INT has an effect on the spells/day of a Wizard, but unless I'm missing an exception or two, it doesn't add any power to casting, DCs or the like of any Wizard's spells.
I believe a wizards DC's are increased as his/her intelligence increases. :p
I'd feel it was extreme if it could be attempted on more than one creature per rest. But since it can't, that one shot better as Pits be worth it. So yeah, I think the DC should be high. But maybe as a compromise, instead of 20+(1 per level), you could go with 20+(1 per 2 levels)+Int mod (or other appropriate class-secondary stat). This would place the starting DC anywhere from 25 (no int mod) to over 30 depending on the build, but of course, focusing in Int means less Dex or less Wis or less Cha, depending on how you build the AA. In this way the Arrow of Death is balanced in much the same way the monk QP is balanced via stats. And if you suggest this gives an edge to wizard/AA's, I'll refute that by saying the trade-off of playing a wizard/AA is that you have less AB than a bard (a lot less thanks to bardsong), and a lot fewer spells than a sorcerer. And even for a wizard/AA, Intelligence is a secondary stat to Dex.
It actually makes the least sense of all the options presented.An AA's abilities are magic. INT, DEX and WIS have no effect on magic. INT has an effect on the spells/day of a Wizard, but unless I'm missing an exception or two, it doesn't add any power to casting, DCs or the like of any Wizard's spells.Since the arrow of death, like any other AA ability, is magic in nature, then DEX and WIS also don't come into play because it is basically the magic doing the work for you. No other AA abilities depend on any particular stat directly, so it makes the most sense to base things on AA levels or, at most, caster levels...but I actually don't see a justification for the latter.That's pretty steep, Milty. Unless you've mis-typed, that would put the DC at 30 for as soon as the AA could take the feat. So, a level 20 character with 10 AA levels would have a DC of 30. That's kind of extreme and I don't know of any other class ability, PrC or no, that starts at a DC of 30 and only goes up from there. Remember that AA has an epic progression, which for that particular PrC means anything over 10th level.What would make more sense is 20 + 1/level above 10 (which is equivalent to 10 + 1/AA level) or something that Nehetsrev suggested, or anything of the sort which starts at the baseline (DC 20) and improves as the Arcane Archer improves.*grins* Yep! Be careful what you ask for!
Just to throw this out there, since Milty offered quivering palm for comparison, it has a DC of 10 + 1/2 level + Wis modifier. The key though is that it's tied to a stat which does not provide an attack bonus.So, at level 20, a dex build monk (eg. my monk) probably has a DC in the neighborhood of 22 or so, and a wis based monk probably has a 27ish DC (?).Now, a dex build will have a much better chance of landing the attack in the first place, but the wis build has a better chance for a hit to successfully kill something.The other balancing factor is that quivering palm can only be used on lower level critters.So... the arrows of death is a little higher level skill than QP, and should probably be a little more powerful. But, 20 + AA level seems significantly more powerful - it doesn't require investment in a non-attacking stat, probably has a higher DC than a comparable level QP, and can be used on higher level creatures.Now, I am not saying that there necessarily should be a comparison, one can certainly make an argument that as a PRC's level 10 skill it should be more powerful or whatever, but just food for thought.
Wellconsidering the death arrow is nothing like seeker arrow that is magically guided to the foe. Death arrow entirely depends on your ab. If you miss the shot, you loose the death arrow until you sleep again. Jil can correct me on that, but as far as I understand it, it's not an automatic hit. So in some part the ability of the archer to hit something comes into play with it which is why I think dex is better than int compared to what I had written in the first place.
At 10th level, the character can enchant an arrow 1x/day that forces a target, if damaged by the arrow, to make a Fortitude save (DC 20) or be slain.
It's the magic that does the killing, not how "smartly" (INT), "wisely" (WIS) or "precisely" (DEX) the shot is made. That was my point.
Seems that anything that has a dr higher than what can be dished out from the aa, will never be affected by the AoD, would that also include things that are immune to critical hits?
Yep that I understood, I was just pointing out that AoD is far from being an I win situation because of the fact there is many variables that comes into play even before the save of the enemy is rolled. Did you hit? Did your arrow damaged the foe? If both = yes, then roll save vs dc. So that's far from "I shoot and automatically get a save rolled".
Hear what I'm saying. I'm not opposed to growth in the AA's DC for Arrow of Death, but I am opposed to such a major increase at the entry level that increasingly turns into an "I win" button, regardless of how many times/day it can be used.
Your "compromise" results in even greater DC's.
entry level
increasingly turns into an "I win" button
There's just too many ways to spin the numbers depending on what your focus would be.
sorry milt, the lowest level a mix of wiz and aa could get the AoD is level 15 (5 wiz 10 aa). Well any mix really bard/aa, sorc/aa.
Incorrect. A Wizard doesn't get the +6 BAB until level 12 without some other support class (like Fighter or Ranger), and the Bard doesn't get +6 until level 8.If Layonara didn't have a minimum requirement of 5 levels per class by 20th, you could potentially take 5 levels in Fighter or Ranger, 1 level in Bard and take the remainder as AA levels and get AoD at level 16.
Slow arrows?