Bloodcut Armor - Overpowered? Or am I playing it wrong?

[babinro]

The armor is below from the PHB: Bloodcut Armor Level 4+ This armor has a crimson tinge that flares blood red when its power is activated. Lvl 4 +1 840 gp Lvl 19 +4 105,000 gp Lvl 9 +2 4,200 gp Lvl 24 +5 525,000 gp Lvl 14 +3 21,000 gp Lvl 29 +6 2,625,000 gp Armor: Leather, Hide Enhancement: AC Power (Healing Surge): Minor Action. While you are bloodied, use this armor to gain resist 10 to all damage until the end of your next turn. Level 14 or 19: Resist 15 to all damage. Level 24 or 29: Resist 20 to all damage. We've been using it in this manor. The fighter becomes bloodied, on his turn he uses a minor action and one of his 10 healing surges to gain resist 10 with his level 9 Bloodcut armor. This lasts until the end of his next turn... The fighter's next turn comes around, and he expends a second healing surge to continue this effect once again. In effect, he could do this until he runs out of healing surges. Is this correct? If so, to me it is over powered. Most enemies so far barely surpass 10 damage unless they roll particularly well. This also completely nullifies all ongoing damage effects as that damage is separated from its initial source. In my game, the fighter was getting crushed by an Ocher Jelly, it eventually split and both halves could effectively not damage the fighter for 10 rounds..easily sufficient enough for the fighter to both hold the choke point and crush the elite monster while other party members attacked from range. If we are playing this right, it seems to me this armor is far superior to just about any other heroic/paragon armor out there..and probably still better than the epic ones since the resist amount improves as the armor does.

 

[DracoSuave]

It's a standard action to recharge a healing surge item, so the Fighter isn't holding the ochre jelly down. Why would the jellies just continue pound him when there's other prey attacking it and being actual threats?

 

[babinro]

Looks like we got the answer, pg 226 PBH under Healing Surges with Magical items. Takes a standard action to recovery the item for use after the first attempt.

 

[Khime]

We've been using it in this manor. The fighter becomes bloodied, on his turn he uses a minor action and one of his 10 healing surges to gain resist 10 with his level 9 Bloodcut armor. This lasts until the end of his next turn... The fighter's next turn comes around, and he expends a second healing surge to continue this effect once again. In effect, he could do this until he runs out of healing surges. Is this correct? If so, to me it is over powered. Most enemies so far barely surpass 10 damage unless they roll particularly well. This also completely nullifies all ongoing damage effects as that damage is separated from its initial source. In my game, the fighter was getting crushed by an Ocher Jelly, it eventually split and both halves could effectively not damage the fighter for 10 rounds..easily sufficient enough for the fighter to both hold the choke point and crush the elite monster while other party members attacked from range. If we are playing this right, it seems to me this armor is far superior to just about any other heroic/paragon armor out there..and probably still better than the epic ones since the resist amount improves as the armor does.

Per PHB p226, you get a daily use of the armor's power, and if you want to use it again, you have to first expend a standard action to "recharge" the Power of the armor, then use your minor action to actually use the power. So yes, he can use it while burning through all 10 of his healing surges... so long as he never actually uses a standard action for anything other than recharging the armor. So he's hard to kill, and can't do damage. I'd just bull-rush him out of the way and go fight someone else if I were a monster, since he's harmless to me.

 

[Nail]

Looks like we got the answer, pg 226 PBH under Healing Surges with Magical items. Takes a standard action to recovery the item for use after the first attempt.

Yup.

And really, spending a healing surge for DR 10 is good...but not *that* good. What if the Ftr isn't hit at all that round (he has a reasonable AC, for example)? Wasted healing surge.

It is good for holding a choke point, but the cost is constant. Might as well not have an AC and just let the mosters hit you, as you've already spent the healing surge.

Interestingly, it's the only healing surge magic item in the PH.

 

[babinro]

The jellies have an intelligence of 1. So I figured since they hurt the fighter before...they would stubbornly keep going for him rather than tactfully find another means of dealing with the situation. Also, in this situation he was blocking their path at a bottleneck point..so barring their usage of bull rush, he was going to remain the only logical target.

 

[Duncan Haldane]

Armor: Leather, Hide

Is your fighter really wearing Leather or Hide armour?

 

[Tikigod]

The jellies have an intelligence of 1. So I figured since they hurt the fighter before...they would stubbornly keep going for him rather than tactfully find another means of dealing with the situation. Also, in this situation he was blocking their path at a bottleneck point..so barring their usage of bull rush, he was going to remain the only logical target.

Usually I have creature with that low of intelligence attack the last person that damaged them or sometimes the person that did the most damage. They lash out at the thing that is causing them pain.

 

[silentounce]

Is your fighter really wearing Leather or Hide armour?

I'm guessing that they are running through KotS, based on the monster mentioned and that armour. So, they're probably second level. He probably chose to wear it just because it's magical. And it's really not too far behind just standard chain or scale. Heh, especially because they've been using it incorrectly. It's also possible that the fighter may be the only party member capable of wearing hide, depending on the party make-up.

To do the math: chain is only 2 points better than +1 hide, scale is 3 better. If the fighter has a decent dex or int then this can be minimized or erased. Hide also does not have a speed penalty.

I'm wondering who's wearing the +1 dwarven chain they should have also found by this point.

 

[Tony Vargas]

My warlord picked up the Bloodcut Hide armor in KotS. It's pretty cool, but it's also a little bit of a trap. It's worth it to spend a healing surge if the one turn of damage resistance saves you more than a surge worth of damage, right? But, I found I was provoking more OAs and such on that turn. So it looked like a better deal than it really was, compared to just playing cautiously. You can burn through surges faster re-charging the armor than just playing prudently without it.