Comparing the 4e Martial Strikers
I wanted to offer a bit of insight into the math behind Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. Having run the system for nearly a year now, I can tell you that subjectively the system feels pretty balanced. Subjectivity is always a bit of a rub, however. When dealing with systems governed by numbers, feelings are no substitute for calculations and arithmetic. Just for grins, I wanted to calculate the average damage per round (DPR) for the two martial strikers — the rogue and the ranger — to see how they compare. Both classes are, after all, designed for single-target damage and mobility.
Getting the average ACs by level is pretty easy since the Dungeon Masters Guide conveniently provides the information necessary for creating your own monsters. The skirmisher, we are told, is essentially the baseline monster. Soldiers will be a little harder to hit; brutes will be easier to hit, etc. The skirmisher’s AC should be around 15 at first level (character level + 14).
Rogues get a bonus to hit with daggers, so I used the humble dagger as my weapon for this theoretical rogue. In addition, I choose to base this series of calculations using at-will attacks since they are repeatable until the encounter is over. For the rogue, Sly Flourish seems to be a pretty powerful at-will attack, adding both Dexterity and Charisma to the final damage. Since we’re intentionally min-maxing, we’ll choose a halfling for our trickster rogue. Using the standard array, our rogue will have an 18 DEX and a 16 CHA. With all of the bonuses to hit (+3 proficiency bonus, +1 class bonus using daggers, +4 dexterity), our rogue has a 70% chance to hit our baseline skirmisher.
When it comes to damage, our rogue is going to do 1d4+7, and at least some of the time, he’s also going to do sneak attack damage. Based on what I’ve seen in my ongoing 4e game, I’m going to assume that our rogue can get combat advantage 75% of the time. Honestly, with proper tactics and power selection, this is probably a conservative estimate. Given all of these factors, our rogue will do 11.4 DPR. If he takes the Backstabber feat, his DPR goes up to 12.6. Keep in mind that rogue damage is rather situational. If you can only get combat advantage 50% of the time your numbers will drop to 10.5 DPR with backstabber or 9.4 DPR without it.
Rangers require a bit more complicated math since we’re going to use Twin Strike as our at-will power. Rangers get to add their Hunter’s Quarry bonus if they hit with at least one of their attacks. Given this, we have to calculate the probability of events which are not mutually exclusive. This is governed by the equation P(A) + P(B) – P(A and B).
For melee rangers, we’ll assume that our ranger has an 18 STR (to match our rogue’s 18 DEX above) and that she’s using a +3 proficiency weapon like longswords or bastard swords. Because rangers don’t get a class bonus for melee weapons, we’re looking at a 65% chance to hit our skirmisher. Given this percentage chance, we can calculate that our ranger is going to apply Hunter’s Quarry damage 87.75% of the time. But not so fast, since our melee ranger is also up in the thick of combat, he should also be maneuvering for combat advantage at all times. Increasing your chance to hit, increases your overall DPR.
Considering damage for our melee ranger, we’ll assume that she’s either going to take Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword) or Lethal Quarry (+1d8 damage for Hunter’s Quarry rather than +1d6) as her first level feat. The numbers work out to be 10.2 DPR for our bastard sword ranger and 9.8 for our Lethal Quarry / longsword ranger. So, if you’re building a melee ranger for damage, pick up the weapon proficiency feat before Lethal Quarry. Also, worth noting is that combat advantage doesn’t cause our damage to spike upward like the rogue. Assuming only 50% combat advantage, our average DPR only drops by about 0.3-0.4 — a far cry from the 2.0-2.1 DPR that the rogue loses with the same calculations.
Archer rangers have to be a bit more strategic with their shots. Normally, bow users have a slightly lower chance to hit because of the lower proficiency bonus (+2 for both the longbow and the greatbow), but the Prime Shot class ability compensates for this somewhat, giving a +1 bonus to hit as long as the ranger is the closest party member to the target. Without Prime Shot, archer rangers have a 60% chance to hit, but prime shot will bring that right back up to 65%. With prime shot, our chance to land at least one attack and therefore do our Hunter’s Quarry damage is exactly that of our melee ranger: 87.75% of the time. Being further away means a modest drop to 84%.
Given these percentages, we can calculate that our greatbow ranger will do 10.74 DPR without Prime Shot and 11.5 DPR with it. Our longbow / Lethal Quarry ranger will output 10.38 DPR without Prime Shot or 11.1 DPR with it.
The end results look something like this.
| Class | Hit % | Mean DPR | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rogue | 70% (80% with combat advantage) | 12.6 | 18 DEX / 16 CHA, Sly Flourish, Combat Advantage (75%), Backstabber |
| Rogue | 70% (80% with combat advantage) | 11.4 | 18 DEX / 16 CHA, Sly Flourish, Combat Advantage (75%) |
| Ranger | 65% (75% with combat advantage) | 11.2 | melee, 18 STR, Combat Advantage (75%), bastard sword proficiency |
| Ranger | 65% (75% with combat advantage) | 10.7 | melee, 18 STR, Combat Advantage (75%), Lethal Quarry |
| Ranger | 60% (65% Prime Shot) | 10.74 (11.5 Prime Shot) | archer, 18 DEX, greatbow proficiency |
| Ranger | 60% (65% Prime Shot) | 10.38 (11.1 Prime Shot) | archer, 18 DEX, Lethal Quarry |
tl;dr The two PHB martial strikers are on pretty even ground. If you have a mind for tactics, then the rogue might be your best choice. If you can consistently get combat advantage through flanking, your damage scales up accordingly.