Sevus's page

This came up in a Wrath of the Righteous session today. Can the Sudden Block ability of the Guardian path be used after the attack is rolled?

Unfortunately, the text doesn't say either way, and abilities such as the Swashbuckler's Opportune Parry and Riposte specifically state that they must be used before the roll is made. On the other hand, I can't find any examples, but I'm pretty sure that abilities that can be applied after the roll usually explicitly state that as well.

While there are specific counter-examples that occasionally crop up, the general opinion I've come across on blaster magic is that it's a very suboptimal option, unless you pour everything into it. One of the best explanations I've seen for it is that while Hit Points were drastically increased from AD&D 2e to D&D 3e (and again in Pathfinder where d4 HD was increased to d6 and d6 HD to d8 as well as favored class HP bonuses), blast damage remained the same. Your 5th-level wizard's 17.5 average damage Fireball is much less impressive when the wizard himself has 20 hp on average before Constitution modifier or favored class bonuses are factored in and is as squishy as squishy gets.

Therefore, I propose a simple fix to make blasting a more attractive option and give evokers new purpose. Any damaging spell from the Evocation school has its damage dice increased by one step (d4 to d6, d6 to d8), which effectively increases the average damage of a spell by 1/die. Thus, a 5th-level wizard's fireball goes from 17.5 average damage to 22.5, with a range of 5-40 damage.

This is just theory, I haven't gotten to test it yet, but I'd like some feedback on if this is too much of a boost, ineffectual, or just right to make an evoker similarly effective in combat to a buffer or controller build.

Okay, I know it's not in a table, and needs a lot of polish at the least, but is there no interest in this kind of base class? Or am I just too impatient?