Broken Wizard combo?

[hyphz]

Our wizard player spotted this one last session.

He has an Orb of Fickle Fate, plus Orb Mastery. Plus a feat that gives -2 saves against effects.

So he'll kick off an encounter with Destructive Salutation, and if it hits, use his Orb Mastery and the Fickle Fate power all stacked together to give the target -12 to it's save.

In other words, it can save when it rolls 22 on a d20. And until then, it is stunned. Unless it's an elite in which case it can save.. on a 20.

Am I missing something or is this really legal?

 

[1of3]

Yes. All good. There's also Fatespurned Foe (Swordmage Utility 6) for another -2. He might want to get that through multiclassing.

 

[mlangsdorf]

Phrenic Crowns are cheaper than multiclassing, and will take care of that Elite saving on a 20 by giving another -2 penalty on all saves.

It's legit: a high level Blood Mage can stunlock a foe into painful oblivion one time a day using that combo.

 

[Mort_Q]

I'm sure there's a thread about this type of thing versus Orcus somewhere here. Sounds broken to me.

What feat?

 

[hong]

Why Destructive Salutation and not Sleep? That's the one that was pounced on the day after 4E's release....

(One house rule I've seen is that penalties to saves don't stack. That serves to cut down on this cheese quite handily.)

 

[James McMurray]

Legal? definitely.

Right? not in the slightest.

 

[Victim]

Spell Focus and Orb Mastery apply to wizard powers. Destructive Salutation isn't a wizard power; it's a blood mage power.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Why Destructive Salutation and not Sleep? That's the one that was pounced on the day after 4E's release....

(One house rule I've seen is that penalties to saves don't stack. That serves to cut down on this cheese quite handily.)

While unconciousness is nastier than stunning, the way that orb of impossition works, it only applies to saves against one effect. By putting the penalty on the save against slow (to cause the person to fall unconcious), it does not apply to the save to remain unconcious. This only guarantees one round of unconciousness instead stunning them for the entire encounter.

 

[DracoSuave]

That's why you don't put the penalty on until they have the unconscious condition :teach:

 

[ppaladin123]

The problem is that the orb of imposition is brokenly powerful. At high levels you can automatically and permanently stun any enemy including Vecna and Orcus (you can only stun one of tiamat's heads though).

The destructive salutation spell is also known for being extremely powerful when used in combination with the orb.

Your player is using a perfectly legal combination. WotC needs to consider some errata.