Damage Adjustment Follow-up & Nightmare Mode

Last week, I posted a short exercise in seeing how expected creature damage expressions stacked up against expected dungeoneer hit points through the entirety of their careers (Levels 1 through 30). What was found, very convincingly, was that as Level increased, creature damage expressions became less and less potent compared to the ever-expanding dungeoneer hit point totals. Looking at this, I asked the question, "If the math involved in Level 1 creatures vs. Level 1 dungeoneers is taken as an ideal, how would that translate to all of the other Levels? The answer came out that, to keep pace with the amount of threat from Level 1, damage expressions need a significant boost even as low as the mid-Heroic Tier.

A very interesting counter-exercise was then posted by The Hydra DM looking to see the inverse: if Level 30 is taken as an ideal, what does that make Level 1 damage expressions look like? the answer, of course, being that Level 1 damage expression become laughably low, which then suggests that published Level 30 damage expressions have been laughably low. Compound this with the ever-increasing means that high level dungeoneers have of negating or avoiding damage, and you can clearly see a complete lack of any real threat at high level play.

This post expands upon my first, by providing a few more Levels of examination to give guidelines for Deity-Level opponents, providing PDFs of the assembled charts, as well as the original calculations in MS Excel format.

A Boot on the Face of Level 1 Damage ... Forever!

My personal favorite level of play in Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition is the very first level. Part of that is due to the simplicity and purity of the characters that are seen. More than that, adventures at 1st Level, even standardized published WotC adventures, have the a higher feel of threat and danger, and also move combat along at a brisk pace.Many others before me have belabored tips & tricks to help speed play up, or analyzed why players take longer to perform their turn at higher levels, and all manner of related subjects. All of these long-winded speculations are unnecessary. I believe that to capture the feeling of threat at Level 1 through all Levels, one must simply do the math.

Thus, my end goal here is to develop a new, simple chart that shows updated damage-by-level information across all 30 levels of play that keeps the relative amount of damage inflicted the same, starting at the brutality of 1st Level. If you think that the MM3-era math is just fine and are comfortable with the paltry amount of damage your epic tier dungeoneers (who have unprecedented access to healing, resist, boosted defenses, and other ways of negating damage) are taking, then read no further, this article is of no use to you.