[.11] Unified Blow

Why bother expending precious XP on herbal lore when create trap has no pre-reqs and gives you access to sweet trap globes. Nah, never mind, point for point alchemy is the way to go.
 
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With riposte not being a return defense anymore I think the value of counteract is low.
For a Scholar though (who we're talking about here), Counteract is pretty good. Works against Reflect and Bane, which they are far more likely to see returning their attaches than a Riposte, and is much cheaper than using High Magic for a Cloak.
 
For a Scholar though (who we're talking about here), Counteract is pretty good. Works against Reflect and Bane, which they are far more likely to see returning their attaches than a Riposte, and is much cheaper than using High Magic for a Cloak.

Formal is 3 for a scholar, and has more uses than just the cloak, counteract is 6. Plus the scholar should be loaded up on defenses to protect themselves from their own stuff.

Personally, I’d rather have the two cloaks or one bane than a single counteract.
 
Why bother expending precious XP on herbal lore when create trap has no pre-reqs and gives you access to sweet trap globes. Nah, never mind, point for point alchemy is the way to go.

Traps are actually exceptional for a scholar, shatters for weapons, silence for casters and slows for the rest, all elementally delivered. Really I went with alchemy because the math was easier, but you also get more bang for your buck, even if half (more?) the monsters are immune to it.

If I was going to rebuild into something along these lines, I would go trap x10, dodge x3, evade x4 (or 5, this is off the top of my head) and consider it build well spent. And then dump the other ~500 or so xp into spells and martial stuff.
 
I think the important bit is that scholars get a ton of stuff on their way to unlock Arcane Archer that synergise really well with the build.
 
Traps are actually exceptional for a scholar, shatters for weapons, silence for casters and slows for the rest, all elementally delivered. Really I went with alchemy because the math was easier, but you also get more bang for your buck, even if half (more?) the monsters are immune to it.

If I was going to rebuild into something along these lines, I would go trap x10, dodge x3, evade x4 (or 5, this is off the top of my head) and consider it build well spent. And then dump the other ~500 or so xp into spells and martial stuff.

Dude stop telling people my character card.
 
The body carrier is the most effective carrier for all monster. I’m fairly confident that no monster in the 2.0 database has any reduction (and there are none with immunity) to the Body carrier.

Interesting. Monsters no longer have "Silver to Hit" or "Magic to Hit" or "Normal to Hit" in 2.0? Admittedly, those monsters were pretty rare in 1.3 (Lycanthropes, Top Tier Monsters like Dragons and Gryphons, and Fey, respectively), but I didn't expect the mechanic to disappear entirely.

-MS
 
It’s misleading. What changed was the format.

Instead of “X to hit”, it’ll be “Immune to Y, Immune to Z.”

Body carriers should always work unless Plot has weird stuff going on, or the NPC is making a mistake.
 
I'm fairly sure the reason the format changed was because "only damaged by Silver" or "only damaged by Magic" was confusing NPCs and making them call No Effect to things like Evocation Bolts and Body carrier attacks. Changing the wording to "Immune to Normal and Silver Weapon attacks" should eliminate that confusion.
 
Is there anything stopping a card from saying "Immune to Weapon attacks other than Normal"?

-MS

(I am thinking here, of the way that Fey always required "cold steel" weapons to be hurt)
 
Technically no, and it would certainly curtail an endless string of Carriers (i.e.: "Immune to Silver, Magic, Flame, etc. Weapon attacks"), but my best guess is that they're trying to eliminate both defense soup and the "Only damaged by X" verbiage on the cards so NPCs have an easier time 'memorizing' everything on the card.

Technically, immunity to other Carriers would be included in the section where it details other immunities, like "Immune to Command, Alteration, etc.", because I'm fairly sure that Normal and Silver are by technicality the only Carriers that don't have a delivery that isn't a Weapon attack of some kind (that is, you'll never hear "50 Spell Strike Silver", or "15 Elemental Normal" thrown as a packet), but nearly any other Carrier can be added to a Weapon in some way (Magic/SLIF with Enhanced Blade, Healing/Chaos with Healing/Chaos Blade, most Command and Alteration effects with Alchemy Coatings), so it's less to read and memorize to separate "blanket Immunity to these Carriers" from "Immunity to these specific Carriers when called with a Weapon" in cases where a creature may be immune to a great many Effect Groups or many Carriers regardless of delivery.

Of course, as usual, I can be 100% wrong about this, but I can't imagine a scenario (outside of a Plot-forced one) where a creature (PC or NPC) is calling Normal or Silver but NOT swinging a weapon, so I think that's part the reason why they changed it to this specific wording.
 
question, can you add your united blow to assassinates?
 
question, can you add your united blow to assassinates?
Judging by the description, I would think not:

United Blow [Adept Mastery] - 10 XP (Adept), 60 XP Stealth Skills, Passive, requires Formal Magic - once this skill has been purchased, the character may expend any Signature Spell of the appropriate aspect from memory to gain 10x the level of the spell in damage and gain the Body carrier for a single swing From Behind. This may be done any number of times per day.

For Example: Allie the Adept has purchased United Blow and has a 6th level Evocation Bolt in memory. She normally swings for “10 Normal” From Behind due to her 4 Backstabs. She sneaks up behind an enemy and expends the Evocation Bolt to add 60 damage to a swing, calling “70 Body” for that one mighty blow.
Honestly it's already damn good. Assassinates don't use a carrier other than your weapon (unless you use it with another skill like Doom Blow, for instance). Swinging for Body means you need a lot smaller hits to do good damage in 2.0.
 
I believe I actually brought this up to @Polare at the Oregon play test, if memory serves, you an actually stack with assassinate. Leave it to polare to confirm
 
I have to back Rick up on this. I love United blow. It does not need a boost, Brooks. You're taking things (especially undead) down really quickly with body. You really don't need to combine it with anything.
 
I love the skill too. I'm more thinking about how it can modify my call. It's not a matter of "take things down" its a matter of "to hit". I don't have a magic sword. But I have a silver sword. The monster is no effect to my "silver" call. I then try "body" and I noticed it works. Now I want to pump some damage into this guy. With the skills I have on hand. I would gladly spend my first level spell, so my assassinate will now work.
 
No one really has a magic sword any more. I mean, magic strike has replaced permanently swinging magic. I'm carrying normal and silver weapons for those no effect moments and will have magic strike for emergency situations (you're a pro. I know you do stuff like this too).

But if you do discover that something takes only body, just united blow that bad boy with a couple of hits. I don't think it needs to be combined with anything. I mean, if you really need a fast take down. Just couple your doom blow with your assassinate. In most cases where body is taken, so will the doom.
 
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