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Rules as Written

It Doesn’t Affect the Damage Rolls

dervish Dance does n’t increase the damage when using a Flame Blade. Dervish Dance says “ you can use your Dexterity changer alternatively of your Strength changer on melee attack and wrong rolls ”, while Flame Blade says that “ Since the blade is immaterial, your Strength modifier does not apply to the damage ”. so at best, you ‘re swapping one changer that does n’t apply for another modifier that still does n’t apply .

It Might Affect the Attack Rolls

Flame Blade says “ you wield this blade-like beam as if it were a scimitar ”. That implies that, in the absence of anything more specific, feats like Dervish Dance and Weapon Focus ( scimitar ) are meant to apply to the Flame Blade. While the spell has more specific wording about damage rolls, it does n’t apply that give voice to attack rolls .
That said, the Kingmaker AP has a published NPC that uses a fire Blade ( SPOILER WARNING for Kingmaker : stats here ). She has Weapon Finesse, but not dervish Dance. however, in her stat jam, her attack hustle is calculated using Weapon Finesse.

That ‘s not excessive – the Blade is weightless, so it might count as a “ light weapon ” for the purposes of Weapon Finesse. This shows that some GMs allow Weapon Finesse on Flame Blades even without dervish Dance. Personally, I think that “ as if it were a scimitar ” is the more particular rule, so you ‘d need dervish Dance to get the bonus on attack rolls. But if your GM decides that Weapon Finesse is enough, they would n’t be alone .

How Balanced Would It Be?

For Druids, Good But Not Broken

It would be beneficial, possibly very good, but probably not game-breaking. In the hands of druids and shaman, I think it can be considered a kind of alternate to the charming ‘s Transformation spell .
I think the direction to evaluate this is to ask : “ if I built a character to take maximum advantage of this change, how powerful would they be ? ”. There are lots of abilities in Pathfinder that might seem fair or even underpowered that can become devastating in the right combinations .
It ‘s besides authoritative to factor in a certain measure of ability creep over the course of a political campaign. House rules can snowball over fourth dimension as you encounter new situations that you had n’t in the first place considered. For example, I ‘m going to assume that Flame Blade besides qualifies for Pirahna Strike .

Scimitar Comparison

Let ‘s search at the ways that Flame Blade might be better than an average scimitar …

Damage Total

advantage : Flame Blade ‘s base damage is higher by ( tied / 2 ) .
counterargument : fire Blade ca n’t be enchanted – there ‘s no such thing as a +2 bang-up flare blade. This credibly balances out.

Damage Type

advantage : flame Blade deals fire damage. As such, it bypasses a lot of DR .
counterargument : fire resistance is basically DR for open fire damage. A distribute more creatures besides just have entire immunity to fire damage .

Chance to Hit

advantage : fire Blade makes touch attacks, which are much more probable to hit .
counterargument : fire Blade is alone available to classes with 3/4 BAB like Druids, Hunters, and Shaman. Those classes make fewer attacks with a lower opportunity to hit than full BAB classes like Fighters and Paladins .

Smite Evil

As a concluding idea, let ‘s besides consider how Flame Blade compares to a Paladin ‘s Smite Evil, since they ‘re both limited-use abilities that improve attacks :

• Smite Evil adds the Paladin’s level to the damage roll, which is twice what Flame Blade offers. Smite Evil also bypasses all DR.
• Flame Blade makes touch attacks, but Smite Evil adds the Paladin’s Cha bonus to attacks. Making touch attacks is probably better, but the Cha bonus isn’t nothing.
• Smite Evil applies to a single creature. With a duration in minutes, one Flame Blade could last through more than one fight. On the other hand, a Flame Blade can be destroyed through SR, dispel magic, and the like.
• Smite Evil only works on evil creatures. That said, if you’re playing a Paladin, major enemies will probably be evil more often than not.
• Smite Evil only takes a swift action and also improves the Paladin’s AC.

All told, I think Flame Blade lags behind something like Smite Evil in terms of overall power. Yes, it lasts longer, but it has plenty of other disadvantages. While Flame Blade would be a fortune better with this change, in many cases a Druid will hush have better options available .
You could credibly build a reasonably effective Druid who habitually uses this Flame Blade in melee, but the investment in feats, gear, and ability points in Dex would mean giving up some exponent in other areas. I think that means it ‘s fairly balanced.

For Non-Druids, It’s Complicated

In the hands of early classes via UMD or Scabbard of the Lost Kiss, the balance questions are more complicate .
Classes like the Magus and the Paladin have abilities like Arcane Pool and Divine Bond that can be used to enhance their weapons. This raises the question of whether a Flame Blade counts as a “ weapon ” for this function, since then a Flame Blade could be “ enchanted ” for all intents and purposes .
RAW, my instinct is to say that it does count. The definition of “ weapon ” seems to be reasonably broad – it broadly includes improvise weapons, shields being used to bash, and natural weapons. That said, I do n’t think I would allow it in my game – the theme that a Paladin could stack Flame Blade with both Smite Evil and Divine Bond seems reasonably OP to me .

reference : https://meopari.com
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