Post/Author/DateTime	Post
catharz 11-20-05, 10:32 PM	I was just looking over the psionics SRD and noticed this little bit at the bottom of the description for Bite of the Wolf: Based on your psychic warrior level, your bite increases in ferocity as noted here: at 5th level your bite deals an extra 1d8 points of damage, at 10th level an extra 2d8, at 15th level an extra 3d8, and at 20th level an extra 4d8 points. Yah, pretty wonky mechanics. Probably written before augmentation had been finalized. This seems to mean that the base Bite of the Wolf damage for a 5th level Psychic Warrior is 2d8. Add INA, and you've got 3d8. Add Expansion (large), and you've got 4d8. Expand to huge, and... Well, here is the apparent progression: Bite damage (with INA)~ PW 1: 2d6 PW 2: 2d6 (3d6 large) PW 5: 3d8 (4d8 large) PW 6: 3d8 (6d8 huge) PW 10: 4d8 (8d8 huge) PW 15: 6d8 (12d8 huge) PW 20: 10d6? (20d6 huge?) For reference, here is CotB with Overchannel: Claw damage~ 1: 1d6 2 (ML 3): 1d8 (2d6 large) 4 (ML 5): 2d6+2 (3d6+2 large) 6 (ML 7): 3d6+2 (6d6+2 huge) 8 (ML 10): 3d6+3 (6d6+3 huge) 9 (ML 11): 4d6+3 (8d6+3 huge) 11 (ML 13): 4d6+4 (8d6+4 huge) 13 (ML 15): 6d6+4 (12d6+4 huge) 15 (ML 18): 6d6+5 (12d6+5 huge) 16 (ML 19): 10d6+5? (20d6+5 huge?) 18 (ML 21): 10d6+6? (20d6+6 huge?) In other words, Bite of the Wolf starts out slightly better (damage-wise) than CotB, then falls behind at level 13, jumps ahead at 15, falls behind at 16 (although we have no definite claw damage at that level), and they are (maybe, dice advancement is dicey) equal at level 20. The difference is, CotB takes up to 19 PP. BotW only ever takes one. CotB has the advantage of being manifested as a Swift Action, and also gives two attacks instead of one, but BotW can be used with any other weapons. Anyway, this seems to be a very cheap way for a Psychic Warrior Karmic Striker to do some nice damage. Of course, you have to by a Psychic Warrior :rolleyes:
X-Codes 11-20-05, 11:16 PM	Bite of the Wolf is just plain wierd... Theres an argument that the dice after the first don't increace with size/INA because they're noted as "extra" damage. Then there's also the fact that you have to be a Psywar 20 in order to do this, which I honestly don't care for. Now taking a second look at Claws of the Beast, they don't follow the standard natural weapon advancement, and again it isn't in the errata... I'll have to make a note to simplify this for the upcoming game I'm working on, if for no other reason than the sake of sanity.