Oddstar
2020-05-10, 05:34 PM
I have a question about the feat Lingering Death, from Dragon Magazine issue 297, page 29. Here is the relevant text of the feat:
Benefit: any death Attack you make that deals extra sneak attack damage but fails to kill its target continues to pose a threat. On your turn on the round after the failed death attack, the target must make a second Fortitude saving throw against the death attack to avoid being slain.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times; each time it is taken, the number of rounds the lingering death remains (and the number of Fortitude saves to resist it) increases by 1.
Here is the relevant rule for death attacks from the DMG, just in case: "If the victim’s saving throw succeeds, the attack is just a normal sneak attack."
The question is, if the victim makes the second saving throw against the death attack, does the sneak attack damage repeat? I am strongly inclined to say no, for a couple of reasons. First, I think that that would be overpowered, even for an epic feat, considering that it would enable the attacker to score as many sneak attacks as times he had taken Lingering Death with a single attack. Also, by the text of the rule, if the saving throw succeeds, the attack is "just a normal sneak attack", not a sneak attack that repeats multiple times. Still, there is a logic to the idea that if the victim could die or be paralyzed from the attack multiple times, he could take damage from it each time as well, and the rules could be read to say that a sneak attack occurs for each successful saving throw. So what do other people think?
Benefit: any death Attack you make that deals extra sneak attack damage but fails to kill its target continues to pose a threat. On your turn on the round after the failed death attack, the target must make a second Fortitude saving throw against the death attack to avoid being slain.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times; each time it is taken, the number of rounds the lingering death remains (and the number of Fortitude saves to resist it) increases by 1.
Here is the relevant rule for death attacks from the DMG, just in case: "If the victim’s saving throw succeeds, the attack is just a normal sneak attack."
The question is, if the victim makes the second saving throw against the death attack, does the sneak attack damage repeat? I am strongly inclined to say no, for a couple of reasons. First, I think that that would be overpowered, even for an epic feat, considering that it would enable the attacker to score as many sneak attacks as times he had taken Lingering Death with a single attack. Also, by the text of the rule, if the saving throw succeeds, the attack is "just a normal sneak attack", not a sneak attack that repeats multiple times. Still, there is a logic to the idea that if the victim could die or be paralyzed from the attack multiple times, he could take damage from it each time as well, and the rules could be read to say that a sneak attack occurs for each successful saving throw. So what do other people think?