Force Mage NPC

[Ebylon]

Would love to hear thoughts about my Force Mage. They'll be paired with groupings of regular old soldiers usually, part of House Cannith Special Operations teams when one of the Cannith branches has work that requires a bit of... force, haha, punny.

 

[the Jester]

Looks pretty good, although you might want to reword the powers some for clarity.

For example:

Iron Rod: Should probably read "1d6+4 damage".

Battering Blast: "A blast of force hits the target. Ranged 10; +12 vs. Fortitude; 1d10+4 force damage and the target is pushed 1."

Repulse: "A wave of force explodes outward from the force mage. Close burst 1; +10 vs. Fortitude; the target is pushed 1 square. If it cannot complete this movement, it instead falls prone."

But these are nits that I'm picking. Cool npc.

 

[Mesh Hong]

The Force Mage looks alright, but could probably do with a little tweaking.

1: You have stated he is a leader but he doesn't have any leader abilities.

2: His AC seems a little low to me, I would have expected an AC of 20 for a level 6 controller.

3: His damage output is either low or medium, with very little actual control. I would consider the following chanages:

Iron Rod (standard, at will)
Attack +11 vs. AC; 1d6+4 damage; on hit target gains vulnerability 5 force (save ends)

Battering Blast (standard, at will) force
Range 10/20; attack +10 vs. Fortitude; 2d6+4 force damage; on hit target is pushed 3 squares and knocked prone

Repulse (standard, at will) force
Burst 3; enemies only; attack +10 vs. Reflex; on hit target is pushed 1 square and knocked prone

4: I really like Snap Repulsion, its a great power.

 

[Mentat55]

I think a moderately strong encounter power would be nice, something like a weak forcecage or resilient sphere, or perhaps a short-lived wall of force.

 

[Keenberg]

Noticced the lack of a leader power... Quickly thinking of something for you. How about this:

Force Field Aura 2
Any enemy moving inside the aura treats it as difficult terrain.
Any ally making attacks inside the aura receives a +2 to damage.

Take it or leave it. Time for class!

 

[Dire Human]

Awesome work, Ebylon! I mostly agree with everyone else's supposed changes, so don't mind if I just quote them:

1: You have stated he is a leader but he doesn't have any leader abilities.

Noticced the lack of a leader power... Quickly thinking of something for you. How about this:

Force Field Aura 2
Any enemy moving inside the aura treats it as difficult terrain.
Any ally making attacks inside the aura receives a +2 to damage.

I'd make this a power rather than an aura; Snap Repulsion is plenty melee defense as it is. How about:

Empowering Field (standard, encounter) * Force, Zone
Burst 1 within 10; creates a zone of empowering force that lasts until the end of the Force Mage's next turn. Attacks made by allies in the zone deal an extra 2 force damage on a hit.

2: His AC seems a little low to me, I would have expected an AC of 20 for a level 6 controller.

I think it's intentional: the rest of his defenses look rather high for his level (although I'd give him a 19 Fortitude and 17 Reflex myself), so this is a way of balancing. He's an expert in magic, but terribly squishy against weapons.

3: His damage output is either low or medium, with very little actual control. I would consider the following chanages:

Iron Rod (standard, at will)
Attack +11 vs. AC; 1d6+4 damage; on hit target gains vulnerability 5 force (save ends)

Battering Blast (standard, at will) force
Range 10/20; attack +10 vs. Fortitude; 2d6+4 force damage; on hit target is pushed 3 squares and knocked prone

Repulse (standard, at will) force
Burst 3; enemies only; attack +10 vs. Reflex; on hit target is pushed 1 square and knocked prone

This guy is going to destroy melee characters. Keep Repulse as a burst 1 with a recharge, though. Other than that I like the quoted changes, but like I said above, I'd recommend keeping his AC down to compensate.

4: I really like Snap Repulsion, its a great power.

Every ranged guy needs one of these.

 

[Ebylon]

I was considering this power to add to the Force Mage, or the Empowering Field idea suggested by Dire Human:

Force Aegis (standard, encounter) * Force
Targets the caster and one ally, or two allies; the target gains a Force Shield, granting Resist 3 all, immunity to forced movement, and the target's space cannot be occupied by any other creature. A minor action may be used to sustain one Force Shield, or two minor actions must be taken to sustain both Force Shields. When a Force Shield is removed, a Repulse attack is made from the target's square.

Repulse being the same power stated in my original post.

 

[Keenberg]

I was considering this power to add to the Force Mage, or the Empowering Field idea suggested by Dire Human:

Force Aegis (standard, encounter) * Force
Targets the caster and one ally, or two allies; the target gains a Force Shield, granting Resist 3 all, immunity to forced movement, and the target's space cannot be occupied by any other creature. A minor action may be used to sustain one Force Shield, or two minor actions must be taken to sustain both Force Shields. When a Force Shield is removed, a Repulse attack is made from the target's square.

Repulse being the same power stated in my original post.

Sounds pretty cool, and a good leader ability if I may say so. I'd suggest adding "within x squares" to the target part, though.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Another idea for a "leadery" power:

Friend Shield (immediate interrupt, when ally is hit by an attack; at-will)
Reduce the damage done by the attack by 5.

I agree that an encounter would be nice. Maybe a multi-target battering burst.

 

[Mesh Hong]

This guy is going to destroy melee characters.

I really don't think he would destroy melee characters. He is a leader so there will only be one of him, he is a standard creature with normal defences so he will be taken down quite quickly.

He will be difficult to pin down, but he will go down so fast that it wont really matter.

The Snap Repulsion will have a chance of making the Mage avoid the first melee attack, but every other melee character in a round can attack him as normal. The Snap Repulsion also targets Fortitude which means that any defenders should have a decent chance of ignoring it (rangers and rogues will have more of a problem though).

Also note that Repulse does no damage, and as written doesn't even usually knock the target down. This is not going to destroy anything. I added the knock down to at least put the PC in a disadvantageous position that the mages allies could try to exploit.

I changed the Battering Blast to slightly higher damage and push three squares because being pushed 1 square really isn't that exciting, 3 squares is far more dramatic and could force a defencive gap that the Mages allies could exploit, a very leader like thing to do.

I agree that the Mage could do with an encounter power, personally I would like something like:

Force Wall (standard, encounter) force
Wall 8 within 10 squares; creates a wall of force 4 squares high that blocks movement and line of effect but not vision; any creature starting its turn adjacent to the wall takes 5 force damage; any creature pushed, pulled or slid into the wall is dazed (save ends); minor action to sustain the wall

Giving the Mage a wall effect will make it stand out a bit more and should make the encounter unusual and therefore more interesting. Its effect could also be exploited by the PCs who would love to use the enemies wall against them! I think it would be better than an AC buff which wouldn't really make the encounter any more interesting.

Anyway this is as always just my opinion.