Stormguard Warrior: how to describe it?

[Egres]

Say you are the DM, and one of the NPCs uses one of the Stormguard Warrior feat maneuver, Combat Rhythm: how would you describe your players what this NPCs does?

For those of you who don't own Tome of Battle, this maneuver basically give you the ability to make your regular attacks as touch attacks that deal no damage, to obtain, in the next round, a bonus to your damage rolls based on the number of successful touch attacks you made.

 

[moritheil]

Just say he or she spends the round testing their defenses.

 

[Egres]

Just say he or she spends the round testing their defenses.

How?

Can you elaborate?

Would you say to your players "he tests your defenses"?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

How?

Can you elaborate?

Would you say to your players "he tests your defenses"?

"He swings and you try and dodge and he...taps your neck? Then you duck around and he taps you in the gut."

Then, next round

"He swings and, ow, hits you right on the neck where he touched you, then in the gut, then..."

Doesn't seem too hard.

Brad

 

[Egres]

"He swings and you try and dodge and he...taps your neck? Then you duck around and he taps you in the gut."

Then, next round

"He swings and, ow, hits you right on the neck where he touched you, then in the gut, then..."

Doesn't seem too hard.

Brad

Good.

In this way, the next time the NPC will "tap", the PC will simply move away to avoid his next full attack, negating the NPC the opportunity to use the maneuver bonus.

Result?

A wasted full attack.

 

[Mort]

Good.

In this way, the next time the NPC will "tap", the PC will simply move away to avoid his next full attack, negating the NPC the opportunity to use the maneuver bonus.

Result?

A wasted full attack.

1. Once a PC knows what stormguard warrior is, that's exactly what he should do.
2) The PC will be that much more surprised when the warblade uses sudden leap, or pounce (can't remember the exact manuever) and gets a full attack anyway (or at high levels diamond nightmare blade and only needs a standard action).

The balancing factor to stormguard warrior is that the target has a round before the truly heinous damage results.

 

[Egres]

1. Once a PC knows what stormguard warrior is, that's exactly what he should do.

Once a NPC knows what stormguard warrior is, that's exactly what he should do too.

2) The PC will be that much more surprised when the warblade uses sudden leap, or pounce (can't remember the exact maneuver) and gets a full attack anyway (or at high levels diamond nightmare blade and only needs a standard action).

So, you are confirming that the feat is very maneuver dependant, and that it's in-game" limit makes it less useful than it appears.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Good.

In this way, the next time the NPC will "tap", the PC will simply move away to avoid his next full attack, negating the NPC the opportunity to use the maneuver bonus.

Result?

A wasted full attack.

Why would the PC move away, if all the "Stormguard Warrior-user" is doing is "tapping" him, causing no damage? Seems kind of metagamey to have him superfluously walk away from him, especally if he hasn't caused any real damage with his attacks (yet).

I agree with Mort, once a PC knows what stormguard warrior is, he'll WANT to avoid him. But not before hand, unless you have some other in-game reason for doing so ("This guy is merely tapping me, he's no threat, I'll move on to someone else for now.").

Note: IIRC, you do not have to attack the same target as you did the round before. You can "tap" one person, and build up that damage, and unleash it on someone else.

 

[Egres]

Why would the PC move away, if all the "Stormguard Warrior-user" is doing is "tapping" him, causing no damage? Seems kind of metagamey to have him superfluously walk away from him, especally if he hasn't caused any real damage with his attacks (yet).

Read my post once again:

In this way, the next time the NPC will "tap", the PC will simply move away to avoid his next full attack, negating the NPC the opportunity to use the maneuver bonus.

Note: IIRC, you do not have to attack the same target as you did the round before. You can "tap" one person, and build up that damage, and unleash it on someone else.

Nope.

The bonus is obtained only againt the same opponent.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Read my post once again:

In this way, the next time the NPC will "tap", the PC will simply move away to avoid his next full attack, negating the NPC the opportunity to use the maneuver bonus.

However, the next time the NPC tries to "tap" the PC could very well be within the same round, which would prohibit the PC from moving since it is not their turn. In fact, this is one of the most used "combos" for Combat Rythm. You try to accumulate as many attacks as you can in 1 round (FoB, TWF, iterative attacks) and make them all touch attacks via Combat Rythm, so the next round when you do your "real" attacks, you have a lot of damage added up. This is what I was responding to. And in this case, the PC can't simply move away in the middle of the NPC's turn. And it would be metagamey in most cases if they did before they felt the real effects of Stormguard Warrior. After that, sure, they would be aware of this tactic and try to find ways to counter it, such as moving away.

Nope.

The bonus is obtained only againt the same opponent.

Good to know!

In fact, that is kind of a downside. To build up all that damage in 1 round, only to have (a) the opponent flee or (b) your allies drop them before you can get to them. Heh. I guess it would work well against a single BBEG who would normally take a few rounds to knock out.