Pennant of Heaven's Armies - I Win Button?

[boolean]

Do you know what the Invoker's WIS bonus was? At +4 I don't really have an issue with it.

Wisdom is the Invoker's primary casting stat. So, assuming a conservative 18 at 1st level, that's a 22 at 16th, for a +6 bonus to all defenses.

 

[Victim]

Do you know what the Invoker's WIS bonus was? At +4 I don't really have an issue with it.

+6 I think. The character was a Deva around 16th level.

 

[FireLance]

I would call it more of a "We Win" button because it provides a bonus to the party and not to the invoker, but I do agree it makes combats very swingy.

It might not be too bad if it only shores up non-AC defenses since they can lag quite significantly behind the monsters' attack bonuses at higher levels, but since AC scales fairly well with level, it can make encounters against monsters that normally target only AC much easier than they should be.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Also, note that it's Range 10 and a LoS power. So if the party member's not able to see the banner (like if he's blinded or chased them to another room), then he doesn't get the bonus.

Brad

 

[hailstop]

The problem is, in order to say blind or move them you have to hit him in the first place.

 

[hailstop]

A couple of other things...compared to the other 16th level Invoker Utility powers, this one is _by far_ the most powerful. The other ones don't even come close to the same power.

Second...the Invoker is a Controller. Buffing is definitely a Leader aspect. Compare that power to the Cleric Level 16 utillities like Cloak of Peace (gives a +5 to AC, +10 to other defenses, but only affects one person and ends if that person attacks), Divine Armor (+2 to AC for you and your allies for the rest of the encounter, plus Resist 5 all). Hallowed Ground (+2 power bonus to defenses, saves and attack rolls in a 5x5 square until the end of the encounter).

The Invoker is out-leading the Leader.

 

[Cadfan]

Short Answer: Yes, its broken.

Long Answer: Those who stretch to find ways to get around the brokenness of this power are to be commended, because they're engaged in exactly the sort of thinking and reasoning a game like D&D requires. But ultimately the power is still broken because the potential countermeasures are too tenuous and strained. As a general rule, if a single power requires you to alter all combat encounters just in case the players use it, it's broken.

 

[holywhitetrash]

if you are really that concerned with it just have one of your stronger monsters place a big rock on top of the banner there now no one can see it problem solved

 

[eamon]

short answer: Yes, its broken.

Long answer: Those who stretch to find ways to get around the brokenness of this power are to be commended, because they're engaged in exactly the sort of thinking and reasoning a game like d&d requires. But ultimately the power is still broken because the potential countermeasures are too tenuous and strained. As a general rule, if a single power requires you to alter all combat encounters just in case the players use it, it's broken.

+1 .

 

[Elric]

+1 .

To add to this: there's a common misconception of what qualifies as a problematic game element. If you can alter the way you run a game significantly, so that a problem issue goes away, that doesn't mean that the issue isn't a problem.

For example, someone who lives near an airport may spend money sound-proofing his house. Let's say he does so to the point where the airplane noise becomes imperceptible. It doesn't follow that the noise from airplanes isn't a problem- he had to spend money, which he wouldn't have had to spend if the airplane noise wasn't present, to address the issue.

Analogously, altering the way you run a game significantly is a cost in and of itself.