Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mort" data-source="post: 3266865" data-attributes="member: 762">Arguing that something is balanced because it can be used only a few times per day has  flaws:First - the ability can be used quite a few more than "a few" times:At 10th level+ A sorcerer fighter mage will have this spell available 6+ times per day, which means when they need it they will have it. A wizard fighter/mage will likely only devote 2 of his 5-6 slots to it, but that also means, if they need it they will have it (plus 2nd level pearls of power are well worth it for this kind of situation).Second – It’s not just a question of how many times per day you can do something, but what you can do, not all encounters per day require large amounts of resources. Kind of the – we need to kill this thing RIGHT NOW, option. It’s pretty big when the “right now” option is available as a 2nd level spell.  As I said above, the balance differential is huge. 1 touch attack is nice but at high levels the psiwar or sword adept has several options that are better. The fact that the high level fighter/mage has a 2nd level spell as one of his best options seems odd. But again let's look at the balance differential (I'll use 15th level because the difference is really shown once 3+ attacks are involved and at this level both the characters have 3+ attacks)Ok – quick analysis 15th level psychic warrior’s deep impact vs. fighter 1/wizard 6/Eldrich knight 8 using wraithstrike (I’ll try to balance the builds, but must admit psionics is not my strong suit I have little experience with it). Psychic Warrior 15: BAB: +11/+6/+1, STR: 16 other stats irrelevant at this time. Feats: Weapon Focus: greatsword, psionic weapon, power attack, dodge, speed of thought, mobility, spring attack, deep impact.Weapon: greatsword +3, to hit: =18/+13/+8Damage: 2d6+7Fighter/mage 15(ftr 1/Wiz 6/EK 8): BAB +12/+7/+2 STR: 16 other stats irrelevant at this time.Feats: Weapon Focus: greatsword, power attack, arcane strike, others not that relevant (gets 7 others I believe).Weapon greatsword +3, to hit +19/+14/+9Damage: 2d6+7Opponent – standard Nalfeshnee Demon (picked out of CR 14 MM monsters (initially did a 14th level comparison))AC: 27/touch 9 HP:175Psychic Warrior using deep impact:Average damage per round: 34.2 (not counting criticals, damage arrived by using full power attack and all three attacks). The psychic warrior can do this, at best, every other round. I’m sure the psychic warrior has some better options than this damage output.End result: not much other than an angry demon that you are now standing right next to (get around this with a spring attack instead of full attack at minimal cost). Even if the attack came late in the round, the Nalfeshnee is likely still up. I would like to know if there is anything that can add a lot to this combo.Fighter/mage using wraithstrike.:Average damage per round (not counting criticals): 81.7, the fighter/mage can do this several consecutive rounds if necessary. That’s  almost 2.5 times better than the psychic warrior for the round.But that’s not the kicker. As I said the true power comes from the “I need to kill this now” potential. If the fighter/mage needs to, he can arcane strike up to a 6th level spell 2 or so times per day (3 if a specialist). This puts average damage up substantially (partially from the increased chance of any given attack hitting): 98.8 from weapon damage and 39 from arcane strike: total average damage: 137.8. I’m not sure the fighter/mage has a better option available (disintegrate, on the off chance the demon fails its save has an average damage of 105 at this level).End result: One seriously hurt demon. If the psychic warrior (above) attacked 1st the Nalfeshnee is almost dropped.P.S. this was all done rather fast and I can’t vouch for the math being perfect, but it’s pretty close.</blockquote>

Verification