Wraithstrike balance evaluation examples

[wildstarsreach]

Awesome job Iku!

If you are bored, you might run a few monsters through your machine who also cast wraithstrike (vs. the pc's).

Like, a dragon, or a lower level opponent.

The results will be, well... horrfying. 1 dead pc a round.

Or more to be precise.

 

[wildstarsreach]

Okay, as much as I love the spell, if it can bypass DR, then the spell should be banned because it is not at the correct level at all. Maybe returned as a 7th or 8th level spell or a change that strength based damage does not apply. Other than that, this is too awesome a spell for the level that it was made at.

 

[Nail]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#damageReduction

WHAT!!!!!????

OMG.

 

[Nail]

Alright, hold on.

Just because "Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks", that does not mean DR is not appled to the damage done by touch attacks, so long as that damage is not "energy damage".

 

[two]

Alright, hold on.

Just because "Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks", that does not mean DR is not appled to the damage done by touch attacks, so long as that damage is not "energy damage".

What does it mean?

"Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury type poison, a monk’s stunning, and injury type disease. Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact."

OH I see. When DR negates ALL damage from an attack, it nixes the special effects as well. However... DR does not nix touch attacks by default...nor energy damage... or energy drains.

It is "clarifying" the previous sentence. DR does not auto-stop touch attacks, is what it is saying.

 

[Votan]

Wow, I didn't even notice that because it was in the DR description and not the Touch Attack description. Zounds! Simply zounds! If you told me you just made a 2nd-level Swift spell that allowed all attacks that round to ignore all DR, I'd tell you you were nuts even if it didn't also ignore most AC.

Now that is something that I both missed and is an important factor. If DR does not applyn to touch attacks this is a massive edge that I did not consider. Yikes!

 

[Nail]

two's got it.

DR does indeed apply to the damage from a touch attack, so long as it is damage DR would normally apply to.

 

[Rystil Arden]

two's got it.

DR does indeed apply to the damage from a touch attack, so long as it is damage DR would normally apply to.

Whew, good. So I was right all this time

 

[Nail]

@ Rystil Arden: Yeah, I just about blew a gasket on that one ("Touch Attack damage ignores DR?"), before I thought it through.....

;0

 

[Mort]

@ Rystil Arden: Yeah, I just about blew a gasket on that one ("Touch Attack damage ignores DR?"), before I thought it through.....

;0

For what it's worth, I don't think touch attacks are intended to overcome damage reduction, but it certainly could be clearer. It's actually less clear if you look at the DMG (can't cite the page at the moment don't have it in front of me). Regardless, doesn't change my opinion that wraithstrike is bad in the slightest.

Forgetting everything else, it's bad from a mechanical standpoint - in the majority of cases, the spell gets better as your opponents CR increases, that's just bad design.