Edges for mages.

Something F0xx brought to my attention. Edges are pretty much geared toward melee.

A quick look at the Help available for the edges.

HELP: Ambidextrous Disarmer     You can more easily disarm your opponents with your offhand. HELP: Stalwart of Faith         Your stalwart faith makes you harder to be cursed. HELP: Restful Body              You sleep soundly, thus gain more health while resting and sleeping. HELP: Meet with the Landslide   You've learned to meet with the landslide, landing more powerful bashes. HELP: Thrusting Shield          You've learned how to knock your opponents down with your shield. HELP: Hunter of the Virtuous    You've learned the weaknesses of those blessed of light, thus your weapons easily slice through them. HELP: Hunter of the Damned      You're a demon hunter, thus your weapons burn them with holy psalms. HELP: Hunter of the Dead        You're an undead hunter, thus your weapons burn them with holy light. HELP: Zealous Faith             You're more virtuous than your peers, warcry and bless aid you more. HELP: Strong Legs               Your legs are as large as tree trunks, gaining more movement than your peers. HELP: Strong Mind               Your mind is capable of astonishing feats, and you gain more mana faster than your peers. HELP: Unshaken Believer         Your faith in your God shows no bounds, few can shatter your faith. HELP: Cunning Businessman       You know your way with money, and are a smooth talker. Items in shops cost less. HELP: Thickened Skin            Your skin has become thick over the years, giving it an armory texture. HELP: Strong of Flesh           You resist others attempts to disease and mangle your body. HELP: Iron Grip                 You've adapted yourself to hold onto your weapon with an iron grip. HELP: Watchful Eye              Keeping an eye on your belongings has never been an issue. HELP: Lucky Bastard             Lady luck favors you, even against those who may be unseen. HELP: Quickened Feet            You're quick on your feet. Projectiles may find harder to hit their target. HELP: Strength of the Ox        You have the strength of an ox, thus can carry far more weight than your peers. HELP: Well Prepared             You have many pockets in many different pieces of clothing. You can carry more items. HELP: Expert Packer             You've discovered a magical enchantment that makes things lighter in your backpacks. HELP: Hunter of the Righteous   You've learned the weaknesses of those dedicated to armor and weapon enhancements, thus your weapons damage them more.

Most of them clearly favor meele, such as improved weapon damage, disarms, bash damage, resist spells, more HP regen.

• HP regen favor more meeles, since they can dirt kick actriction you.

• Mana regen aids both, perhaps more my meeles since in my playing experience only a Giants clerics have a trouble with mana regen, and my zerk gets insane downtime due heavy mana consumption during PK. Rangers, BLM and Monks should also shine with this edge.

• Iron grip I don't think affects much casters since a mage will not be caught without a cursed weapon.

• Thick skin this benefits CC, since they tend to have stronger AC and so benefit more from the damage reduction they so much need.

-  Unshaken Believer, clearly this is an aid for communers vs other CC's.

Can we please have more mage edges?

Things like "Unshaken Believer" but for Silence.

"Iron grip" but for shield, since it's hard for a communer to get a cursed shield.

Perhaps one that grants HP, as this would favor more mages whose HP is lower than meeles.

Perhaps also something offensive to counter-weight weapon bonus damage, such as +1 spell level. Perhaps 1 edge for each aff, mal and mental spell type.

Perhaps even powerups for a spells that most mage have, like an edge that makes the spell "dispel magic" when not saved, dispel at a higher level (more chance of higher level stuff going down such as L60 sanctuary from the glimmering stave).

Or empowering "faerie fire" to last longer.

Or empower "curse" saves reduction power. (akin to the bless/warcry powerup).

Also, while we are discussing the bazar bonus, the medallions last I IDed them, granted great bonus for a melee but little to a mage.

Object 'necklace small flawless sphere !21232!' is type jewelry, material promethium. Extra flags: glow hum nodrop nolocate burnproof. Weight is 0, value is 1000, level is 50. Affects hitroll by 3. Affects damroll by 3. Affects mana by 5. Affects move by 5. Affects hp by 5. Affects ac by -12. Affects savingspell by -8.

This is clearly the best neck-wear for a meele character. Nothing compares to +3/+3 neckware.

But 5 HP and -12 AC, the things that benefit a mage is awful for a mage.

A socketed arena coif can grant me 30-40 AC, and a brooch 40 HP.

Why not make a necklace directed to mages like:

Object 'necklace small flawless sphere !21232!' is type jewelry, material promethium. Extra flags: glow hum nodrop nolocate burnproof. Weight is 0, value is 1000, level is 50. Affects mana by 50. Affects hp by 50. Affects ac by -50. Affects savingspell by -8.

As to edges, make some more concreat proposals, we'll consider it.

As to the necklace, show me the neck item that grants both the hp, ac, mana and sv bonus. This is something useful for a mage as well.

I agree with Mya completely. We've discussed this topic before too.

First mages get a huge nerf, then melees get quite a buff in the face of the bazaar.

It doesn't take an expert to see that the RP necklaces helps melees much more than it helps mages. In the case of a mage vs a pure melee, I would actually prefer to wear something else than the necklace, if I were the mage.

This game needs diversity, and right now, it's set in a way to kill mages.

The suggestions:

1. revert some of the items to be worn on places that they used to be. Keep all the +spell level and +mal level to face only, but the helm of the dragon in the arena should be a helm, not a mask.

2. make a second version of the RP necklace and let the player choose which version he wants. Mya's version is good, but a bit too OP in my opinion.

Extra flags: glow hum nodrop nolocate burnproof.

Weight is 0, value is 1000, level is 50.

Affects mana by 30.

Affects hp by 30.

Affects ac by -30.

Affects savingspell by -8.

1. Edges! I haven't played with ALL of them, but I've played with some. Here is my opinion:

Make all the edges against Qthings affect spells' damage output too. Not just weapons.

The -AC edge is ridiculous. The AC it gives should be more (multiply by 1.6)

+1 spell level edge (200 rp)

+30 hp edge (100 rp) - mind you, this can be used by melees too.

+Mino charge now has 50% chance to lag you for 1 round instead of 2 (100 rp).

Mya has some good ideas too:

+An edge for silence, just like the one for blasphemy.

+Iron grip for shields.

The warcry/bless edge appears to be more melee oriented, but since it affects mages too, lets say it's fair-ish. Warmasters without warcry (theves, monks and BLMs) get the real shaft here.

And lastly, since we are talking about buffing mages in a way, I would like to add something about melees.

Return disarm to what it used to be. I've seen immortals post that it hasn't been changed, but that simply is not true.

No recent changes to disarm that i am aware of.

Disarm lands less frequently, and weapon flick lands alot less frequently vs cursed weapons

My 2 cents.

And lastly, since we are talking about buffing mages in a way, I would like to add something about melees.

Return disarm to what it used to be. I've seen immortals post that it hasn't been changed, but that simply is not true.

 

My 2 cents.

I'm pretty sure he means iron arm here.

The skill disarm has not been touched. The nameless doesn't know what he's talking about - like most of what he does, he seems to think he knows everything.

I don't think disarm was changed because Emp said so. His statements simply matches my opinion. Anyway though, I think it's changed, you guys say it's not, there's not much we can do except compare old logs of it against new ones and blame it on back luck.

On topic though.

Anume asked us to make suggestions about edges - what do you think of Mya's and mine?

Most edges are fairly neutral, though.  The hitgain might be "better" for melee's, the managain is certainly a plus for mages.  There's only 3 geared only toward melee's (that I can confirm ... 5 at most).  Stalwart Faith (hard to curse) may be "more beneficial" for melees due to you less likely to lose hitroll, but it's not like mages don't capitalize on being harder to curse.  So that's fairly even-ish.  Same goes for Strong of Flesh (hard to disease).

Where it starts to tip in the melee's favor are the "Hunter of" edges.  In my opinion, they only lean toward melee's only due to number of attacks and as they generally stock up on hitroll more than mages.  Giving mages Hunter type spell damage ... maybe.  But those particular edges are there to give an edge to those of whom don't normally kill those types.  A healer (and to a lesser degree, clerics) would benefit far less with the "Hunter of the Dead" edge than a warrior or invoker or battlemage would, even if you add it to spell damage.

Edge vs Silence isn't bad, but there's two other ways to shut a mage (and anyone else) up.  Will this be only for magical silence?

Blathering Blatherskite - Your prattling is unsurpassed, you are harder to shut up through magical means.

+Spell Level is awesome.  Is the cost high enough, though?  Possibly.  200 is a fair amount to save for.  I like the +1 aff/mal/mental better.  We can reduce the cost to 150 for them.

Master of Afflictions/Maledictions/the Mind - You have honed your skills in (area) heads and shoulders above your peers giving your spells more power.

As much as I like the +dispel, that would/could work into the above +(sub)Spell idea.

+30 hp, (and +mana by proxy) is interesting, but it doesn't necessarily address perhaps a "mage only" edge as it helps both sides.  Good idea, though.  Perhaps +25 hp/+50 mana, or is that too high?  Just spitballing.

Same goes for an "iron arm" for shield type edge.  Can be used equally on both sides.  Still, good idea.

Hearty Soul/Body - Your mental/physical reserves are greater than usual

+Faerie Fire/Fog duration.  This goes into some interesting ideas that we've not delved into that far.  A lot of the focus is making the spell/skill stronger.  Very little has gone into increasing the duration, which makes this a lovely suggestion.  The -AC spell durations increased (armor/shield/stone skin/flesh armor).

Preternatural Glow - You cause your opponent to glow with preternatural vigor forcing them to remain visible longer.

Extended Protection -  You manipulate your flesh and aura to a degree that makes you harder to hit for longer.

Or, reduce upkeep of some spells like reflective shield and mirror image.

Magical Marathon - Your spells becomes second nature to you, they require less concentration to upkeep.

Or reduce the cost of "immunity" spells such as mana shield.  Not cost of the actual casting of the spell, mind you.

Arcane Juggernaut - Your ability to deflect magical/mundane attacks taxes your mental reserves less than normal

Not fond of the mino-lag edge.  Thing has been changed often over the years, so we'll have an edge which puts it back into a highly complained about state?  But that's my take on it.

Does the warcry/bless edge affect only those with the skills, or can you garner the benefits from outside sources like wands and pills?

Yes, I had to put the edges in Eye-melt blue.

See Mya?  I don't hate all your ideas.

I very much like your idea about an edge to decrease upkeep for spells.

I'm curious of the bless edge as well. If I don't have either skill (bless or war cry) can I still get a beefed up bless from grey herbs or the cabal healer?

Yes.

Bound Spirit

• cost 500 RP -

Prerequisites: Application, Condeath

The unyielding spirit of your character will live on forever. In the area where you character falls the final time, a high level mobile of your character will wander for all eternity, the mob will carry a single unique item.

For some of us players the greatest accomplishment is not what treasures or titles we can hold, but can we in some way make a permanent change in Aabahran. Can we alter the world around us through our RP. This high cost Edge, combined with its prerequisites would give the role play heavy characters a goal to aim for. With play times being curbed by facets of real life offering a long term goal may help inspire the part time players to continue striving regardless of the actual number of hours they can put in each week/month.

Interesting.

• bump