Originally, IIRC critical hit modifiers were always applied after PV. This was changed because there are monsters (fire giants) that have such high PV that it was impossible to harm them. However, I agree that the cure is worse than the disease, for the reasons explained above. Critical hits become too extreme if you apply the crit modifier before PV.
I really like the idea of softening the PV mechanic, such that normal hits do more than zero damage even if your damage is below the PV value. I think you came up with a good idea, but I propose to modify your formula as follows (step 3):
1. Roll dice for raw damage = D
2. D = D * mighty blow multiplier, if applicable
3. PV adjustment: D = D - PV * (D / (D + PV / w))
4. D = D * critical hit multiplier (if applicable)
The parameter w is a weight factor that determines how difficult it is to pierce through armor. When the weight factor is 0, armor has no effect at all; when the weight factor goes to infinite, the formula simplifies to D = D - PV, like it was before.
When your damage equals the PV of the target, you will deal a fraction of 1 - (1/1+w) of your damage. For example, if w is 1, you deal half your damage; if w is 2, you deal a third of your damage.
I would propose a moderately high weight factor of, say, 3 to 5. This would mean you would deal some 15% to 25% damage against a PV that equals your damage output. But this parameter can of course be freely tinkered with and would need playtesting.
An attractive feature of this formula is that when PV is much lower than raw damage, the effect is almost the same as before. For example, if you deal 25 damage against a target with 5 PV, you still deal approximately 20 points of damage. This is true regardless of the weight factor w. Only when the PV of the target is close to raw damage or exceeds it, the results significantly change and you would partially pierce through armor. More armor will always reduce damage further this way, but the final damage is always greater than zero, even when PV > D.
I hope I got the advantages of this formula across. It's not as complicated as it may seem.
Last edited by grobblewobble; 12-30-2012 at 11:04 PM.
You steal a scroll labelled HITME. The orc hits you.