Trial of Echoed Souls - Soul Tapping for 4e

So.. page 46 details 'soul tapping' an how PCs can 'borrow' abilities from thier allies. For 4e, I was thinking it could be written up this way:

Soul Tap
Move action, At will
One Ally in Burst 10

You reach out through the ether and connect with an ally, drawing upon the power of joined souls. Until the end of your next turn, both you and the target gain Vulnerable psychic, and both take damage from psychic attacks to either yourself or your ally.

Select one option, rolling an Insight check to beat the DC and gain the effect. Failure by 5 or more deals 1 psychic damage to you and your ally.

Telepathy: DC 10 + 1 per square between you and your ally
Effect:
- Communicate telepathically with one ally within range until the start of your next turn
Sustain Minor: Sustains both the telepathic link and the Soul Tap vulnerability

Ability Echo: DC 10 + level of the power echoed.
Basic Attacks are DC 11 at heroic, DC 16 at Paragon, and DC 21 at Epic
Effect: until the start of your next turn, retrain a power to one that your ally posseses and has not used. That power has to be of the same type and cannot be a higher level than the one you retrain.
When you use this power, you breifly take on the appearance of your ally and treat the power as if your ally used it from your square. This includes weapons, implements, etc..

Grant Ability Echo: DC 15 + level of the power echoed
Basic Attacks are DC 11 at heroic, DC 16 at Paragon, and DC 21 at Epic
Effect: Lose a power as if you had spent it. Your ally gains this power until the end of his/her next turn. When the ally uses this power, they breifly take on your appearance and treats the power as if you had used it from thier square. This includes weapons, implements, etc..

Skill Boost: DC 10 + level of ally
Effect: Gain a +4 to a skill that the ally has trained, or a +2 to a save, or a +2 to a skill that the ally does not have trained.



Thoughts?

I was trying to work out a way to have monsters steal powers from players and use 'em against them. I've played around with a few options, but not liked them much. Conversely, I want to include the same sort of ability in the Order of Echoed Souls paragon path.

Sooooo.. is that a 'I like where you are going and would like to expand on it a bit', or a 'whoa buddy, you got off the tracks to fun-town a couple miles back...'?


Assuming the former
Soul Tapping could be a paragon path feature, altho it would need to be expanded to include borrowing monster powers.

Primitive Screwhead said:

Soul Tapping could be a paragon path feature, altho it would need to be expanded to include borrowing monster powers.

Click to expand...

Yup, that's where I run into difficulties. Monster powers are so varied.

Re: Morrus
If soul tapping's an encounter power, then sure, you might be able to snag a powerful attack the monster has, but only once. Very few monster attacks are as powerful as PC dailies.

In fact, maybe you could call it 'soul echo,' and it would let you use the attack power that a chosen monster used most recently, with the monster's same attack modifiers. Probably put in a restriction saying "if the power has any prerequisites, you must fulfill those, and if it references other powers or abilities of the monster, that part of the power has no effect (since you don't have those other abilities)."


Re: Primitive Screwhead
I think your version's a little over-complicated, with unnecessary rolling. Bear in mind, this effect is only available for one part of one adventure, so you can get away with it being strong. It will make it stand out more.

How about:


Soul Tap
Move Action, At-Will
Close Burst 10, One Creature in Burst
Int, Wis, or Cha +4 vs. Will (you do not need to roll against a willing ally)

Hit: You and the creature form a psychic bond. Until the end of your next turn, whenever one of you takes 5 points or more damage from a single effect, the other takes 1 point of psychic damage.

Sustain Minor: The bond persists until the end of your next turn.

Effect: Choose one of the following. As long as the psychic bond is active, you gain the chosen benefit. When gaining a skill or power, any numerical statistics (attack bonus, damage bonus, skill modifier, etc.) are the exact same as those of the bonded creature.

1. You and the bonded creature can communicate telepathically.

2. Choose a skill. You can use the bonded creature's skill bonus in place of your own.

3. Choose an at-will power the bonded creature possesses. You can use that power. It has the same statistics as if the original creature used it.

4. Expend an encounter attack power. You take 5 psychic damage. Choose an encounter or recharge power the bonded creature possesses. You can use that power once.

RW, I was leaning forward to using the same sort of mechanic in a dream-world setting, but I agree that your write-up is much easier to handle at the table.

I would change:

Hit:... For each 5 points of damage one creature takes, the bonded creature takes 1 point of psychic damage {add scaling}

Sustain: ...end of your next turn and you can choose a new effect.

4. ... Choose an encounter or recharge power the bonded creature possesses. The chosen power cannot be of higher level than the power you expended. While bonded to the same creature you can use that power once as a Standard Action.

Add:
5. Expend a power. You take 10 psychic damage. While bonded to the same creature you can use that power as a Standard Action as if you were located in the other creatures space.


~~~~
Does telepathic communication have to be a seperate choice, or just have it be a constant benefit? I know that can be pretty powerful depending on the game style, but Khalastar already have racial at-will telepathic abilities.


I do plan on this ability eeking into future sessions as either part of a paragon path or in a dream-world session, so I want it to be good, but not overly good.