swordmage preview - reliable powers with effects?

[comrade raoul]

The level 29 daily in the swordmage preview is a reliable attack power that, as an effect, increases your crit range to 19-20 for the duration of the encounter. (This is nice for the swordmage, who--lacking Dex--would otherwise probably not be able to get Heavy Blade Mastery.)

The problem? Since it's reliable, the swordmage has a considerable incentive to miss with the power--so he can improve his crit range for another encounter, too.

The correct response, probably, is just to not make the power reliable or limit the crit benefit to a hit--but, by RAW, how exploitable is this? Can the swordmage choose to "attack the darkness" or whatever with the power whenever he wants--retaining the crit benefit all day long (he'd just "miss" with it again every five minutes or after every short rest), until the end of the encounter where he actually uses it successfully (thereby expending it)?

 

[DLichen]

Granting your enemy full concealment is a pretty hefty -5 to hit, attacking with a non-proficient non-magical weapon would also do some damage.

But I can't imagine having to spend a standard action to gain 19-20 crit threat particularly overpowered. Cheesy, but not broken.

 

[Runestar]

Doesn't seem particularly out of line for a lv29 power...

 

[James McMurray]

The DMG handles this. You can't just "attack the darkness." A target has to be a credible threat. No target, no attack. No attack, no effect.

 

[dervish]

Shut your eyes and take a swing at the enemy with your fist. Can't be much more certain to miss. -5 for total concealment, effective -6 compared to your magical weapon, and no proficiency bonus should do the trick. If it doesn't, you can always lie down...

That said, the design of the power is quite a bit strange. However, I don't see it causing that many problems (besides, perhaps, some strange tactics).

 

[Saeviomagy]

Since he could just take a feat to get a 19-20 crit all day without having to choose a daily, waste a standard action and also hope that he doesn't roll that 20 which breaks the combo all day... I don't see a problem.

In fact, just the fact that any weapon user with a brain will take the 19-20 crit feat makes the ability fairly sub-par.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

If anything, the power seems kind of subpar to me, considering that a swordmage could very well have a 19-20 crit chance all the time from a feat by that level. If that's the case, why waste a precious power slot on that? I'd really need to see the power in the context of the rest of the class.

 

[That One Guy]

See I also think that there's a swordmage paragon path that gets a 19-20 threat range. Sir Brennen scanned some sheets of the level 17 conminisample which can be seen in this thread. The threat range for that character is 19-20 @ paragon... may be due to weapon or something, but I doubt it. Point being, I don't think the power is over-powered.

 

[comrade raoul]

Since he could just take a feat to get a 19-20 crit all day without having to choose a daily, waste a standard action and also hope that he doesn't roll that 20 which breaks the combo all day... I don't see a problem.

In fact, just the fact that any weapon user with a brain will take the 19-20 crit feat makes the ability fairly sub-par.

Well, the thing about the feats is--like I said in the first post--that swordmages don't really have a reason to invest in Dex, and Heavy Blade Mastery takes a 17.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Well, the thing about the feats is--like I said in the first post--that swordmages don't really have a reason to invest in Dex, and Heavy Blade Mastery takes a 17.

Since every single heavy and light blade specific feat requires dex, I'd say they do have a very good reason to invest in it.

Anyway - my point was that gaining the critical range is not actually that big a buff: it's something that you can get via a feat. You're talking about exchanging a daily power slot plus lost actions for a 1/20 chance per attack roll that you'll crit when you otherwise wouldn't have.