Phase of the Stars Overpowered?

[chriton227]

I'm currently playing a Cosmic Sorcerer, and after a couple sessions, the GM decided that "Phase of the Stars" was a little too good and needed to be adjusted.

Phase of the Stars: Whenever an enemy’s attack misses you, you can teleport a number of squares equal to your Strength modifier as a free action.

As written, each time the sorcerer is missed while in Phase of the Stars, they would get to teleport as a free action (in my case 3 squares). The encounter that really pointed out the potential issue was an encounter where we were fighting several archers in fortified position. I had made a big target of myself, and was one of the only characters in range of the archers. So they all attacked me and proceeded to miss (Cloak of Distortion and concealment are my friends). As written, I would have been allowed 5 3-square teleports from the 5 misses. 15 squares of free movement seemed a little excessive, so the DM has ruled that I can get at most 1 teleport per round from the ability.

I can see how in some situations it can get silly, but at the same time I think if the power was intended to be limited to once per round it would have been either written as an immediate action or the per-round useage limit would have been specified. I'm not particularly upset by the decision, especially since I've only used the teleport a single time in the campaign so far. In the particular situation where I would have gotten 5 teleports, I was happy where I was and decided not to use any of them.

What does the peanut gallery think? Is the ability okay, or is it overpowered, or am I missing something in how it works?

 

[Turtlejay]

I think your personal experience is the answer to this problem. What good is 15 squares of teleport? What are you going to do with it? I noticed this with my much less teleporty fey warlock. Often I would not use my free teleport because I was in good position *already*.

I would point out to your DM that even granted that obscene amount of movement, you didn't use it. Tell him that the instant you start spamming or overusing it he is free to nerf it, but that you would appreciate him not messing with it for now.

Jay

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I think your personal experience is the answer to this problem. What good is 15 squares of teleport? What are you going to do with it? I noticed this with my much less teleporty fey warlock. Often I would not use my free teleport because I was in good position *already*.

I would point out to your DM that even granted that obscene amount of movement, you didn't use it. Tell him that the instant you start spamming or overusing it he is free to nerf it, but that you would appreciate him not messing with it for now.

Jay

You also need to note that it's not "15 squares of teleport" - it's 5 x 3 squares, each of which have to be a legal teleport, and you'd do each one after each miss, not all together.

This means, for example, that you can't use it to cross large chasms, teleport up high walls, or other potentially game-breaking things. You can only ever teleport 3 squares at a time (until your strength goes up, anyway).

 

[DracoSuave]

Not to mention, even if you did somehow teleport 15 away, you've teleported yourself out of the range of most of your offense... which pretty much is good for the enemy. An ability that works out to be better for the enemy if 'exploited' isn't necessarily unbalanced.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Sometimes it seems that all that is required to be called "overpowered" is if you achieve a large number. I think that might apply for dealing damage or maybe healing damage or gaining hit points. I doubt it's overpowered when we talk about movement. Especially when it is as conditionally as in this case - 5 people firing at the same guy and each of them missing them.

If you can somehow turn this teleportation into direct damage (guaranteed), then there would be a point. I know there is some power or paragon path feature that lets you deal damage to targets you are teleporting adjacent to or something like that - but even that wouldn't work in this case, since you'd have to teleport adjacent to an enemy with every step.

 

[DracoSuave]

Not to mention, you do each teleport with each individual attack. You'd either teleport yourself out of range, or you'd teleport adjacent to them and at that point, they'd choose a different target once they figured out your mojo.

'Oh, he teleported into my friends and started injuring them. Maybe I should choose a different target for this, eh guys?'

 

[lukelightning]

Part if the problem is the cloak of distortion, which I've flat-out banned in my game...

 

[Ryujin]

It seems both over powered and not particularly useful, at the same time. A Warlock's Misty Step only kicks in if an enemy that is cursed drops and it's only a teleport of 3, unless improved by a feat. OTOH I use my Rod of Corruption far more than I take advantage of Misty Step, precisely because I frequently have the tactical position that I want already.

Part if the problem is the cloak of distortion, which I've flat-out banned in my game...

We nerfed it to only augment AC. Even in it's original form we interpreted it to not work against area attacks.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

I could see it being powerful (though not necessarily overpowered) if you had one of those nifty abilities that did damage to enemies that were adjacent to your teleport origin or destination -- like that Warlock PP feature "Slashing Wake".

 

[DracoSuave]

We nerfed it to only augment AC. Even in it's original form we interpreted it to not work against area attacks.

Of course it doesn't affect area attacks, those aren't ranged attacks. That's a very correct interpretation.

Mind you, use more lurkers and skirmishers, and the cloak does nothing.