SangoProduction
2023-06-06, 09:38 PM
Preamble: Very suddenly, I had an urge to do a review. It's just comforting. I have next to no expectations of this sphere. I really wonder how it can differentiate itself from both the Divination and Scout spheres. If it can. Again, no hopes. Just curiosity.
Wiki: For those looking to follow along, the wiki page can be found here (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/investigation/).
Post-Review Analysis: Well, the actual effects of the Base sphere certainly failed to spark joy, though Analyze as a concept has great potential.
Meanwhile, the talents were rather exciting. Particularly the Utility talents, interestingly enough.
(1) Superb: You always want this if it's relevant to you. And it probably is.
(1.5) Really Good: Particularly useful bits of kit, but aren't quite must-haves. (Kept it decimal, because spreading out Good so far from Superb felt unrepresentative. But I needed a step between)
(2) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds. Among your first picks.
(3) Usable: Doesn't hurt to have. Wouldn't go out of your way for it.
(4) No: It technically has a use, but the cost to take simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
(5) Never: There’s no non-trivial reason to pick it up, from its mechanics.
(6+) Harmful: Taking/using this is actively detrimental to your character.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
[Square brackets] indicate a reliance on the group (players or DM) or campaign you’re playing in, and how well it does in those select groups.
Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(?) Unrated: I choose not to rate it. Often because it is just so far out of my wheelhouse, or it’s far too ambiguous.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
(D) D***bag: Used for when your character wants to be a D***bag.
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Skill: Sense Motive. (Oh a social-perception focused sphere? That's certainly a way of differentiating itself. Although divination is damned good at that.)
Skill Leverage: Perception and Sense Motive.
Analyze: Swift action analyze a creature, object, or area. To do so, you choose an (analyze) talent, and attempt the skill check described therein. Success reveals the simple analysis, while failure gives a flawed analysis. (Which means you still gain the relevant information, just not to the totally accurate - and thus likely little to no mechanical benefit. But it's still information.) A standard action allows you to use the detailed analysis, if you beat the DC by the added amount.
But each talent may only be used once per half hour, with no retries.
Educated Hunch (Analyze) (5?): Skill: Sense Motive, DC 20.
Simple analysis gives a "general feeling" about if the subject seems strange... which seems redundant as similar judgment can be made without this feature. Maybe not as a swift action, but that's not relevant in most contexts where you'd make the roll.
Detailed gives you a feeling of weal or woe. Which... again. You could already do that with sense motive. So I'm not sure what this is adding.
NOTABLE BENEFIT: This is a flat DC, rather than one relative to your target. If you only want to use it for (apply) talents, this is the most reliable way.
(apply) talents: Exploit an analyzed target, applying a single (apply) talent on successful analyze. You and your allies gain its benefits for 1 minute. But only one (apply) talent can be put on a single target. (You can use apply talents on a flawed analysis, but you only get the baseline bonus rather than anything boosted by ranks in the skill. Considering how poorly it scales, that largely doesn't matter.)
Scrutinize: swift action to designate a target to gain +2 perception / sense motive against. So you literally always use it before you use this sphere. Unless you actually have an [approach] that does something of note. This is not truly something of note. Except in social encounters. I'd just put "+2 scrutinize" under my skill notes, and otherwise forget about its existence.
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Group Analysis (2): If we make the assumption that there are good Analyzes to use, then getting more targets on it is good.
Share Insights (3): A singular ally gains the bonuses of an (apply) talent. 2 allies at level 10 though... eh. I mean, it's good. I guess. (Apply) talents are rather minor.
Rapid Assessment (3): You can change an (apply) talent on a creature to another one as a swift action. Interesting. It overcomes one of the primary downsides of (apply) talents, in that you can only use one on a target. Are you going to need to keep swapping (apply) talents turn-by-turn, or even get regular use out of this? I honestly doubt it. But it's interesting.
Auditory Analysis (4): While hypothetically useful to analyze based on sound rather than needing to see someone... it largely doesn't matter. But hey, if you're playing a blind character, you get this talent for free.
Briefed Intuition (1+): It's a plan that lets you use a skill leverage to activate it, and either confirm or deny a guess that you've made. Now, it's not divination, so it logically wouldn't tell you what you wouldn't be able to know (though that is entirely up to the DM to figure out), but for most situations where you'd like to confirm a hypothesis (particularly in a social context), this is really bloody amazing. Makes me think of crime/medical dramas like House.
Gauge Deception (1): Upgrades Scrutinize such that, before you attempt the lie, you can assess how "plausible" it would be, once per minute. I am impressed. To get a similar result with magic, you'd actually need the Time sphere's Retry, and that costs spell points. This is amazing. (Oh, and I noticed that they finally added a note for Retry to limit the nonsense. Nice.)
Acute Senses (2): Halves pretty much all environmental penalties to perception (which can be stacked with say Light sphere's telescope, and let you see from a functionally indefinite distance relative to anyone you're observing), and increases the range of analyze such that it's pretty much always a valid action in all but the largest of combat maps.
Study Inclinations [2]: If you could have "reasonably" investigated someone, you can spend this plan to learn their minor or major motivation. If your DM both uses the new system, and is able to either prepare or improvise what they are for any given NPC you speak to, then it's pretty useful.
Retrospection (?): Get to spend 10 minutes remembering something, and retroactively (analyze) it. Assuming you have a good (analyze) to use, then it would be good.
Broad Scrutiny (5): Scrutinize gets a second target.... woo. Oh, up to 4 total targets by level 20... Woo.
Self Awareness (6-): You get to learn if rolling a 10 would succeed a sense motive check. If so, you must make the check. If it doesn't, then you don't have to make the check... I legitimately cannot find a practical use for it, other than annoying the DM. Well, I suppose you get to find out if the bluff roll was really high, which does rather spoil the tension when you know for certain that you didn't succeed the sense motive.
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Determine Defenses [1+]: Does your DM use homebrew / reflavored monsters? Are combats actually meaningful enough in the game that having information on their various sources of defenses makes any meaningful difference? Then here's the talent for you.
Examine Damage (?): Reveals HP, and how they received damage. Again, for a murder mystery, it seems useful... but also something that you could have already found the information about as an inherent part of the mystery. There is a meta thing about being able to quantify damage and health to a shocking degree, in-character. But I'm not seeing the actual utility of this, unless the DM wants everyone to hide that "meta information."
Ascertain Activities (?): Difficult check, but as a swift action, you can learn what types of activities (as in how active they were during them). And for detailed analysis, you can tell what sort of work they were doing. It's basically pointless to make the check, against an equivalent foe. This seems like a very narrowly useful talent - applicable primarily in murder-mystery settings. And yet, those are the ones where the one that you actually want to analyze has the highest bluff score, making it im------ Oh. Self Awareness then could just instantly give away the entire plot by letting you know who your min-maxed sense motive character can't easily decipher. Yeah, that's a problem of that talent, not this.
Assess Physicality (F): Basically diagnoses the target... mentally and physically. Interesting. Doesn't tend to be excessively useful. But it is interesting.
Interpret Intent (1):: Rather than targeting a normal subject, it targets an action, and simply asks "Why?" Normally, the DM is under no compulsion to answer that, and there's really no skill check you can make for that question (I mean, maybe a Gather Information - or maybe intimidate / diplomacy if you know the suspect), and the line of thinking tends to fizzle out right around there unless they do come up with something that hooks the players into investigating further.
As a DM, I think I do appreciate the prompting to answer that simple question. The who, how and when of a murder (the what) all have appropriate checks, but the why not so much.
The question also comes around to: How are you figuring this out exactly? It's not magical, despite the indefinite-distance mind-reading nature of the effect.
Infer Connection (1.5): Basically the Divine Allegiance from Divination sphere. It's really quite good to be able to tell who likes who, and what organizations they are a part of. Anything deeper than that information, and the DM's probably just going to be winging it, unless it's an NPC, whose position in the power structure is already pretty obvious. (With that said. You can certainly take advantage of a "rivalrous relationship" that was come up with in the spur of the moment, and really help expand the story by latching onto that and making something happen.)
Survey Surroundings [2]: This is a swift action "notice traps." In a 20-foot cube. Wow, Inspect Object did lose that tiny bit of relevance, didn't it? lol. And funnily enough, it's +5 DC version also gives a +5 to the check, so that you can really be certain that if there's anything in the area, you've definitely seen it if you spent a standard action.
Is this a particularly useful ability? Yeah. Any DM who uses traps, or hidden compartments. So generally dungeon crawls. Otherwise? Not really.
Investigate Area <3>: Speed tracking. Which is not useful. What is useful is that as a swift action, you can determine the exact location of invisible creatures. (Explicitly. Although initially I thought that was simply implicit in the capabilities presented.) And the DC increase is if they are "hiding their actions" rather than simply hiding. Of course, they might be hiding the act of hiding. Hiding tracks (and thus likely hiding "activities") would thus impose yet another 1/2 speed penalty. But out of all the counters to invisibility, this is one of the least effectual. But it is a swift action. So then, you could swing your sack of flower at the exact location, as your attack action.
Now! Hold up. If you take Acute Senses, you can use this up to Medium range (100+ feet). And it doesn't matter if someone took 20 to hide on the side of the road. The DC is just 10 + stealth modifier. This gives you a 50/50 shot against an equivalent foe - or literally always if you're just taking 10 against equivalent foes. (Both Perception and Stealth can be min-maxed to absurd levels. Seen here. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?553522-Stealthiest-Stealth-that-ever-Stealthed)) So, as long as your wagon isn't racing past 16 ft / second (a brisk 11 miles per hour), you should be pretty good to go as far as ambushes go. (Although cover could be considered a stealth modifier, regardless of being circumstantial or not. Plus Acute Senses thing matters leagues more than this talent for the purpose of getting a heads-up on the ambush.)
Inspect Object (4): Much less useful, but getting to Read Object, to find out what use it has undergone is pretty neat. Also it detects traps, hidden compartments, and hazards, and triggers... as a standard action. So that could kinda already be done.
Discern Esoterics (F): You can non-magically read the magical properties of an item, without need of Spellcraft or Knowledge (Arcana). But it's harder. It's funky, and neat. But only *useful* for particular plots, or if your DM likes to use cursed items. But yeah, even as a utility talent, you'd spending a talent for a cantrip-like effect, that's more difficult to use... whose main benefit over the cantrip is identifying magic items in an antimagic field. (Which would logically make it harder to make the check, but still.)
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Emotional Exploitation - utility (1.5): +2 for: intimidate to demoralize / insult; Knowledge to perplex; or any other check that inflicts an emotion effect against the analyzed creature (including the new emotion conditions introduced with Spheres of Guile - obviously). Expend the application to amplify the emotion by 1 step. So this takes demoralize from the shaken debuff to "I'm running away now, fight's over." Yeah, that's pretty notable, don't you think? If not for that, I would definitely agree with the placement as a utility talent. Despite being the literal only utility apply talent.
Close Strike (2): +2 (+1/5 lvl) to hit. And expend the hit to reroll the attack. Especially potent if your DM rules that natural ones are really devastating. Given that analysis can be done as a swift action, it's pretty easy to slip into a martial build. And simultaneously help your ally, with Group Analysis. Boring, but useful.
Disrupt Focus (2): +2 to saves against creature's abilities. All of them. It doesn't say racial or class or spell-like. Just abilities. That's decently useful. Again, boring, but useful.
Insightful Dodge (2, F): AoO / immediate action to gain a +20% miss chance, with a remarkable +5% / 2 lvls - better than Time, worse than Illusion. But of course, those are passive miss chance, this does eat up your actions. Expend to basically make you immune to a singular attack roll (use sense motive for your AC). Neat. Very neat even. I like it flavor-wise. I like it even more for the fact that you can use AoOs to gain miss chance.
Vicious Strike (2): The big deal? It forces a fort save on hit, or be unable to 5-foot step. They can't get into stabby range of the long-stabber without getting stabbed. And each time they get stabbed, they make another fort save or be unable to 5-foot step for a round.
Exploit Flaw (3): Reduces the target's DR / hardness by 2 (+1/3 lvl) and crit/precision prevention is reduced by 10% (+10/ 3 lvl) as well.
But it does redeem itself. You can expend the application as an immediate action to reduce the target's (natural )armor by 2(+1/5) points until they regain hp. You literally divorce them of their armor. Which is much more generally useful (given that you often have teammates) than you getting a bit of conditional DR penetration.
[B]Debilitating Blow (4): On successful damage, deal [stat mod] bonus damage. Once per round. Expend the application to grant them a -2 to the next save in the next minute. Wow. That's remarkably, jaw-droppingly... bad. May or may not help allies, depending on DM ruling.
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Basic Analysis: Lose access to detailed analysis, but get a ****ty talent in exchange.
Unorthodox Methods: Change your associated skill from sense motive / perception to some other skill.
Wiki: For those looking to follow along, the wiki page can be found here (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/investigation/).
Post-Review Analysis: Well, the actual effects of the Base sphere certainly failed to spark joy, though Analyze as a concept has great potential.
Meanwhile, the talents were rather exciting. Particularly the Utility talents, interestingly enough.
(1) Superb: You always want this if it's relevant to you. And it probably is.
(1.5) Really Good: Particularly useful bits of kit, but aren't quite must-haves. (Kept it decimal, because spreading out Good so far from Superb felt unrepresentative. But I needed a step between)
(2) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds. Among your first picks.
(3) Usable: Doesn't hurt to have. Wouldn't go out of your way for it.
(4) No: It technically has a use, but the cost to take simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
(5) Never: There’s no non-trivial reason to pick it up, from its mechanics.
(6+) Harmful: Taking/using this is actively detrimental to your character.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
[Square brackets] indicate a reliance on the group (players or DM) or campaign you’re playing in, and how well it does in those select groups.
Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(?) Unrated: I choose not to rate it. Often because it is just so far out of my wheelhouse, or it’s far too ambiguous.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
(D) D***bag: Used for when your character wants to be a D***bag.
-
Skill: Sense Motive. (Oh a social-perception focused sphere? That's certainly a way of differentiating itself. Although divination is damned good at that.)
Skill Leverage: Perception and Sense Motive.
Analyze: Swift action analyze a creature, object, or area. To do so, you choose an (analyze) talent, and attempt the skill check described therein. Success reveals the simple analysis, while failure gives a flawed analysis. (Which means you still gain the relevant information, just not to the totally accurate - and thus likely little to no mechanical benefit. But it's still information.) A standard action allows you to use the detailed analysis, if you beat the DC by the added amount.
But each talent may only be used once per half hour, with no retries.
Educated Hunch (Analyze) (5?): Skill: Sense Motive, DC 20.
Simple analysis gives a "general feeling" about if the subject seems strange... which seems redundant as similar judgment can be made without this feature. Maybe not as a swift action, but that's not relevant in most contexts where you'd make the roll.
Detailed gives you a feeling of weal or woe. Which... again. You could already do that with sense motive. So I'm not sure what this is adding.
NOTABLE BENEFIT: This is a flat DC, rather than one relative to your target. If you only want to use it for (apply) talents, this is the most reliable way.
(apply) talents: Exploit an analyzed target, applying a single (apply) talent on successful analyze. You and your allies gain its benefits for 1 minute. But only one (apply) talent can be put on a single target. (You can use apply talents on a flawed analysis, but you only get the baseline bonus rather than anything boosted by ranks in the skill. Considering how poorly it scales, that largely doesn't matter.)
Scrutinize: swift action to designate a target to gain +2 perception / sense motive against. So you literally always use it before you use this sphere. Unless you actually have an [approach] that does something of note. This is not truly something of note. Except in social encounters. I'd just put "+2 scrutinize" under my skill notes, and otherwise forget about its existence.
-
Group Analysis (2): If we make the assumption that there are good Analyzes to use, then getting more targets on it is good.
Share Insights (3): A singular ally gains the bonuses of an (apply) talent. 2 allies at level 10 though... eh. I mean, it's good. I guess. (Apply) talents are rather minor.
Rapid Assessment (3): You can change an (apply) talent on a creature to another one as a swift action. Interesting. It overcomes one of the primary downsides of (apply) talents, in that you can only use one on a target. Are you going to need to keep swapping (apply) talents turn-by-turn, or even get regular use out of this? I honestly doubt it. But it's interesting.
Auditory Analysis (4): While hypothetically useful to analyze based on sound rather than needing to see someone... it largely doesn't matter. But hey, if you're playing a blind character, you get this talent for free.
Briefed Intuition (1+): It's a plan that lets you use a skill leverage to activate it, and either confirm or deny a guess that you've made. Now, it's not divination, so it logically wouldn't tell you what you wouldn't be able to know (though that is entirely up to the DM to figure out), but for most situations where you'd like to confirm a hypothesis (particularly in a social context), this is really bloody amazing. Makes me think of crime/medical dramas like House.
Gauge Deception (1): Upgrades Scrutinize such that, before you attempt the lie, you can assess how "plausible" it would be, once per minute. I am impressed. To get a similar result with magic, you'd actually need the Time sphere's Retry, and that costs spell points. This is amazing. (Oh, and I noticed that they finally added a note for Retry to limit the nonsense. Nice.)
Acute Senses (2): Halves pretty much all environmental penalties to perception (which can be stacked with say Light sphere's telescope, and let you see from a functionally indefinite distance relative to anyone you're observing), and increases the range of analyze such that it's pretty much always a valid action in all but the largest of combat maps.
Study Inclinations [2]: If you could have "reasonably" investigated someone, you can spend this plan to learn their minor or major motivation. If your DM both uses the new system, and is able to either prepare or improvise what they are for any given NPC you speak to, then it's pretty useful.
Retrospection (?): Get to spend 10 minutes remembering something, and retroactively (analyze) it. Assuming you have a good (analyze) to use, then it would be good.
Broad Scrutiny (5): Scrutinize gets a second target.... woo. Oh, up to 4 total targets by level 20... Woo.
Self Awareness (6-): You get to learn if rolling a 10 would succeed a sense motive check. If so, you must make the check. If it doesn't, then you don't have to make the check... I legitimately cannot find a practical use for it, other than annoying the DM. Well, I suppose you get to find out if the bluff roll was really high, which does rather spoil the tension when you know for certain that you didn't succeed the sense motive.
-
Determine Defenses [1+]: Does your DM use homebrew / reflavored monsters? Are combats actually meaningful enough in the game that having information on their various sources of defenses makes any meaningful difference? Then here's the talent for you.
Examine Damage (?): Reveals HP, and how they received damage. Again, for a murder mystery, it seems useful... but also something that you could have already found the information about as an inherent part of the mystery. There is a meta thing about being able to quantify damage and health to a shocking degree, in-character. But I'm not seeing the actual utility of this, unless the DM wants everyone to hide that "meta information."
Ascertain Activities (?): Difficult check, but as a swift action, you can learn what types of activities (as in how active they were during them). And for detailed analysis, you can tell what sort of work they were doing. It's basically pointless to make the check, against an equivalent foe. This seems like a very narrowly useful talent - applicable primarily in murder-mystery settings. And yet, those are the ones where the one that you actually want to analyze has the highest bluff score, making it im------ Oh. Self Awareness then could just instantly give away the entire plot by letting you know who your min-maxed sense motive character can't easily decipher. Yeah, that's a problem of that talent, not this.
Assess Physicality (F): Basically diagnoses the target... mentally and physically. Interesting. Doesn't tend to be excessively useful. But it is interesting.
Interpret Intent (1):: Rather than targeting a normal subject, it targets an action, and simply asks "Why?" Normally, the DM is under no compulsion to answer that, and there's really no skill check you can make for that question (I mean, maybe a Gather Information - or maybe intimidate / diplomacy if you know the suspect), and the line of thinking tends to fizzle out right around there unless they do come up with something that hooks the players into investigating further.
As a DM, I think I do appreciate the prompting to answer that simple question. The who, how and when of a murder (the what) all have appropriate checks, but the why not so much.
The question also comes around to: How are you figuring this out exactly? It's not magical, despite the indefinite-distance mind-reading nature of the effect.
Infer Connection (1.5): Basically the Divine Allegiance from Divination sphere. It's really quite good to be able to tell who likes who, and what organizations they are a part of. Anything deeper than that information, and the DM's probably just going to be winging it, unless it's an NPC, whose position in the power structure is already pretty obvious. (With that said. You can certainly take advantage of a "rivalrous relationship" that was come up with in the spur of the moment, and really help expand the story by latching onto that and making something happen.)
Survey Surroundings [2]: This is a swift action "notice traps." In a 20-foot cube. Wow, Inspect Object did lose that tiny bit of relevance, didn't it? lol. And funnily enough, it's +5 DC version also gives a +5 to the check, so that you can really be certain that if there's anything in the area, you've definitely seen it if you spent a standard action.
Is this a particularly useful ability? Yeah. Any DM who uses traps, or hidden compartments. So generally dungeon crawls. Otherwise? Not really.
Investigate Area <3>: Speed tracking. Which is not useful. What is useful is that as a swift action, you can determine the exact location of invisible creatures. (Explicitly. Although initially I thought that was simply implicit in the capabilities presented.) And the DC increase is if they are "hiding their actions" rather than simply hiding. Of course, they might be hiding the act of hiding. Hiding tracks (and thus likely hiding "activities") would thus impose yet another 1/2 speed penalty. But out of all the counters to invisibility, this is one of the least effectual. But it is a swift action. So then, you could swing your sack of flower at the exact location, as your attack action.
Now! Hold up. If you take Acute Senses, you can use this up to Medium range (100+ feet). And it doesn't matter if someone took 20 to hide on the side of the road. The DC is just 10 + stealth modifier. This gives you a 50/50 shot against an equivalent foe - or literally always if you're just taking 10 against equivalent foes. (Both Perception and Stealth can be min-maxed to absurd levels. Seen here. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?553522-Stealthiest-Stealth-that-ever-Stealthed)) So, as long as your wagon isn't racing past 16 ft / second (a brisk 11 miles per hour), you should be pretty good to go as far as ambushes go. (Although cover could be considered a stealth modifier, regardless of being circumstantial or not. Plus Acute Senses thing matters leagues more than this talent for the purpose of getting a heads-up on the ambush.)
Inspect Object (4): Much less useful, but getting to Read Object, to find out what use it has undergone is pretty neat. Also it detects traps, hidden compartments, and hazards, and triggers... as a standard action. So that could kinda already be done.
Discern Esoterics (F): You can non-magically read the magical properties of an item, without need of Spellcraft or Knowledge (Arcana). But it's harder. It's funky, and neat. But only *useful* for particular plots, or if your DM likes to use cursed items. But yeah, even as a utility talent, you'd spending a talent for a cantrip-like effect, that's more difficult to use... whose main benefit over the cantrip is identifying magic items in an antimagic field. (Which would logically make it harder to make the check, but still.)
-
Emotional Exploitation - utility (1.5): +2 for: intimidate to demoralize / insult; Knowledge to perplex; or any other check that inflicts an emotion effect against the analyzed creature (including the new emotion conditions introduced with Spheres of Guile - obviously). Expend the application to amplify the emotion by 1 step. So this takes demoralize from the shaken debuff to "I'm running away now, fight's over." Yeah, that's pretty notable, don't you think? If not for that, I would definitely agree with the placement as a utility talent. Despite being the literal only utility apply talent.
Close Strike (2): +2 (+1/5 lvl) to hit. And expend the hit to reroll the attack. Especially potent if your DM rules that natural ones are really devastating. Given that analysis can be done as a swift action, it's pretty easy to slip into a martial build. And simultaneously help your ally, with Group Analysis. Boring, but useful.
Disrupt Focus (2): +2 to saves against creature's abilities. All of them. It doesn't say racial or class or spell-like. Just abilities. That's decently useful. Again, boring, but useful.
Insightful Dodge (2, F): AoO / immediate action to gain a +20% miss chance, with a remarkable +5% / 2 lvls - better than Time, worse than Illusion. But of course, those are passive miss chance, this does eat up your actions. Expend to basically make you immune to a singular attack roll (use sense motive for your AC). Neat. Very neat even. I like it flavor-wise. I like it even more for the fact that you can use AoOs to gain miss chance.
Vicious Strike (2): The big deal? It forces a fort save on hit, or be unable to 5-foot step. They can't get into stabby range of the long-stabber without getting stabbed. And each time they get stabbed, they make another fort save or be unable to 5-foot step for a round.
Exploit Flaw (3): Reduces the target's DR / hardness by 2 (+1/3 lvl) and crit/precision prevention is reduced by 10% (+10/ 3 lvl) as well.
But it does redeem itself. You can expend the application as an immediate action to reduce the target's (natural )armor by 2(+1/5) points until they regain hp. You literally divorce them of their armor. Which is much more generally useful (given that you often have teammates) than you getting a bit of conditional DR penetration.
[B]Debilitating Blow (4): On successful damage, deal [stat mod] bonus damage. Once per round. Expend the application to grant them a -2 to the next save in the next minute. Wow. That's remarkably, jaw-droppingly... bad. May or may not help allies, depending on DM ruling.
-
Basic Analysis: Lose access to detailed analysis, but get a ****ty talent in exchange.
Unorthodox Methods: Change your associated skill from sense motive / perception to some other skill.