Reliable paralysis: Balanced?

[Nagog]

I'm trying to come up with some out-of-the-box mechanics for a class feature/magic boon (for weaker character/class), and I'd love some feedback on the following:

Predator's Grasp: at the beginning of your turn you may empower your attacks with a powerful paralyzing agent. Whenever you hit an enemy in that round with a weapon attack, you may cause a burst of paralyzing agents to erupt from the point of contact. The target must make a Constitution Saving Throw against your Spell Save DC. On a failed save, they are paralyzed until the end of their next turn or until they are attacked, regardless of the attack's success or failure.
You may use this ability a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and regain expended uses on a Long Rest

Do those restrictions help balance out the power of auto-crit of Paralyzed targets?
The fact that the paralysis ends at the end of the target's next turn means it can be either CC or Auto-crit, but not both, as well as the stipulation of a Weapon Attack means Monks can't go all out with 4 strikes/procs a round for cheap. What do y'all think?

[MrStabby]

Well it is certainly powerful.

A few things to think about:

1) Paralyzed means incapacitated which means loss of concentration
2) They miss their next turn as a result, which isn't at all bad for something that doesn't cost an action itself
3) One single crit can still do huge damage - rogues and paladins would love someone to be doing this
4) Paralysis means auto fail on some saves. If you have someone with disintergrate in the party it is very strong
5) A lot of saves are not attacks - they auto fail saves vs fireball but will still be paralyzed till the end of their next turn

[Nagog]

Well it is certainly powerful.

A few things to think about:

1) Paralyzed means incapacitated which means loss of concentration

5) A lot of saves are not attacks - they auto fail saves vs fireball but will still be paralyzed till the end of their next turn

These two in particular are things I hadn't thought about before! I'll change the wording to have it break on being attacked or subjected to a saving throw.

[Mellack]

Since this is an addition to a weapon attack, this could be done to several different targets. A fighter using second wind could paralyze 8 targets. A ranger could use it with volley to potentially hit a dozen.

[Anymage]

This is basically stunning strike but with paralyzed instead of stunned. Assuming your monk comment implies that you'll be boosting a monk character, you're essentially just giving them bonus ki equal to their proficiency mod. (Paralyzed instead of stunned might be okay, but a paladin or rogue might make those crits too strong. Similarly, having the status wear off at the end of the enemy's next turn means it's down to the vagaries of initiative whether or not your friends can take advantage of the status, which is one of the reasons that one round abilities tend to wear off at the end of your next round.)

The strength of paralyzed depends on team comp, and the effective bonus ki sounds minor if the player is running below the optimization curve for the table. If anything, assuming the monk hypothesis, that they weren't already stun machines implies that this ability won't be leveraged too hard either.

[Contrast]

On a failed save, they are paralyzed until the end of their next turn or until they are attacked, regardless of the attack's success or failure.

This is a little janky - I feel like 'until they take damage' would be clearer/simpler.

It's kind of difficult to comment on balance without knowing the level/class specifics.

Is this ability good? Yes. Is it too good? Depends on a lot of factors.


If the don't have a spell save DC do they get to choose a stat?

[Mastikator]

A lot of rider effects tend to be until the beginning of your next turn, not theirs. This ensures that regardless of initiative it lasts exactly one turn length.

I also agree with Contrast.

[Guy Lombard-O]

you may empower your attacks with a powerful paralyzing agent. Whenever you hit an enemy in that round with a weapon attack, you may cause a burst of paralyzing agents to erupt from the point of contact. The target must make a Constitution Saving Throw

This sounds like a toxin or poison. Is it? Does it have any limitations against those immune to poisons, even though it doesn't impose the poisoned condition?

[Frogreaver]

I'm trying to come up with some out-of-the-box mechanics for a class feature/magic boon (for weaker character/class), and I'd love some feedback on the following:

Predator's Grasp: at the beginning of your turn you may empower your attacks with a powerful paralyzing agent. Whenever you hit an enemy in that round with a weapon attack, you may cause a burst of paralyzing agents to erupt from the point of contact. The target must make a Constitution Saving Throw against your Spell Save DC. On a failed save, they are paralyzed until the end of their next turn or until they are attacked, regardless of the attack's success or failure.
You may use this ability a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and regain expended uses on a Long Rest

Do those restrictions help balance out the power of auto-crit of Paralyzed targets?
The fact that the paralysis ends at the end of the target's next turn means it can be either CC or Auto-crit, but not both, as well as the stipulation of a Weapon Attack means Monks can't go all out with 4 strikes/procs a round for cheap. What do y'all think?

Getting a single crit out of an ability that has a high chance of missing due to targeting a con save and can only be used up to 6 times a day isn't broke. You'll be looking at 2ish crits/rounds of turn denial per day from this ability. It won't be a problem.

I wouldn't give the ability out at level 1. But if you are level 7+ I wouldn't bat an eye. Even level 5 is probably okay.

*Assumes your adventuring day is a decent number of encounters.

[Nagog]

This is basically stunning strike but with paralyzed instead of stunned. Assuming your monk comment implies that you'll be boosting a monk character, you're essentially just giving them bonus ki equal to their proficiency mod. (Paralyzed instead of stunned might be okay, but a paladin or rogue might make those crits too strong. Similarly, having the status wear off at the end of the enemy's next turn means it's down to the vagaries of initiative whether or not your friends can take advantage of the status, which is one of the reasons that one round abilities tend to wear off at the end of your next round.)

The strength of paralyzed depends on team comp, and the effective bonus ki sounds minor if the player is running below the optimization curve for the table. If anything, assuming the monk hypothesis, that they weren't already stun machines implies that this ability won't be leveraged too hard either.

This is actually for a Ranger, but same kind of stuff applies to them as to monks (typically low damage output means crits won't be too insane)


This is a little janky - I feel like 'until they take damage' would be clearer/simpler.

It's kind of difficult to comment on balance without knowing the level/class specifics.

Is this ability good? Yes. Is it too good? Depends on a lot of factors.



A lot of rider effects tend to be until the beginning of your next turn, not theirs. This ensures that regardless of initiative it lasts exactly one turn length.
I also agree with Contrast.

I have it set until the end of the enemy's next turn to limit the potential of auto-crits, and the breaking it with an attempt at damage for the same purpose: having the enemy lose their turn is a powerful ability, particularly if it can be applied to multiple enemies per turn: adding an auto-crit to an attack (that also has advantage on the attack roll) is also really powerful. Setting those end conditions as they are (janky as they may be) means you can't have your party Paladin ready an Attack until after their turn and still get an Auto-crit, each instance of the paralysis will only confer one benefit. The capacity for game-breaking cheese is high with a class ability that applies Paralysis, I'm hoping to limit it a tad so it doesn't become Hex Warrior 2.0.