Please rate Arterial Strike

[smetzger]

Arterial Strike [General]
REQ: Base Attack bonus +4, sneak attack ability

If you hit with a sneak attack, you may choose to forgo +1d6 points of extra sneak attack damage to deliever a wound that won’t stop bleeding. Each wound so inficted does an additional 1 point of damage per round. Multiple arterial strikes are cumulative. One successful heal check or any cure spell stops the bleeding. Song and Silence, pg 38.

 

[Madfox]

How often does bleeding come into effect when used against opponents of the PCs? The creature is dead within a few rounds, and that one 1d6 deals on average more damage in that same time. Now if a PC might be able to change his full sneak attack number of dice in one massive arterial stroke then it might be different, but I cannot see that to be the case. Of course, against the PCs this is much nastier, especially when facing several opponents with the feat.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I felt generous and gave it a '4'.

It is a cool concept, but, as already pointed out, only rarely do the PCs' enemies survive three rounds.

On the plus side, it is a good way to kill a dumb animal and finally allows PCs to hunt somewhat realistically without hacking their dinner into submission.

 

[Sejs]

I voted 7. I like the feats that let you do versatile stuff with your sneak attacks.

And as a GM, I -particularly- like this one on Blackguard NPCs
Wounding weapon and arterial strike.. feint, bleed, feint, bleed, feint, bleed.


Also, gangs of people using this feat.. like a cleanup crew for the local thieves' guild.. can be quite nasty, quite fast

 

[Hannibal Barca]

Also good on opponents that can not heal themselves like animals, beasts with low intelligence, etc. For example instead of a toe to toe match against a Tyranosaurus, use arterial strike + escape of your choice. Good flavor too. I'll give it a 4.

 

[AuraSeer]

I think it's actually a little overpowered against dumb opponents. If you're fighting a ginormous animal with 1000 hit points, you could poke it with a knitting needle and run away, trusting that the thing will eventually die. In such a case I'd probably cap the damage at 50 points per hit, or maybe allow a Fort save once per couple of minutes to stop the bleeding.

That almost never comes up in practice, though. Most high-hp monsters either are intelligent, have regeneration or fast healing, or are immune to sneak attacks. In the general case, I'd rate this feat as a 3.

 

[Kraedin]

I'd rate it higher if you could give up more than one sneak attack die to yield additional bleeding -- that could make it viable for ranged combat rogues who tend to only get a handful of sneak attacks in per combat. As is, it gets a three. I like the general idea, but the execution is unspectacular.

 

[Burne]

I have Arterial Strike on a high level rogue, and I rated it a 4. I mostly bought it for flavor and don't use it much. A couple times it has been useful against spell casters to stack up a ton of wounding damage, but over all I would have gotten more use out of a Skill Focus or Imp Init.

 

[Jeph]

rapid shot/sneak attack/arterial strike it while hasted with arrows of wounding, and then walk away to watch it die. If the PCs aren't in a rush, it's a great feat, especially when used in conjunction with multiple attacks and wounding weapons.

 

[Kemrain]

It depends a lot on the situations the characters finds themselves in. If, as in my campaign, most of the opponents are human/demihuman, and magic is rare, it can be very useful, as long as you find a way to keep the wounded from taking a few moments to staunch the bleeding. The feint/bleed tactic is very interesting, and I think it could be used to devastating effect. I would also agree that were you able to substitute more dice of damage for another bleeding point each round, it could quickly become not only outrageously deadly, but rather realistic in the amount of damage dealt. Throw in multiple attacks... Hehehehh.

In a grim and gritty game, with low magic, as in the games I usually play/run, I give it a 7. In ‘vanilla’ D7D, I’d give it a 4 or 5. I’m rather biased, but this feat has more utility than I think most would give it credit.

- Kemrain the Bleeder