The average of 10d6 is 35, not 28.
Yes it is.
Barbarians don't do 35 damage to 10 targets by level 2. They aren't doing it with no save or chance of avoidance by level 10 either. Most barbarians are stopped by a single level 4 spell. This lightning isn't.
1) As I said, single target damage for the Barbarian at level 2. And they are doing it no save, and the chance for avoidance is not particularly good.
A fleshraker has 4 extra HD at level 10. Now when we try to get our facts here, let's not overvaluate the other classes, this doesn't give it +10-11 extra strength, it gives it +3 strength. This puts the fleshrakers claws at +11 to hit. Hitting AC 25 at that level is still a bad chance. Even with three attacks. Also set fleshraker would only have 52 hit points, meaning it can go down quite easily. A fleshraker like that charging anyone would be stopped like any other maximized warrior pretty easily.
A Fleshraker gains 4HD, which gives it a size increase, which gives it a +8 bonus to Str. It can also have +6 HD if you take Natural Bond. In either case, it adds considerably to AB, keeping it well within level 10 range.
If you throw on two magic items and a spell, a druid animal companion is damned deadly yeah. (and bead of Karma is debatable at this level, since it costs half your WBL if your DM reads the DMG and not just takes the one item out where there is a printing error).
These are not items and a spell. These are one spell that lasts all day, and two items that a Druid will have anyway, being used to provide all their normal benefits, and also, at the same time with no extra cost, buff the AC. I wasn't even counting using the extra Eternal Wand uses to provide competence bonuses to the AC.
So what you are comparing is one class ability, against another class' class ability, and half its WBL, and a spell cast by the same character, and you want to add more spells to that. Yet those attacks can be avoided, and are single target effects.
No, what I'm comparing is one class using it's standard action in combat, to another class not using an actions at all, and still doing more damage.
You might have heard all those people ranting about how blasting is not effective,
No, I didn't hear all these people ranting about anything. I have played and analyzed the game extensively, and know what I am talking about. But thanks for just deciding that I believe whatever anyone tells me because I'm not smart enough to figure anything out on my own.
but basically that is because blasting is easy to resist. This blast spell isn't easy to resist.
It's not because it's easy to resist, it's because of a confluence of factors, including easy to resist, not doing very much damage relative to level, and being very inefficient with resources for most characters.
Luckily, the vast majority of those problems are negated by the way the class works, bringing it's blasting up into the realm of "quite usable, though not particularly amazing."
It's damned hard to do anything about, meelee chargers aren't insuperior to casters because casters deal more raw damage than them, but because when a meelee character wants to deal damage to a caster, doing so is basically impossible, melee chargers could in theory take casters down if the caster weren't allowed to do anything about it, but they do.
1) Casters and melee chargers don't face each other, they face level appropriate opposition. This can include to a limited extent, those two character types, but their balance when facing each other is not the problem.
And this is why dealing 10d6 damage at will as a standard action to all your enemies is quite good.
Every time I see you say some variant of the bolded part, I wonder if you even know how chain lightning works.
And rogues should do Cha damage instead of Strength damage, because that is how the MM works.
I do not know what you mean MM to stand for. I usually use it for Magic Missile or Mordenkainen's Mansion. Neither seems appropriate here. I am referring to the special ability which allows them to do 2 Str damage every time they SA someone.
And rogues need things to get you flatfooted first (oh and flanking is easy, but people seem to forget). Rogue builds at level 15 that do TWF rarely go higher than +15 on attack rolls without aid of the cleric (and possibly the bard).
1) Flat footed is easy. Flanking is hard, because it requires enemies wanting to be within melee range of you, someone else in the party wanting to be within melee range of them, and them being willing to hold still, and you wasting a round to set it up that you could have been attacking with while blinking.
2) You are a Rogue, I don't know why you are TWFing without a 1 level Barbarian Dip for Whirling Frenzy and Pounce, but since the penalty for TWFing is identical to Rapid Shot, I won't worry about it Maybe you are TWFing and Rapid Shotting, thanks to thrown weapons.
Anyway: You are a Human Rogue, because you are a loser. You have Dex/Str of 24 for a +7, You have a BAB of +7, you have a magic weapon if you aren't throwing flasks, so that's another +2. You take a -2 penalty. If you have one of the following things:
A Racial Dex bonus, a feat that adds to attack roll, a ring of blinking, haste, small size, or Point Blank Shot.
You beat +15. That was easy. Now, if you are a Halfling throwing flasks, you have +18 when you are taking -4 to both attacks. If you have a bow, you have similar AB because you have a magic weapon.
Barbarians might be doing 35 damage earlier than you, but Barbarians can pretty easily be avoided, (hint: it's called grease).
They can avoid that. Hint, it's called flying, and by level 10, they had better be doing that anyway.
Doing 35 reliable damage to every target every round is good at level 10.
You mean "Every target that is within 30ft of every other target I also want to hit, as I can only hit a 15ft radius Sphere, and therefore, I might as well be casting Searing Fireball with no save, except slightly smaller."
This is one class ability we are discussing, everything else you've mentioned have been whole builds based around maximizing your damage output.
No, everything else I mentioned was a Druid casting one spell on his AC.
when you test this class (seeing as this is a test run, right?), you might want to look to Lightning is my middle name, as one of the abilities that could need toning down if the class turns out too good.
No, this isn't a test run. The Storm Lord is sufficiently tested that I am confident I have nailed the balance I set out for.
The Force Potentate, and Elemental Siphon have to my knowledge never been played, though I have done some preliminary testing with them both.
