| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I absolutely adore the concept of the sound striker bard archetype, but it has issues. Lots of them. Until yesterday, we weren't sure if the physical damage listed ignored DR or not. We now know that they are affected by DR. This means that each word must: make a range touch attack, beat the saving throw of the enemy, and overcome the DR of the enemy. With the interpretation that the damage would ignore DR, this was a powerful ability able to deal a ton of damage to a single enemy. With the DR affecting the damage, it's now...pretty weak actually, with 4 chances for failure.
So that's one strike against it.
To see the other, larger, issue with the it, consider a level 10 bard using Weird Words. He can create 10 weird words with a standard action. Each require a ranged attack roll. Each requires a fortitude saving throw roll. Each requires a damage roll. That's THIRTY dice that need to be rolled for this one ability. Which is absolutely ridiculous.
There's also some debate over whether you can focus fire each word at the same guy.
With that, here is a proposed fix to use in your campaigns if it ever comes up.
Bardic Performance
A sound striker gains the following type of bardic performance. Neither performance can be performed more quickly than a standard action, nor can they be switched quickly through feats, abilities, spells, etc.
Wordstrike (Su): At 3rd level, the sound striker bard can spend 1 round of bardic performance as a standard action to direct a burst of sonically charged words at a creature or object. This performance deals 1d4 points of damage plus half the bard’s level. This damage is not halved if used against an object. This performance replaces inspire competence.
Weird Words (Su): At 6th level, a sound striker can start a bardic performance as a standard action, lashing out one potent word per 3 levels (maximum 3 words) at enemies within 30 ft. These potent words are ranged touch attacks. Each weird word deals 3d8 plus the bard's Charisma bonus (Fortitude half), and the bard chooses whether it deals bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing. This damage is affected by Damage Reduction and counts as magical.
This assumes you could focus-fire the weird words originally. It does gut most of the damage capability due to only adding Cha three times instead of 10, but it's more sane.
Wordstrike is also slightly different: Instead of creatures receiving half damage, the damage now ignores the halving step that usually happens when attacking objects. This assumes the damage was meant to be sonic damage rather than untyped, as evidenced by the "sonically charged" flavor text.
If you think you can't use weird words on an enemy more than once per activation, you can also use this:
Weird Words (Su): At 6th level, a sound striker can start a bardic performance as a standard action, lashing out weird words of power at enemies within 30 ft. of the bard. A number of enemies equal to your level (maximum 10) take 1d8 plus your Charisma modifier in sonic damage (Fortitude half).
This one doesn't have the DR or Ranged Touch issue, which makes it much more useful than before. Rather than three chances to reduce or eliminate what is realistically about 8-10 damage, there's only one.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Loving it. This is probably going into my home games rules doc.
With the new FAQ thread on this ability I’m gonna hold down on my feedback on the subject.
But here are my quick thoughts on the first suggestion.
I like what you did with Wordstrike.
Your version of Weird Words is indeed easier to use, but is in some cases it is actually weaker than the original version.
It is far better vs. creatures with DR, but vs. creatures that lack DR it is a nerf. Not only because “Cha three times instead of 10” but also because more attack rolls means more chance of getting an average or 11 on the roll. What about each word deals 4d8 plus the bard's Charisma bonus (Fortitude half)?
Or give the bard an ability similar to cluster shot feat and let he get one word for every 2 levels and one word does 2d8+ char mod. Max 5 words?
Or make it a ray so the bard can pick cluster shot? One word does 2d8+ char mod. Max 5 words and make it a ray. Thougts?
Wow, I didn't see these posts until the FAQ came out today, and I went back to see what I wrote a year ago.
It's been so long I'm barely even familiar with this. Weird.
I'm fine with it being slightly weaker in some cases. I do think that 4d8 probably won't break the bank though. I just generally try to undershoot rather than overshoot. If you undershoot, you just hit the game floor. If you overshoot, you hit the poor granny who is just trying to watch her grandson play basketball.
I think the key is to cluster the words together, and increase the base damage die. 5 is a bit too many for me personally, as that's 20 rolls, which is one of the things I'd was trying to avoid. The 3 / 3d8 one has...12 rolls? Which is still pretty bad, but it's better compared to 20.
I'm not a huge fan of Clustered Shots though, so I don't have any good feedback on that idea :)
has a threat range of 1
I'm assuming you mean "threat range of 20", as a 1 is a miss =)
Also if the attack only threatens on a 20 you don't need to mention it at all; that's the default assumption if no threat range is mentioned.
Now if you meant 19-20 or something else then it would need mentioning yes.
I like this version, though.