Sir Brennen
Legend
That's why he's secretly a ninja. Duh!Too bad a pirate would kick his butt.![]()

That's why he's secretly a ninja. Duh!Too bad a pirate would kick his butt.![]()
Hmmm... okay so its the miss striker damage that saves the mechanism...Of course you get diminishing returns the longer you wait, but there's never a point where waiting isn't strictly better than not waiting.
Except that Shadow, the source the Necromancer is most likely to use, will not be in PHB3. PHB3 is Psionics, Divine, Primal. The only way the Necromancer will appear is if it's Divine, which imo would be a mistake, but eh.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...08-assassin-preview-gencon-2.html#post4891839Hmmm... okay so its the miss striker damage that saves the mechanism...
okay, so how much does the damage increase then, for the four rounds?
I guess you'll want to answer that for a 25% miss chance, 50% miss chance and 75% miss chance (as the higher chance you have to hit, the less relevant it becomes to hold off your shroud damage?)
What I'm getting at is that the opportunity cost for choosing much damage later instead of less damage now is not zero. So if the damage increase for waiting one more round is small enough, it probably isn't worth the micro-management.
This is of course up to each assassin player to decide - if we have the figures to begin with!
If he has one shroud active, he can do expected bonus damage of .3*0 + .7*7 = 4.9
If he has two, he can do .3*7 + .7*14 = 11.9
If he has three, he can do .3*14 + .7*21 = 18.9
If he has four, he can do .3*21 + .7*28 = 25.9
If you want DPR numbers, just divide those by 12.If you do not believe me, assume combat is 12 rounds long. Character A uses his shroud damage every round. B uses it every other. C every third, and D every fourth.
A will have expected bonus damage of 12*4.9 = 58.8
B will have expected bonus damage of 6*11.9 = 71.4
C will have 4*18.9 = 75.6
D will have 3*25.9 = 77.7
Shadow will be showcased in a PHB. Whether it's 4 or 5 is still up in the air, but it will happen. Assassin being a Shadow Striker for DDi has no bearing on that, just like knowing a year in advance that Artificer would be a n Arcane Leader in the EPG had no bearing on there being an Arcane Leader in PHB2.I fully expected Shadow to be in the PHB3 as well, and am a little surprised that it's not looking like it will be.
I personally feel that one of the following will be true:
1) There are no immediate plans for a Necromancer, and at best you might find Shadow as a power source in a PHB4.
2) "Shadow" may be considered a subset of Divine (power of evil or destructive gods).
3) Shadow may only be in sources other than the standard PHB line, in order to encourage more "Good" and Heroic play by default, with more sinister races, classes, etc being the domain of Dragon articles and perhaps a splatbook.
These seem like the 3 most likely scenarios to me.
Not to derail the striker damage part of the discussion, but did anybody else notice that the Assassin is only getting controller HP? 10+CON and 4/level. A level 11 rogue with the same stats would have 76 hp, not this guy's 64. Also, class bonus is +1 Fort/Will, -no- Reflex bonus.
Considering how people complain about the rogue being squishy, this seems pretty significant. There are some class powers to help out, but the Assassin is going to get smacked around a lot.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.Why is it that every thread these days derails into DPR calculations?!
What's wrong with you guys? No longer get to actually roleplay?
I think I need a vacation. soon.