Hellish Rebuke Question

[DevildogSC]

I've got a player who has believes that when his warlock casts hellish rebuke, he should then be able to deal damage to himself and incur the additional damage to the target per the spell. He's banking on the fact that he has no strength and a dagger so he can't deal more damage than his temporary hit points. I'm leaning toward no just on keeping in the spirit of the exercise, but he's being remarkably insistent. Can this work? Anyone have any concrete reasons why this wouldn't work?

 

[Danceofmasks]

If you allow him to stab himself (which should take a standard action IMO), then yes .. it works with hellish rebuke.

 

[Fede]

Personally, i don't allow this in my games, because i find it very cheesy.

 

[Tale]

The only concrete reason for why it wouldn't work is because it's just too cheesy. It's bag of rats type cheesy. Only this time, he himself is the rat.

 

[webrunner]

There is a rule somewhere that says that triggering off killing enemies, the enemy must be a credible threat. It might be close enough to apply.

 

[DevildogSC]

Yeah, I remember seeing that credible threat rule as well. But I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that thinks it's just too cheesey to use.

 

[Gunpowder]

Well if he's trying to deal the automatic damage to one creature, he is not trying very hard to cheese it out. Since the ability lasts till the end of your next turn the warlock could.
turn 1 HR orc 1
turn 2 HR orc 2
action point: stab self. deal extra damage to both.

Yeah I also had this idea for my warlock but was considering how cheesy it was. Hurting yourself to hurt others seems to be a very warlocky thing to do, and it could be signs that your warlock has some psychological issues since he likes cutting himself (and let's face it, you're an infernal pact warlock. You have issues. Lots of issues)

On the balance side I was considering the self attack would take a standard action and be an auto crit. At level one even with no STR mod 4 damage will eat through most of his temp HP and hit real ones. The extra critical damage die magic weapons get might be scale the damage at higher levels. I do not know. I haven't crunched the numbers.
Personally, I like the idea but if it gets unbalancing either a. resolve the issue with the player out of game so he does not do it anymore or b. use the damage chart on page 42 to use find some numbers that make it less so.

 

[Dire Human]

When he cuts himself with a standard action, force him to crit against himself; maybe even rule that the damage isn't effected by temporary hit points. Once he starts getting into magic daggers he's going to have to start making choices: is the extra damage really worth 4+1d6 to himself?

"You slash your wrist, the metallic smell of blood filling your nostrils as your Hellish Rebuke flares to life against the orc, just as planned. But a twinge of fear runs down your spine as you realize you can't let go of the dagger. You will your arm to lower, but it simply grips the blade tighter. Horrified, you feel your hand move of its own volition, stabbing yourself again, twisting the knife deep into your arm. 'Did you really think it would be this easy?' a sinister voice hisses in your ear through the agony. 'These things have consequences...'"

 

[twilsemail]

We've ruled that temp HPs are bypassed by this maneuver. If you're making a blood sacrifice to your dark patron, they want the whole thing.

 

[Jhaelen]

Can this work? Anyone have any concrete reasons why this wouldn't work?

It doesn't works - check out the DM's paragraph about the bag-of-rats.