Random DM nagging.

[Merc]

Give him toughness! =p

[Anastasia]

That's the default if all else fails. I sorta want it in place if it looks like we're gonna make it to epic, since epic toughness is always a good choice for a feat. +42 HP at level 21 and higher each level thereafter? I'll take it.

[Ebiris]

Iron will is boring, but his will save could use shoring up.

[Anastasia]

Iron will is boring, but his will save could use shoring up.

He'd be better off investing two feats and getting Steadfast Determination. That's a +5 boost assuming no other con improvements and he doesn't fail fort saves on a natural 1. I might do that now, actually.

[Anastasia]

Adrian updated. I did this early since I may be a bit busy this week.

[Anastasia]

KiBlast sucks. It's a feat meant to give monks long range attacks but it fails at that. Why? Take a look.

http://dnd.savannahsoft.eu/feat-1712-kiblast.html

Heavy pre-reqs to get 3d6+wis force damage. This isn't horrid and does have some applications as a ranged touch force attack, but the damage simply doesn't stay relevant. If you get it at sixth level - impossible to do RAW due to the BAB requirements, short of gestalt - it's competitive with a spell....except it takes a move+standard action to use. Great idea. Monk is a mobile class, let's make them stay put! Oh, and it consumes two uses of stunning fist per day.

So let's try rewriting it to suck less!

Ki Blast [General]
Prerequisite: Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, wis 13, BAB+6
Benefit: You can expend a daily use of your stunning fist feat to make a powerful blast of spiritual energy. As a standard action you may fire the blast of ki energy at a target within 60ft. This is treated as a force attack and deals 3d6+wis modifier damage. In addition, you deal an extra 1d6 damage per 4 monk levels you possess. For example, a 9th level monk with a wisdom of 22 deals 5d6+6 points of damage with a ki blast.

Is this good? Too much? Not enough? What do you guys think?

[Yuthirin]

[22:48] <Kallen> I don't think increasing the damage is actually a great solution, though. Too little and it's still bad, too good and it's too good
[22:48] * Kallen parries reflexively
[22:49] <Kallen> It should totally do something else as well, like bullrush
[22:49] <Kallen> Then you can blast people off cliffs!

[Anastasia]

Is there any interest in using a specialized critical hit table? There's one on Dragon Compendium, page 233. It does provide some more excitement to critical hits, but at the cost of slowing things down and changing a critical hit from painful to possibly catastrophic to a PC.

I'm not particularly in love with it, but if you guys like it? It could be worth trying.

[Anastasia]

[22:48] <Kallen> I don't think increasing the damage is actually a great solution, though. Too little and it's still bad, too good and it's too good
[22:48] * Kallen parries reflexively
[22:49] <Kallen> It should totally do something else as well, like bullrush
[22:49] <Kallen> Then you can blast people off cliffs!

My problem with this is feature bloat. I'm trying to fix the original feat to be better than it is. What I'm trying not to do is to change the basic design paradigm  of the feat. We have a force-blast of ki energy that deals damage. This is good and something to work with. Tacking on extra features makes the feat harder to balance and distracts from the main point of the exercise. If you want to expand the uses of ki blast, why not look at additional feats or a PrC centered around it?

[Ebiris]

Is there any interest in using a specialized critical hit table? There's one on Dragon Compendium, page 233. It does provide some more excitement to critical hits, but at the cost of slowing things down and changing a critical hit from painful to possibly catastrophic to a PC.

I'm not particularly in love with it, but if you guys like it? It could be worth trying.

Rather not slow combat down further, and it makes crits more swingey.

[Corwin]

-I agree with Eb, it's not really a proposal that appeals to me.

-Re:Rat's suggestion, you could always view it as the unicorn spell, which was both a force blast and bullrushed people. If you wanted to, that is.

[Yuthirin]

I'll pass on slower combat.

[Anastasia]

No crit tables. I weep no tears for this.

---

People, as a way of speeding up combat, let me suggest for you to have your lines written out and prepared ahead of your turn whenever possible. If you know what you're doing to do, have that set up so that the gap between turns is short.

[Yuthirin]

Will do!

[Corwin]

Normally, using a silver weapon means you hit at -1 damage, but there are some ways around it. Special weapons, monk abilities, stuff like the Silver Flame or other ways to bypass DR (say via Awesome Smite). It made me wonder if there are/can be exotic materials one can forge weapons from and that do the same thing. If so, it could be something I'd keep an eye out for.