So what I wound up doing is splitting inherent power from weapon power, and the same for defense. 4 stats:
- weapon
- might
- armor
- toughness

The damage formula I devised for basic attacks is 4 * a.might * (a.weapon - b.armor)/b.toughness.
#rpgmakermz #rpgmaker

https://twitter.com/heroofhyla/status/1298901474668244992

I chose curves for might, weapon power, and target damage-per-round for my "ideal character" arbitrarily. Then I also chose arbitrarily that a character with a weapon 4 levels out-dated should do about 40% as much damage as a properly-equipped one.