Mystic Chef: Is this paragon path balanced?

[the Jester]

Hey folks!

I have been working on a number of homebrewed paragon paths lately, and thought it was time to get some feedback from y'all. I still don't feel entirely comfortable with judging the balance of a pp, so I am hoping for some feedback.

First up- converted from my 3e prestige class of the same name- is the mystic chef.

A quick note about "save continues": at the end of the target's turn, it makes a save. Success means the effect continues. I can't recall whose idea this was originally, but it came from someone on ENWorld!

MYSTIC CHEF
“Food is the secret to life.”
Prerequisite: Cleric, halfling

All living things need to eat and drink, but none hold the art of food in such high regard as halflings do. To a halfling, a good fresh loaf of bread can be worth its weight in gold. Instead of gems and jewels, rich halflings often convert their assets to spices, wine and exotic foodstuffs.

Amongst the priests of the halfling folk, there are those who mingle their faith with their ability to cook, seeing food preparation and service as a very high form of devotion to their deities. Melding your prayers with your cooking, you fortify your companions and enhance their recuperative powers with your food.

MYSTIC CHEF PATH FEATURES

Chef’s Action (11th level): You may spend an action point to allow each ally within 5 squares of you to spend a healing surge as a free action.

Fortification through Food (11th level): As long as you spend at least one hour during each extended rest feeding your allies, every time one of them spends a healing surge to regain hit points, they regain extra hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Overwhelming Fortitude (16th level): When you use a healing power on an ally that has been the subject of your fortification through food ability, that ally gains regeneration 5 (save continues).

Prepare Inedibles (16th level): You can cook normally inedible objects into delicious meals. You cannot cook poison, acid or similar substances.


MYSTIC CHEF PRAYERS

Stuff to the Gills--- Mystic Chef Attack 11
You call upon the power of your deity to make your foe feel the pains of overeating, bloating it with fullness.
Encounter; Divine, Implement
Standard Action; Ranged 10
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude; Target: One creature.
Hit: 2d10 + Wisdom modifier damage, and the target is immobilized until the end of its next turn.
---Aftereffect: The target is slowed (save ends).

Take the Edge Off--- Mystic Chef Utility 12
You aid your allies in resisting the rigors of poison.
Encounter; Divine
Minor Action; Close burst 5
Target: Each ally in burst.
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, each target gains resist 10 poison.

Spray of Hot Pepper--- Mystic Chef Attack 20
From your pouch, you pull forth a handful of hot spices and blow it at your foes.
Daily; Divine, Implement
Standard Action; Close blast 3
Target: Each creature in blast
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Hit: 3d8 + Wisdom modifier damage, and the target is blinded (save ends).
Miss: Half damage, and target is not blinded.

 

[chronoplasm]

I think you could get away with removing the Cleric prerequisite. Halfling as a prerequisite is enough I think.
Fortification through Food might be a little too powerful though. I'm not sure how to fix it.
Why doesn't Spray of the Hot pepper deal fire damage?

 

[Starfox]

I agree that all halflings should be able to take this, and maybe all clerics as well.

Take the Edge Off seems pretty meh - quite specific, and very short duration.

 

[the Jester]

I think you could get away with removing the Cleric prerequisite. Halfling as a prerequisite is enough I think.
Fortification through Food might be a little too powerful though. I'm not sure how to fix it.
Why doesn't Spray of the Hot pepper deal fire damage?

Hmm, you may be right about Halfling being enough of a prereq...

Fortification through Food is likely to net each healing surge an extra 6-10 points of healing.... do you think making it apply to one healing surge per character between extended rests is enough of a nerf? Or too much of one?

Take the Edge Off seems pretty meh - quite specific, and very short duration.

What do you think is a good way to tweak it? Alternatively, what is a good different utility for a mystic chef?

 

[radja]

I don't think fortifiation is too strong. it'll heal less than a healing word, so will not add anything if the character is a cleric or warlord (or other leader with a healing word type power). instead of the extra healing, maybe grant an extra endurance check against disease with a small bonus?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Why use Wisdom as bonus for Fortification?
Pick Charisma! That way, a Halfling actually gets to use his racial ability. It's also likely that if any stat is maxed, it's Wisdom.

But even then, it might be too potent.

Maybe change it to work during [-]Short[/-] Rests. No use in combat, but great after-combat help eating some of the characters delicious snacks.

 

[the Jester]

Why use Wisdom as bonus for Fortification?
Pick Charisma! That way, a Halfling actually gets to use his racial ability. It's also likely that if any stat is maxed, it's Wisdom.

But even then, it might be too potent.

Maybe change it to work during [-]Short[/-] Rests. No use in combat, but great after-combat help eating some of the characters delicious snacks.

Brilliant and brilliant!

 

[eriktheguy]

I'll warn you that poison resist is not a very useful ability. It's very situational and not a good selection for a character's daily arsenal of powers if they can only use it 1 in every few adventures (unless your campaign has lots of poison). Most paragon path powers are useful in every combat encounter or in most skill challenge/RP situations.
You could make it work to prevent critical hits (okay, this is a more metaphorical interpretation of 'taking the edge off', but whatever) and add poison/acid resistance as a bonus side effect.

Great idea for a paragon!

You could make it available to halflings and/or clerics. The less restrictions you have, the more people might use it.

Finally, I think your current 'Fortification Through Food' is okay. You might want to change it to Cha just for variety, so that the cleric doesn't stack the same Wis mod on each healing spell twice.

 

[eriktheguy]

Maybe change it to work during [-]Short[/-] Rests. No use in combat, but great after-combat help eating some of the characters delicious snacks.

Actually, I like this idea too!

 

[Starfox]

Take the Edge Of could be a daily and last for the encounter; that way it would still be situational, but very useful when it works. Or it could be made more generic, offering resistance to one of a wide variety of damage types (fire, cold, electricity, acid, lightning, poison, necrotic) and otherwise remain as-is. I would also remove the close burst 5 and make it dependent on having eaten your food.

I like making this path Cha-based. It still works for Clerics (its a secondary attribute for them), but shines for Charisma classses like the bard which seems good. You might want to make the prerequisites leader class or halfling race. That way, a half-elven or drow bard could excel at it as well. If you do this and change Fortification to work like the bard's short-rest recovery buff, it would add 2xCha mod to healing surges during a short rest, which is actually a pretty good idea.