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Adakias/Malice is a terror machine. He wields his frightening countenance nearly as well as his greatsword. After a lifetime of evil deeds, he has begun his search for redemption. Through Sarenrae, he is able to wield his greatsword in effective nonlethal ways, taking advantage of the Blade of Mercy trait and Enforcer feat to demoralize and KO those that stand before him. Those shaken by his presence become weak as the stress of their fear wears upon their bodies.
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We played a dungeon-crawl mod full of skeletons, zombies, and others. I had a great time and was able to role play my character pretty well. Here is my experience on the good, the bad, and the meh of my Stalker.
THE GOOD
-Twisting Fear was very fun, even with the high amount of monsters I faced that were immune. Each time it was triggered, the table cheered. I even managed to use demoralize as a standard action in place of what would have been a crappy ranged attack and got shaken+damage out of it. Flavorful and useful talent.
-I managed to make Renown work for the scenario, giving me a +4 on Intimidate checks, which really boosted my demoralize abilities.
-Martial Weapons were a welcome sight. Greatsword and Hidden Strike were a "lethal" combination.
THE BAD
-The d8 Hidden Strike was INCREDIBLY hard to pull off. I had to stand around corners and stealth and hope I could get up to them in one move action to break stealth with an attack.
THE MEH
- I didn't change into Social Persona a single time. There was no obvious need for it during a heavily combat scenario.
PROPOSED FIXES
-Add another qualifier for adding d8 Hidden Strike. I think making it activate on Flat Footed (which is still separate from Dex Denied) would be sufficient, or even specifically by acting before them in combat. The only way a low level Stalker can do it currently is by maybe succeeding the opposed Stealth check, which means there is only a chance of being able to even qualify for one single d8 strike in a given combat.
All in all, I had a blast! Look forward to the future adventures of Malice.