was to provide an average for the number of power options per power for each Role. For example, the Cleric (Leader) has 137 Powers that can be selected in the Heroic Tier. The 137 Powers create a total of 187 Power Options (i.e., Status Effects, Ongoing damage, Healing, etc.). In other words, each Cleric’s Power during the Heroic Tier produce – on average – 1.36 Power Options. The 1.36 Power Options are in addition to any damage caused by the power. The Cleric’s Power Options Per Power increases to 1.57 at the Paragon Tier and 1.63 at the Epic Tier. The Average presents how many Power Options a party – on average – can create with each Power during the various Tiers of the campaign. The Power Options for the party increases from 1.375 at Heroic Tier to 1.633 at Epic Tier. In other words, each player during Epic Tier has powers that create more additional beneficial effects for the party when compared to power during Heroic and Paragon Tiers.

The same level of progression can be seen by examining the Status Effects Per Power table above. For example, the Druid (Controller) has 90 Powers in Heroic Tier that can result in 40 status effects. Each power for the Druid creates 0.47 (40/90) status effects. The ratio of Powers to status effects decreases during Paragon (0.44) but rises dramatically during Epic (0.81). The Cleric (Leader) also benefits from a large increase in Epic while the Defender and Striker show modest increases.

The data above indicate that players certainly gain more Power Options (or Benefits) as the characters advance in level, which directly addresses the earlier assumptions:

Combat includes too many moving parts and the parts move more rapidly as the players advance in level.

Players gain more options in combat as they advance in level.

Powers simply do more during Epic Tier. In addition to causing damage, powers during Epic Tier create an average of 1.6 additional beneficial effects for the party. In a four-player party, one round of combat produces 6.4 beneficial effects during Epic Tier. By way of comparison, a four-player party can produce 5.5 beneficial effect during Heroic Tier. One additional benefit per round may not seem significant, but the magnitude of beneficial effects also increases during Epic Tier.

One way to determine the magnitude of beneficial effects is to examine how often powers create debilitating effects for enemies during combat. Powers that Stun are incredibly destructive to encounter balance because one (or more) of the monsters losses a full turn. Another power that severely changes the course of battle is Weakened, since it halves the damage output of one (or more) monsters. As the table to the right demonstrates, powers that Stun or Weaken substantially increase during Epic Tier.

The four-player party has no powers that Stun enemies during Heroic Tier. The powers with Stun capability increase to nine for the party at Paragon Tier and almost double again to 16 at Epic Tier. Cumulatively, the Druid, Cleric, Fighter and Rogue have 25 powers that can cause an enemy (or enemies) to be Stunned. During the entire Epic Tier, the same party has no powers to cause an enemy to be Stunned.

While powers that Weaken are found in Heroic (4) and Paragon Tier (5), the total powers that Weaken more than doubles (13) during Epic Tier. Epic Tier damage already has a great deal of variability as more damage dice are involved; powers that Weaken limit the amount of damage a monster can deliver. As a result, the threat level for players is decreased. There is a major difference between suffering 80 points of damage compared to 40 points of damage.

The final power highlighted is Removed, which is rare even in Epic. However, the four-player party could potentially have three powers that would Remove an enemy from the battlefield. The party would not have a single power to Remove an enemy during Heroic and Paragon Tier.

A thought may come to your mind, “Well, that makes sense because all status effects simply scale up as powers advance in level. I’m sure you would get the same result if you created a table for Dazed and other powers.” Excellent argument, but the data does not support that line of reasoning.

As can be seen on the tables to the right, the status effects presented of Dazed, Prone and Restrained do not follow the same linear pattern as Stun, Weaken and Removed. The prevalence of Dazed effects granted by powers for the four-player party ranges from 24 in Heroic Tier to 30 in Epic Tier. As for Prone, Heroic Tier features more powers granting the Prone status effect (45) than either Paragon (29) or Epic Tier (27). Finally, Restrained remains equally rare throughout all Tiers.

The data demonstrate that players not only gain more Power Options (i.e., benefits like movement, ongoing damage, healing, etc) during Epic Tier, but also gain more powerful status effects. The result would appear to confirm the third assumption listed above:

Players gain more powerful options (i.e., status effects) in combat as they advance in level.

Keep in mind, the results above only describe a four-player party without options granted by Feats, Utility Powers, Racial Abilities, Magic Items, Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies. Plus, the analysis does not even begin to address the economy of Move and Minor actions and Action Points. In reality, the players are even more well-equipped to deal with combat during Epic Tier than the results above indicate.

Discussion

The results above demonstrate the multitude of status effects and conditions each player can apply during combat encounters through powers, and how those status effects and conditions increase in number and potency during the Epic Tier. The results provide evidence for three of the most common assumptions regarding combat during the Epic Tier:

Combat includes too many moving parts and the parts move more rapidly as the players advance in level.

Players gain more options in combat as they advance in level.

Players gain more powerful options (i.e., status effects) in combat as they advance in level.

The results also speak directly to the question posed by Monte Cook this morning, “What can you do on your turn?” On any given turn, the player has three options – Move, Minor and Standard Actions in various combinations. However, the powers available to players allow them to do much more than simply attack an enemy; almost all of the powers available although the players to attack and do something else. Players can attack and heal as a free action, or attack and move two squares as a free action, attack and push an enemy three squares, attack and cause the enemy to suffer a penalty and so on. Each player changes the battlefield in multiple ways each turn, and those changes need to be executed and tracked by the party and the DM. There are a great deal of moving parts to deal with in 4th Edition combat because the powers offer too many options.

The DM has several options to combat the combined power of the party: a) increase the level of the combat encounter, b) increase the threat of individual monsters through extra damage or c) create powerful environmental effects or game mechanics to penalize players. Either way, the choices for the DM are a means of extending combat and creating additional effects that need to be tracked so players are tested at higher levels of play. Since the players have great power and alter the battlefield to their benefit each turn, the DM has to create monsters, traps and hazards that meet their challenge.

It is an arms race that results in mutual assured destruction. By mutual assured destruction (see also, WarGames), I refer to the:

doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of both the attacker and the defender, becoming thus a war that has no victory nor any armistice but only effective reciprocal destruction.

In the context of the current discussion, the victims of mutual assured destruction are fun and balance. Combat grinds along at a glacial pace as players plot their many tactical options, roll and calculate large amounts of damage dice and persist while the DM throws more and more at the party. One of the surprising findings is that combat is complex even during the Heroic Tier. But the question is often asked, “What makes Epic Tier epic?” It is a fair question, and I believe it is up to the DM to take the story to a grander scale. The party may start off quelling Kobold uprisings but end the campaign jumping through the Planes and fighting Gods. Throughout the campaign, the mechanics of combat remain unchanged, except the players gain access to more options per-turn and stronger powers that severely limit the threat level posed by monsters.

A recent article expressed thoughts on how to streamline the 10-Level Epic Tier to make it feel more special to the party and less of a sluggish grind to the conclusion of a campaign. The ideas certainly have merit, but speaking as a player, if I’ve invested approximately two years into playing a character, then I want to be rewarded with gaining the “awesome” and “badass” powers that wreak havoc on the battlefield. I want to banish demons to another plane of existence and rob them of actions through powers that Stun and cause other debilitating effects. As a player, Epic Tier could be considered it’s own reward for investing so much time into the game.

Limitations & Future Research

The data analysis has caused several thoughts to form in my mind, but I need to marinate on them before moving forward with additional commentary. (Plus, this post is already closing in on 4,000 words!) However, I want to discuss several limitations to the above analysis.

First, I am one person coding a set of data, which is always a limitation in research. Ideally, two or more individuals would code the data to ensure accuracy. Second, I have made the assumption that each Class of character I coded (Cleric, Druid, Fighter and Rogue) is representative of the associated Role. It is entirely possible that a selection of four other Classes to represent each Role (Leader, Controller, Defender and Striker) would provide different results and outcomes.

Ideally, I would have access to an accurate database of all powers that could be analyzed by any category of interest, such as Class, Role or Tier. For example, it would be informative to quickly answer any of the following questions through such a database:

How many powers in 4th Edition Stun?

How many Classes in each of the four Roles have powers that Dominate?

Are Strikers the most likely Role to have powers that punish enemy with Ongoing Damage?

How large is the average Aura granted by a power in Heroic, Paragon and Epic Tier?

What percentage of Classes offer a Level 7 Encounter Power that creates a Dazed effect?

I imagine that Wizards of the Coast has such a database of powers. If not, then they really should because asking questions like those listed above can go far to develop a balanced game. It would be fantastic to have access to such a database and use a statistical program like SPSS or SAS to answer these (and many other) questions about the design of 4th Edition.

Future research should obviously expand on the analysis to include many more Classes in each Role. Perhaps most importantly, it would be helpful analyze the four Roles but with Essentials Classes. It would be interesting to view those results in comparison to those above. A common refrain from those wishing to improve Epic Tier play is to limit Class selection to Essentials. Someone should investigate that assumption. If someone takes on that challenge, then please let me know because I would enjoy viewing the results.

Questions

My questions for readers who lasted this long with the analysis:

Should status effects be tied to specific Classes or Roles to increase a character’s identify?

How special do you view Status Effects as a DM and as a player?

Should the majority of powers have additional benefits or simply cause damage?

What did you find interesting or surprising in the results above?

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