So I wanted to start a dishonored style intrigue campaign that offered a bunch of unique powers for my players (one power per customer, so not everyone can get blink), some based on the games, some of my own imagining. My biggest concern is balancing them, particularly a Blink or Far Reach style power, as I know dimension door at will is pretty darn potent.
So I was thinking of using the Combat Stamina system and having the perks spend stamina points to use some of the more powerful aspects of their abilities, so it limits their use in combat
Here's what I was thinking for a lvl 1 Blink baseline, still working on the wording
Shadow Perks: Basic Perks
Shadow Slide: You can teleport from one location to another by passing rapidly through the plane of shadow. As a standard action you can teleport up to 15 feet (range upgrades at higher lvls) in any direction as Dimension Door except you must be able to see your destination and cannot pass through solid objects. I want them to be able to move vertically without making tons of checks, but also have to climb/acrobatics to the top of climbable objects only partially in the square they teleport to as part of this and slide into cover using stealth/acrobatics out of it, but not attack. Wondering if it should have a short recharge.
Shadow Strike: As a full round action, you may spend 3 stamina points (might need scaling) in order to teleport to an unaware target using Shadow Slide (also messing with stealth rules, cuz they're not great in 3.X) and make one attack at your highest base attack bonus (will allow for vital strike and other "as a standard action" feats, because I dont like the way they are worded). If this attack hits, it automatically threatens a critical hit, and you add your sneak attack dice to it, if any (sneaky stabby character essential, but useless in combat to start).
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so this is sort of the type of thing I'm thinking of using, anyone see any serious holes or exploits in it, or have any ideas to regulate/improve the syntax/wording? Is it still to strong? or possibly too weak?
I'm not the best at balance but it looks alright, just as long as you know your players, if they're the type to go total munchkin then it's not good but if y'all just play for fun or moderate optimization then it'll be fine
The Blink power is not at all Dimension Door. It only works within line of sight, and is much closer range.
In Path of War, the Veiled Moon Disipline has a Stance called Stance of the Ether Gate. It simply allows the character to teleport up to their move speed as a Move action, or double their speed as a full-round. They have to be able to clearly see the destination, and cannot take passengers.
It's not caused any balance issues in any games I've run with it. And I've not heard a single complaint from others either.
For these abilities the basic perks should probably be free, though I like the idea of using Stamina for further upgrades like your suggested Shadow Strike ability.
The Blink power is not at all Dimension Door. It only works within line of sight, and is much closer range.
In Path of War, the Veiled Moon Disipline has a Stance called Stance of the Ether Gate. It simply allows the character to teleport up to their move speed as a Move action, or double their speed as a full-round. They have to be able to clearly see the destination, and cannot take passengers.
It's not caused any balance issues in any games I've run with it. And I've not heard a single complaint from others either.
For these abilities the basic perks should probably be free, though I like the idea of using Stamina for further upgrades like your suggested Shadow Strike ability.
almost forgot about that part, but I guess with those limitations i could probably bump it up a bit to being move speed based, which would be interesting for a monk or barbarian. I was mostly afraid of it negating every mundane obstacle I could through at them if the range was too long
That would only be the case if it could go through walls. It does negate some types of difficult terrain, and chasms...but the same can be said for the Fly spell, among others, or the Dragon Style Feat.
Better mobility is more likely to ENHANCE your campaign than be a detriment with players making more creative use of the terrain to pull off more fun maneuvers (exactly as it did in the game, much of the jumping and climbing using Blink was actually unintended by the devs during their initial playtesting).