Power Critical (Ray) + Polar Ray/Disintegrate = Much pain

[Kae'Yoss]

Is this possible? Power critical for Rays? (I think so, since we can use other weapon-related feats for weapon-like spells). Sure, t's only once a day, but the prospect of a critical disintegrate with 80d6 damage on a failed save is almost frightening.

 

[Someone]

Power critical works only with melee weapons IIRC.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

That's comforting.

 

[Pax]

Okay, then. Power Critical (Touch Spell), and Vampiric Touch.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Still not particularly impressive. The problem with spells is they all have a mutliplier of x2. (It maxes out at 5d6 IIRC as well so while a crit would deal 10d6, it would only average 35 points of damage). In order for power critical to deal real pain, the weapon needs to have a x3 or x4 multiplier. Power critical on a +3 scythe wielded by a raging barbarian (26 strength) averages 80 points of damage without power attack. Should the character be power attacking for five points of damage, the average damage goes up to 100 points.

Of course, since power critical requires a +12 BAB, there's no danger of non-multiclassed wizards picking it up before epic levels anyway. . . .

Okay, then. Power Critical (Touch Spell), and Vampiric Touch.

 

[James McMurray]

Vampiric Touch maxes at 10d6 now, meaning 20d6 on a critical. An Eldritch Knight could get Power Critical fairly easily. Of course, he'd max out at 18d6 at 20th level, but would jump to 20d6 at 21st. That's pretty nice when its a no save touch attack.

 

[Limper]

Given Vamp Touches low level of 3rd.

Power Crit Maximised+Empowered Vamp Touch would be the way to go.


60+5d6 x2 or 130-180 that adds to your hps while detracting form the enemies. Not to shabby for a lvl 8 slot and a gimick attack.

 

[Dinkeldog]

And at 20th level when you do that to your bad guy and then you find out he's got a ring of spellturning? Or just when you find out that you've done 150 points to a bad guy that has over a thousand HPs. For an 8th level slot, I can probably live with it.

 

[Limper]

And at 20th level when you do that to your bad guy and then you find out he's got a ring of spellturning? Or just when you find out that you've done 150 points to a bad guy that has over a thousand HPs. For an 8th level slot, I can probably live with it.

Thats why I mentioned it being a gimick attack. For an 8th level touch slot, Ottos Dance wins. Or if you like damage dealing Empowered Chain Lightning is a hoot.

 

[ruleslawyer]

I'll reiterate what I said recently when confronted with a pair of argumentative guys in my FLGS whining about the dangers inherent in maximized touch of idiocy attacks: Any high-level wizard who gets close enough to his enemy to use one of these spells is already adopting a losing strategy. (Of course, in the case of ToI, there's always the option of picking up arcane reach and staying far away, but...)

It is true that a Ftr1/Wiz5/EdK9 who takes this feat can, once per day, whack his target with a maximized vampiric touch spell for an automatic 156 hp damage. It is also true that the eldritch knight's single-classed wizard counterpart can instead blast his target from a nice safe distance using empowered disintegrate, and suffers no risk of AoO, or any return melee attack for that matter. It is also true that the eldritch knight had to use three feats, two of which simply aren't that great (Weapon Focus [touch] and Imp Critical [touch]) to achieve this combo, and can only do it once per day.