Arcane Strike: Broken?
- Thread starter Remathilis
- Start date
Question
First Post
Im trying to figure out a way for a gish to use it.
The best way to be a gish now is the duskblade, and they have a lot of spellslots, BUT they only go up to 6th level at high levels, and they have that many spell slots because they need to burn through them to make touch attacks with the channel ability.
Using arcane strike and arcane channeling at once will get you some crazy damage, but will deplete you so fast you will never survive anything more than 2.......maybe 3 encounters a day.
It will work for the BBEG encounters though, or if your DM only throws 2 max at you per day.
Now, any other way to get it to work probably involves some kind of eldrict knight type......which isnt a very good build in the first place, you are just burning spell slots to get back the BAB/damage you lost by being a MAD multi-classed wiz/sorc anyway, difference being the spell slots are finite.
Im pretty sure you could abuse polymorph with it though.
Lets see, what does arcane striking with, say, a 6th level spell slot, and being polymorphed into a 12 headed hydra work out to?
The best way to be a gish now is the duskblade, and they have a lot of spellslots, BUT they only go up to 6th level at high levels, and they have that many spell slots because they need to burn through them to make touch attacks with the channel ability.
Using arcane strike and arcane channeling at once will get you some crazy damage, but will deplete you so fast you will never survive anything more than 2.......maybe 3 encounters a day.
It will work for the BBEG encounters though, or if your DM only throws 2 max at you per day.
Now, any other way to get it to work probably involves some kind of eldrict knight type......which isnt a very good build in the first place, you are just burning spell slots to get back the BAB/damage you lost by being a MAD multi-classed wiz/sorc anyway, difference being the spell slots are finite.
Im pretty sure you could abuse polymorph with it though.
Lets see, what does arcane striking with, say, a 6th level spell slot, and being polymorphed into a 12 headed hydra work out to?
Remathilis
Legend
mikebr99 said:
Re-reading the feat (and its poor wording). It says "a single melee weapon of his choice"
No dual-wielding
No Bows/Rapid Shot
Thanks to everyone who sorted this thing out. Its not such a broken monster anymore.
frankthedm
First Post
I assumed that was a given. Not that TT is that good. The cleric's version is soo much better and only 5th level.szilard said:
By itself, it's not that strong a feat. With the right build, it's pretty monstrous. For example, if you combine it with Divine Power (from the Arcane Disciple feat, even better if you quicken the Divine Power). Now you've got full BAB, a +4 or +5 weapon (from Greater Magic Weapon), a decent enough strength, and a stackable bonus to hit. Now, you've got Power Attack, right? Because you're a melee type. So turn that +9 attack bonus into +18 damage. Now you're burning a 9th level spell for +40 damage, 5 times a round (you're hasted, either through your spells, a companion's spells, or boots of speed).
But really, the far more abusive use of this is on a nice, big, dragon. An ancient red, for example, has 7th level spell slots. Nice, sure, but he's a dragon. He's got better things to do in combat than cast prismatic spray. Like take a full attack (bite, haste bite, claw, claw, wing, wing, tail) all with +7 to hit and +17.5 damage. If you power attack the attack bonus away, you're getting about 173 damage out of that feat and a spell slot that you probably weren't going to use for much else anyway. Too bad you can only do that 5 times a day.
But really, the far more abusive use of this is on a nice, big, dragon. An ancient red, for example, has 7th level spell slots. Nice, sure, but he's a dragon. He's got better things to do in combat than cast prismatic spray. Like take a full attack (bite, haste bite, claw, claw, wing, wing, tail) all with +7 to hit and +17.5 damage. If you power attack the attack bonus away, you're getting about 173 damage out of that feat and a spell slot that you probably weren't going to use for much else anyway. Too bad you can only do that 5 times a day.
FireLance
Legend
Too bad each slot only affects one weapon, so it's going to have to decide which one it wants to boost - bite, claw, wing or tail.Wish said:But really, the far more abusive use of this is on a nice, big, dragon. An ancient red, for example, has 7th level spell slots. Nice, sure, but he's a dragon. He's got better things to do in combat than cast prismatic spray. Like take a full attack (bite, haste bite, claw, claw, wing, wing, tail) all with +7 to hit and +17.5 damage. If you power attack the attack bonus away, you're getting about 173 damage out of that feat and a spell slot that you probably weren't going to use for much else anyway. Too bad you can only do that 5 times a day.
RigaMortus2
First Post
Depend in the character build (classes, PrCs, feats, etc) this feat has the potential to be "broken". Again, this is with specific builds, and it isn't so much this particular feat that is broken, but the combination of classes/feats/etc.
Also keep in mind, this feat is used when making melee attacks, which means a "martial" type of character. So comparing against what a stright up spellcaster can do with a 9th level spell is not very accurate. Instead, compare it to what other melee characters or gish characters can do.
Also keep in mind, this feat is used when making melee attacks, which means a "martial" type of character. So comparing against what a stright up spellcaster can do with a 9th level spell is not very accurate. Instead, compare it to what other melee characters or gish characters can do.
