Author Topic: Thoughts on Hand of the Winged Masters?  (Read 2855 times)

Offline Amor

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Thoughts on Hand of the Winged Masters?
« on: June 14, 2012, 05:41:11 PM »
Recently came across this prestige class in Dragon Magic (page 43), and holy cow does it look like a really nice buy for what you put in.  d8 hit die, good reflex and will, six skills per level with all the trap skills and the only rogue class skill missing UMD (sucks, I know), as well as two free draconic feats, improving dragonfire strike even further, and giving you a psuedo-darkstalker feat (-10 to hide/move silently to use it, sadly), as well as doubling the duration of beneficial arcane spells used on you.

And all it requires is one feat (dragontouched), 11 charisma (for draventouched), a smattering of skills that you'd likely already have with the exception of knowledge arcane, and knowing the draconic language.  From the required feat and bonus feats alone you'll have darksight 60' as well.

Yet there's almost no talk about the class anywhere in all my experience with rogues.  Am I missing something that makes this class bad or not as good as the other options out there for rogues?  I know the class features other than the draconic feats and improved dragonfire strike aren't amazing, but if you're in a non-faerun game with no imports its the only source of darkstalker I believe.

Offline snakeman830

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Re: Thoughts on Hand of the Winged Masters?
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2012, 09:02:34 PM »
I know the class features other than the draconic feats and improved dragonfire strike aren't amazing, but if you're in a non-faerun game with no imports its the only source of darkstalker I believe.
Or, you could just take Darkstalker, since Lords of Madness has no ties with any setting...
"When life gives you lemons, fire them back at high velocity."

Offline Amor

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Re: Thoughts on Hand of the Winged Masters?
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2012, 01:58:01 AM »
I know the class features other than the draconic feats and improved dragonfire strike aren't amazing, but if you're in a non-faerun game with no imports its the only source of darkstalker I believe.
Or, you could just take Darkstalker, since Lords of Madness has no ties with any setting...

Huh, could have sworn it came from a champion of x book.  My bad.

Offline skydragonknight

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Re: Thoughts on Hand of the Winged Masters?
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2012, 05:04:33 AM »
I actually prefer it on Scouts, since it can advance Skirmish damage more than the average progression. I might have a build using it on my computer...I'll check after I get home from work.

Edit: Nope. Got nothing.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2012, 09:53:36 AM by skydragonknight »
Hmm.

Offline snakeman830

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Re: Thoughts on Hand of the Winged Masters?
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2012, 08:55:33 AM »
My main issue with Dragonfire Strike is that, by default, it turns your sneak attack damage, which is already unreliable unless you work at it, into the most commonly resisted energy type.  Not only are you dealing with the standard issues of sneak attack, but most of your enemies now ignore it, or get to apply BOTH DR and energy resistance to it.  To change it away from fire, you need Dragontouched or a Sorcerer level as well as Draconic Heritage.

Having a class that focuses around that feat?  I don't see the appeal.
"When life gives you lemons, fire them back at high velocity."