Marksman - Martial Controller

[inkpenavenger]

I could probably justify something like an autoloading crossbow. I mean if even Lv 1 magic daggers return when thrown, i don't see why not. Such an item would be very useful for rangers too.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

Also Mal, none of that was really constructive. Plus, why should the class use all manner of alchemy and grenades if it's not the author's intention? That really makes no sense - please try to consider what the author is trying to do before attempting to stomp all over it.

Cool down the PC police act.

A ranged martial controller is interesting but one who mostly shoots arrows like he is using a machine gun feels silly to me. That's my feedback as a player and I don't need to run it by you.

 

[Zelc]

First off, adding Int to attack rolls is incredibly powerful, even adding half Int would be way too strong as a class ability. Consider characters could easily get a +8 to Int at high levels, and that will take a character that normally hits 50% of the time to hitting 90% of the time.

Doing a ranged defender is interesting, and I think it'd be difficult to design. What does a defender do? Usually, a defender tries to have enemies hit him instead of other characters. That doesn't work so well when your defender is a ranged character. Even though your ranged defender concept has AoOs on close enemies, that seems more like a controller ability than a defender ability. The best way of implementing a ranged defender concept that I can think of is either buffing a melee ally into being the "real" defender complete with marks and temporary HP, or having abilities that deter enemies from attacking a protected ally (and protecting only one or two at a time). Not sure how well a martial character would fit either of those though.

 

[inkpenavenger]

A ranged martial controller is interesting but one who mostly shoots arrows like he is using a machine gun feels silly to me.

If you think about it, the core rules already have one: the Ranger. The Spray of Arrows power lets him fire up to nine arrows in 3 seconds (a standard action). Plus look at the picture on pg. 110!

First off, adding Int to attack rolls is incredibly powerful, even adding half Int would be way too strong as a class ability. Consider characters could easily get a +8 to Int at high levels, and that will take a character that normally hits 50% of the time to hitting 90% of the time.

Crunching the numbers, I see that you're right about that. I'm trying to think of a selectable class feature that lets you instead add those modifiers on specific powers (the way Inspiring Warlords add CHA on some powers and Tactical Warlords add INT on others).

 

[Omnifarious Grey]

Flurry Strike: # of attacks equal to 1+INT, 1[W] dmg

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no


if the message isn't clear this is a at will that is clearly broken for the game and should not be considered. Multiple attacks like Twin Strike are already good as is and anything more is devastating when you add in weapon enhancements.

An idea to change that at-will may be something like:

Flurry Strike:
At-Will
Standard Action
Attack: Dex. vs. AC, Int. modifier attacks against different targets.
Hit: Dex. modifier damage.


This is just a quick idea, but it fixes some issues with multiple attacks and stacking attacks against a single target.

 

[Tinq]

Sorry about that whole DEX thing. When I saw INT was a key ability I thought DEX was out. That's what I get for reading quickly, I guess. The standard convention set forth by wizards is to grab one Attribute from each of the three sets (STR or CON, DEX or INT, WIS or CHA). That being the case, why not switch INT with WIS? I know it's real similar to the ranger, but without the flavor notes and such I'm not sure why INT is there at all. WIS affects skills like Perception, after all, which I would consider to be a factor in combat with a ranged weapon.

A controller using ranged attacks in and of itself makes sense, though. Would you consider giving it ample powers that affected enemy movement? Reducing speed or stopping enemies in their tracks seems more in line with a controller, especially if they used it on a mass scale. Rangers can do high damage to mutiple targets, but perhaps this guy can hamstring or knock down multiple enemies.

 

[inkpenavenger]

yeah, that's the plan. The marksman can't really be an area attack that deals devastating ammounts of damage like the wizard, because his attack are really just arrows and knives. He's going to have lots of powers that hinder enemies and help allies.

Like I have an idea for a power where the Marksman flags a monster's weak spot with an arrow. The attack deals a little damage and grants a bonus to allies' attacks because they know exactly where to strike.

Thanks for the advise on Flurry Strike. I hadn't really thought about all the attacks ganging up on one monster like that. Good point.

Also, back onto my Certain Strike power, I might leave it the way it is, but without the damage ever increasing. I know it would hit 90% of the time, but that's the point. Against a monster like Orcus, dealing 1-10 damage 90% of the time is nothing, but it's an almost guaranteed hit.

 

[Omnifarious Grey]

Well the Certain Strike will do more than 1-10, possibly into an average chunk of 10 damage or so with weapon and feat bonuses, though it doesn't sound too bad.

I like the idea of the flag attack and helping allies. I suggest looking into some Warlord powers, such as Warlord's Strike [PH] and War of Attrition [MP]. Those two powers are examples and you could alter the damage down to possibly increase damage or to hit allies would get.

Also I might suggest having some utilities that would help allies with finding enemies, particularly stealthed ones, or abilities to grant slight protection, similar to your covering fire idea.

 

[TheLordWinter]

While it is something similar to a wizard power, how about an at-will that slows?