Defensive Blast?

Aziron

Mongoose
In a couple of threads I read that some of the scholars were able to use something called a defensive blast. Is this in the book and if so where is it located?
 
In the Sorcery section- the Rule of Defense I believe.

It lets scholars release all their power points in a last-ditch blast which inflicts 1d6 fire damage per PP in a 10' radius. Boom.

It lets even a starting scholar inflict respectable damage with his base power points alone.

-B
 
Thanks for the response. Are there any other low level aggressive spells that anyone could suggest. I know there is nothing like Magic missle or such but what can a scholar do to help in combat.
 
So if I take the Dabbler feat it gives me 2 + Wis bonus in power. Assuming I have a 13 Wis then once per 6 hours I can blast everyone within 10' with 3d6 fire damage? Seems like an awfully powerful feat. Or with just one level of Scholar I could hit everyone within 10' with 5d6.
 
Conan said:
So if I take the Dabbler feat it gives me 2 + Wis bonus in power. Assuming I have a 13 Wis then once per 6 hours I can blast everyone within 10' with 3d6 fire damage? Seems like an awfully powerful feat. Or with just one level of Scholar I could hit everyone within 10' with 5d6.

I would say no. The Dabbler feat doesn't give you 'permanent' access to a sorcery style, just a small inkling of it that might help you in a pinch. It doesn't count as 'knowing' a sorcery style, which is a pre-requisite for releasing a defensive blast.
 
It is powerful, but it also opens up the character to corruption and insanity - and it drains the PC of power points. If he doesn't kill his foe (and 10 feet is awful close to a foe for a non-combatant type), he may well die. If he pushes it at all, and goes into negative Power Points, he becomes fatigued.

I don't think it is an unwarranted power for a sorcerer (scholar or dabbler). The dabbler is a sorcerer (page 189, What is a Sorcerer?) and has access to a sorcery style, so I think a dabbler qualifies for the Defensive Blast. I would rule that doing so would fatigue him, though.
 
Anonymous said:
Thanks for the response. Are there any other low level aggressive spells that anyone could suggest. I know there is nothing like Magic missle or such but what can a scholar do to help in combat.

Well, at lower levels the scholar is best served keeping out of reach of danger, and letting the Barbarians do their thing (see the threat on PC Scholars for some details here).

But by 3rd (or 4th, can't recall) level following the Mesmerism style, a scholar can Dominate a foe- no mean trick. You can use it to render a foe helpless, then step up and coup de grace him as a sacrifice. Nice.

Telekinesis lets you shoot hand-held objects at your foes (with a nice range increment), and if you can lay your hands on some Demon Fire, you'll be dishing out the serious punishment... hell, even a flask of oil with a burning wick is a nice thing to shoot at an armored warrior...and a loose bag of potash and salt can be a nice blinding attack.

I expect Scrolls of Skellos to have some more low level spells.

-B
 
Without any down sides to using it other than exhausting ones Power Points it seems way to powerful. A combat oriented character (say an 8th level soldier, 1st level Scholar) can walk into a room and blast everyone with 4d6 + Wis bonus of fire and then begin pounding on anyone left standing.

The Dabbler feat doesn't give you 'permanent' access to a sorcery style

Tha Dabbler feat gives you 2 + Wis bonus in Power and access to one Sorcery style. These are the only prerequisites for using the Defensive Blast that I can find. It says nothing about Dabbler's not having acces to it.

Obviously the GM's veto would make this a moot point but the rule doesn't seem to be completely thought out.
 
I'd say 'no way' on the Dabbler blast thing. Conan is a dabbler, and he sure as hell couldn't blast anyone. I'm sure Mongoose would back this up.

-B
 
Maybe as a house rule you can change the prerequisite to having 2 Sorcery styles.

A character would have to be at least a 2nd lvl Sorcerer to use the blast.

Just a thought.

Thrack
 
Good point on Conan. However, the question for him may not be whether or not he could do it, but whether or not he would do it. He'd probably consider it quite an unmanly way to fight. He didn't consider himself a sorcerer, so it would not be an instinctive reaction for him to do it either.

I am sitting on the fence at this point. It may be a roleplaying question: If it is appropriate for the character's personality to do that, then the dabbler can; in not, then no.

I am more of a story-guy than a rules-guy, though. If it makes sense for the story and the character to be able to do it via dabbling, then I'd allow it. If it doesn't add to the story or to the character, then I'd disallow it. (How is that for fence-sitting?). I'd hate for a rule to limit my story-experiencing.
 
Personally I was considering something more along the lines of a Fort check (DC 15) to avoid being stunned for a d3 rounds after doing it and if players seem to be abusing it then having heavy things fall on them. The players not the characters. :wink:

Or just tossing the entire rule in my game.
 
I wouldn't further limit the Scholar's blast... without it they are just total cake at lower levels, and it sucks to play a character without any teeth.

And don't scholars already take a hit if they have any more non-scholar class levels than scholar?

-B
 
Dabbler:
"Choose a sorcery style from among the following: Counterspells, Curses, or Divination. . . . You do not have a true, permanent understanding of the style you access in this way, but are able to remember just enough to have an attempt at using the sorcery in question."

Defensive Blast requires that you 'know' a Sorcery style -- I'd say that Dabbler doesn't qualify as knowledge -- it's more guesswork.

The Rules are clearly open to interpretation but I feel like the requirements for DB are not met by the Dabbler feat. DB is a very powerful feature and I'd prefer to keep it reined in for only the most studious . . .

I'd agree that the ability is quite devastating but I wouldn't change it at all. Being a Scholar is very Int, Wis, Cha intensive -- it's unlikely that a Soldier could be successful at both bloodsport and the black arts and abuse it in the way described. A scholar will likely use the ability as a desperate measure when trapped since his PP can generally be better used in more subtle ways. If he's ever within 10' of a foe and threatened by them, then something has gone terribly wrong!
 
The Dabbler can only use his feat once per game month after making a DC 15 Knowledge (Arcana) check (for Basic Spells, 20 for Advanced spells), so why shouldn't this apply to be Defensive Blast as well?I'd make it a Basic spell as it is supposed to be known by all sorcerers.
 
The once per month limitation makes the feat much less powerful than one might otherwise be lead to believe. I am leaning more toward allowing it for DB.

Dabblers can be quite studious. They just lack formal training perhaps.
 
VincentDarlage said:
The once per month limitation makes the feat much less powerful than one might otherwise be lead to believe. I am leaning more toward allowing it for DB.

Dabblers can be quite studious. They just lack formal training perhaps.
There's already a way to make a studious person who has no formal training – you make a Scholar with the Independent background.

Limiting a dabbler to one use of DB per month isn't really a limitation. When you consider that many of Conan's adventures took place over several weeks or months, and the closest thing to rapid transport is a ship or a horse, once a month becomes once a session. Further, a well-played scholar will almost never have to use this ability, and certainly no more than noce a month, so once again the limitation placed on dabblers' DB is no limit at all.
 
InsomNY said:
VincentDarlage said:
The once per month limitation makes the feat much less powerful than one might otherwise be lead to believe. I am leaning more toward allowing it for DB.

Dabblers can be quite studious. They just lack formal training perhaps.
There's already a way to make a studious person who has no formal training – you make a Scholar with the Independent background.

Limiting a dabbler to one use of DB per month isn't really a limitation. When you consider that many of Conan's adventures took place over several weeks or months, and the closest thing to rapid transport is a ship or a horse, once a month becomes once a session. Further, a well-played scholar will almost never have to use this ability, and certainly no more than noce a month, so once again the limitation placed on dabblers' DB is no limit at all.

That's entirely dependent on the particulars of the campaign. My campaign, which travels around a lot, always spends at least a few days in any one area of interest, which tends to culminate in a near death experience for the party. But moving between adventure locations provokes "attacks of oportunity" by bandits, hillmen, slavers, etc. Being able to use DB 1/month IS a limitation in such circumstances. When to use it when you are constantly surrounded or cut off and faced with death?
 
I wouldn't let a Dabbler Defensive Blast IMC, I don't think the rules intend that they should be able to, either. DB does seem exceedingly powerful for a low-level Scholar - one of my players is planning to play a Spawn of Dagoth Hill Scholar as his next PC, by my reckoning with WIS 18 and the 4 bonus pps he can Defensive Blast for 12d6 damage at 1st level!
That's average 42 damage, or 21 if victims make the Fort save, in either case then causing a Massive Damage check.
Admittedly it would take 24 hours' solid rest to regenerate all those pps, but it does maybe seem a bit too powerful.
 
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