Damage shields
- seriouslynow
- Pk Bait
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 4:50 pm
Would it be possible to make acid sheet usefull again? Maybe make it 20 + 1/2 levels or 10 + 1/level. 40 or 50 dmg at level 40 isn't really spectacular.
As it is now it's almost useless, I tested it yesterday for the first time with my lvl 21 wizard and it did 17 dmg a hit or so, where I received 20+ dmg a hit with premonition on and 120 hp.
It would be a nice spell against shadowdancers.
What we have now is:
* invisibility: which is not very usefull against a rogue or monk with some points in listen and can be very easily canceled with see invisibility etc. and is gone after your first spell.
* summons with true vision, looks a valid strategy, but when you can be killed in 3 or 4 rounds and you can't control what they do (we all know the case where you are under attack and your summon decides to go after a group of enemies you can barely see in the distance (and commands seem to take a round or so to take effect) or the case where the dragon knight casts 5 harms on the same target )) they are not very reliable.
* area of effect spells (as you can't cast a spell directly on a shadowdancer as HIPS doesn't take an action): most are reflex based so barely usefull against a rogue or monk. Leaves us with spells like:
** horrid wilthing: does ~100 dmg a shot (decent but just too little to survive an encounter and the SD could be anywhere)
** Horizikaul's Boom: don't know if it breaks hide, would be nice and logical if it did, (you can't hide if you're lying on the ground), still useless against a monk.
** mind spells ( Evard's Black Tentacles, stinking cloud, fear, ..), the DC is a bit low (and they are easily countered by a level 1 spell), and useless against a monk
** death spells: wail of the banshee: seems to be the only "reliable" option (for rogues, monks save always) until the DC becomes too low compared to saves.
A decent acid sheet would improve the balance.
Iff somone has a viable strategy as a wizard against a hidden shadowdancer (1 on 1), I'd love to hear it.
As it is now it's almost useless, I tested it yesterday for the first time with my lvl 21 wizard and it did 17 dmg a hit or so, where I received 20+ dmg a hit with premonition on and 120 hp.
It would be a nice spell against shadowdancers.
What we have now is:
* invisibility: which is not very usefull against a rogue or monk with some points in listen and can be very easily canceled with see invisibility etc. and is gone after your first spell.
* summons with true vision, looks a valid strategy, but when you can be killed in 3 or 4 rounds and you can't control what they do (we all know the case where you are under attack and your summon decides to go after a group of enemies you can barely see in the distance (and commands seem to take a round or so to take effect) or the case where the dragon knight casts 5 harms on the same target )) they are not very reliable.
* area of effect spells (as you can't cast a spell directly on a shadowdancer as HIPS doesn't take an action): most are reflex based so barely usefull against a rogue or monk. Leaves us with spells like:
** horrid wilthing: does ~100 dmg a shot (decent but just too little to survive an encounter and the SD could be anywhere)
** Horizikaul's Boom: don't know if it breaks hide, would be nice and logical if it did, (you can't hide if you're lying on the ground), still useless against a monk.
** mind spells ( Evard's Black Tentacles, stinking cloud, fear, ..), the DC is a bit low (and they are easily countered by a level 1 spell), and useless against a monk
** death spells: wail of the banshee: seems to be the only "reliable" option (for rogues, monks save always) until the DC becomes too low compared to saves.
A decent acid sheet would improve the balance.
Iff somone has a viable strategy as a wizard against a hidden shadowdancer (1 on 1), I'd love to hear it.
I have maxed spot and listen but they are crossclass skills and even if you see an SD you still can't cast a spell at him or even hit him.
If as a shadowdancer you quickslot your "Attack" action, then while you are already in-combat that quickslot changes to Disengage. It is great to quickslot this right next to the Stealth mode quickslot. So you can just hit the Disengage then Stealth slots right quick in succession.
What this then does is resets your opponents combat queue, so that anything they were doing is cancelled. This is why HipS is so cheesy. You can pretty much defeat anything without (NWN) truesight with it.
edit: I see I'm dragging on about this, I'll let it rest for now.
If as a shadowdancer you quickslot your "Attack" action, then while you are already in-combat that quickslot changes to Disengage. It is great to quickslot this right next to the Stealth mode quickslot. So you can just hit the Disengage then Stealth slots right quick in succession.
What this then does is resets your opponents combat queue, so that anything they were doing is cancelled. This is why HipS is so cheesy. You can pretty much defeat anything without (NWN) truesight with it.
edit: I see I'm dragging on about this, I'll let it rest for now.
-
- Addict
- Posts: 1839
- Joined: Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:11 pm
- Location: Evenshire, OK
You need to know the SD weak spots, in fact it used to mages. Look at the arrangement of bigsbies, and fire one that doesn't include tumble.
NWN True Seeing is rather stupid, it sees everything and completely ruins the point of dumping all your skill points in hide and move silently.
Most SD that are decent at hiding are dex builds, meaning that their damage is reliant on their sneak attacks. Aasimar have an aura that induces a hide penalty, and elves are much better at spotting them. Just remember the spot.
NWN True Seeing is rather stupid, it sees everything and completely ruins the point of dumping all your skill points in hide and move silently.
Most SD that are decent at hiding are dex builds, meaning that their damage is reliant on their sneak attacks. Aasimar have an aura that induces a hide penalty, and elves are much better at spotting them. Just remember the spot.
-
- PKer
- Posts: 1263
- Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:59 pm
- Location: the land of aaahhhhh's, where dorothy lives ;)
-
- PKer
- Posts: 1263
- Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:59 pm
- Location: the land of aaahhhhh's, where dorothy lives ;)
Well.
I can shed "some" light on the whole elemental shield subject.
The original nwn code did not check for multiple shields.
WAY WAY WAY back in the day joran logged in and watched me as i used about 15 elemental shields to kill G1 with about 5 heal pots. The damage actually continued to scroll while we talked for the first minute or so after g1 was dead.
Thus the shields got altered. Stock damage is not that great but in a stock world it works fine.
If the damage in this world seems low-not altering the damage dice but altering the damage type might make it more doable.
A holy or unholy shield for example, or a poison based shield etc.
The soak damage dispelling the spell seems abit much, its a round/level based spell.
The mages paper armor situation is as it should be, its their only real drawback.
The SD thing is laughable really. Plenty of ways to deal with sneaks.
Primary way is to have spot and listen-as noted.
Secondary way is not nwn doable. In pnp scent blindsense and blindsight make a sneaks life interesting. NWN does not have those capacities.
Also aoe cloud spells, ie cloudkill, mindfog, etc. all effect the character even if hes stealthed. And mindfog + wierd = dead stealther.
And last i knew cloud based spells stack. toss two cloudkill or incendiary cloud spells at ground 0 and watch the fun. And one of those spells halves your movement, think its cloudkill.
Solates
I can shed "some" light on the whole elemental shield subject.
The original nwn code did not check for multiple shields.
WAY WAY WAY back in the day joran logged in and watched me as i used about 15 elemental shields to kill G1 with about 5 heal pots. The damage actually continued to scroll while we talked for the first minute or so after g1 was dead.
Thus the shields got altered. Stock damage is not that great but in a stock world it works fine.
If the damage in this world seems low-not altering the damage dice but altering the damage type might make it more doable.
A holy or unholy shield for example, or a poison based shield etc.
The soak damage dispelling the spell seems abit much, its a round/level based spell.
The mages paper armor situation is as it should be, its their only real drawback.
The SD thing is laughable really. Plenty of ways to deal with sneaks.
Primary way is to have spot and listen-as noted.
Secondary way is not nwn doable. In pnp scent blindsense and blindsight make a sneaks life interesting. NWN does not have those capacities.
Also aoe cloud spells, ie cloudkill, mindfog, etc. all effect the character even if hes stealthed. And mindfog + wierd = dead stealther.
And last i knew cloud based spells stack. toss two cloudkill or incendiary cloud spells at ground 0 and watch the fun. And one of those spells halves your movement, think its cloudkill.
Solates