Rain of Steel too powerful

[keterys]

Yeah, I had been thinking lasting frost would cover the weapon focus angle, but that's only from 11-15... so yeah, weapon focus should actually bring it to pretty much equal if we pretend that burning blizzard covers the couple levels where they'd be slightly out of balance.

Either way, they're both great powers... if they didn't autokill minions I'd actually be able to say they're precisely the way I'd rather most daily powers worked. That is, small consistent damage boosts for an entire fight that don't stack with crazy multiattack madness (Blade Cascade, et al) rather than huge swingy effects that cripple a battlefield.

Not that I even object that much to autokilling minions, I'd just rather it was _slightly_ harder. On that note, off to houserules forum.

 

[Krensus]

Thicket of Blades (Ftr Daily 9) does 3[W]+Str to all ememies adjacent to you, and the target(s) are slowed [save ends]. That's better than Rain of Steel over a single round, but over several rounds (as most fights are), Rain of Steel is much better. And the slowed condition from Thicket of Blades overlaps with the Ftr Combat Challenge feature, so it's not all that good.

Put another way: "Which would you rather have: Rain of Steel (Ftr Daily 5) or Thicket of Blades (Ftr Daily 9)?" If the higher level (but similar) power is less desirable, there's something fishy going on.

Actually, Thicket of Blades is much better than Rain of Steel. If you are surrounded by 8 enemies and use Thicket of Blades to attack each of them and hit only 7 of 8 of the targets, the ability is not consumed because of the Reliable keyword. So that's a pretty renewable 3[W] ability given the 50/50 hit probability of 4th ed.

 

[keterys]

Reliable has been errata-ed - it is expended if it hits only 1 of the 8 enemies. No longer broken... but also not terribly impressive.

 

[LargeGoblin]

I just wanted to point out that I didn't notice anybody mention that the pit fighter can add his wisdom modifier to the Rain of Steel damage. This makes it awesome for anybody who goes ranger/fighter.