Artificer Emergency Nuke

[ShadowFighter15]

I was reading an Artificer guide yesterday and the section on the Blastificer pointed out that, according to Word of God, Metamagic Spell Trigger was to only allow a single metamagic per trigger. Cue complaining from Blastificer fans the world over.

Now I'm not debating that ruling (I happen to agree with it), but I'm putting that there because the image of an Artificer metamagic-ing a wand or staff up the wazoo is somewhat iconic and reminded me that, while it was an expensive image, the concept could also be used for awesome scenes.

What I was thinking was to provide a way for an Artificer to go all out and use every ounce of magical energy in an item and converting it into raw, destructive power. Of course, this would need some severe limitations to prevent people from overusing it (beyond the ability's price-tag) and encourage its use only in dramatic or desperate situations.

My initial idea was that the character would have to pass a difficult Knowledge (Arcana) and a difficult Spellcraft check just to figure out if the tactic is even possible (which would only have to be done once in the character's career). To actually employ the tactic; a character would have to pass a harder-than-normal UMD check (since the item was never designed for this use) and spend an action point (that doesn't count towards the one-AP-a-round limit). This takes all of the energy in the item and focuses it into a powerful line of raw magical energy (size, range and damage I haven't worked out yet), but the character is left exhausted from the effort and the item falls to pieces.

How long this takes to perform and how long the artificer is exhausted for, as well as whether the final blast is affected by Spell Resistance or Saving Throws, I don't know. I'm intending this to be an artificer-only ability (flavouring it as the character modifying his Metamagic Spell Trigger class feature) and any help would be appreciated. And for those wondering; this is the scene that inspired me to try and work this out.

[Myshlaevsky]

Remember that any such tactic needs to be viable in the power stakes. Given that it destroys an item and uses up other resources, this is unlikely to be the case. Don't restrict it too heavily, or it will never be used.

[ShadowFighter15]

Remember that any such tactic needs to be viable in the power stakes. Given that it destroys an item and uses up other resources, this is unlikely to be the case. Don't restrict it too heavily, or it will never be used.

True, but if I'm too light on the restrictions then it could be abused. I'm probably being paranoid on that last bit, which is why I've come here for help. In the end though this is meant to be a last-ditch effort, as the thread title implies.

[arguskos]

Call it is a full-round action, requires Metamagic Spell Focus, a DC 40-50 Knowledge, Spellcraft, and UMD check, and let's say the effect has the following sets of stats:
Distance: 10 ft line/charge expended
Damage: 2d6 untyped/charge expended
Saving Throw: Fortitude half (DC=charges expended; Mettle doesn't work; fluffed as resisting the blast)
SR: No

There, use that as a baseline and flavor to taste. It's not really "balanced", but it provides a mechanical base for you to work with.

[Sliver]

Call it is a full-round action, requires Metamagic Spell Focus, a DC 40-50 Knowledge, Spellcraft, and UMD check, and let's say the effect has the following sets of stats:
Distance: 10 ft line/charge expended
Damage: 2d6 untyped/charge expended
Saving Throw: Fortitude half (DC=charges expended; Mettle doesn't work; fluffed as resisting the blast)
SR: No

There, use that as a baseline and flavor to taste. It's not really "balanced", but it provides a mechanical base for you to work with.

There is a major flaw here as I see it.. It doesn't care if it is a wand of some lvl0 spell or a level 3 one.. There should be something effected by the spell power..

[PhoenixRivers]

The big problem with restricting this so much is that the return needs to be worth the investment in bypassing the restriction, or it's meaningless.

In other words, if it's really hard to use, it needs to be really good.

And that tends to leave anticlimactic BBEG battles, wherein your carefully crafted BBEG is atomized 3.2 seconds into the fight...

Or your carefully crafted PC is atomized by the Artificer BBEG.

[Prime32]

You could try looking for a staff of power/staff of the magi...

[ShadowFighter15]

@arguskos: Nice idea, although a full-round action feels a little too easy for the sort of power this can throw out. I know I'm coming from a computer-game angle with this, but I've always seen big, powerful attacks like this having their main drawback as a long charge-up time and the inability to move while it's charging. Considering what can happen in one turn, I'm reluctant to leave it as just a full-round.

@Sliver: Thought about this as I was typing my reply to arguskos and I realised that it would be easiest to limit it to staves that have spells above a certain level in them. This way, players are reluctant to use it unless necessary (since the staves would be completely destroyed in the process) and it keeps them from just making cantrip-using wands and turning them into cannons.

@PhoenixRivers: My intention is for this not just to be rarely used, but also rarely thought of (outside of House Cannith at least), so the BBEG wouldn't use it (unless the DM wants to show the character as being very creative). And the way I can avoid anticlimactic boss fights would be, again, using a long build-up before firing. This would make the user vulnerable to spells or other attacks, and any spellcasters would recognise the build-up of earth-shattering levels of magical energy quickly enough to concentrate their spells on the artificer trying this.

A possible use for this would be if the BBEG is holed up behind a lot of magical and mundane defences while carrying something out (like a ritual or something) that the players have to stop. If you can't get through the defences normally; then you can roll out the artificer and pull a Nanoha. It'd be for situations where a straight-up fight would be suicide or otherwise wouldn't be able to stop the BBEG's plans.

@Prime32: I forgot all about the retributive strike those have, that'd cover the damage output pretty well.

[PhoenixRivers]

@PhoenixRivers: My intention is for this not just to be rarely used, but also rarely thought of (outside of House Cannith at least), so the BBEG wouldn't use it (unless the DM wants to show the character as being very creative). And the way I can avoid anticlimactic boss fights would be, again, using a long build-up before firing. This would make the user vulnerable to spells or other attacks, and any spellcasters would recognise the build-up of earth-shattering levels of magical energy quickly enough to concentrate their spells on the artificer trying this.

The problem with that is that it's either overpowered, or useless. Any enemy strong enough to need to use this on would be able to paste the Artificer during build up. If you want to discourage repeated use, there's a good mechanic to do that.

XP. Have this ability cost the artificer actual XP, not Craft XP. Caster level of the wand/staff x number of charges left x 10. 1st level wand at 50 charges? 500xp. 9th level Magic missile wand at 25 charges? 2250 xp. That gives it a cost that players actually hesitate to spend.

Now scale the damage by caster level and charges.

Say 1 point per caster level x the number of charges remaining. That 1st level CLW wand that's full? 50 damage. The CL 9 magic missile wand with 25 charges? 225 damage.

[ShadowFighter15]

The problem with that is that it's either overpowered, or useless. Any enemy strong enough to need to use this on would be able to paste the Artificer during build up.

Yeah, it was about there that I realised I'd need help with this.

If you want to discourage repeated use, there's a good mechanic to do that.

XP. Have this ability cost the artificer actual XP, not Craft XP. Caster level of the wand/staff x number of charges left x 10. 1st level wand at 50 charges? 500xp. 9th level Magic missile wand at 25 charges? 2250 xp. That gives it a cost that players actually hesitate to spend.

Now scale the damage by caster level and charges.

Say 1 point per caster level x the number of charges remaining. That 1st level CLW wand that's full? 50 damage. The CL 9 magic missile wand with 25 charges? 225 damage.

Actually that works pretty well; and with an XP cost attached I'd be more willing to make it a full-round action (since the longer build-up was meant to discourage overuse, which an XP cost does just as well).