A PC of mine is using Book of Nine Swords and is playing a Sword Sage of Diamond Mind. I had heard a lot of hype about Sword Sage being somewhat overpowered, but my PC really loves the class, and since all the Pathfinder classes got a bump up, I wanted him to be allowed to give it a shot.
So far everything seems ok mostly, he seems really strong but not broken. While leveling up he shows me this power a maneuver that allows him to make a concentration check for damage. This seemed a bit much, especially for like 5th level getting D20 + 12ish dmg. I wanted to know if others had any experience with this at all. Is this in fact overpowered? If so, any good ways to balance it out? Is there an errata / update I need to be made aware of?
Thoughts? Comments? Input is appreciated, thank you!
Ok, I realize I'm a big of a power gamer, but my opinion stands that the Book of 9 Swords is about on the same power level as the NEW fighter/ect. In 3.5, the martial classes (barbarian/fighter/ranger/etc) were pretty underpowered, while the Bo9S was closer to power with a sorcerer or bard (I've always thought they were powerful). They get more utility that basic weapon classes, can do really decent damage, multiclass wonderfully, and will still fall short of your dedicated casters in the low teens.
My opinion is to let them have it- weapon classes serve the function of doing damage, and if they can't do that, why have them at all? Clerics, Druids, Wizards, Sorcerers, and bards to a lesser extent all function well at controlling the battlefield and remaking the universe. When it comes to damage, most casters fall short of dedicated martial classes (and ALWAYS in the long run) excepting things like negative levels & ability damage.
However, please *do* be aware that the Ruby Knight Vindicator & Jade Phoenix Mage are twelve kinds of overpowered. I'd write those off almost immediately.
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A PC of mine is using Book of Nine Swords and is playing a Sword Sage of Diamond Mind. I had heard a lot of hype about Sword Sage being somewhat overpowered, but my PC really loves the class, and since all the Pathfinder classes got a bump up, I wanted him to be allowed to give it a shot.
So far everything seems ok mostly, he seems really strong but not broken. While leveling up he shows me this power a maneuver that allows him to make a concentration check for damage. This seemed a bit much, especially for like 5th level getting D20 + 12ish dmg. I wanted to know if others had any experience with this at all. Is this in fact overpowered? If so, any good ways to balance it out? Is there an errata / update I need to be made aware of?
Thoughts? Comments? Input is appreciated, thank you!
You have to remember that the concentration check replaces all damage modifiers he gets. It literally becomes just 1d20+12.
With that in mind, it doesn't get so bad.
However, please *do* be aware that the Ruby Knight Vindicator & Jade Phoenix Mage are twelve kinds of overpowered. I'd write those off almost immediately.
I've never heard of JPM as being overpowered before. Ever. It loses two levels of casting and you don't really get anything worth nearly that in return.
As for RKV being overpowered, it's only OP if you have a non-literal interpretation of "you may spend a turn attempt to gain one extra swift action". One means one, not two dozen. Every time I've seen someone say RKVs are overpowered it's because of Divine Impetus + nightsticks (which are the true brokenness anyway, as they're the key to about a dozen different broken combos) to gain arbitrarily large numbers of swift actions in a single round. Divine Impetus doesn't work like that. You can only get one extra swift action a round out of it, and without the nightstick you're only doing it a handful of times per day.
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However, please *do* be aware that the Ruby Knight Vindicator & Jade Phoenix Mage are twelve kinds of overpowered. I'd write those off almost immediately.I've never heard of JPM as being overpowered before. Ever. It loses two levels of casting and you don't really get anything worth nearly that in return.
As for RKV being overpowered, it's only OP if you have a non-literal interpretation of "you may spend a turn attempt to gain one extra swift action". One means one, not two dozen. Every time I've seen someone say RKVs are overpowered it's because of Divine Impetus + nightsticks (which are the true brokenness anyway, as they're the key to about a dozen different broken combos) to gain arbitrarily large numbers of swift actions in a single round. Divine Impetus doesn't work like that. You can only get one extra swift action a round out of it, and without the nightstick you're only doing it a handful of times per day.
Yeah, night sticks...they really needed to be something like an enhancement bonus or something. As written they're just horribly too useful, from fueling divine meta-magic to RKV cheese. (ala intepretations of rules)