Power of Skill - is it as broken as I think it is?

[Orcus Porkus]

The feat allows you to use 4 powerful at-wills in place of a basic attack.

Power of Skill [Domain]

Prerequisite: Any divine class, must worship a deity of the skill domain
Benefit: You gain a +1 feat bonus to trained skill checks.
You can use any power you have that is associated with this feat as a basic attack.

Associated Powers: Divine Bolts, Overwhelming Strike, Righteous Brand, Valiant Strike

With Quicksilver Stance you get those attacks as a move action replacement.

Quicksilver Stance

Like liquid metal, you flow wherever the gravity of battle carries you.
Daily

Martial, Stance
Minor Action Personal
Effect: Until the stance ends, you can shift 1 square (or 2 squares if you aren’t wearing heavy armor) and make a melee basic attack as a move action. If you have combat advantage against the target of the attack and hit, the attack deals extra damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Feral Armor grants you a burst 1 encounter power, all attacks with one of those at-wills.

Feral Armor

This armor causes its wearer to develop a ferocious streak, like that of the predator that once wore the same skin.
Level: 7
Price: 2600 gp
Armor: Hide
Enhancement: +2 AC

Property: Gain a claw attack while wearing this armor: a one handed military light blade melee weapon with +3 proficiency bonus to attack rolls and deals 1d8 damage. The wearer gains proficiency with this weapon. The claw attack has an enhancement bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls equal to the enhancement bonus of this armor. This attack counts as a melee basic attack.
Power (Encounter): Standard Action. Close burst 1; targets enemies; make a basic melee attack using the claw attack granted by this armor against each enemy in burst.

This one combined with a reach weapon grants you reach 3 with those powerful at-wills.

Weapon of Myrdroon's Shard

Made from a shard of Myrdroon’s spear, this weapon looses devastating lightning.
Level: 4
Price: 840 gp
Weapon: Spear
Enhancement: +1 attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +1d8 lightning damage
Power (At-Will): Standard Action. Make a melee basic attack with the weapon, with reach one greater than normal. All damage dealt by this attack is lightning damage.
Power (Daily • Lightning): Free Action. Use this power when you hit with the weapon. Push the target 2 squares, and the target and each creature adjacent to the target takes 1d8 lightning damage.

And so on. Crazy?

 

[DracoSuave]

Nice synergy.

Except the part of using the feral armor attack with a weapon other than its claw. That part's sketchy.

Cause that other weapon isn't the claw attack granted by the armor.

But otherwise, crazy.

 

[DracoSuave]

Boo to DracoDoubleposting

 

[Orcus Porkus]

I can make a list of dozens of powers and items that abuse this feat. What were they thinking?
It also works on OA, so you practically get HBO without heavy blades and the atribute requirements.
I have so many possible builds and combos in my head I'm getting dizzy.

 

[Infiniti2000]

I'm not sure it's all the broken, though on the surface allowing someone to swap out basic attacks with at-wills is a significant candidate for brokenness. In this case, however, the prerequisite is pretty steep. Using Power of Skill and a Fight Attack 15 power is a major impediment. It would require a significant investment to obtain, wouldn't it? And, at that level is it really broken compared to similar powers of the PC's level?

 

[Orcus Porkus]

That Quicksilver Stance is just one example. With the Power of Skill feat alone you can get HBO at level 1

 

[N8Ball]

That Quicksilver Stance is just one example. With the Power of Skill feat alone you can get HBO at level 1

True, but it's hardly as versatile as HBO.

In all likelyhood you only have one of those at-wills available to use as a basic attack, so it's not like you can put together any of the super-glaive-push-pull-knockdown effects that are made available with HBO and corresponding feats.

 

[Turtlejay]

I guess what I hate, is that like Righteous Rage of Tempus, it will encourage God choice for stupid reasons. How many worshippers of Tempus can there be, really?

Having an at will to use as a basic attack is very nice. Use it on a charge, use it for an attack granted to you, for OA's, and with every broken combo that Orkus Porkus can think of.

But, this all depends on how good the at-wills are. The Invoker one, by virtue of being ranged, is not really that useful. The Paladin one translates into a bonus to hit (So, his charge is now a little better, and his OA is better but not fighter level of betterness).

The Cleric gets one of the best ones, so if you get a lucky OA or free granted attack you can give that sweet to hit bonus to a second ally (Warlord gives a free attack to the Cleric, Cleric hits and gives a bonus to the Warlord. Interesting)

I think the Avenger one is the nicest, it gives him a little defendery control if something tries to sneak past him, or makes his charges a little cooler.

As far as damage output though, these are not really pushing things. Fun tactics, sure, but I am not that concerned.

Jay

 

[Orcus Porkus]

This dude takes the two best at-wills, uses them on charge attacks and OA.
His charge attacks are like nothing the game has ever seen, by hitting, then shifting one square, and sliding the enemy 2 squares into his old square, knocking it prone with Polearm Momentum. That's a pretty nice start for a battle.
Or take a barbarian, who can abuse Rampage with those at-wills.
But I'm really most concerned about all the items and powers that grant basic melee attacks, and were not meant to allow them to be turned into at-wills. Just take a look at all those carefully worded powers that grant "melee basic attacks as an opportunity action" and obviously avoiding the term opportunity attack in order to make the well-known abuse with HBO polearm gamble etc impossible. With this feat that has changed. I'm sure we'll see many more worshippers of Corellon in the future. Yes, the parallel to Tempus is obvious.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Wolfskind 14, level 14
Longtooth Shifter, Avenger|Cleric, Relentless Slayer
Hybrid Avenger: Hybrid Avenger Reflex
Hybrid Talent: Cleric Armor Proficiency

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 20, Con 12, Dex 16, Int 11, Wis 22, Cha 9.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 14, Con 11, Dex 15, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 8.


AC: 29 Fort: 25 Reflex: 24 Will: 27
HP: 90 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 23

TRAINED SKILLS
Insight +19, Perception +19, Acrobatics +15, Athletics +19

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +7, Bluff +6, Diplomacy +6, Dungeoneering +13, Endurance +9, Heal +13, History +7, Intimidate +6, Nature +13, Religion +7, Stealth +9, Streetwise +6, Thievery +9

FEATS
Level 1: Weapon Proficiency (Urgrosh)
Level 2: Power of Skill
Level 4: Weapon Expertise (Spear)
Level 6: Gorebrute Charge
Level 8: Battle Awareness
Level 10: Powerful Charge
Level 11: Weapon Focus (Spear)
Level 12: Polearm Momentum
Level 14: Hybrid Talent

POWERS
Hybrid Avenger at-will 1: Overwhelming Strike
Hybrid Cleric at-will 1: Righteous Brand
Hybrid encounter 1: Divine Glow
Hybrid daily 1: Aspect of Might
Hybrid utility 2: Refocus Enmity
Hybrid encounter 3: Deadly Stride
Hybrid daily 5: Weapon of the Gods
Hybrid utility 6: Divine Favor
Hybrid encounter 7: Splinter the Formation
Hybrid daily 9: Divine Power
Hybrid utility 10: Avenger's Resolve
Hybrid encounter 13: Crimson Stride (replaces Splinter the Formation)

ITEMS
Magic Braidmail Armor +3, Rushing Cleats (heroic tier), Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier), Amulet of Protection +3, Horned Helm (heroic tier), Vanguard Urgrosh +3, Cat Paws (heroic tier), Belt of Vigor (heroic tier), Symbol of Victory +2, Salve of Power (heroic tier)
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======

 

[Orcus Porkus]

Or this guy. He can use Righteous Brand 5 squares away (Farslayer weapon) and gets 4 free uses of Righteous Brand per encounter through various items (usually, depending on whether the trigger happens). He also uses RB on all OA (+5 attack bonus) and Combat Challenge, which is really nice. All other fighters can just make a melee basic attack, this nasty dwarf makes the enemy pay even harder with a +4 bonus and Righteous Brand, to set the fool up for follow up attacks by an ally (+6 attack bonus). Since he needs heavy armor he can't abuse Bestial Armor or Feral Armor, but perhaps he should switch.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
level 14
Dwarf, Fighter|Cleric, Kensei
Hybrid Talent: Combat Superiority
Kensei Focus: Kensei Focus Execution axe

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 22, Con 17, Dex 11, Int 11, Wis 18, Cha 9.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 13, Dex 10, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 8.


AC: 17 Fort: 28 Reflex: 21 Will: 26
HP: 105 Surges: 13 Surge Value: 29

TRAINED SKILLS


UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +7, Arcana +7, Bluff +6, Diplomacy +6, Dungeoneering +13, Endurance +12, Heal +11, History +7, Insight +11, Intimidate +6, Nature +11, Perception +11, Religion +7, Stealth +7, Streetwise +6, Thievery +7, Athletics +13

FEATS
Level 1: Power of Skill
Level 2: Dwarven Weapon Training
Level 4: Hybrid Talent
Level 6: Devoted Challenge
Level 8: Weapon Expertise (Axe)
Level 10: Toughness
Level 11: Dwarven Durability
Level 12: Hero of Faith
Level 14: Paragon Defenses

POWERS
Hybrid Cleric at-will 1: Righteous Brand
Hybrid Fighter at-will 1: Brash Strike

ITEMS
Farslayer Execution axe +3, Counterstrike Guards (paragon tier), Strikebacks (heroic tier), Belt of Lucky Strikes (heroic tier), Helm of Opportunity (heroic tier), Cloak of the Walking Wounded +3, Backlash Tattoo (heroic tier)
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======