First, I got my dnd core set! 
I have been running non-stop combats just to check things out. I have to say Lay on Hands is an increadibly powerfulc lass feature. Using it the paladin can keep healing himself as long as he has surges as a minor action each round!! My firstlevel DB paladin of bahamut defeated a level 5 ghoul (directly taken from MM) thanks to his surges.
Anyhow, after that I realized I wanted to see the power of Blade Cascade for myself, I ran a combat between a 15th level elf ranger vs a dragon!!
CHARACTER SELECTION (Press Start):
-level 15 ranger
-race: elf
-the ranger has NO magical items/weapons/armor etc. Furthermore, I only gave him a coupleof the highest powers he could take since he wouldn't need them all anyway (how right I was)
-Attributes generated using 22 pt buy as per phb then adding increases.
-Used the retraining mechanic (which IMO is silly and which I might ban in my games) to give him more paragon level feats.
KenShin-Zen the Ranger (Kenshi for short! )
Str 23
Dex 18
Con 15
Wis 17
Int 09
Cha 11
Hp: 106/106; Surges: 08/08, AC: 18 Fort/Ref/Will: 22/22/20, AP:1/1
Skills: Nature, Dungeoneering, Stealth, Perception, Acrobatics
Class Abilities:
Hunters Quarry (+2d6)
Prime Shot (+1 attk)
TWF
Powers:
Armor Splinter
Claws of the griffon
Unbalancing Parry
Tield Ground
Blade Cascade
Feats:
Toughness
Elven precision
TWF/TWD
WF (Scimitar)
Lethal Hunter
Devastating Critical
Bloodthrist
Scimitar Dance
Truimphant attack
Attack:
+16 1d8 + 1 dual scimitars basic/Str
Armor: Hide
Before you start calling me out on stats, look over the feats first. He gets a boost to AC and damage due to TWF/TWD feats. Hunters Quarry is boosted to d8's dueto feat, etc etc.
OPPONENT;Adult Whilte Dragon! [Lvl 11 Solo; 408 hp; AC:23]
CONTROLS; Opponents begin fight close to each other.
ROUND !: FIGHT!
Ranger wins intitative, opens up with armor spliter! Both attacks hit, do a total of 23 pts of damage when the STR bonus of +6 is factored in. Furthermore they reduce Mr. Dragon's AC by 5 points, from 23 to 17! Now Kenshi has a whopping +16 to hit so he now only misses on a natural 1 (on which all characters fumble no matter their total attack bonus)
Kenshi grins, and spends an action point to gain a standard action! Raising both his bloodied scimitars intot he air he screams:
"BLAAAD'E-AH CASCAAAD'E-AH"
His scimitars erupte with crackling energy, and weird Japenese Symbols appear all around him, while a hard rock soundstrack starts playing.
Kenshi then starts laying the pain onto Mr Dragon!
5 attacks then Kenshi rolls a 1. He then uses his racial elven power to reroll it and starts the cascade again! 22 more attacks!
Final total of a whopping 27 attacks! Each does 1d8 + 6 damage.
1 of these was a crit..with a scimitar (high crit) AND devastating critical feat. Then you add the +2d8 from Quarry. Furthermore as soon as the dragon got bloodied Kenshi's Bloodthrirst feat kicked in. Taking all this into account Kenshi did a whopping 348 pts of damage in one round taking dragon down from 403 to 55.
Kenshi: "You must defeat Drizzt Do Urden to stand a chance!"
I didn't bother to continue since the outcome is obvious at this point (Kenshi still has one more round before armor splinter wears off, and even after that his tH of +16 is more than enough to ensure victory)
My thoughts?
Well, depsite the fact the dragon was level 09 solo brute and the ranger 15, keep in mind the ranger was alone AND without magical weapons/armor.
For fun I tried it out with an adult red dragon, and the ranger got slaughtered. The dragon was a level 15 solo so the ranger needed a rollof 17 to hit it (especially the crucial armor splinter which is neeed to chain this combo). Not impossible no, but very hard. But very doable with a party and or magic items (magic scimitars).
So in the end I have to say that while this ability is certainly very powerful and potentially quite abusable, perhaps this exploit (haha!) should remain the way it is for those rare and memorable sessions where the ranger manages to destroy a powerful critter with this very power. Basically the only issue is that when this combo works, it works far far too well.
I have been running non-stop combats just to check things out. I have to say Lay on Hands is an increadibly powerfulc lass feature. Using it the paladin can keep healing himself as long as he has surges as a minor action each round!! My firstlevel DB paladin of bahamut defeated a level 5 ghoul (directly taken from MM) thanks to his surges.
Anyhow, after that I realized I wanted to see the power of Blade Cascade for myself, I ran a combat between a 15th level elf ranger vs a dragon!!
CHARACTER SELECTION (Press Start):
-level 15 ranger
-race: elf
-the ranger has NO magical items/weapons/armor etc. Furthermore, I only gave him a coupleof the highest powers he could take since he wouldn't need them all anyway (how right I was)
-Attributes generated using 22 pt buy as per phb then adding increases.
-Used the retraining mechanic (which IMO is silly and which I might ban in my games) to give him more paragon level feats.
KenShin-Zen the Ranger (Kenshi for short!
)Str 23
Dex 18
Con 15
Wis 17
Int 09
Cha 11
Hp: 106/106; Surges: 08/08, AC: 18 Fort/Ref/Will: 22/22/20, AP:1/1
Skills: Nature, Dungeoneering, Stealth, Perception, Acrobatics
Class Abilities:
Hunters Quarry (+2d6)
Prime Shot (+1 attk)
TWF
Powers:
Armor Splinter
Claws of the griffon
Unbalancing Parry
Tield Ground
Blade Cascade
Feats:
Toughness
Elven precision
TWF/TWD
WF (Scimitar)
Lethal Hunter
Devastating Critical
Bloodthrist
Scimitar Dance
Truimphant attack
Attack:
+16 1d8 + 1 dual scimitars basic/Str
Armor: Hide
Before you start calling me out on stats, look over the feats first. He gets a boost to AC and damage due to TWF/TWD feats. Hunters Quarry is boosted to d8's dueto feat, etc etc.
OPPONENT;Adult Whilte Dragon! [Lvl 11 Solo; 408 hp; AC:23]
CONTROLS; Opponents begin fight close to each other.
ROUND !: FIGHT!
Ranger wins intitative, opens up with armor spliter! Both attacks hit, do a total of 23 pts of damage when the STR bonus of +6 is factored in. Furthermore they reduce Mr. Dragon's AC by 5 points, from 23 to 17! Now Kenshi has a whopping +16 to hit so he now only misses on a natural 1 (on which all characters fumble no matter their total attack bonus)
Kenshi grins, and spends an action point to gain a standard action! Raising both his bloodied scimitars intot he air he screams:
"BLAAAD'E-AH CASCAAAD'E-AH"
His scimitars erupte with crackling energy, and weird Japenese Symbols appear all around him, while a hard rock soundstrack starts playing.
Kenshi then starts laying the pain onto Mr Dragon!
5 attacks then Kenshi rolls a 1. He then uses his racial elven power to reroll it and starts the cascade again! 22 more attacks!
Final total of a whopping 27 attacks! Each does 1d8 + 6 damage.
1 of these was a crit..with a scimitar (high crit) AND devastating critical feat. Then you add the +2d8 from Quarry. Furthermore as soon as the dragon got bloodied Kenshi's Bloodthrirst feat kicked in. Taking all this into account Kenshi did a whopping 348 pts of damage in one round taking dragon down from 403 to 55.
Kenshi: "You must defeat Drizzt Do Urden to stand a chance!"
I didn't bother to continue since the outcome is obvious at this point (Kenshi still has one more round before armor splinter wears off, and even after that his tH of +16 is more than enough to ensure victory)
My thoughts?
Well, depsite the fact the dragon was level 09 solo brute and the ranger 15, keep in mind the ranger was alone AND without magical weapons/armor.
For fun I tried it out with an adult red dragon, and the ranger got slaughtered. The dragon was a level 15 solo so the ranger needed a rollof 17 to hit it (especially the crucial armor splinter which is neeed to chain this combo). Not impossible no, but very hard. But very doable with a party and or magic items (magic scimitars).
So in the end I have to say that while this ability is certainly very powerful and potentially quite abusable, perhaps this exploit (haha!) should remain the way it is for those rare and memorable sessions where the ranger manages to destroy a powerful critter with this very power. Basically the only issue is that when this combo works, it works far far too well.
