Deadly Manifestation / Deadly Spell (Comments please)

[HellHound]

The following metamagic feat has been proposed by a player in one of my games:

Deadly Manifestation [Metapsionic]
Prerequisite: Manifester level 15+, Maximize Power, Taint Ectoplasm
Benefit: The character may manifest a psionic power with such a massive abundance of tainted ectoplasm and hostile energy that the power not only deals damage as normal, but if the target fails his save (if any) against the power, he must also make a Fort save (DC 10 + ½ of manifester level) or be struck dead by the power. This Metapsionic feat may only be combined with a single-target power, and adds the [Death] descriptor to the power. A deadly manifestation costs 10 power points more than normal to manifest.


(footnote: Taint Ectoplasm is a metapsionic feat that adds a small amount of poison damage to most manifestations).

Too much? Should I kill it outright, or just increase the power cost? (for those who don't do Psionics, it's effectively a +5 level metamagic feat, increase it to +6?)

 

[hong]

... why?

I mean, why should every power potentially become a save-or-die attack? Not that there's anything wrong with save-or-die attacks, but I'd think that if you wanted to kill someone, it would be more straightforward just to throw an existing instakill power at them.

Would you allow a feat that adds a fireball-equivalent to any power? It might not be broken, but it doesn't really make sense.

 

[HellHound]

I think it comes down to the significant lack of serious insta-kill psionic powers, overall.

Personally, I think perhaps this could be a prestige class ability that can be used a limited number of times per day instead of a metapsionic / metamagic feat, otherwise I fear it will become the 'magic missile of death'.

 

[hong]

Making it a PrC ability would probably make more sense.

You could use the archmage's arcane fire ability as a precedent: use X power points to deal Xd6 damage to one target. Or if you want to make it instakill, use X power points to force a save or die. A limit on uses/day in the latter case might also be good.

 

[Nifft]

How about stronger poison for the Taint Ectoplasm instead? Poison that does a bunch of Con damage sounds pretty deadly, especially if you can apply it a few times.

-- Nifft