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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hong" data-source="post: 3458254" data-attributes="member: 537">Humour me. IF you were a specialist archer, would you take something like time stands still for archery, assuming there were no strings attached (no non-archery maneuvers needed, no weird drawbacks, etc)? I think so.I think what we've got here is a clash of paradigms. As written, D&D basically doesn't do much to encourage ramping-up of combat intensity. You're just as well off opening with your best attack, as anything else. In fact, you're encouraged to open with your best attack, since that may well kill the other guy before they can hit back.I don't like this, and I've posted before about how to fix it. Options included powerful one-use defenses (to soak up the one-use attacks), and powerful offenses with lingering drawbacks (so you're encouraged to use them only when you believe they'll end a fight, rather than immediately). Some of the ToB maneuvers are a bit like this: eg finishing move, in Iron Heart. You could also argue barbarian rage is like this, although the duration is usually long enough that the fatigue doesn't matter.Tears of heaven follows in the same vein. IMO it's powerful enough that it could well decide a fight on its own, so rather than have the fight over before it's really got started, I encourage the archer to use it only when they're sure of the kill. Which in practice may just mean on the second round instead of the first, but that's still a net gain.And as I said before, I'm choosing to ignore the fact that time stands still works with ranged attacks. Hell, if anything I'd nerf TST the same way as tears of heaven.The point is, no class currently gives access to all of Diamond Mind, Diamond Arrow and Celestial Rain. And any specialist archer who is actually meant for play, as opposed to proving a point, has far better classes to choose from than warblade and swordsage.</blockquote>

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