Scion of the Last Word

[erleni]

Hello,

after writing the Assassin's Handbook on WotC's D&D CharOp forum I started to conceive the idea of a more strikery assassin and came up with a Paragon Path, based on the enchantment called "Last Word" that Orcus used to kill some gods (as told in the 2ed Dead Gods boxed set). I would appreciate any comment, so don't pull your punches.... Here we go:


Scion of the Last Word

"There's no reason to fight and toil, as everything will eventually come to an end"

Prerequisites: Assassin, either Bleak Disciple or Nightstalker Guild Training

You have witnessed the power of the Last Word and survived. From that very moment you became aware of the fragility of all that is living: you, your friends, your allies and your enemies.
Some of your ilk become agents of death, using their knowledge to kill their enemies, others engage in an endless fight to protect lives all over the multiverse, but they all walk the fine line between using the power of the Word wisely and becoming its slave.

Scion of the Last Word Path Features:

Echoes of the Last Word (11th level): Whenever you deal your Assassin's shroud damage, every enemy in a radius from you equal to the number of shrouds dealing damage, takes damage equal to one-half of your level.

Mortal Aura (11th level): Whenever an enemy enters a square adjacent to you, you can use one of your Assassin at-will attack powers against it as an immediate reaction.

Finishing Sequence (11th level): When you spend an action point to make an attack against your Assassin's Shroud target and you hit, until the end of your turn you can use your Assassin 1st-level at-will attacks as minor actions.

Disheartening Presence (16th level): when you attack your Assassin's Shroud target you ignore its fear immunity, necrotic resistance and necrotic immunity.


Scion of the Last Word Mysteries
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Angel of Deliverance Scion of the Last Word Attack 11

When you feel your enemies are close to death, you walk through the shadows to deliver the killing blow.

Encounter Shadow, Teleportation, Weapon
Free Action Melee
Trigger: an enemy within 10 squares from you becomes bloodied

Effect: you teleport 10 squares to a square adjacent to the triggering creature and then use the following attack against it.

Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 4[W] + Dexterity modifier damage. Increase damage to 6[W] + Dexterity modifier damage at 21st level.

Special: If the target is your Assassin's Shroud target and you hit, you deal damage as if the attack was a critical hit. If the attack is a critical hit against your Assassin's Shroud target, its extra critical damage is maximized.
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Burning the Soul Scion of the Last Word Utility 12

You channel the power of the Last Word through yourself, but you pay a price for it.

Encounter Shadow, Stance
Minor Action

Effect: While this stance is active you get a +4 bonus to attack rolls and a bonus to damage rolls equal to your Constitution or Charisma bonus, but you cannot gain temporary hit points or regain hit points by any mean and you take damage equal to one half of your level at the end of each of your turns.
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Fragment of the Word Scion of the Last Word Attack 20

You utter a fragment of the Last Word and hope vanishes from the hearts of your enemies.

Daily Shadow, Fear, Implement
Standard Action Close blast 3
Target: one enemy in blast

Hit: 3d8 + Dexterity modifier damage and the target becomes unconscious (save ends).
Aftereffect: the target is slowed and weakened (save ends).
Special: Your Assassin's Shroud target takes a penalty to all saving throws against the effects of this power equal to the number of shrouds currently on it.

 

[Camelot]

Great idea! A couple of comments:

1) This path doesn't seem more strikery as you said, it actually seems more controllery.

2) The two attacks seem way overpowered, especially the 11th level power. It's an almost guaranteed critical hit with 4[W] + primary ability modifier damage! Most paragon path powers only do 3 dice of damage at most, even for strikers. If you want to stick with the critical effect, I'd make it 2[W] + Dex mod. The 20th level power could lose the saving throw penalty and it would probably be fine, but that with unconsiousness is very powerful.

 

[the Jester]

Whoa there Tex, looks pretty powerful to me!

Finishing Sequence seems waaay over the top. It allows the assassin to make 4 attacks in one round (!) (spend AP first, triggers finishing sequence, use all 3 actions + AP action for attacks).

The damage on the attacks looks high to me too.

 

[erleni]

Thanks for the comments.

Finishing sequence is more or less similar to Storm of Blades or Hurricane of Blades, but a barbarian just uses a standard action to unleash all the attacks and can do that every encounter (and maybe more if he can re-use the power), while the Scion has to spend all of his actions and an AP to do that (so he can do that only once every other encounter) and can even Coupe de Grace with those powers, while the Scion cannot do that with all the attacks (as you may imagine my benchmark there was a barbarian playing in our same campaign; CdG with Hurricane of Blades means real carnage).

I agree with the fact that Angel of Deliverance may be a little overpowered. Maybe reducing it to 2[W] at paragon and 4[w] at epic would be better.

Fragment of the Word is similar to other powers like Mind Blade or Knockout that make the target unconscious. The penalty to saving throws is not very high (up to +4 if you can pack 4 shrouds on the target, but that usually takes some time).

I know that this path is more powerful that what you usually get from a path. It is more a way to bring the assassin back in line with other strikers, by trying to address the main weaknesses (lack of minor/immediate attacks, no "big guns" and diminishing returns of Assassin's shroud at higher tiers).

 

[Camelot]

I agree with the fact that Angel of Deliverance may be a little overpowered. Maybe reducing it to 2[W] at paragon and 4[w] at epic would be better.

Paragon path encounter powers don't usually increase at 21st level, unless there's a few I missed.

 

[the Jester]

Well, bear in mind that a barbarian's striker damage comes from all the extra attacks he makes. Also, barbarians (in my experience) dish out even more than typical striker damage because they are as easy to hit as the broad side of a barn; in fact, many of their powers actually do things like give their enemies combat advantage against them, etc.

I'd look through comparable assassin paragon paths to see what's balanced rather than using a barbarian as your yardstick.

 

[erleni]

I didn't want this path to be balanced with other Assassin's paths. I wanted it to address some problems in the assassin's core mechanics, to see if it can make a reasonably good character at paragon and epic (heroic assassins are pretty much fine).
I understand that barbarians may be easier to hit but remember that they have a slew of HP compared to an assassin (that gets the short stick in almost every area, except mobility, at higher tiers).