@eujin: That's what pisses me off about the game from what I played in the closed beta. I picked a Devoted Cleric, and I was AUTO ATTACKING for 23-30 damage on a regular basis. IT'S A CLERIC! At level 1, about the only chance that a Cleric has of hitting for that much on an auto attack is by using a 1-handed warhammer with a shield, then hitting a nat 20 roll for crit threat, breaking AC after, and then hitting a full 8 on their damage roll for the x3 crit + strength modifier (which is probably about a +1 or +2)...and even then, they would probably need to take Power Attack (which would be a little dumb for a Cleric) and trade off at least 3 attack bonus in order to get up to a possible...29?
So DDO is based off 3.5 edition (Eberron specifically) which is fine. I enjoyed DDO as well for quite some time, even if having a Warforged Monk is silly without a 32 point build.
For clarification for all: you mentioned auto-attacking, which has never existed in NW, except perhaps alpha. You could maybe hold down the at-will 1 button, but you still have to manually target.
You're also going off D&D 3rd edition math. In addition, the Devoted Cleric preferred build in 4E/class in NW uses a Holy Symbol as a regular implement instead of a mace. In 4th Edition, Holy Symbols counted as magic items, and added 1d6 to your attack rolls at level 1, then 2d6 at level 3, 3d6 at level 6, etc. And that's only if you have a standard Holy Symbol, rather than a +1/+2/special holy symbol.
I don't have a cleric in any of my 3 character slots, but for some comparison math: My Control Wizard is level 6, and has Magic Missile as an at will power. Without his Magic Orb equipped, it does 5-15 damage. In the D&D 4e PHB, at level 1 Magic missile does 2d4+Intelligence Modifier, which for me right now is +4, so a non-crit max damage would be 12, so it's not that far off.
The biggest difference is due to the fact that we're picking up magical implements and weapons from near the start. It's explained somewhat lore wise from the fact that Neverwinter was one of the largest cities on this part of the continent, had a huge foundation of magical craftsman and vaults from before their recent massive destruction of the city happened. So trinkets are everywhere.
Because of this, my +1 magic orb takes that 5-15 damage and makes it 24-40, and in the PHB, it would have made my Magic Missile go from 2d4+Int mod to 2d4+Int mod+2d6, which at max damage would be 24. A bigger disparity, sure, but still not that huge of a difference.
This might clear up some of your concerns about the numbers. While they are slightly inflated, they're not really that much inflated over base 4th Edition. 4th edition was designed for the players to be paragons of these archetypes rather than struggling(or doomed, if you're dealing with 2nd edition) adventurers. One of the main things WOTC wanted was for players to feel decently capable at level 1 rather than having to wait for level 10.
Again, I'm not writing this wall of text in attempt to dissuade you from your feelings on it, it's perfectly fine. I just wanted to bring some clarity to how it compares to its source material, which is the current edition of D&D. With that in mind, it's decently close.
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