New Weapon Enhancement: Timestealing

[MonkeyBoy]

buzz-saw-girl

She's 11th level, human fighter.

And to be fair, she demonstrates the min-max system well; she has the lowest AC in the group

Lets see, the PCs are;
the human strimmer
elven monk - spring attack and mobility fiend
gnome wizard, quite normal really
elf druid, normal again
elf thief - 18 strength and 24 dex, rapier and bow man - deceased as of sunday

To be fair, this group have just run through S2 (white plume mountain), and are now running into PAIN in G1 (steading of the hill giant chief):

First they learnt that monk one-on-one with hill giant means monk on -6hp in 3 rounds! (due to having climbed up a tower, this was before the rest could catch up!)

Then they found out that a cloud giant can match the human fighter blow for blow... (60hp damage in one round took the grin off the players' faces...)

Finally they suddenly learnt that rogues should NOT stay put when flanked by stone giants... (-7AC hurts a lot)

So, despite the way that fighter sounds, she's most assuredly NOT unbalancing the game. 'course lots of haste might change that

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Well, but lots of Fireballs or lots of Melf`s Acid Arrows can also change balance, doesn`t it?


Changing it in 3 abilities might sound good - but a enhancement only able to dispel haste is a bit... too specific.

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

Mustrum Ridcully:

only working on a critical hit (and thus not against undeads and constructs who are not subject to critical hits)

A common misconception. It is still possible to score a critical hit against undead, plants and other "critical immune" enemies, you simply don't multiply your base damage. Therefore, critical effects, such as the burst enhancements, still trigger and still deal extra damage.

Comparing TimeStealing to the Speed enhancement from the DMG, it isn't too bad. Speed is a +4, but allows the extra haste attack every round. Allowing a character to get the same benefit on a critical hit for only a +3 should be in the same ball park balance wise.

The Slow effect doesn't really even play into balancing the weapon, since creatures that a character with a +4 (minimum) weapon is fighting are going to have at least a +5 to +10 on thier Will saves.
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On a side note, since you have decided to tie the enhancement to critical hits, some part of it should depend on the critical multiplier of the weapon also.

Off the top of my head, easy things to add would be a duration of {critical multiplier -1} or change the DC to {12 + critical multiplier}.

Anyway, there's my two cents. I hope you enjoyed them, I spent a lot of time and effort shining them.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Well... I read them two times, just to prove how much I enjoy your work.

But one thing: I didn`t saw that the "Speed" Enhancement was a +4! Damn, I read the text, but for unknown reason not the price - I really thought it was a +1! So, I believe have no further problems to make this enhancement a +4 or higher.