cignus_pfaccari
First Post
I wonder if that's going to be the answer to the "enchant the monk's fists" issue with monk.
Brad
Dragon 379: Assassin Heroic Tier
- Thread starter thecasualoblivion
- Start date
I wonder if that's going to be the answer to the "enchant the monk's fists" issue with monk.
Brad
Its also great for small sized assassins. The Shadow Blade is a regular weapon, not a versatile weapon or a two handed weapon, so if I'm remembering the small size rules correctly a halfling can use it one handed. That gives them equivalent weapon and shield options to a regular sized assassin with a longsword and a light shield.
LightPhoenix
First Post
It works if your logged into D&D Insider.
Tricky, tricky.
I logged in, and that did the trick.I'm disappointed there were no feats. If I had to guess, either we'll get the rest of the feats on Friday, or this is an incomplete version. It doesn't seem to me like there would only be two paragon feats.
It seems to me like the Venomous Soul PP is treading on the feats in the heroic tier, especially the one that gives poison resistance. I would guess the Venom Hand Assassin feat would give you an extra poisoned weapon to use, but I question the utility of it. I could see some utility for something like a Ranger or Monk, who can often attack two different enemies.
This is my personal bias, but I don't like paragon paths that make you keep track of counters. There's already enough to keep track of. That there were two of them disappointed me.
I wasn't as impressed with the paragon powers this time around. There are a couple of interesting ones - Guild of Shadows especially evokes a lot of imagery in my mind. Still, a lot of them seem... well, subpar. I see no reason why anyone would take Shadow Fire. I'm having a little more trouble this week seeing why not to specialize in powers that utilize the shroud. Also, I would have liked to see a couple more powers that let you add a shroud when used.
Why not?
LightPhoenix
First Post
You have to make three attack rolls to get the best damage. Possible, but not nearly certain. Why would you ever choose that over the other powers that hit for that much with one attack roll? Okay, if you wanted to improve your probability to hit, I suppose it might be worth it.
On further thought, I could possibly see how it would work if you wanted to absolutely hit your shroud target to deal the damage from that. It works even better if you had another rider like Sneak Attack to maximize the damage. Even then, Flurry of Talons is better, since it targets Reflex, is non-typed damage, and the non-OA flight is better IMO than invisibility. I just can't see how it would be worth it.
Klaus
First Post
Shadow Fire causes 1, 2 or 3 [W] + Dex modifier, and turn you invisible until the end of your next turn. It seems a decent enough power. Attack, turn invisible, move towards another foe. On the next round attack while invisible, then move away into cover, roll Stealth check and then become visible (but hidden).
thecasualoblivion
First Post
Its a power that you use when your enemy has 3-4 shrouds on it and you want to ensure a hit. Three attack rolls is a good way to not miss.
CelticMutt
First Post
I think (hope) that the PP and Venom Hand feats stack, even though it's not mentioned. It does seem a little pointless otherwise. Plus, between Heroic and Paragon there's not exactly a lot of poison powers.
Soul Thief is really sweet, though I almost wish it was called Soul Reaver instead of the one Shadowblade power being called that.
Of course, with Shadowblade, you can make a Revenant Assassin Shadowblade, name him Raziel, and shape his weapon to look like the Dark Reaver .
Mathematically, Shadow Fire is better than a regular 3[W]+Dex attack. It would be even if each attack contributed 1/3 of the total damage, but that's not the case. Each attack contributes 1[W], but the static modifiers all kick in with at least one hit. This weights the expected damage heavily in favor of Shadow Fire.
I can break it down, I guess. If you want the numbers, just read on.
Lets say you attack with a 1d8 weapon, and you have +10 from static modifiers.
If you use a 3[W]+dex attack, your average damage on a hit will be 23.5. So your expected damage is p*23.5, where p is the probability of a hit. If you hit 70% of the time, that's 16.45. If you hit 50% of the time, that's 11.75.
If you use Shadow Fire, your expected damage with one hit is 14.5. With two its 19. With three its 23.5. But your chance of hitting has to be divided out by category. If you hit 70% of the time, your chance of getting a certain number of hits is,
0 hits: 2.7%
1 hit: 18.9%
2 hits: 44.1%
3 hits: 34.3%
.027*0 + .189*14.5 + .441*19 + .343*23.5 = 19.18
That's a win by about 3 points of damage for Shadow Fire.
If you hit 50% of the time, things change a bit
0 hits: 12.5%
1 hit: 37.5%
2 hits: 37.5%
3 hits: 12.5%
.125*0 + .375*14.5 + .375*19 + .125*23.5 = 15.5
Now its a win by 4 points. Generally speaking, Shadow Fire starts ahead, and then pulls further ahead the worse your chances of hitting become.
thecasualoblivion
First Post
I'm curious to see the Assassin multiclass feat, for its use in procuring the Shadowblade PP for the Rogue class. The Shadow Blade doesn't have an enchantment on it, and would use the Assassin's Ki Focus. If other classes are going to make use of this, the multiclass feat needs to include the ability to have a Ki Focus implement. In addition, I wonder if a Ki Focus powered Shadow Blade would return when thrown, like enchanted weapons do. That's probably going to have to be a DM call.
