"Enter the Crucible" L10 Endurance Utility - Resist 10 all for Encounter

Obryn · Nov 29, 2012

Wanted to kinda necro this thread for a second.

The PC with Enter the Crucible broke it out again last night, and it pretty much made him immune to these specific enemies.

However.

They just stopped attacking him. Defender he may be, but his lockdown ability has been stymied against 4 artillery and 5 skirmishers. Instead, the two strikers are on their second failed death save, the Warlord is out of even his worst heals, the Psion is out of power points & dailies, and the Berserker himself is stuck in Defender mode because he doesn't have any Primal Attack powers to burn and he can't get bloodied to trigger his Wrath himself. But hey, he has a lot of hit points left!

So no, it does not ruin encounters - you just have to go against everyone else.

-O

keterys · Nov 29, 2012

Well... unless you have 1 encounter days and/or multiple people have it.

But yeah, my general reaction to PCs using "Neener" buttons like massive resist or insubstantial or invisibility for an encounter is to just go for other people. It's one reason why a lot of people don't consider permastealth a good option; it just removes one target, focusing more damage on the rest.

Unwise · Nov 30, 2012

I was just mucking around with some numbers on this. The dwarven Battlemind in my game has 16 healing surges that each heal for 30HP. He is a very tough guy. So if this ability makes him spend a healing surge to activate it, then it has to save him from at least 30HP damage to even break even with the expense of spending the surge.

I like to keep fights fairly quick, but lets say he picks a longer one to activate it in, say 5 rounds. Lets say he does well at locking down two enemies every turn, despite the fact they obviously don't want to hit him.

So 5 rounds, attacked twice per turn = 10 attacks
Half of them hit = 5 hits
So Damage ignored = 50
Normal surge = 30
So total difference = 20HP

He would have just spent a daily power in order to save 20 more HP and spare the healer having to use an encounter power to heal him.

There are times and places where this ability can be astoundingly good, but that is not always the case. That sounds roughly balanced enough to me.2

Out of interest, don't low paragon level knights get a Resist 5 All, all the time? If a GM hated this ability they would loath that.

(Psi)SeveredHead · Nov 30, 2012

Unwise said:
Out of interest, don't low paragon level knights get a Resist 5 All, all the time? If a GM hated this ability they would loath that.

Knights get resist 5 all at 16th-level, and only when bloodied. (I don't recall if it's something all knights get, or only some.)

Resist 5 is quite a bit different at resist 10, six levels later. At paragon level, any auto-damage (eg auras, hazardous terrain, swarm auras) and ongoing damage are likely to have values of 10. It reduces but does not eliminate the damage.

Obryn said:
Instead, the two strikers are on their second failed death save, the Warlord is out of even his worst heals, the Psion is out of power points & dailies, and the Berserker himself is stuck in Defender mode because he doesn't have any Primal Attack powers to burn and he can't get bloodied to trigger his Wrath himself. But hey, he has a lot of hit points left!

How would this encounter compare to the XP guidelines?

What sort of defender did you have? Did enemies ignore his marks and off-turn attacks/Divine Challenge/whatever?

the Jester · Nov 30, 2012

Unwise said:
I was just mucking around with some numbers on this....

So 5 rounds, attacked twice per turn = 10 attacks
Half of them hit = 5 hits
So Damage ignored = 50
Normal surge = 30
So total difference = 20HP

He would have just spent a daily power in order to save 20 more HP and spare the healer having to use an encounter power to heal him.

Yeah, but keep in mind that it's also a matter of tactical efficiency. This power helps him avoid a turn by being unconscious, helps prevent "only on bloodied enemy" attacks, etc. It also keeps that healing available for another pc.

I'm not arguing that the power is broken, but just that the difference is far more than just 20 hp. Still, I'll agree with your overall assessment- roughly balanced.

Obryn · Nov 30, 2012

(Psi)SeveredHead said:
How would this encounter compare to the XP guidelines?

This one was L+3, but 16th level.

What sort of defender did you have? Did enemies ignore his marks and off-turn attacks/Divine Challenge/whatever?

He had Enter the Crucible. He's a berserker, but these guys were mostly reskinned (up-powered? I forget) Drow Venomblades with their faerie fire was a psionic ability. Normally, he's very efficient, but this specific enemy makeup hosed him bad. They provoked his marks several times... when he could make OA's.

-O

Manbearcat · Nov 30, 2012

Put it at level 16 with Stoneskin and I'd be fine with it. DR 10 is extremely powerful at mid-Paragon. A Bladesinger with Stoneskin (coupled with their naturally high AC, ability to improve their AC, and impose negatives to hit) is a devastating protagonist. If you advanced Stoneskin to end of Heroic Tier it would be far too much for the math of that level to handle. Level 10 Brute Minions would be doing 1 damage per attack while the highest damage Level 10 Brute Standards, Elites, Solos would be doing roughly 12 damage per attack. If you aren't using Brutes then the damage goes from marginal to inconsequential.