Hands of Stone: Finding the DC Modifiers

[Sierim]

As has been noted elsewhere, the Hands of Stone DC is much lower than expected from the description.

The tooltip DC is 10 + Constitution Modifier + Character Level. I've been doing some testing with it, and cannot seem to find what actually modifies the DC.

Caster: Dwarf, LV14, 10 rogue/4 artificer
17 STR
27 DEX
29 CON
28 INT
13 WIS
11 CHA

Expected DC based on tooltip: 33
Testing results: Failed to save on 20, saved on 22.
Ok, so the DC is off by 11-12. Simply dropping one of the modifiers from the equation won't solve the problem (modifiers are 10, 14, and 9).

I try dropping CON to 25.
Testing results: Failed on 20, saved on 22. Edit: Save on 21.
So no change. How about DEX (8+14, DC of 22)?

I drop DEX to 21 (5+14, DC 19).
Testing results: Failed on 20, saved on 22.
Once again, no change.


All right, let's try a different level.
Dwarf, LV7, Fighter 7
19 STR
08 DEX
22 CON
08 INT
08 WIS
06 CHA

Expected DC: 23
Expected DC from previous test: 14-15
Testing results: Failed on 8, saved on 10.

And I officially have no idea what's going on here.

Note: My apologies lack of definitive DCs. Testing this SLA is a pain with the cooldown of 30 seconds, the charges limited to 4 per rest, PvP pits disallowing the SLA, and PvP arenas not resetting charges until death. X(

Edit: Additional tests were performed with a LV21 Dwarf Wizard. A possibility suggested by a guildie was the DC might be Level*1.5. However, the test results for the LV21 indicated a DC of 25-28, rather than the expected 30.

[Tom116]

I don't know what's modifying it (other than the Con mod + character level that it says on the enhancement, don't think it's completely accurate though), but a while back a friend and I were questing and noticed the listed DC was the same for my Blade Barrier and their Hands of Stone. Both of them were reflex, but my BB was landing almost every time, while their Hands of Stone didn't land at all. Something is funny with the DC on it, we wrote it off as bugged and spent the AP elsewhere.

[SealedInSong]

I was looking to make a very earth-themed dwarf build and immediately had to drop the whole earthgrab line.

One suggestion that I think is unlikely but would really make the ability shine: make it a % chance to give your WEAPONS the ability to earthgrab for the duration of the clicky, say 30s/charlevel. At level 20, you'd have, say, a 10 min duration during which your weapons could earthgrab.

Remove the save, because an x/day clicky with a super poor save (Drow dark fire, I'm looking at you) might as well not exist. Useless.

[stoerm]

n/m