Cloak of Invisibility: Best item in the game?

[Zurai]

Don't come play in my game then, because you'll come visible the instant you attack.

That's house rules, which is fine if that's how you want to swing it. It pretty much makes the item useless, though. It goes from being the best magic item to one of the worst.

 

[eleran]

That's house rules, which is fine if that's how you want to swing it. It pretty much makes the item useless, though. It goes from being the best magic item to one of the worst.

Except that to me, its not a house rule, it is a correct interpretation of the RAW, as opposed to your RAI which I reject.

 

[Boarstorm]

Except that to me, its not a house rule, it is a correct interpretation of the RAW, as opposed to your RAI which I reject.

Appears to be the other way around, as best I can tell.

 

[Xect]

Except that to me, its not a house rule, it is a correct interpretation of the RAW, as opposed to your RAI which I reject.

I can't see exactly where it's written that invisibility breaks when you attack.

 

[HP Dreadnought]

Haven't read the books. . . but didn't somebody mention Orcus having a blast 6 area attack or something? Even targeting it randomly he'll tag the ranger with it eventually, ending his invisibility long before he gets smoked.

If the ranger is in melee orcus can just drop it on himself - game over.

 

[Zurai]

Orcus has a burst 10 attack that is centered on himself, which means he needs to be within 10 squares of the creature whose location is unknown to him.



My proposed solution is to re-word the item so that its invisibility wears off when you take damage from any attack, rather than just from melee or ranged attacks. That would allow it to work as a source of combat advantage until a well-targeted fireball lands on your head, at which point the magic of the cloak fades.

 

[HP Dreadnought]

Oh, and you're using stats for a 30th level ranger. For Orcus to be a "hard" encounter, he should be 3-4 levels above the "party" level.

Thus, per the DMG the ranger should only be 26 - 27 level for soloing this to be a hard encounter.

Does that make a difference in the math?

Having a 30th level ranger solo a 30th level monster, is like bragging that your 3rd level fighter can solo a bugbear.

 

[Morrus]

I, conversely, don't have a problem with it.

I think it's OK that a 30th level character tricked out to max for stealth along with stealth-related items should be able to stealthify anything in the MM. He is, by definition, the stealthiest character possible. If he can't do it, then Orcus may as well have a power that reads "Cannot be stealthed ever".

Presumably Orcus' epic level intelligence means that he wouldn't just stand there being dumbly hit by something he can't detect, and more than he'd repeatedly walk into a door. I can't realistically see a solo-kill coming out of this unless Orcus wanted to die!

 

[Boarstorm]

Oh, and you're using stats for a 30th level ranger. For Orcus to be a "hard" encounter, he should be 3-4 levels above the "party" level.

Thus, per the DMG the ranger should only be 26 - 27 level for soloing this to be a hard encounter.

Does that make a difference in the math?

Having a 30th level ranger solo a 30th level monster, is like bragging that your 3rd level fighter can solo a bugbear.

1) Orcus is level 33.

2) Orcus is a solo, meaning he's supposed to be challenging to a group of FIVE level 30s.

It means something.

 

[Zurai]

Oh, and you're using stats for a 30th level ranger. For Orcus to be a "hard" encounter, he should be 3-4 levels above the "party" level.

Thus, per the DMG the ranger should only be 26 - 27 level for soloing this to be a hard encounter.

Does that make a difference in the math?

Having a 30th level ranger solo a 30th level monster, is like bragging that your 3rd level fighter can solo a bugbear.

Uhh, you clearly are not as familiar with the Encounter Creation rules as you think you are.

For one, the "Party Level" of a party consisting solely of level 30 character(s) is ... 30.
For two, Orcus is a level 33 Solo monster, meaning he's theoretically a Hard challenge for a group of 5 level 30 PCs.
For three, there's only one character in the party.

Add 1, 2, and 3, and you end up with an encounter level well into the 40's for a single character. Remember, to determine EL, you take the experience value of the encounter (225k, for Orcus), divide it by the number of party members (1) and compare it to the chart. The chart ends at level 40 with 111k experience per standard monster. Orcus is a ~45-47 encounter for a solo character (47 if the +16k xp increase doesn't speed up, ~45 if it does).