Daggerheart General Thread [+]

[zakael19]

For a single target, yes. But Restoration is per PC/ally and Zone of Protection is all PCs/allies within Very Close, so it could be 2 or 3 characters.

Is it weak? Probably. But I don't think it's absolutely too weak, there are times it might be the one to take, especially if you have a couple of PCs that like to tank and fight the biggest baddest things, which will have above average damage output.

I guess? But it just seems so much like a gamble: first you need to get a Spellcast roll off; if you do its 1/long rest; and then you need to assume no movement to the fight or put it where your backliners are, and then you need the adversaries to roll high for it to make a difference to thresholds.

Note that Zone of Protection only works for 6 hits total, regardless of effect. If you have 3 PCs in there and they take an AOE, I guess you figure out who takes it 1st/2nd/3rd, and the 3rd person is getting -3 damage to the total. Most T3 adversaries can barely get to Major damage. I guess you could say that even on a high-damage roll it helps ensure that a person wearing Chainmail is going to stay at Minor damage, but for most adversaries it's literally useless (when you have a threshold of 17, 16 damage - 6 is still 10, minor).

Actually doing this math is making me realize how hard it is for T3 adversaries to push beyond Minor thresholds against Chainmail or Plate. A level 7 character wearing Advanced Plate has thresholds of 22/42. A Earth Elemental bruiser has a 16% chance to move beyond Minor. A Hydra solo has a ~7% chance.

 

[zedturtle]

Unless I'm misremembering the rules quite a bit, the '1' reduction would apple to all the damage of the first hit, there's no target by target processing in DH. So it should be a guaranteed six rounds, hopefully split between two fights.

 

[zedturtle]

Actually doing this math is making me realize how hard it is for T3 adversaries to push beyond Minor thresholds against Chainmail or Plate. A level 7 character wearing Advanced Plate has thresholds of 22/42. A Earth Elemental bruiser has a 16% chance to move beyond Minor. A Hydra solo has a ~7% chance.

I actually wanted to ask you about the math here too. The Earth Elemental can do a Rockslide to make the PCs Vulnerable, giving itself Advantage on its Boulder Fist, increasing the chances of a crit, which (of course) would be 3d10 + 32, so well in the expected outcome of a Severe hit. Since the Earth Elemental is Slow pulling this combo off is hard, but if the encounter includes anything else that can set up Vulnerable for the EE or an ally that can use the Vulnerable it sets up, the possibility exists. I was just wondering if all of that was factored into the percentages you're using.

 

[zakael19]

I actually wanted to ask you about the math here too. The Earth Elemental can do a Rockslide to make the PCs Vulnerable, giving itself Advantage on its Boulder Fist, increasing the chances of a crit, which (of course) would be 3d10 + 32, so well in the expected outcome of a Severe hit. Since the Earth Elemental is Slow pulling this combo off is hard, but if the encounter includes anything else that can set up Vulnerable for the EE or an ally that can use the Vulnerable it sets up, the possibility exists. I was just wondering if all of that was factored into the percentages you're using.

I’m not, because there’s so many ways to give/take/avoid vuln (plus Zone of Protection will be even less use vs a Rock Ele critting). Like I’m not going to run the math on the chance of different T3 stat arrays failing a (19) Agil reaction roll XD.

A generic T3’s 3d8+3 averages 24+16/17 (let’s say 41). On a median crit, Zone of protection will help a Plate wearer move from Severe to Major but will likely have no impact for Chain or lower.

edit: had a thought that maybe flipping it to count down from 6 would feel more in keeping with a zone tapping out and would be more likely to have a threshold affecting impact for that once per long rest use.