I would like to start out by saying that I love when we get new weapons and I'm always eager to try them out, Assuran's Retribution has been on my eye for a while, And now that my EKD can actually use it I decided to give it a go.
Well. I found that, when using it, it drops me out of expertise. The sword isn't that much stronger then a masterly damask blade with an essence. (You can't add an essence to it either, it takes away the 1d8 electrical.) But with every hit it does 3 damage from a cantrip as an on hit effect.
Are on hit effects supposed to drop expertise? It severely drops the usefulness of the weapon for me. losing expertise for a 3damage cantrip seems a bit wacky to me.
Assuran Retribution disables Expertise
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Re: Assuran Retribution disables Expertise
In vanilla, singleplayer NWN expertise can be used with items, scrolls, and general spellcasting. However, it's incredibly broken due to the AC one can achieve; on Arelith it would allow a lot of spellcasters to sit in mid to high 60s AC. The only thing that I can think of that CAN be used with expertise on is healing kits.
The best uses for Assurans Restribution is:
1. Zap the enemy you want to focus first, or
2. As a visual for RP.
The best uses for Assurans Restribution is:
1. Zap the enemy you want to focus first, or
2. As a visual for RP.
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Re: Assuran Retribution disables Expertise
It's an on hit effect for a shortsword, not something I can just zap someone with it. You're basically saying "Don't use the sword except for rp" because there's not a spell caster that I know that's gonna march into battle and hit something with a sword. The sword is meant for melee class use, where expertise is -supposed- to be used.
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Re: Assuran Retribution disables Expertise
I take that back partially. I read the Assuran's as having the same property as Lightning Gloves (i.e. Use: Electric Jolt property).
So, the weapon instead has the On-hit: cast spell property. Someone with more engine insight would have to confirm if, since it's technically casting a spell, does the on-hit affect work similarly to spellcasting and how spellcasting strips expertise.
However, the sword is still good. A masterly damask shortsword with a +4 permanent essence is doing 13.5 damage on average. Assuran's is doing 14 damage, has keen, has massive criticals, +1 AB over mdamask and has useful (admittedly small) skill bonuses. While true most of it is a single elemental type, I believe the blade is targeted at dex-based, dual-wielding spellswords because of Blackstaff works.
So, the weapon instead has the On-hit: cast spell property. Someone with more engine insight would have to confirm if, since it's technically casting a spell, does the on-hit affect work similarly to spellcasting and how spellcasting strips expertise.
However, the sword is still good. A masterly damask shortsword with a +4 permanent essence is doing 13.5 damage on average. Assuran's is doing 14 damage, has keen, has massive criticals, +1 AB over mdamask and has useful (admittedly small) skill bonuses. While true most of it is a single elemental type, I believe the blade is targeted at dex-based, dual-wielding spellswords because of Blackstaff works.