Kira [Feats 3.5]

[jlousivy]

Kira [Psionic]
Prerequisites: Power Point Reserve, Con 13+
A forbidden technique unlocked through psionic studies, you learn to use your own life force as a weapon. If used carelessly, it may end up killing the user.
Benefit: You may sacrifice 1 HP and make a ranged touch attack at your highest base attack bonus which deals 3d6 damage at a range of 60 feet. You may augment this power by sacrificing additional HP. You may sacrifice a total no greater than 1/2 your manifester level(rounded down) + 1, each additional HP sacrificed adds an additional 2d6 damage.
Special: HP lost using Kira always bypasses temporary hit points, in Addition, the HP can only be regained through natural processes.
You must be living in order to take this feat. (no undead/constructs/etc)
You permanently lose 1 HP upon taking this feat.

Deadly Kira [Psionic]
Prerequisites: Kira, Power Point Reserve, Con 13+
Benefit: When using Kira add +1 damage per die.
Special: You permanently lose 2 HP upon taking this feat.

Rapid Kira [Psionic]
Prerequisites: Kira, Power Point Reserve, Con 13+, BaB 6+
Benefit: as a full-round action, you may make 2 Kira attacks, both at your highest base attack bonus. You sacrifice 2 additional HP when using Rapid Kira.

This is based off the anime character 'Yoite' in 'Nabari no Ou' in case anyone was wondering..

That aside, are these balanced? too powerful? too weak? I'm open to any and all criticism (aside from the standard don't try to bring anime into dnd bs)

I'm planning on presenting these to my DM, he seemed open to the idea when I explained them, but since I didn't have anything written he obviously couldn't approve/disapprove them, so any help would be great!

[RandomFellow]

You may sacrifice 1 HP and make a ranged touch attack at your highest base attack bonus which deals 3d6 damage at a range of 60 feet. You may augment this power by sacrificing additional HP. You may sacrifice a total no greater than 1/2 your manifester level + 1, each additional HP sacrificed adds an additional 2d6 damage.


A 1st level Psion takes this feat. Let us call him Bob the Dwarf.
14 Con, max hp at first, gets him 6hp. Cool Beans.

5d6 at level 1 for 2hp.
7d6 at level 2 for 3hp.

Nothing gives that kind of damage at that level.

27d6 (avg. 81) at level 20 for 12hp gives you an effectively eternal nuke since at this stage your group has a wand of cure light wounds. You don't care if you lose HP as long as you don't die. You also have access to temp. hp which means the only real cost is a long rest period b/t days of adventuring (when you've used up enough HP to actual be too low to survive 1 round with a Titan).

At this point, especially combined with your additional feats you are looking at:
27d6+27 (avg. 108) * 2 = 216 damage. You can kill a Titan in two rounds.

[jlousivy]

A 1st level Psion takes this feat. Let us call him Bob the Dwarf.
14 Con, max hp at first, gets him 6hp. Cool Beans.
5d6 at level 1 for 2hp.
7d6 at level 2 for 3hp.


I intended it to be more like this

Bob the dwarf 1st level psion
3d6 at level 1 for 1 hp
5d6 at level 2 for 2 hp
7d6 at level 3 for 3 hp



27d6 (avg. 81) at level 20 for 12hp gives you an effectively eternal nuke since at this stage your group has a wand of cure light wounds. You don't care if you lose HP as long as you don't die. You also have access to temp. hp which means the only real cost is a long rest period b/t days of adventuring (when you've used up enough HP to actual be too low to survive 1 round with a Titan).


In the feat it is noted in the special section that it bypasses temporary hp and can only be healed by natural means (meaning sleeping).

so, less damage? (if so how much?) or higher penalty?

[RandomFellow]

Maybe just reduce it 1d6 for each 'type'
(e.g. 2d6 + 1d6 per 'extra' hp sacrificed).

The problem with the damage approach is b/t healing and temporary HP the player can still usually ignore the loss for awhile.

[SilentNight]

Nothing gives that kind of damage at that level.



Launch Bolt, a 0 level spell. Used on a colossal crossbow bolt=6d6.

[Innis Cabal]

Launch Bolt, a 0 level spell. Used on a colossal crossbow bolt=6d6.

most rational DM's wouldnt let that slide. Or even put people into that situation

[Atticus Bleak]

I'm confused why it is a psionic feat, and requires you to have a power point reserve, but does NOT require you to use power points to use it. It seems odd that being a psion is required but psionic powers are not involved in the attack.

Also, shouldn't it also require a blank book ink and pen? XD

[RandomFellow]

Launch Bolt, a 0 level spell. Used on a colossal crossbow bolt=6d6.

You are clearly the guy dropping shrunken boulders from 400+' in the air to kill the Tarrasque. And the guy that puts 10 Explosive Runes on a piece of paper and expects it do ridiculous damage. =)

I'm comparing it to things a decent fraction of people don't consider 'broken' and/or would be stopped by a decent fraction of DMs.

[Atticus Bleak]

You know, technically putting 10 Explosive runes on a piece of paper would do 60d6 damage, but only if the person was stupid enough to read one rune, be blasted, then keep reading the next one and the next one and the next one...And only if the paper survived the blast.

[Demented]

I believe the runes trick typically requires a low-level caster with dispel magic, or a willingness to fail a lot of dispel checks.

[ianus]

using your own life force as a weapon is a pretty good idea.

i think there should be more prerequisites for a ''forbidden technique'' like that,
maybe adding prerequisites instead of reducing the number of dmg dice would be
also a good idea for making it a bit more balanced feat, for example a minimum BAB as a prerequisite.

[Bag_of_Holding]

There's a warforged feat in PGtE that allows the warforged to drain 1hp to deal +1d4 electricity damage with his next slam attack. The hp-damage exchange is capped at BAB, however. I think that would provide a nice baseline for balance.

[jlousivy]

Also, shouldn't it also require a blank book ink and pen? XD


nabari no ou, not death note =P



I'm confused why it is a psionic feat, and requires you to have a power point reserve, but does NOT require you to use power points to use it. It seems odd that being a psion is required but psionic powers are not involved in the attack.

you could be a psionic warrior or a wilder (my character is a psywarrior). it's a psionic feat because i was trying to figure out how to make it make some sense on why he is able to do it. Psionics are already accusomed to using their mind to do **** and I didn't see using their life force as that big of a jump. Sure i could have tried it with 'Ki' like in nabari no ou, but that would make me take levels in ninja... which... sucks (the class in general).



There's a warforged feat in PGtE that allows the warforged to drain 1hp to deal +1d4 electricity damage with his next slam attack. The hp-damage exchange is capped at BAB, however. I think that would provide a nice baseline for balance.

so are you thinking something like
'you can sacrifice up to 1 hp per manifester level for a ranged touch attack dealing <hp sacriciced>d4 points of damage?' that just seems really weak to me. At that damage it doesn't really even seem like a viable option save for flavor. (especially if the damage from the sacrifice avoids temp hp and can't be healed magically) at that point i'd rather use a feat to get 'energy ray'(1d6+1 / PP if fire or cold) and a couple psionic talent feats.

display of 'Kira'
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lk20XS7VSuw

the part to see is 6 minutes in.


Would Con damage be a better way to balance it instead of a set number of hp? like 1 or 2 Con per use?

[SilentNight]

You are clearly the guy dropping shrunken boulders from 400+' in the air to kill the Tarrasque.

I'm comparing it to things a decent fraction of people don't consider 'broken' and/or would be stopped by a decent fraction of DMs.

Shuriken boulders? The launch bolt thing wasn't my idea either, it came up on a cantrip thread. You're tight then, this is freakish at first level. However, with 6hp, Bob the Dwarf can only use it once or twice per day and still have enough hp to have a good chance of making it through the day. Once you get to seventh level though, then you get the locate city nuke.

[RandomFellow]

Shuriken boulders? The launch bolt thing wasn't my idea either, it came up on a cantrip thread. You're tight then, this is freakish at first level. However, with 6hp, Bob the Dwarf can only use it once or twice per day and still have enough hp to have a good chance of making it through the day. Once you get to seventh level though, then you get the locate city nuke.
Ok. =)

Vigor will let him use it until he hits 1hp. <.< So that is 4 uses.

With Vigor he is at 'full hp' (with the Temp HP) at level 1.