Quote Originally Posted by dman11235 View Post
Changing it to level+wis wouldn't involve changing very many DCs at ALL, especially if you add in a couple feats that give you a boost to your bending bonus. Or a class feature that gives you a small boost every so often, fills in the dead levels too.
I'm not completely opposed to this, since it does sound like a possible fix, but I would prefer to keep the Bending ability as a skill for a number of reasons. 1) It's my baby, alright? I have an emotional investment in the Bending skills. *sniff* 2) A skill fits the flavor pretty well, I think. It's something that you can learn the basics of and then improve on your own. Granted, that's what alot of classes are, too; but by keeping the Bending ability as a skill, a multiclassed character can continue to put ranks in the skill without getting new seeds. That seems to fit the flavor of benders rather well. 3) Skills can get things like Circumstance modifiers that seem appropriate for this system, as in things like the full moon for waterbenders or other specific situations. It's less confusing to just take an existing mechanism and apply it rather than make a mirror image of it and have it not be a skill.

Again, I wouldn't mind terribly to change the system to rely on the character's level, but I would much prefer the system as it is now.

Quote Originally Posted by dman11235 View Post
You realize that 2d4 is better damage than 1d8, right? And that the difference in average damage between your max and the original is 3.5, right? Are you honestly going to increase the DC by 25 just for a +3.5 average damage boost? Also, I gave more than just the blast damage suggestion (though I think that one is particularly nice: it gets stronger, it already has a progression we can key it off of, and it doesn't needlessly increase the DC), including one for +1d6/+5 DC. Which gives you +17.5 average damage for +25 DC. Not a meaningless amount. Small, but not meaningless. The other suggestion was the increase in dice size, as Fist of the Forest, Empty Hand Mastery, and Initiate of Draconic Mysteries does for monk unarmed damage. This one is considerably more powerful, as damage dice size increases exponentially. The final suggestion I gave was the dealing blast damage and having the increased DC increase the amount of cold damage it dealt as well.

What is making it do more damage is the better skill you have, thus able to make a better "sword". The dealing blast damage plays off this really nicely. Another thing that makes it deal more damage is it getting colder. Another thing that plays off the blast damage nicely.
But you're missing the entire point, Dman. They're daggers. Made of ice. Maybe even a sword made of ice if your DM approves it. But it's still simple ice being swung and jabbed like melee weapon. At most the ice can do as much damage as a melee weapon would. All of these ways that you're suggesting of making the damage done by the daggers worthwhile is all quite sound mechanically, but doesn't make any sense in terms of the series. The seed makes shards of ice that are held in the hand and used as simple melee weapons, not a magical blade through which the bender channels her power. Thus, they will deal damage as a shard of ice would.