" On Casters and Druids " (Ravesh)back


2004/12/06, 22:38, Ravesh: 
To my knowledge, the Free Peoples do not consist wholy of a bunch of whimpering cowards. As such, why are their spells so feeble? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure refresh and barkskin have saved my life a good many times, but the absence of any effective offensive spell is quite disheartening.
Let's evaluate them.

Ice Stab - fun as a lowbie, but really, it is useless later on.

Hail of Stones - I have never seen it do more than 23 damage. It is not exactly lightning fast either.

Singe - Harmless... but if you're lucky enough to blind your target after 6 attempts, then the blindness lasts what, 5 seconds? More over, it seems bugged. My targets have often parried and dodged my blows more while blind than while not. Also, if you flee and come back, 'blind' mobs will instahit you.

Blizzard - Let's see... only castable in open areas.. need to concentrate on maintaining the spell.. and hurts your allies? (Not sure about this.) Good luck if you find a use for this that is actually worth its pracs and mana.

Mind Blast - A pk only spell? Not worth my time. Also only effective against darkie casters? Oh wait, that's right, their spells are twice as fast as ours and good for you if you manage to pull this spell off. Moving on...

Pyre - Oh glory, lo and behold our only remotely useful spell! :) However, we cannot even prac it to max. Also, there is something wrong with a spell that costs 29 mana to cast on quick and backfires about 50% of the time - even when memorized!! (At level 27, with 61 Int and 60 Spi and 'max' pracced - 88%). If this isn't nice enough, it is also an inordinately slow spell that gives your friends blistering wounds almost as often as it does your enemies. Oh yes, it interrupts your friends' casting, too. It seems to do in the region of 33 and 45 damage to the target.

Compare these with the likes of choke and soul burn (which I've heard to be incredibly fast and deal some 50 damage and has other nifty affects besides. Only 14 mana too). Not surprising that I so rarely see whitie casters? No, < level 15 does not count.

2004/12/06, 22:40, Ravesh: 
This brings me onto my first spell/skill suggestion for Druids. Since I play a Druid, I feel obligated to offer some ideas on helping to improve the feeling of the class. I also recently posted an idea in-game as regards druids, but I'll briefly repeat it here.

I often forget that I am playing a druid when I'm happily pounding away with a battle hammer. It would be nice to see more druid-like items and spells available. Different types of staves, for defense, for offense, for magic etc would be great. But even a simple item like a sickle, to wear on one's belt and aid mana regen - esp. in forests (where Druids lovingly collect their herbs) - would greatly add to the RP appeal of the class. (At present, spellcost vs manaregen speed make casting a luxury and anything but a 'caster's' primary form of attack, so items to boost this would be nice.)

Alrighty, at last, on to the suggestion! 'Brew'!
Druids rely on the magic of nature. This usually entails items gathered from the Mother, so in this way, a Druid's magical aptitude can be manifest through his ability to turn nature's bounty into spell-components and brew potions.
'Brew' could be used much like forging. Once you have collected various items e.g. seedpod, four-leafed clover, stinking piece of fungus, mushrooms, etc, you can type Brew and see the possible potions you can make. E.g.

a fizzling, brown concoction
a translucent mixture
a bubbling, blue potion

You won't know what they do - you'll have to drink it to find out, but upon imbibing, you should receive a message to tell you more or less its effects, perhaps becoming more specific, the higher level you are. You stand a chance of mixing a bad potion - determined mostly by your skill %. I believe the potions should last indefinitely (no decay) since it will be annoying for hard work of collecting to go to waste, however, to stop this becoming abused, only 1-3 (depends, will have to test a bit) potion-effects can be affecting you at a given time. A type of potion to remove all potion-effects is also a must.
In this manner, Druids will be seen scouring the lands for potential ingredients, as it should be. They will test their brews on themselves, rejoicing when they discover interesting new potions and grumbling like old men when they are afflicted with a fever and sore tummy!
Hmm, perhaps a form of Evaluate can be ascribed to potions. A chance for a wholy incorrect reading might be a nice touch, too. Potion-brewing is not an exact science.
Ah yes, lastly, the different types of potions available should increase with level. The more experienced and knowledgeable you become, the more you will learn to manipulate various ingredients to extract their most beneficial properties.

2004/12/06, 22:41, Ravesh: 
On the topic of Animal Companions for Druids and Rangers, I would advise a different system to the proposed 'charm'-like one. It somehow seems messy to use existing creatures and have to flag various animal-type mobs as nocharm. Rather, a Druid/Ranger should be able to summon a companion. For example, at low levels, one can summon a hawk. It would follow its master everywhere (even if you flee) and auto-assist (can toggle this perhaps). It would have medium-to-high ob, low hps and low damage. In the mid-levels, you become able to summon a wolf as a companion. It will have medium ob/medium hps/medium damage. You can have it rescue/protect, too (though using it as a buffer wouldn't be very effective). At around level 25 or so, you can summon a bear, for example. High ob, high damage, high hps.. but poor moves, so as to avoid its use in pk. At level 30, the most powerful companion becomes available - the panther. High ob, medium-to-high hps, high damage and high moves. The exact extent will have to be tested thoroughly though.
Other nifty options (aside from auto-assist; rescue at certain state e.g. wounded, bad; etc) could include being able to name your companion or use them for purposes other than combat. A hawk can perhaps carry small items to friends or scout a zone, etc. Lastly, it should be possible for a high-level Druid/Ranger to summon any of the companion-types of lower-level characters.

While thinking on this, I considered a spell or skill that makes animal-type mobs non-aggressive, but this might be tricky, so it's just a thought that I'll throw out, that can maybe be worked on.
Also, more Druidic attack spells would be nice. Not sure what though... perhaps something including roots/thorns erupting from the earth etc. Ideally it would not only inflict damage or mimic the effects of other spells/skills, but I've not come up with anything yet. Feel free to share your thoughts! :)

2004/12/07, 02:54, Tzeentch: 
A quick opinion is: Yes, they need more stuff to do, more spells and features. I didn't read through and ponder the specific suggestions enough to answer that yet though. But ideas are always great :) Will read more closely when I've had some vanilla coke.

2004/12/07, 18:44, Sharmak: 
'Compare these with the likes of choke and soul burn (which I've heard to be incredibly fast and deal some 50 damage and has other nifty affects besides.'

Choke takes 7 mana and does 5hps damage when u get a singel choke in, but if u get 7 chokes in row it does some 110-120 hps damage. Is that power? Who is stupid enough to stand around and eat some 7+ chokes? And lets not talk about refresh, shamans are the worst chars for moves since u cant u drain life when there is nothing in room to drain the life from, and if u drain life from some small animals u get some 5-10 moves for yer 20 mana :P

2004/12/08, 13:33, Morr: 
I am opening a new idea post regarding choke and mental type of attacks just to inform you guys and keep the flames out of other ideas and log files.

2004/12/08, 18:15, Ares: 
Well as an idea, Druids and maybe Rangers too should be able to Tame animals and then use them as 'charmies', summoning something seems bit too much magical, just according to your calm animal/tame skill you can try making any wilderness beast as your follower.


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