Broken? The popsicle/marshmellow attack

[Family]

Knockout (rogue level 9), and toss him into lava. Done.

 

[DracoSuave]

Sigh.

They seriously should have this question on every FAQ.

Q: I want to know if this combination is broken; I have the Demigod epic destiny, and I want to know if the power--

A: Yes.

Q: You interrupted me. I was going to ask if the power--

A: Yes, it's broken.

Q: You didn't let me tell you the power!

A: I don't have to. 90% of all 'Is this broken?' combos involve Demigod. You can make any power broken with Demigod. It's just how it is. Now run along and quit wasting our time.

 

[Mad Hamish]

That's certainly true, you have to predict what you're going to need in the next round of combat. However, since you can start with a move or minor action Encounter power you can always have something that's easy to dump for the standard action Encounter Power that you want.

So you might start with Dragon Breath but if you need to heal that round you can always blast it off randomly and regain the healing Encounter power to use on your standard action.

That's a point I'd missed (which is a tad annoying seeing as it was mentioned at the top of this thread that dragonbreath is a minor action)
So yeah, if you've got a minor/move action encounter power then it's probably damned good tactics to always dump all the other ones and keep it as the default refresh.

 

[Runestar]

On a side note, would the 1/encounter abilities you nab via the multiclassing feats count as encounter powers with regards to interacting with divine miracle?

For instance, could a paladin with "student of the sword" just keep re-activating its ability (+1 to attack 1/encounter as a free action) over and over again to get an endlessly repeatably large bonus on his attack roll? What about the 1/encounter sneak attack ability from "sneak of shadows"?

Pact initiate clearly references the phrase "encounter power", but the rest are not as explicitly in confirming, or denying this.

 

[James McMurray]

Sneak Attack and the +1 to hit are features, not powers.

 

[Lizard]

You have to use a very specific sequence of powers to get something which doesn't become useful until level 30, when the campaign is pretty much over...meh. Meanwhile, on your way there, you've burned a lot of feats into a power you can only use 1/encounter, instead of taking feats which enhance abilities generally.

 

[James McMurray]

You have to use a very specific sequence of powers to get something which doesn't become useful until level 30, when the campaign is pretty much over...meh. Meanwhile, on your way there, you've burned a lot of feats into a power you can only use 1/encounter, instead of taking feats which enhance abilities generally.

It's just 2 feats, right? The one to increase the size and the one to increase the damage. You can change those out at 29th and 30th if you don't want them earlier.

Although the one that increases the size (especially if it's the one that makes it ranged) is pretty nice at all levels. A minor action to cast "Detect Minion and destroy it" is pretty sweet.

 

[silentounce]

This is sufficiently subjective that I can't really argue except to say "I disagree". The relative power of class features and powers is very variable. I don't think it's safe to say that someone who takes paragon multiclassing is guaranteed to be weaker than someone who doesn't, and I can think of a number of builds that require paragon multiclassing to be possible.

I do think it's safe to say that the quality of paragon paths is highly variable, and that some are just so good that they overshadow any other choice when it comes to achieving certain goals. Others are pretty bad.

As an example: If presented with a choice between doomsayer and wizard paragon multiclassing, I'd say it's a tough decision. Doomsayer gives some average-powered dailies and encounter powers, plus some class abilities that are pretty bad (because there are almost no fear based powers). Multiclass wizard would let me swap out eldritch blast for an at-will aoe minion killer and some powerful controller-type spells. AOE damage means I can rack up those bonuses to hit before I unleash my dailies.

All up I think paragon multiclassing is in a good place. I think some of the paragon paths just need tuned a bit.

Well, part of the problem is that Paragon multiclassing has a four feat entry requirement. That's a bit steep, don't you think?