The fact that it's just a direct representation of the chances with the dice, which, for attack rolls, you can check in the event log... any yet it causes so many people to complain, should perhaps be taken note of itself, by Larian.
There is a difference between "AC 13, +5 to Hit" being displayed, and "Advantage: Unseen attacker" and the player going 'so I have to roll an 8 or better at least once' in their own mind, and then rolling... and seeing a 6 and a 5 come up...
And the player seeing just "87% chance to hit" and seeing it miss.
The difference is purely psychological, but it is real all the same. Our minds, generally, see the first result and rationalise it quickly and contentedly (we might be unhappy or dissatisfied, but we don't generally trigger a 'that's unfair' or a 'you cheater' mental reaction from something like that.). On the other hand, seeing ourselves miss on a reported 87% chance to hit *Feels* nastier, and is far more likely to make us *feel* like it's being unfair, even when it's not.
If our second attack rolls a 7 and a 2, the first display method will certainly still lead to us feeling unhappy, or even unlucky. It *might* even lead to some feeling like the game is fiddling the numbers behind the screen... but not many people will lean that far, unless it happens a lot. On the other hand, the player that say that first 87% chance to hit miss, and then tries again and sees a *second* 87% chance to hit miss, *Again*, is far, far more likely to throw their hands up and accuse the game of cheating or bias.
From an emotionless, feelingless perspective, it's not rational, no. But, we're not emotionless, feelingless people, and we're playing this game for fun... so when a way of presenting something has a more profoundly negative psychological impact on our experience than a different way of presenting that *exact same information*, the designers absolutely *should* take note of it.
I'm in the camp that says that the immediately presented information should be your hit bonus, and the ac of the target, or your own DC and the save bonus of the target. Show the percent chance for your success in the secondary window - as a highlight that you can check if you want to, but don't innately see. Even though it makes zero tangible, mechanical difference to anything in the game, it would change how the information hits people ,and for many people, it would improve their experience of things and make them less likely to feel as though the game is cheating against them.
I DO want to point out that there IS a bug with the displayed hit percentage at the moment, despite all of this.
Your chance to hit is NEVER 100%. It should NEVER claim to be 100%. And yet, it does sometimes. If you want to check, go start a new file quickly, and take Shadowheart up to the intellect devourers. Have her climb up for advantage, and target one of them with a guiding bolt - it will claim that your chance of hitting is 100%. It's not.
Last edited by Niara; 17/12/20 04:41 AM.
