Just recently i have come back to S, and got addicted and amazed with certain features and solutions, amongst them, i just noticed (and loved) that you can throw the bigger necro and wizard books, and deal great damage with them! Also, i just quaffed a ! of death, but didn't die; got with 1 hp and all stats drained to single digit levels and that cool cliche message...
I've had some really powerfull oathless maxed-magic-device warriors... and felt in love with Magic Device. Then i started to dabble with Throwing and felt in love with throwing, but still not able to make a strong character. As i always play limiting myself to 10 skills, balance is much more important. Ok, in the start i was a munchkin that maxed everything, but this just was not fun...
Now, i wanted to make a deviceless shadowstalker. Here's the skill set planing:
Martial Arts, Throwing
Burglary, Dodging, Stealth, Disarming
Perception, Saving throw, Alchemy, Infusion
And then I realize two big problems/imbalances
1. Unability to read in complete darkness
2. Disarming is sooooooo friggingly worthless as a skill... I could have Devices
Then I take out Disarming and (after some nail-gnawing) concede to introduce Magic Devices. More imbalances:
1. I can set traps perfectly well even being unable to disarm a trap made by a yeek grandma, because setting traps is based 100% on BURGLARY and 0% DISARMING.
2. I can use aaalllll those damaging/helping devices, nulifying somewhat the point of using Alchemy and Throwing... And also, nulifying the need for Disarming.
After a few power level 100 chars and some lurking in the forums and rgra and reading these
I have some suggestions that might already be suggested in the above:
* Setting traps should be Disarming, not Burglary; Burglary is already kickass just because the combat bonuses with light weapons (that also are kickass), and everybody want to deal more damage in combat, while Disarming is worthless... Or maybe, at least use Disarming AND Burglary 50/50 to setting traps.
* Scrolls should be readable in the dark, after the oath or after some skill(s) breakpoint. If some skills were to be used for scroll failure rates, I think it should be a mix of Burglary AND Perception, not just one of them. (maxing both = 100% reading in the dark... suggestion by Twisted, tweak by me, and this fits really well with the above sugestion, balancing also Burglary)
* Nerf Magic Disarming, and/or make the devices rarer or even remove rods of disarming, leaving only wands.
* Oath of Iron is weak. I was never attracted to it, even liking warriors (exception was some troll warriors...) The main reason isn't device penalty, is that Heavy Weapons are weak. Haven't tested heavily, but by instinct i can say that a so-so forged Bluesteel blade will deal more damage than forged Maces of Disruption and Scythes of Slicing, in the hands of a warrior. Also, There's no truly heavy sword... maybe create one? Or put the maybe_heavy flag into two-hand swords, exec swords and blades of chaos. Also, some slighty more noticeable bonus to criticals would be nice or maybe even oath-based more blows, for the warriors of light weapons.
* Potions of gain skill and *gain skill* - they destroy the choice to leave a skill at a given level, say, 50, intentionally. The old !Experience was much better.
* Shapeshifting isn't as atractive/interesting as [O]. They are like, animals? Or shapeform "goat" is a sort of humanoid goat? Or am i free to imagine? (hehe) Personally, i used Werewolf a lot in [O]....
Also, Magnate's idea of making some sort of difficulty levels that limit and relate skill number and score is really cool.
Even thou Martial Arts are heavily discussed, i haven't played a lot with them... Only Karate that i feel is really weak, topping ~5x (x2) damage.
Opinions?
I've had some really powerfull oathless maxed-magic-device warriors... and felt in love with Magic Device. Then i started to dabble with Throwing and felt in love with throwing, but still not able to make a strong character. As i always play limiting myself to 10 skills, balance is much more important. Ok, in the start i was a munchkin that maxed everything, but this just was not fun...
Now, i wanted to make a deviceless shadowstalker. Here's the skill set planing:
Martial Arts, Throwing
Burglary, Dodging, Stealth, Disarming
Perception, Saving throw, Alchemy, Infusion
And then I realize two big problems/imbalances
1. Unability to read in complete darkness
2. Disarming is sooooooo friggingly worthless as a skill... I could have Devices
Then I take out Disarming and (after some nail-gnawing) concede to introduce Magic Devices. More imbalances:
1. I can set traps perfectly well even being unable to disarm a trap made by a yeek grandma, because setting traps is based 100% on BURGLARY and 0% DISARMING.
2. I can use aaalllll those damaging/helping devices, nulifying somewhat the point of using Alchemy and Throwing... And also, nulifying the need for Disarming.
After a few power level 100 chars and some lurking in the forums and rgra and reading these
I have some suggestions that might already be suggested in the above:
* Setting traps should be Disarming, not Burglary; Burglary is already kickass just because the combat bonuses with light weapons (that also are kickass), and everybody want to deal more damage in combat, while Disarming is worthless... Or maybe, at least use Disarming AND Burglary 50/50 to setting traps.
* Scrolls should be readable in the dark, after the oath or after some skill(s) breakpoint. If some skills were to be used for scroll failure rates, I think it should be a mix of Burglary AND Perception, not just one of them. (maxing both = 100% reading in the dark... suggestion by Twisted, tweak by me, and this fits really well with the above sugestion, balancing also Burglary)
* Nerf Magic Disarming, and/or make the devices rarer or even remove rods of disarming, leaving only wands.
* Oath of Iron is weak. I was never attracted to it, even liking warriors (exception was some troll warriors...) The main reason isn't device penalty, is that Heavy Weapons are weak. Haven't tested heavily, but by instinct i can say that a so-so forged Bluesteel blade will deal more damage than forged Maces of Disruption and Scythes of Slicing, in the hands of a warrior. Also, There's no truly heavy sword... maybe create one? Or put the maybe_heavy flag into two-hand swords, exec swords and blades of chaos. Also, some slighty more noticeable bonus to criticals would be nice or maybe even oath-based more blows, for the warriors of light weapons.
* Potions of gain skill and *gain skill* - they destroy the choice to leave a skill at a given level, say, 50, intentionally. The old !Experience was much better.
* Shapeshifting isn't as atractive/interesting as [O]. They are like, animals? Or shapeform "goat" is a sort of humanoid goat? Or am i free to imagine? (hehe) Personally, i used Werewolf a lot in [O]....
Also, Magnate's idea of making some sort of difficulty levels that limit and relate skill number and score is really cool.
Even thou Martial Arts are heavily discussed, i haven't played a lot with them... Only Karate that i feel is really weak, topping ~5x (x2) damage.
Opinions?
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