Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:31 am
2d6 Light damage from the Cleric? Come on. Light of Mercuria, much? 4d6 as a ranged touch for a level 2 spell. At the very least, your cleric should be doing double his damage here. If you are only going to do piffly damge, you might as well be throwing down a Sound Burst and forcing a Save vs Stun from both ogres. Way to suck. Get him to take Healing Touch (can heal all of you up to half hp for free), buy a Wand of Lesser Vigor, and never prepare another healing spell.
Tell your wizard to stop sucking at blasting. At the VERY LEAST, he should have prepared a Scorching Ray for 4d6 fire damage as a touch attack. Evocation specialist, right? wtf was his evocation spell today? Flaming Sphere does the same damage a a greatsword (save for 1/2), do a potential multiple creatures. Your 1st level Burning Hands does 4d4 (avg ten) damage (ref half), and Shocking Grasp does 4d6 (no save, touch attack). Burning Hands is at range, and Shocking Grasp has the same range as his greatsword in addition to doing double the damage and requiring a touch attack instead of a melee attack. THIS CHARACTER IS REQUIRED BY THE RULES TO HAVE ONE LEVEL 1 EVOCATION PREPARED. ARGH. Even Magic Missile has the same average damage as a greatsword, doesn't require a to-hit roll, and can be done at range.
Here is a terrible list of blasting spells for your "evocation" wizard that are all better than a greatsword:
level 1 - burning hands, shocking grasp, magic missile, Light of Lunia, Ray of Flame, Sonic Blast. Shocking Grasp for d6/level at a melee range or Ray of Flame (2d6 damage, save or take 1d6/round, ranged touch). are the big wins.
Level 2 - Scorching Ray (4d6, it's like 2 greatswords!), Flaming Sphere (2d6/round, it's like a greatsword every round... for free! Use 2!), Combust (4d8, save or catch fire for 1d6/round), Electric Loop (2d6 save versus stun), Fireburst (4d8, save for half), Light of Mercuria (4d6, 8d6 versus undead or evil outsiders), Snowball Swarm (2d6 damage in a 10' radius), Scorch (4d8 to everyone in a 30' line).
Big wins are Scorch (4d8 to everyone in a 30' line), Flaming Sphere (2d6 as a 5' radius ball every round you can sack a move action), Combust (if target is below 100 lbs ), and Scorching Ray (the old 4d6 standby).
Next level you should start seeing Fireball (5d6 in a 30' ball), and Empowered Shocking Grasp (5d6*1.5 = 52 average). If he wants to get clever with it, he can cast Empowered Shocking Grasp every morning, don a rubber glove, then rip it off and turbo-kill a CR 5 monster.
Looking at the other players numbers, I can't figure out why they aren't doing DOUBLE the damage that they are doing (assuming that they don't cast a fucking Save or Die spell like Glitterdust, Shadowspray, or Calm Emotions).
You are level 4 with PBS, Sniper, TWF, Whirlwind, and Horde Breaker....
Next level you need to abuse the crap out of your followers. You need more frontliners in a bad way.
At the current level, you need to be abusing the Problem Solver ability. Also, abuse the crap out of Blitz. Adding BAB to damage can be done with ranged weapons (do it), and has no penalty when used against monsters that are grappling (do it more!). The most readily applicable Problem Solver abuses that I see here are:
Subtle Cut - you could have tacked on 20' of movement damage onto that first arrow (which may have significantly impacted the charge considering he can only charge 20 feet now)
Combat School - +2 to hit/damage never hurts.
Elusive target - +2 AC doesn't hurt (but not as good as Combat School)
I take it that you are using Blitz+PBS for all they are worth (add BAB to damage twice within first range increment)?
With your archery, you should probably be taking Subtle Cut in the first round of combat, slowing one creature and significantly damaging another.
Also, if you really want to start doing damage, you have a solid ace up your sleeve: darts. With your "add BAB twice to damage in the first range increment" and your TWF, you can be belting out 2d4+(2*Str)+8 +16 from your morale pool (+ another 4 from Combat School or 1/2 that much movement damage from Subtle Cut). You could seriously bust out a 37 average damage with 20 movement damage, if you are close enough. This should kill any CR4 monster in 1 round, but no CR 4 monster has 236 hp.
I have a feeling that this monster had the invulnerable subtype until it was about to kill someone, however.
Tell your wizard to stop sucking at blasting. At the VERY LEAST, he should have prepared a Scorching Ray for 4d6 fire damage as a touch attack. Evocation specialist, right? wtf was his evocation spell today? Flaming Sphere does the same damage a a greatsword (save for 1/2), do a potential multiple creatures. Your 1st level Burning Hands does 4d4 (avg ten) damage (ref half), and Shocking Grasp does 4d6 (no save, touch attack). Burning Hands is at range, and Shocking Grasp has the same range as his greatsword in addition to doing double the damage and requiring a touch attack instead of a melee attack. THIS CHARACTER IS REQUIRED BY THE RULES TO HAVE ONE LEVEL 1 EVOCATION PREPARED. ARGH. Even Magic Missile has the same average damage as a greatsword, doesn't require a to-hit roll, and can be done at range.
Here is a terrible list of blasting spells for your "evocation" wizard that are all better than a greatsword:
level 1 - burning hands, shocking grasp, magic missile, Light of Lunia, Ray of Flame, Sonic Blast. Shocking Grasp for d6/level at a melee range or Ray of Flame (2d6 damage, save or take 1d6/round, ranged touch). are the big wins.
Level 2 - Scorching Ray (4d6, it's like 2 greatswords!), Flaming Sphere (2d6/round, it's like a greatsword every round... for free! Use 2!), Combust (4d8, save or catch fire for 1d6/round), Electric Loop (2d6 save versus stun), Fireburst (4d8, save for half), Light of Mercuria (4d6, 8d6 versus undead or evil outsiders), Snowball Swarm (2d6 damage in a 10' radius), Scorch (4d8 to everyone in a 30' line).
Big wins are Scorch (4d8 to everyone in a 30' line), Flaming Sphere (2d6 as a 5' radius ball every round you can sack a move action), Combust (if target is below 100 lbs ), and Scorching Ray (the old 4d6 standby).
Next level you should start seeing Fireball (5d6 in a 30' ball), and Empowered Shocking Grasp (5d6*1.5 = 52 average). If he wants to get clever with it, he can cast Empowered Shocking Grasp every morning, don a rubber glove, then rip it off and turbo-kill a CR 5 monster.
Looking at the other players numbers, I can't figure out why they aren't doing DOUBLE the damage that they are doing (assuming that they don't cast a fucking Save or Die spell like Glitterdust, Shadowspray, or Calm Emotions).
You are level 4 with PBS, Sniper, TWF, Whirlwind, and Horde Breaker....
Next level you need to abuse the crap out of your followers. You need more frontliners in a bad way.
At the current level, you need to be abusing the Problem Solver ability. Also, abuse the crap out of Blitz. Adding BAB to damage can be done with ranged weapons (do it), and has no penalty when used against monsters that are grappling (do it more!). The most readily applicable Problem Solver abuses that I see here are:
Subtle Cut - you could have tacked on 20' of movement damage onto that first arrow (which may have significantly impacted the charge considering he can only charge 20 feet now)
Combat School - +2 to hit/damage never hurts.
Elusive target - +2 AC doesn't hurt (but not as good as Combat School)
I take it that you are using Blitz+PBS for all they are worth (add BAB to damage twice within first range increment)?
With your archery, you should probably be taking Subtle Cut in the first round of combat, slowing one creature and significantly damaging another.
Also, if you really want to start doing damage, you have a solid ace up your sleeve: darts. With your "add BAB twice to damage in the first range increment" and your TWF, you can be belting out 2d4+(2*Str)+8 +16 from your morale pool (+ another 4 from Combat School or 1/2 that much movement damage from Subtle Cut). You could seriously bust out a 37 average damage with 20 movement damage, if you are close enough. This should kill any CR4 monster in 1 round, but no CR 4 monster has 236 hp.
I have a feeling that this monster had the invulnerable subtype until it was about to kill someone, however.