Invoking the Assassin's Shrouds

[hvg3akaek]

Reference

Placing a shroud on a target is a free action, once per round.

But how many times per round can you invoke them?


By a simple read-through, you might feel that the answer is clearly "1". The power says "You can use this power only on your turn and only once per turn." But - is this for the invoking part, or the subjecting part? That is, if an assassin's turn was:

(free) subject target to shroud
(move) move towards target
(standard) attack target, invoking shroud

and the power was talking about the 'invoking' bit as "once per round", then the above example would have used the power twice!


Now, I agree that normally this wouldn't come up - once you invoke your shrouds, they are gone. However, even a low-level assassin could possibly do this:

(standard) attack shrouded target, invoking (and removing) shrouds.
(free) place another shroud
(AP) attack shrouded target, invoking shrouds again.

(or, could they?) Even without using action points, you could get extra attacks through OA's, immediate actions, or minor action attacks.


The question is even more vital in the epic tier, with the Perfect Slayer's level 30 power, Perfect Killer, which means the shrouds don't disappear when invoked. So, he could AP to use four shrouds twice in a round...or have other actions as mentioned above.

This might seem powerful, but as far as I can see, there is nothing stopping it. Am I missing something?

 

[Larrin]

You invoke all or none of your shrouds at once, and they go away after invoking, so if your turn is.

free: place shroud
std: attack-invoke shrouds
AP: attack

You have no shrouds on the AP attack to cash in.

If you had shrouds on a victim you could

Std: Attack, deal shroud damage
free: put on a new shroud
AP: attack and invoke the one shroud

in this way you could get five shroud's damage in one turn, but its not often that useful.

For the Epic destiny, once you have four shrouds, you can invoke them as many times per turn as you can make attacks.

 

[hvg3akaek]

You invoke all or none of your shrouds at once, and they go away after invoking

Yes, I realised, and went along with that above Sorry if it wasn't clear enough!

For the Epic destiny, once you have four shrouds, you can invoke them as many times per turn as you can make attacks.

This is really what I was looking for - thanks!

So, if you had the abilities, you could attack four times on your turn (std, two minor attacks, and an AP), and invoke your shrouds for (on all hits) an additional 16d6+96 damage. Ouch.

And more if you got any OAs or immediate attacks!

 

[Larrin]

Yes, I realised, and went along with that above Sorry if it wasn't clear enough!

ahh, i see that now, it was getting on 1 am in my time zone when i read it an replied

So, if you had the abilities, you could attack four times on your turn (std, two minor attacks, and an AP), and invoke your shrouds for (on all hits) an additional 16d6+96 damage. Ouch.

And more if you got any OAs or immediate attacks!

I see no reason why you couldn't. As far as level 30 powers go, assume craziness! The thing about level 30 powers is that chances are pretty high you'll never get there, so if you do get there, and get 4d6+24 on every successful attack (and 3d6+18 on every miss :-o ) it might be overpowered, but hopefully its in the company of other overpowered epic teamates fighting overpowered epic gods.