The Swordsage (not to be confused with the SwordMAGE)

[erik_the_guy]

Just like that is, to put it nicely, broken. For the rest of the encounter the PCs gain the ability to use the dragon's breathweapon or some other such powerful ability with a large bonus to hit and damage. I'm not sure exactly where to go with this one but I can see a few too many ways to abuse it when a monster uses a powerful attack or a healing ability.

 

[ziegander]

Edited Turning the Tide, although I have a feeling its a bit too strong now...

 

[ziegander]

Just like that is, to put it nicely, broken. For the rest of the encounter the PCs gain the ability to use the dragon's breathweapon or some other such powerful ability with a large bonus to hit and damage. I'm not sure exactly where to go with this one but I can see a few too many ways to abuse it when a monster uses a powerful attack or a healing ability.

Well, 1) Monsters don't have many healing abilities, but also 2) Just Like That only allows use of At-Will or Encounter powers. So no recharges or dailies. Though perhaps it would be better if the trigger were at-will or recharge power?

 

[ziegander]

Errata'd the language on the Enemy Skill/Friendly Fire add-on powers in the above section that details how they work, and also in the power descriptions themselves. They work perfectly fine with Friendly Fire, but there is definitely still an issue with Enemy Skill. See if you can find it!

Since changing Turn the Tide I also changed Desperate Measures to grant temp hp rather than restore hp.

Errata'd Just Like That! and Wait For It.

Um... I think that's all the changes I've made. Still hoping to here some suggestions on level 16 utilities *crosses fingers*!

 

[ziegander]

Paragon Tier is complete!

 

[erik_the_guy]

Keep updating, the class is beginning to look more balanced.

 

[ziegander]

Any suggestions on how to word the Enemy Skill add-ons properly? My latest thought is that you can only use them on Non-Elite, Non-Solo at-will/encounter powers (since enemy powers don't have levels, and using powers of monsters which are lower is not only just underpowered, but likely to never be possible (the way we have monster hierarchy).

 

[erik_the_guy]

Any suggestions on how to word the Enemy Skill add-ons properly? My latest thought is that you can only use them on Non-Elite, Non-Solo at-will/encounter powers (since enemy powers don't have levels, and using powers of monsters which are lower is not only just underpowered, but likely to never be possible (the way we have monster hierarchy).

The enemy skill and friendly fire powers allow you to copy a power of any monster/player up to your level +2 (this should cover about half the monsters you meet). When you use them, you have to expend your highest level power of the appropriate type (encounter power if you copy and encounter or at-will, daily if you copy a daily).
You can spend special add-on powers instead of your highest level power. They also add some extra benefits.

Summary:

When you copy an at-will power or an encounter power: spend your highest level encounter or highest level daily power. You can spend an encounter add-on power or a daily add-on power instead.

When you copy a daily power: spend your highest level daily power. You can spend a daily add-on power instead.

Add-on powers: Powers that you do not use as an action. Rather, you spend them instead of your highest level power when you copy an enemies or allies power.

You can spend a Daily Add-on Power when you copy any power.

You can spend your Encounter Add-on Power when you copy an at-will or encounter power.

Normally you can copy a power or monster up to 2 levels higher. When you use an encounter add-on power you can copy one up to 4 levels higher, and when you use a daily add-on power you can copy one up to 6 levels higher.

This way, the player can copy the regular monster's abilites as often as he wants. He can copy a powerful monster's abilities once per combat. He can only copy the dragons breath weapon once per day.
When a player uses "enemy skill" or "friendly fire" he immediatly learns the level of the power/monster he is copying and whether it is at-will, encounter or daily (so that he knows what he needs to do to copy it next turn).

 

[ziegander]

When you copy an at-will power or an encounter power: spend your highest level encounter or highest level daily power. You can spend an encounter add-on power or a daily add-on power instead.

So, why do you think that copying an at-will power should cost your highest level encounter power? That seems rather excessive. Again, when using this you 1) Have to wait for someone to actually HIT with a power, 2) You often will not have the correct weapon to use the power or take full advantage of the power, and 3) Intelligence and Wisdom are your secondary stats meaning that your attack rolls with powers copied with Enemy Skill/Friendly Fire will automatically be a bit lower than normal.

When you copy a daily power: spend your highest level daily power. You can spend a daily add-on power instead.

Just to clarify there are currently no daily add-on powers throughout the first 19 levels, so therefor I don't see any cropping up in the last 10.

Finally, you are talking about copying higher level powers than normal with Enemy Skill/Friendly Fire, but if I'm concerned about balance shouldn't I want you to only be able to copy powers that are no more than the same level as yourself? I may be misunderstanding what you are trying to say.

I have an idea to further add some balance to Enemy Skill/Friendly Fire:

What if I just throw in a limitation that you can only use it to copy at-will powers twice each encounter, encounter powers once each encounter, and daily powers once each day. That way, if you copy an at-will it doesn't cost you anything but the action, but you can only do it twice per encounter, and if you copy an encounter power it costs your highest level encounter power and you have to wait until your the next encounter to copy an encounter power again, and once per day you can spend your highest daily to copy a daily power. Seem reasonable to you? Seems so to me.

Finally, since I'm done with Paragon Tier powers, I'd like to work on the Paragon Paths before I move on to the Epic Tier powers. I really only have vague concepts for two paths right now - One of them more Arcane Focused, the other more Martial focused. The Arcane one I want to be Intelligence based, and encouraged to wear cloth armor in some way. The martial one will still have a taste of arcane, but should come out with a defender angle probably. Any ideas to further flesh out the concepts? Any ideas for other Paragon Paths?

 

[erik_the_guy]

I was just suggesting some general limitations. Usually a monster 2 levels higher than a PC is about as strong, so copying its power is ok. You probably want to allow them to copy a higher level monster's powers occasionally, like the "your level +6" for the daily. I mean when the party does finally encounter that deadly dragon that is 3 levels higher than them, it would suck if the one party member that is designed to copy powers wasn't able to.
I like your idea for dealing with the at-wills.

Also note that most monster powers aren't simply at-will, encounter, or daily. They usually have some sort of recharge such as a 1/6 chance to recharge every turn. You could just consider them all to be encounter powers.

Otherwise, maybe you should simplify the system a bit. Let them copy two at-will attacks each encounter, and one other power each encounter (regardless of if it is daily, encounter etc). This would make for simpler power descriptions and quicker game play.