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Shadow Darts

Attack: Dexterity vs. Reflex. Make three attack rolls. If any of them hit, resolve them as a single hit, and all of them must miss for the attack to miss.

Hit: 1d8 cold damage if one of the attack rolls hits, 2d8 cold damage if two hit, or 3d8 cold damage if three hit.

Flurry of Talons

Attack: Dexterity vs. Reflex. Make three attack rolls. If any of them hit, resolve them as a single hit, and all of them must miss for the attack to miss.

Hit: 1d8 + Dexterity modifier damage if one of the attack rolls hits, 2d8 + Dexterity modifier damage if two hit, and 3d8 + Dexterity modifier damage if three hit.

Does the inclusion of an and in Flurry mean you do all of the listed damage if three attacks hit? As opposed to Shadow which uses or to show that you do one or the other.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Good question. This seems pretty unclear and possibly poor writing, but the former's level 1 and the latter's level 13... \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener
    Commented Nov 10, 2013 at 14:09

1 Answer 1

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Probably not.

6d8 + 3*Dex is a lot of damage for a level 13 encounter power, even if it requires you to hit with 3 attack rolls. Given that Shadow Darts is at best a mediocre level 1 daily, (and most likely written by the same person, since they're from the same Dragon article), it's more likely that Flurry of Talons is a mediocre level 13 encounter power rather than an amazing one. Not to mention it's for the o-Assassin, which is apparently contractually obligated to suck.

While it's certainly poorly phrased, what's probably meant is something along the lines of:

If 1 attack roll hits deal 1d8+Dex damage, deal 2d8+Dex damage if 2 attack rolls hit, and if 3 attack rolls hit deal 3d8+Dex damage.

The strength of powers that use multiple attack rolls for 1 hit is that they give you more chances for that hit to be a critical, not that they do great damage in and of themselves.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ And resistances only come off the damage once, not 3 times. But avoidance measures that can avoid one source of damage/one attack can avoid the whole lot. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ryno
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 3:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ It also gives you more chances to land at least some damage, if you've got a target who's already close to dropping, so you don't need to do much damage. When your target's HP is only 5, an 80% chance of dealing even thousands of damage isn't as good as a 90% chance of dealing 6. \$\endgroup\$
    – Matthew Najmon
    Commented Nov 12, 2013 at 5:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ Agreed, compare these powers to the other encounter powers of the same level introduced in that Dragon article. The other level 1 powers deal 2[W]+Dex or 2d8+Dex damage and include other effects so 1 to 3 d8 is a similar range. The level 13 encounter powers deal 2[W]+Dex, 1d10+Dex, and 2d6+Dex again while granting other beneficial effects. A max of 3d8+Dex gives this power higher max and average damage to offset it's lack of other effects while remaining comparable to your other choices at that level. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jonah
    Commented Nov 18, 2013 at 0:46

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