Claws of the Vampire Broken?

[BLACKDIRGE]

This topic may have been discussed before but I need some input.

This saturday our bimonthly gaming group met to continue its trek through the temple of elemental evil, unfortunaltely half of the group didn;t show up. We decided to run a quick one shot with 10th level characters and a different DM.

Since this was the first time I havn't actually had to DM I created a character that i had had in mind for soemtime. i recently got the Psionics handbook and thought the idea of a Psychic warrior that relied on unarmed attacks would be neat. So i loaded up on claw and bite attacks and specialized in unarmed. I threw most of my stats into strenght and con and created a juggernaut that was next to impossible to kill.

My DM at the time became increasingly frustrated as i would use the claws of the vampire power in every combat healing damage with every strike. I would typically enlarge to giant size and with anuimal affinity had a strength of around 30 which ammounted to me healing 2d6+12 points of damage with each hit (I had three attacks).

My DM and I thought this a bit much as claws of the Vampire lasts 1 hour per level so it can be manifested with the extend power feat in the morning and last all day. We thought it a bit over powered as I came out of evry combat completely unscathed.

Has there been any official errata on this power?

Opinions?

Dirge

 

[Zhure]

Unofficially, Bruce Cordell has said that the 1d8 is the only healing done by CotV.

While your character may seem a deadly engine of destruction, he'd be very vulnerable to Negate Psionics/Dispel Magic.

Also, he has a finite amount of PP to work with. Animal Affinity (3 PP), CotV (5 PP) is probably 1/3rd of his PP for 1 hr/ level duration. He's going to have to do that twice in an adventuring day, so that's 2/3rds of his PP, not including what he'll spend on Expansion or a few other powers, which leaves him especially vulnerable to psychic attack.

It's powerful, but not overpowering, IMO.
Greg

 

[SpikeyFreak]

2d6+12 really isn't much damage at all at 10th level.

A 10th level fighter with a greatsword and a few feats will probably do that much damage all day with every attack, and he doesn't need any buffing spells. (22Str, +2 weapon, Weapon Spec = 2d6+13)

The healing part on the other hand, I would limit to 1d8 points. Anymore than that and you start to have a problem (as you can see).

--Advisory Spikey

 

[nharwell]

Re: Re: Claws of the Vampire Broken?

2d6+12 really isn't much damage at all at 10th level.

A 10th level fighter with a greatsword and a few feats will probably do that much damage all day with every attack, and he doesn't need any buffing spells. (22Str, +2 weapon, Weapon Spec = 2d6+13)

The healing part on the other hand, I would limit to 1d8 points. Anymore than that and you start to have a problem (as you can see).

--Advisory Spikey

Agreed. In my RTTOEE campaign, the Dwarf Barbarian 2/Fighter 2/Rogue 2 normally does 2d6+5 (2d6 +8 when raging). With a Bull's Strength he approaches that level of damage, and he's only 6th level. And Bruce Cordell has stated on Monte Cook's boards that only the base 1d8 count for healing purposes (has the Sage not clarified this yet?).

 

[flits3]

Animal affinity only gives you 1d4+1 on an ability score... so the strength of 30 must come from more sources than just the affinity.