Felyndiira
2016-01-29, 09:35 AM
I came upon this idea while looking over some of the PoW classes for a certain campaign, and wanted to check whether my interpretation is correct - and if there are any ways to enhance this build.
The idea is to add a two-level Path of War dip to any arcane 9-level caster class. The main thing that we are after - from this dip - is the Soul Hunter's Soul Claim ability, which can be used as a swift action as soon as you deal 1 damage to the target. Soul Claim has all of the following properties:
It lasts forever. As a supernatural ability, the target really can't do much about it short of sitting in an AMF for the rest of its life.
It has no distance restrictions, nor does it require line of effect by description. You can claim someone from miles away if they walk across your symbol of pain, as long as you are somehow aware of it.
It is considered a "claim" ability.
The Harbringer level gives you some nice things in INT to attacks, but the main use for this is the Dark Claim ability. Dark Claim is useless to this build, but is a prerequisite for "Grasp of Darkness", which is a prerequisite for "Reach Through Shadows".
"Reach Through Shadows" is the important feat. It allows us to treat any "Claimed" target (not just Dark Claimed) as 30' away or less for any of our maneuvers, spells, or powers. Since it specifies "creatures claimed" rather than "creatures claimed by dark claim", it works with soul hunter's Soul Claim.
What this means is: the moment that you inflict any damage on the target by any means whatsoever (a symbol of pain on a bouncy ball works), he is doomed to be forever within your range for any targeted spell or power that can hit at least 30'. As long as you don't purposely break your Soul Claim on the creature, you can pretty much cast anything on him at any time you choose, from the safety of your sanctum any amount of distance or planes away, and all he could do is roll some saves and hope that if he succeeds enough times, you'll eventually get bored and release him from the torture.
The target can't do anything about it, either. Dispel doesn't remove soul claim, nor does disjunction. The target can sit in an AMF to ward it off for a bit, but he's vulnerable again the moment he leaves the field. The only way to permanently remove this is through two specific maneuvers - from, respectively, Silver Crane and Riven Hourglass - and if the target can't get enough levels to grab one of these maneuvers...
It's a loss of two caster levels, but this is one of the few situations where it might be worth it to do so.
*
Here's the question part of this thread: the main thing I'm trying to do is to expand this into an 'assassin wizard' or 'assassin psion' concept. Soul Claim has no stated visual effects, so it's entirely possible for the target to not even know that he's been claimed (and even if he does know, Memory Modification is a thing). I've been trying to figure out ways to effectively spread Soul Claim through bouncing attacks, and thus allowing Soul Claim to "jump around" until you can finally reach a desired target.
It's currently possible to use Startoss Style or certain maneuvers (like Solar Reflection) to bounce an attack off the target to a different one, who you can immediately soul claim. The issue, though, is being able to perceive the claimed target's surroundings. Even with Startoss or Solar Reflection, you can't hit other targets if you aren't aware of them - which you won't be if they are miles away.
One way to do this is via teleportation. We can curse the victim with something, then teleport to him using Relentless Warden's Strike. From there, we can spread our claim to his surroundings and retreat to safety using an augmented Recursive Dash. This is very obvious, however (a wizard suddenly appearing, tossing a dart at you, then disappearing in a flash) and won't really work for espionage purposes. Plus, if the target knows about the soul claim, he could set up a teleport trap.
We don't want to have to spam short duration divination on the target, so we need a way to perceive from the victim's senses. Share Senses is the only power that allows this, and the hostile version disables augmentations altogether making the will save much easier to pass.
I was wondering - is there a better way to perceive through a soul claimed victim's senses (other than Magic Jar)? What about a nice bouncing ability that can be use without obvious damage to the victim, so we can spread soul claim to other targets from range?
The idea is to add a two-level Path of War dip to any arcane 9-level caster class. The main thing that we are after - from this dip - is the Soul Hunter's Soul Claim ability, which can be used as a swift action as soon as you deal 1 damage to the target. Soul Claim has all of the following properties:
It lasts forever. As a supernatural ability, the target really can't do much about it short of sitting in an AMF for the rest of its life.
It has no distance restrictions, nor does it require line of effect by description. You can claim someone from miles away if they walk across your symbol of pain, as long as you are somehow aware of it.
It is considered a "claim" ability.
The Harbringer level gives you some nice things in INT to attacks, but the main use for this is the Dark Claim ability. Dark Claim is useless to this build, but is a prerequisite for "Grasp of Darkness", which is a prerequisite for "Reach Through Shadows".
"Reach Through Shadows" is the important feat. It allows us to treat any "Claimed" target (not just Dark Claimed) as 30' away or less for any of our maneuvers, spells, or powers. Since it specifies "creatures claimed" rather than "creatures claimed by dark claim", it works with soul hunter's Soul Claim.
What this means is: the moment that you inflict any damage on the target by any means whatsoever (a symbol of pain on a bouncy ball works), he is doomed to be forever within your range for any targeted spell or power that can hit at least 30'. As long as you don't purposely break your Soul Claim on the creature, you can pretty much cast anything on him at any time you choose, from the safety of your sanctum any amount of distance or planes away, and all he could do is roll some saves and hope that if he succeeds enough times, you'll eventually get bored and release him from the torture.
The target can't do anything about it, either. Dispel doesn't remove soul claim, nor does disjunction. The target can sit in an AMF to ward it off for a bit, but he's vulnerable again the moment he leaves the field. The only way to permanently remove this is through two specific maneuvers - from, respectively, Silver Crane and Riven Hourglass - and if the target can't get enough levels to grab one of these maneuvers...
It's a loss of two caster levels, but this is one of the few situations where it might be worth it to do so.
*
Here's the question part of this thread: the main thing I'm trying to do is to expand this into an 'assassin wizard' or 'assassin psion' concept. Soul Claim has no stated visual effects, so it's entirely possible for the target to not even know that he's been claimed (and even if he does know, Memory Modification is a thing). I've been trying to figure out ways to effectively spread Soul Claim through bouncing attacks, and thus allowing Soul Claim to "jump around" until you can finally reach a desired target.
It's currently possible to use Startoss Style or certain maneuvers (like Solar Reflection) to bounce an attack off the target to a different one, who you can immediately soul claim. The issue, though, is being able to perceive the claimed target's surroundings. Even with Startoss or Solar Reflection, you can't hit other targets if you aren't aware of them - which you won't be if they are miles away.
One way to do this is via teleportation. We can curse the victim with something, then teleport to him using Relentless Warden's Strike. From there, we can spread our claim to his surroundings and retreat to safety using an augmented Recursive Dash. This is very obvious, however (a wizard suddenly appearing, tossing a dart at you, then disappearing in a flash) and won't really work for espionage purposes. Plus, if the target knows about the soul claim, he could set up a teleport trap.
We don't want to have to spam short duration divination on the target, so we need a way to perceive from the victim's senses. Share Senses is the only power that allows this, and the hostile version disables augmentations altogether making the will save much easier to pass.
I was wondering - is there a better way to perceive through a soul claimed victim's senses (other than Magic Jar)? What about a nice bouncing ability that can be use without obvious damage to the victim, so we can spread soul claim to other targets from range?