IR V2 release

[Ardanis]

Ie, you lose 1hp/round while it is equipped

IIRC unimplementable in IE. Negative regenereation doesn't work, and workarounds imo aren't elegant.

 

Purifier +4/+5

Perhaps sort of Breach or the like? Of course, weaker than the spell and maybe even based on a chance.

[Salk]

Demivrgvs,

 

any comments on my suggestions?

[Demivrgvs]

Amulet of Spell Warding

...being it used in mage duels what about having it grant Protection From Spells (e.g. Silence 15' radius, Miscast Magic, Greater Malison, Lower Resistance, ...). Any suggestion?

I was wondering if it would be possible to have the Amulet of Spell Warding absorb an X levels of (non-area) spells and then "recharge" itself after a Y number of turns.

This is how it currently works in V1, but more than one player complained about how it works (there are limitations on how I can implement it), and it uses "cast spell on condition" effect which as you may know as become my worst nightmare.

 

Flail of Submission +2

...I'd give to the new flail one or two simple combat abilities: one could be Wounding (-1 to target's CON unless he saves vs. death), what about the other? Being FoA so easily available I would opt for not having a +1 enchanted Flail, as it would be pointless imo.

Being a "Flail of Submission" I would grant it a small chance (1%?) of dominating the target (more or less as for fifth level spell "Dominion") upon successful hit.

It partially makes sense, but I'm not to sure if "charming" a guy by smashing a flail in his face is cool.

 

As Shaitan suggested Fear is actually more appropriate imo, but I know that most players don't like such an effect on melee weapons.

 

Gloves of the Burglar

...I'd add something to make them appealing, what about reneming them Gloves of the Rogue and adding Precise Strike (+5% chance to score critical hits) while equipped.

Your idea is not bad but I would rather keep its name and have it grant a "+5% to Dexterity" instead.

That would make them way too similar to Gauntlets of Dexterity imo.

 

Gauntlets of Weapon Skill/Expertise/Specialization

...as I said I don't like items which are just improved versions of one another. What about making them so that they grant different combat style bonuses? One could give a Parry ability (+ AC vs. melee weapons), the other one could give Power Attack (-x thac0, +2x damage), and the last one Flurry of Blows (+1/2 apr and maybe something else too). What do you think?

I find your revision for such gauntlets to be a very good idea. I approve it and I wish you can change them just the way you have proposed above.

I'll probably do it, but I also like Yarpen's suggestion and I may try to do both things (as we have several gauntlets to work on).

 

Sylvan Chain +2

: instead of the common bonuses it now has, what about +2 AC and saves against unnatural creatures (monsters and undead), and maybe letting it be usable by druids and Beastmasters?

I like your bonus changes but I would restrict this armor to elves and half-elves (if the IR's description hints at it so strongly as the vanilla one).

As I said, I'm not going to remove the restriction to human/elves/half-elves. If you're suggesting to make it unusable by humans I can't as the character wearing it is a human.

 

Helm of Glory

...unfortunately I have to remove the "cast spell on condition" effect. Granting Bless while equipped is quite less than before...any suggestion?

Yes, I do have a suggestion. A small chance (1%?) of turning the wearer into a Hero by triggering Tenser's Transformation for every time any physical damage is inflicted upon him/her. If this is impossible because it is another "cast spell on condition" effect, then turn it into a "Tenser's Transformation" 1 / day (less nice but still good enough).

"When struck" is one of the few "conditions" for "cast spell on condition" that doesn't have issues. I'm not sure about Tenser, the idea seems appropriate but Tenser doesn't work too well for fighters/paladins as they already have good thac0. Perhaps Heroism or something like that would be better, am I wrong?

 

Does any other player like this idea?

 

Rashad's Talon +2

...it probably needs to be slightly nerfed, I may either remove one of its abilities (Sunder Armor, and Cleave) or keep both of them reducing their effectiveness (e.g. shorter duration, lower %, ...).

Don't remove any of their abilities. It's perfectly fine to reduce their effectiveness.

Yeah...at the end is how I like it the most...done.

 

Blade of Roses +1

...I have to remove the "cast spell on condition" effect, but in this case I prefer it anyway. The Singing Sword effect will be appplied swinging the blade in battle (on hit) instead of just by equipping the sword. The Immunity to Silence has been removed, and the Charisma bonus is too easily exploitable imo, thus a +1 should be enough.

Decent changes but what about adding "Vocalize" (available 1 / day) too?

Seems reasonable, I may do it.

 

Purifier +4/+5

...I'd like to remove the Dispelling property in order to keep Carsomyr more appealing (it has to be). Any suggestion? Chance to cast Holy Word on hit?

Yes, the dispelling property ought to be removed but the Holy Word on hit doesn't seem so good either. Hm... What about a minor version of "Disintegrate" (tweaked so that the target receive a +4 bonus) for every successful hit on evil-aligned enemies (or some more specific kind of evil enemies)?

The way I was thinking of implementing Holy Word on this weapon may be used to achieve many different purposes. I would have it affect only one target (no area of effect), rename it accordingly (e.g. Purify, or Cleansing) and have different effects depending on the level of the evil target. Something like:

 

Target's Hit Dice -- Effects of Cleansing

Any -- Deafened

14 -- Blinded, deafened

10 -- Paralyzed, blinded, deafened

5 -- Killed, paralyzed, blinded, deafened

 

The upgraded Purifier would have "Target's Hit Dice" raised by 5.

If we agree on that, than we would have quite a lot of "liberty" to decide the effects...and disintegrate (a la SR with 100 points of magic damage though) may simply affect evil targets with 5 Hit Dice/Levels (Purifier +4) or 10 Hit Dice/Levels (Purifier +5).

 

Feel free to improve, expand or scratch the concept.

 

Perhaps sort of Breach or the like? Of course, weaker than the spell and maybe even based on a chance.

If that was doable I would have implemented it for Valygar's Katana or a Wizard Slayer's weapon, but unfortunately such ability would be simply blocked by a PfMW or Mantle spell, effectively making Breach quite pointless imo.

 

And vampirism is fun! Personally, I like the way Guild Wars (an MMO) handles it, which is vampirism on hit, but with a negative regeneration, (Ie, you lose 1hp/round while it is equipped)

IIRC unimplementable in IE. Negative regenereation doesn't work, and workarounds imo aren't elegant.

Actually I'm quite sure negative regeneration work...but it may cause some issues when "combined" with a positive regeneration as only the faster rate between the two would be applied.

[Salk]

Demivrgvs,

 

about my suggestion for "Flail of Submission" I can see what you mean but you should not see the submission as a charm.

 

They both lead to the same but are two different things. What I intend to for Flail of Submission is that the target will obey only for the fear of the Flail, not because he/she is devoted to the owner of it. If you see it in this light, you can notice it is not so different from your "fear" but at the same time it makes more sense.

 

About the Sylvan Chain, I was actually suggesting to extend the restriction to humans so that only elves and half-elves could use it. I didn't know that it was a human wearing it and it does sound wrong. We should change his race to half-elf then!

 

About the Helm of Glory, I do welcome your suggestion of having Heroism be triggered instead of Tenser. It makes sense.

 

About Purifier, I like your table and I think it's a good idea. Go for it.

 

Thanks for your answer!

[Jarno Mikkola]

Perhaps sort of Breach or the like? Of course, weaker than the spell and maybe even based on a chance.

If that was doable I would have implemented it for Valygar's Katana or a Wizard Slayer's weapon, but unfortunately such ability would be simply blocked by a PfMW or Mantle spell, effectively making Breach quite pointless imo.

Well, PfMW can be passed by a weapon that's not magical(the flag).

And Mantle by weapon that has +4 on it's enchantment.

So, I don't know if you can make a weapon that's viewed as +4 weapon that doesn't have magical flag, but you can try... And if removing the flag makes the weapon breakable, just make the weapon brake into itself.

[Salk]

About the Gauntlets of Weapon Skill/Expertise/Specialization,

 

I like your suggestion while instead I am not so fond about yarpen's revision.

 

Much more interesting instead the idea of the negative regeneration (degeneration?), if feasible.

 

Speaking about the Amulet of Warding, I would really keep it the way it is in V1. I understand that there is the problem of "cast spell on condition" effect, but perhaps you can think of a workaround?

 

Nice to see that it is soon time to pull the strings and get the package ready!

[Shaitan]

Flail of Submission +2

 

QUOTE

QUOTE (Demivrgvs @ Nov 16 2008, 02:22 PM)

...I'd give to the new flail one or two simple combat abilities: one could be Wounding (-1 to target's CON unless he saves vs. death), what about the other? Being FoA so easily available I would opt for not having a +1 enchanted Flail, as it would be pointless imo.

Being a "Flail of Submission" I would grant it a small chance (1%?) of dominating the target (more or less as for fifth level spell "Dominion") upon successful hit.

It partially makes sense, but I'm not to sure if "charming" a guy by smashing a flail in his face is cool.

 

As Shaitan suggested Fear is actually more appropriate imo, but I know that most players don't like such an effect on melee weapons.

 

Spook on hit?

 

Do we have an estimated releasedate?

[Guest Dirty Uncle Bertie]

I don't have time to reply to all the recent suggestions (sorry) but I must say that I do like the "Gloves of the Rogue...Precise Strike (+5% chance to score critical hits) while equipped" bit.

[Demivrgvs]

Much more interesting instead the idea of the negative regeneration (degeneration?), if feasible.

 

Speaking about the Amulet of Warding, I would really keep it the way it is in V1. I understand that there is the problem of "cast spell on condition" effect, but perhaps you can think of a workaround?

There's really no workaround, at least I can't think of any. For now I think I'll make it cast Spell Deflection once/day, or perhaps Minor Spell Deflection once/hour. I'm spending too much time doing nothing and just thinking how to implement this damn amulet!

 

Nice to see that it is soon time to pull the strings and get the package ready!

Do we have an estimated releasedate?

I shouldn't need more than a few days to finish my job...but I don't like too much "estimated release dates" as more often than not something happens to delay them!

 

Continuing the trend of "nerfing the most famous and powerful items"...

 

Flail of Ages +3

Combat Abilities (20% chance each):

Cold Head: 1D3 additional cold damage, slow target for 3 rounds

Fire Head: 1D3 additional fire damage, -2 penalty to THAC0 for 3 rounds

Acid Head: 1D3 additional acid damage, -2 penalty to AC for 3 rounds

Note: targets can save vs. spell at a -2 penalty to avoid the secondary effects but will still suffer elemental damage.

THAC0: +3 bonus

Damage: 1D10 + 3

 

Note: this is how FoA should look like in V2: the elemental damage of each head has been halved, but increases with the upgrades (1D4 each for FoA +4, 1D5 for FoA+5). I've opted to use the same save for all effects (which improves up to -4 penalty as we previously discussed) only to avoid an extremely long and complicated description...let me know if it seems ok, this surely is one of the most "crucial" item in the early SoA.

[Salk]

Hello Demivrgvs,

 

I must say I don't understand what connection the elemental damage Fire would have with a penalty to THAC0; same thing about the elemental damage Acid. More reasonable instead the secondary effect tied to the Cold head of the flail.

 

Can you explain how you reasoned?

[Icendoan]

You try holding and swinging a weapon properly with burnt fingers!

 

Icen

[Salk]

You try holding and swinging a weapon properly with burnt fingers!

 

Icen

 

Burnt fingers? What are the odds that the damage will be dealt to the fingers of one hand holding a weapon?

Or do you even mean that the 1D3 of elemental damage will engulf the whole body?

 

It doesn't look like a good enough reason to me.

[Demivrgvs]

Flail of Ages

I must say I don't understand what connection the elemental damage Fire would have with a penalty to THAC0; same thing about the elemental damage Acid. More reasonable instead the secondary effect tied to the Cold head of the flail.

You try holding and swinging a weapon properly with burnt fingers!

Burnt fingers? What are the odds that the damage will be dealt to the fingers of one hand holding a weapon?

Or do you even mean that the 1D3 of elemental damage will engulf the whole body?

Fire Head causes burns, Acid Head corrodes shields, armors and natural armors. Don't look at the damage output, as that is the unavoidable part of the effect, you should imagine that on a failed save the effect is amplified. Furthermore the three effects together works almost like the Slow spell.

 

The following is a list of the most noticeable things left to do concerning items' abilities. I also have some refinements to do here and there, and then we may discuss a few items re-allocation.

 

- Amulet of Spell Warding (current version gives issues)

- Amulet of the Seldarine (not satisfied, it's not enough "unique")

- Rifthome Axe (not satisfied)

- Elven Court Bow +3 (not satisfied)

- Taralash (currently misses an upgraded version)

- Gauntlets of Weapon Skill/Expertise

- Cloak of Displacement (undecided about implementation)

- Helm of Glory (the latest idea may be fine)

- Ring of Anti Venom (useless as of now)

- Shield of the Falling Star

- Arla's Dragon Bane (dex is giving issues)

- Impaler (not satisfied, and needs to be nerfed)

- Staff of Air

- Staff of Rynn

- Ilbratha (undecided about implementation)

- Purifier (the latest idea should be fine)

- Yamato (not satisfied)

- Usono's Blade (not satisfied)

- Xbow of Affliction (not satisfied, and needs to be nerfed)

[Salk]

Flail of Ages

I must say I don't understand what connection the elemental damage Fire would have with a penalty to THAC0; same thing about the elemental damage Acid. More reasonable instead the secondary effect tied to the Cold head of the flail.

You try holding and swinging a weapon properly with burnt fingers!

Burnt fingers? What are the odds that the damage will be dealt to the fingers of one hand holding a weapon?

Or do you even mean that the 1D3 of elemental damage will engulf the whole body?

Fire Head causes burns, Acid Head corrodes shields, armors and natural armors. Don't look at the damage output, as that is the unavoidable part of the effect, you should imagine that on a failed save the effect is amplified. Furthermore the three effects together works almost like the Slow spell.

 

It still doesn't make much sense to me.

 

After 3 rounds the corrosion of armour, shield or natural armour is magically mended and everything is back to normal?

 

And I do understand that the Fire Head causes burns but still I wonder how it links to a specific penalty to THAC0.

[Mike1072]

And I do understand that the Fire Head causes burns but still I wonder how it links to a specific penalty to THAC0.

Magic.