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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ChristopherA" data-source="post: 4750107" data-attributes="member: 80302">In response to your questions about my ratings: Rune of Peace: I don't have a strong opinion on this, but I figured that "cannot attack" is maybe three times as good as weaken. And weaken isn't that great. The power is accurate, but doesn't do half damage on a miss, so you are paying a lot of damage for the special effect. And the monster gets to take total defense for a round (annoying if he is a solo who already has great defenses). Crack the Shell/Dizzying Blow: I rate ongoing damage 5 as only about 1W, because the delay in causing the damage is a significant nuisance, plus a few monsters have special saving throw powers. The -2 AC only helps weapon fighting allies and probably lasts a very short time, if the monsters saves you can't even take advantage of it yourself without an action point. Whereas Dizzying Blow gives at least one round of immobilization, maybe more, which seems like a strong control effect. Sign of Vulnerability: There are just a number of little things I don't like too much. The implement attacks don't seem to great for a paladin - your implement is rarely used so it probably has a lower magic bonus than your sword, it only has range 5 but forces you to leave melee combat or face opportunity attacks, it goes against fortitude (the strongest monster defense) making it less accurate than your bastard sword, it rolls d8 instead of d10 for your bastard sword. It limits your tactical choices (you have to fixate on the monster, the party has to avoid killing it). Even if it works, you probably get no more than an average of 3 more hits (+15 damage) unless it is a solo. You have to use radiant attacks - many of the good paladin attacks are not radiant. The only radiant at-will is Holy Smite - and that is Str-based, while this power is Cha-based, so you probably aren't good at one or the other. Unless you are a balanced Str/Cha paladin, in which case your Wis is low and Holy Smite is a weak power. Now I'm starting to think I overrated this power. Frenzied Skirmish: I actually like this power quite a bit, but it doesn't cause any effect on a miss, hence the mediocre rating. Splintering Shot: I was rating based on the way I clustered my powers, and I didn't like it quite as much as the powers I put above it. You are right, looked at by itself it is pretty cool, maybe I should have put it B-. Two-Wolf Pounce: I figure that the barbarian rage strike for this level - 4W, half damage on miss - is sort of the "average mediocre" C+ power. Mentally I add 1W for each attack, so this is 5W. For doing half damage on miss, make this 7W. Two wolf pounce does 5W over 3 attacks, so I think 8W. But some of the attacks are "off-hand" (which is -2 per die for your dwarven urgrosh), and the last attack doesn't add your stat bonus. So maybe 7W. I don't really count the in-between shift as a real bonus, since you are constrained to use it to find a secondary target. The first shift is quite nice. But the fact that you have to find a secondary target, and attacks against a secondary target aren't as good as attacks against you main target, is a penalty. So overall, I'm thinking this power is only average. Bigby's Icy Grasp: This is much more accurate and damaging than spiritual weapon, and seriously harasses a foe with grabbing. And if you hit, the target loses a whole action escaping and moving, or doesn't move, in which case you don't have to spend a move action to make another attack! So this seems like a good quality (but not A-class) conjuration, one that can add up to a ton of damage and harassment over the course of a fight, and is thus superior to a single-shot power from a regular class. Web: This is much too weird to get a good grasp on, so I don't have a strong opinion. It is sort of obscure, so perhaps I overrated it. But my observation is that if the opponents are hand-to-hand and they are on the other side of a corridor or narrow room, it can really cost the monsters a lot of actions to get past it.</blockquote>

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