Death Sentence (Vanguard Sentinel boost):

[Hadrian_Emrys]

In short, the (swordsage exclusive discipline's) boost causes attacks to force a will save against a curse that makes the target to lose one hit point per turn and renders the foe unable to be healed (even by abilities such as fast healing) until the the curse is removed. In addition, if the target dies while under the effects of the curse, they cannot be brought back either through resurrection, or any form of undeath, until the body has had the curse removed first. In looking through by books, I've narrowed it down to being somewhere between a 5th and 8th level strike but I'm loathe to place it until I've had input from those with no personal investment in the project.

[DracoDei]

If Remove Curse functions against it automatically then the resurrection bit is only as hard as the skill check to know what to do. The on going damage is very powerful if a party can hit something that doesn't have that sort of spell, and run away effectively, they can defeat many things. For this reason it may be appropriate to consider if members of this class are likely to be in Light, Medium, or Heavy armor (assuming they are the "tank"). The cleric/healbot may slow things down, but if the cleric/healbot hangs back they may have a head-start... also, flight and other encounter-enders exist, and this turns a retreat into a victory.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

I understand the concern, hence the difficulty in getting the level worked out. Left unaltered, this boost is a certain death... -eventually (so long as remove curse is not readily available anyway). How likely is it that a group would resort to such kiting methods given the slow rate of health loss? Is the maneuver the problem here, or is it the use of flight, teleport, etc as a means by which to slowly win through attrition?

[jindra34]

I understand the concern, hence the difficulty in getting the level worked out. Left unaltered, this boost is a certain death... -eventually (so long as remove curse is not readily available anyway). How likely is it that a group would resort to such kiting methods given the slow rate of health loss? Is the maneuver the problem here, or is it the use of flight, teleport, etc as a means by which to slowly win through attrition?

If a character can ensure no removal of this they are damn likely to kite their enemies to death. Its not like it takes days to kill (600hp/hour) so waiting is not likely to slow anyone down significantly.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

Alright. So the dot goes bye-bye. What level would you say the remaining aspects of the curse merit?

[DracoDei]

The hard part isn't the waiting, it is the breaking contact so they don't kill you (or you kill them without much assistance from the on-going damage). Also, Iron-Heart Surge can counter this too, so there are other options. Its main use is stopping Regeneration, which it shouldn't do. Fast healing is a "maybe".

[Hadrian_Emrys]

Hmm... What if the debuff had a limited x round duration determined by initiator level/skill rank? I really am at wit's end trying to figure a way to keep the theme without resorting to a broken mechanic.

[DracoDei]

Limiting the damage to twice or even 3 times the IL would work fine. It shouldn't stop Regen (but it effectively reduces it by 1), and should, at most, do something like halving fast healing.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

Alright. Having thought this over, what if I altered this to a stance wherein the stance user's weapon + str + ench bonus damage cannot be healed without remove curse, but damage from other sources/characters is treated normally? No degen, no total heal lock. Just an imitation of a 4th level assassin spell.

[DracoDei]

That would be a lot easier to manage, and a lower level strike.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

(Thanks for bearing with me in this, I usually don't get this hung up on homebrew.)

So, a 5th level stance sound about right?