Reasonable damage for a 9th level maneuver?

[SlashRunner]

Hello Playground,

What would be a reasonable amount of damage for a 9th level maneuver for ToB? This is for a homebrew, but this is more of a 3.5 system question and I don't actually have any homebrew to post. The maneuver in question would be a beam in the form of a 200 ft. line, with 8 secondary attacks that each can target an individual within 200 ft. from the initiator. Reflex half for the beam, the secondary attacks would be ranged touch attacks. T

[SlashRunner]

Anyone? Anyone at all?

[Answerer]

Strike of Perfect Clarity gets +100, so I'd probably use that as a basis for any straight +damage 9th-level strike.

For reference, 28d6 averages 98 damage, 29d6 averages 101.5 damage, and for a nice round number (plus dice are generally slightly worse than flat numbers due to things like the crit rules), 30d6 averages 105 damage.

Oh, and also for reference: waiting half an hour, particularly at a time when it is past midnight for many members, is not really enough to justify bumping a thread. Check the forum rules on that (I don't recall, off-hand, when, if at all, the forum considers it acceptable to do so, but 29 minutes definitely isn't enough).

[Ernir]

100 damage would make it rather comparable to Inferno Blast, a (not very good) 9th level maneuver.

What would those "secondary attacks" do? If they are actual attacks with a melee weapon or something, that is kind of out of line with the rest of the 9th level maneuvers.

[SlashRunner]

So would 20d6 damage in a 200 ft. line, 2d6 damage per secondary projectile (which seems like a small amount, but considering they can all be directed at the same target adds up to 16d6 extra damage) be OK? I'm aiming for a somewhat higher power level than standard ToB disciplines...

[rmg22893]

Imma firin' mah lazor...

[Answerer]

So would 20d6 damage in a 200 ft. line, 2d6 damage per secondary projectile (which seems like a small amount, but considering they can all be directed at the same target adds up to 16d6 extra damage) be OK? I'm aiming for a somewhat higher power level than standard ToB disciplines...
That sounds... OK to me. Is the damage typed in any fashion?

[SlashRunner]

That sounds... OK to me. Is the damage typed in any fashion?

Fire. Which makes me realize that it might warrant an increase in damage, since fire is so easily resisted...

[Answerer]

It is, yes, plus even with touch attacks, 8 in a row might be iffy (though just for ease-of-play I'd probably rule that you roll once and use it for all of them), so yeah... possibly up it some. Though of course you do risk stepping on Inferno Blast's toes a bit, which is a shame even though Inferno Blast is pretty meh.

[Kuulvheysoon]

That sounds... OK to me. Is the damage typed in any fashion?

This.

Also, I find this more powerful than the typical capstone maneuvers for one major reason - the fact that's ranged.


With this maneuver, you could target a flying enemy, for example. That's a huge tactical advantage over the other capstones (all melee). So I feel as if equivalent damage (30d6 total) would be more than fair.

[SlashRunner]

It is, yes, plus even with touch attacks, 8 in a row might be iffy (though just for ease-of-play I'd probably rule that you roll once and use it for all of them), so yeah... possibly up it some. Though of course you do risk stepping on Inferno Blast's toes a bit, which is a shame even though Inferno Blast is pretty meh.

Actually I don't really care about stepping on Inferno Blast's toes, if I ever end up using this discipline it would probably end up replacing Desert Wind (even though it's somewhat different stylistically)... but yeah, this whole maneuver pretty much came from me not being able to decide between a kamehameha-type beam and a Macross-style barrage of missiles, so I decided to just do both.

EDIT: Also, I want to make it clear that I'm aiming for a higher power-level here than most ordinary disciplines. I don't want the damage to become truly outrageous, but considering that most of the disciplines I've brewed along with it have capstone maneuvers that provide massive-scale battlefield control or similar effects not usually available to initiators, this is a pure-damage maneuver so it has to really shine in that regard.

[Godskook]

Give us some idea on the discipline, eh?

[TroubleBrewing]

In the appropriate forum, of course. I'd like to see this as well.