[Bo9S] Stone Power + Steely Resolve: Legal?

[SteveC]

I have a question just to make sure I'm doing this correctly, as my GM commented that it seemed like a very strong combo. My crusader character has the Stone Power feat, which allows him to take a penalty to hit, and convert that penalty to temporary hit points that last until his next turn.

Now the crusader has an ability called Steely Resolve, where they delay the effects of a certain amount of damage until their next turn. Basically, when I get hit, the first five points go into a reserve that only affects me at the end of my next turn.

So what I've been doing is this: take my turn normally, and then if I take damage, note the first five points of it separately into the damage pool. On my next turn, I activate Stone Power to give me temporary hit points. At the end of my turn, I take the damage, which comes out of my temporary HP rather than affecting me. The extra nice thing is that I get a little bonus to hit and damage because of the crusader's "furious counterstrike" ability.

With the timing that's explained in the rules, I think everything is okay, but after last night's battle, where my low level character went through 40 temporary hit points and came out of it mostly unscratched, I'm wondering if there is something I'm missing by the RAW.

Your help is appreciated!

--Steve

 

[James McMurray]

Looks legal to me. And it also looks interesting enough that I might contemplate playing a Crusader, despite the randomness of their maneuvers.

 

[Kurotowa]

This is both legal and highly recommended for Crusaders. It's one of their main tricks for playing the damage sponge. Given how many of their maneuvers involve drawing attention and taking blows, it's pretty much a must-have.

Which is not to say it's without limitations. Remember that you can only use Stone Power with a normal attack or Stone Dragon maneuver, not with any of those wonderful Devoted Spirit maneuvers. Also, you're not getting it for free. The attack penalty means you will miss more often, which means more wasted maneuvers and longer fights where you take more damage.

 

[SteveC]

This is both legal and highly recommended for Crusaders. It's one of their main tricks for playing the damage sponge. Given how many of their maneuvers involve drawing attention and taking blows, it's pretty much a must-have.

Which is not to say it's without limitations. Remember that you can only use Stone Power with a normal attack or Stone Dragon maneuver, not with any of those wonderful Devoted Spirit maneuvers. Also, you're not getting it for free. The attack penalty means you will miss more often, which means more wasted maneuvers and longer fights where you take more damage.

That makes sense on the Stone Dragon maneuvers, and that's the piece I was missing. Still, this is a great combo. You're right about it not being free, though: the minus to hit has a serious effect at low levels! Still, when you have 5 skeletons making a total of 15 attacks on you in a single round, that plus Stony Bones (5 DR/Adamant) can keep you alive for a round!

--Steve

 

[Nail]

5 skeletons with 3 attacks each per round? How'd that happen? (eek!)

 

[SteveC]

5 skeletons with 3 attacks each per round? How'd that happen? (eek!)

They were each doing a claw/claw/bite attack. The GM uses a lot of non standard monsters. I think the damage was 1D4+1/1D4+1/1D3. Now they needed 19-20 to hit me, but when you're taking 15 attacks, you get hit. And the dice were hot for the GM for a while.

But we persevered and overcame the obstacle, and my character was officially named the human blood bag based on the amount of damage he suffered.

--Steve

 

[Someone]

5 skeletons with 3 attacks each per round? How'd that happen? (eek!)

Very easily if they are not human skeletons.

 

[SteveC]

As an update, after consulting the GM, he said they were only getting two attacks, but I ended up fighting seven of them at once for a bit. Made me feel a little better.

As an aside, it is very odd to play in a campaign with a lot of small children in the house. The GM is running a very grim campaign, and then completely censors it when the kids come around. Our last game we ran into a horrifying blacksmith that was sort of based on the Butcher from Diablo. In any case, this GM describes this horribly bloated form of a man, with his eyes and lips sewn shut, wielding this oversized smithing hammer crackling with the blue flames of the souls burning on the twisted forge of the Necromancer ... and then abruptly shifts to say that he comes over and gives my character a big hug.

It was extra creepy.

On at least a semi-related note, the Crusader is proving to be just about the best tank character I've ever played: way better than a knight. I have Iron Guard's Glare, which is a stance that gives enemies I threaten a -4 penalty to hit against anyone but me, and shield block, which can give a +6 bonus to an adjacent ally's AC as a counter. Those two together means I get attacked in preference to anyone else in the party...even the paladin. I'd be dead ten times over without the extra temporary HP. In the last battle we fought, I ended up taking about 70 damage, and walked away from it. We did have a Greenbond with the group, mind you, but they only accounted for about 15 HP of healing.

--Steve

 

[Nail]

On at least a semi-related note, the Crusader is proving to be just about the best tank character I've ever played: way better than a knight. I have Iron Guard's Glare, which is a stance that gives enemies I threaten a -4 penalty to hit against anyone but me, and shield block, which can give a +6 bonus to an adjacent ally's AC as a counter. Those two together means I get attacked in preference to anyone else in the party...even the paladin. I'd be dead ten times over without the extra temporary HP. In the last battle we fought, I ended up taking about 70 damage, and walked away from it.

Facinating! ...but doesn't the "randomness" of the crusader's maneuvers get in the way?

 

[Seeten]

It isnt really THAT random, and also, Nail, you can mitigate the randomness by only picking the maneuvers you really want. That way you never get stuck with maneuvers you dont want.

Its like magic. If you keep picking a terrible card of the top, you have a lousy deck. My decks arent full of cards I dont want to draw