Houseruled Twin Strike

[BobTheNob]

Other things you could try (just venting here)
* Treat it like elven accuracy. You can make a second attack if the first misses (still with the damage reduction). A heavy nerf, but compare the end result with other at-wills.
* Player gets one roll and must apply to both attacks. This means it is no longer a more accurate attack at all, nor the number one choice for crit-fisherman. (One point I emphasise to our ranger is to hit, so you get quarry damage, making this the attack of choice for quarry damage. That would move back to careful shot, especially with Dec errata)
* Incapable of critting. A little more subtle and doesnt address the core issue of static damage stacking, but does detract somewhat

 

[Stalker0]

Another way to write it:

Twin Strike
Ranger Attack 1

At-Will * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee or Ranged weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding two melee weapons or a ranged weapon.
Targets: Two Creatures
Attack: Strength vs. AC (melee; main weapon and off-hand weapon) or Dexterity vs. AC (ranged), two attacks.

Hit: 1[W] damage per attack.
Special: You can choose to target a single creature instead. Roll two attack rolls (Main Weapon and Off-hand for melee) and use the best result. Increase the damage to 2[w].
21st: Damage increases to 2[w], or 4[w] if used against a single opponent.

 

[sfedi]

I like Stalker0's version.

It kind of encourages to target 2 creatures, but it solves the huge amount of damage dealt to one creature and it makes it quite balanced against Careful Strike.

 

[keterys]

How would you handle criticals on a two melee weapon attack, Stalker0?

 

[Stalker0]

How would you handle criticals on a two melee weapon attack, Stalker0?

The power attempts to specify, though it probably could be clearer, that each melee attack is one attack roll. If I'm attacking the same guy, the first roll is with the main weapon, second roll is with the off hand...and whichever is the better attack is the one I'll go with. So if I crit with my off hand I do off hand Weapon damage...etc.

 

[Enaloindir]

Thanks for the input so far. It's been really helpful!

I had the same idea and came up with the following formulation:

Twin Strike
Ranger Attack 1

At-Will * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee or Ranged weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding two melee weapons or a ranged weapon.
Targets: One or two creatures
Attack: Strength vs. AC (melee; main weapon and off-hand weapon) or Dexterity vs. AC (ranged), two attacks. If you attack one target and both attacks hit, resolve them as a single hit.

Hit: 1[W] damage per attack. If you attack one target and both attacks hit, you deal 1[W] (melee; main weapon) + 1[W] (melee; off-hand weapon) or 2[W] damage (ranged) instead.
Level 21: 2[W] damage per attack. If you attack one target and both attacks hit, you deal 2[W] (melee; main weapon) + 2[W] (melee; off-hand weapon) or 4[W] damage (ranged) instead.​

I doesn't address the critical issue, though.

That's more or less what we also came up with. The criticals are a PITA, though...

- Enaloindir

 

[BobTheNob]

Maybe for the ciritical issue stipulate that the second roll (for the extra W) does not incorporate the chance for a crit.

Mind you, think about this. Our ranger has a longbow (d10 = 5.5 damage) and a dex of 20(giving a +5 damage for careful attack). This means that, on average, this power (as house ruled above) is strictly worse than careful attack for hitting a single target when your have a sufficiently high dex.

This is where it becomes cool, because the trade off is that Twin strike allows you to hit two targets, and careful attack is the better single target choice. Rather than one simply being better than the other, each has a niche use.

...or even say that Twin strike cannot double pound a single target. Problem solved.

 

[FireLance]

Maybe for the ciritical issue stipulate that the second roll (for the extra W) does not incorporate the chance for a crit.

Not a bad idea. Perhaps something along the lines of:

Special: When you attack one target with this power, you score a critical hit only if the first attack roll made against it is a critical hit.​

This allows you to score critical hits against two targets as normal, but against a single target, only the first attack roll determines if the attack is a critical hit.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I personally like a general rule "static bonuses only apply once per target per round". It gets rid of a bunch of other stupid builds too (like the "I cast magic missile 5 times a round" build).

 

[sfedi]

I personally like a general rule "static bonuses only apply once per target per round". It gets rid of a bunch of other stupid builds too (like the "I cast magic missile 5 times a round" build).

This is the core problem.