Lord of Azure Flame: Suggestions

[-Cynthia-]

Meh, I could reduce the costs down to 2 per skill I guess. I don't really want to have to deal with Ether's complaining though and it is arguably unfair in some ways (would have made skills more appealing at creation). If more opinions go for it, I'll do it.

[Phoenix]

@ Skill=2 cost

Supporters:

Snike

Phoenix

[Snike]

The alternative could be give the skill-users their stats back, and let the non-skill users get skills, but that would be too much of a dust storm. So, uh, *goes to get support*

[Balcerzak]

I would much prefer to buff the skills to where they're worth the cost than lowering the cost, myself.

[Ansem]

That would be unfair to the people who signed up before

[Snike]

>.> It's called retroactivity. Though, @ which comment, would be nice.

[Snowy_One]

IIRC, I made it so that saving throws could only activate once per phase. Ergo, if you had a saving throw and used it on the player phase, you would have till after the enemy phase to use it again.

[Balcerzak]

IIRC, I made it so that saving throws could only activate once per phase. Ergo, if you had a saving throw and used it on the player phase, you would have till after the enemy phase to use it again.

In that case, straight luck would be simply too broken and there would have to be some other form of nerf. Each time a save is successful, you reduce your luck by half until the battle ends or something?

[Snike]

... Miracle just dropped down to mediocre, alongside Wrath. my point is even MORE valid, now: 3 points is a bit much, when the two best skills are ones that are outclassed by stat benefits.

[Dark Sage]

That reminds me. My character killed a wyvern and then attacked another one in chapter 8. How much experience would I get?

[Ether]

It was RP combat,so you likely wouldn't get any.

[-Cynthia-]

None, since stats were not involved.

[Phoenix]

To clarify ... you have to enter stat combat to get exp, Cynthia will likely explain that herself later. In the meantime know that you can't get exp for taking out enemies that are only plot enemies because anyone could do it. Helios for example has killed a lot of enemies spawned by Kai, and Damian has killed an entire squad of guys spawned by Ether. They can do this as often as they like regardless of how macho/stupid it looks and that could result in people boosting which shouldn't even be possible in this type of game soooo ... yeah ... no exp for non-stat combat ... especially when you spawned the enemies yourself :P

[Snowy_One]

Actually, I did promise that it was possible to get EXP for good RPing, but firstly required good roleplay, and secondly needed a request.

[Phoenix]

*noted*

Well then Viveka's going to catch up sooner than I thought XD

[-Cynthia-]

Since it hasn't been applied in the past and "good roleplaying" is pretty subjective, I suggest it just not exist.

[Snowy_One]

Dark, the town hates the big three nations. Any purchase using their currency would be astronomical in price. However, with other nations money, it would cost only a few coppers.

[riariadne]

I personally agree with lowering the cost of skills (Adept really isn't worth the 3 points now that I look at how useful it's been).

[Snike]

+1 supporter! Now we have 3! Uh, any one else wanna weigh in?

[Balcerzak]

Okay, I did some thinking about how to buff the skills a little bit to make them worth their cost. One idea I had is that the skills that are based solely on the skill dice are just too chancey. I'm thinking a general amendment on the order of "Once per chapter, or whenever you roll a X on the skill die, you may..." would make those skills much more palatable.

I have a couple of specific comments on some of the other skills, so let's treat those as they come.

Name: Gamble.

Activation: Activate at the start of your round

Effect: Reduce your skill by whatever amount you desire. For every three points you may add 1 extra point to your skill roll.

This is far too impotent. I would suggest a fix to be that you may add or subtract up to one point to the skill roll for every two points you lowered your skill stat. This would be in keeping with the risky nature of trading accuracy for crit, but not making it crippling so, and actually make the increase in crit chance very substantial, meaning it may actually be worthwhile to occasionally indulge in it.

Name: Hawkeye

Activation: At the start of your round

Effect: Increase your SKL by .5 for every point of luck you have for one turn. While this skill is active, your luck may not aid your evade.

There's simply no way this is worth three stat points. First, it requires heavy investment of stat points into luck to be at all effective, and for an already stat-screwed character (as is any character taking skills), luck is not a priority stat. I would propose the following changes.

Activation: After you've rolled your attack roll, but before rolling a counter attack roll

Effect: Add 1 to your Hit roll for every point of luck you have. Your luck will not contribute to your evade for the immediately to come counter.

This increases the benefit substantially, allowing through the power of retroactivity a character to turn a miss into a hit. However, the fact that they still don't know if they'll need the evade to dodge the coming hit might make them occasionally double think it.

It may actually over-power it though, but I'm not sure. I would love to hear additional opinions.

Name: Absorption

Activation: At the start of your round

Effect: You may add 1/2 of your DEF to your RES, or 1/2 your RES to your DEF for one turn. The stat that was deducted from is halved, obviously.

Class: General

Name: Bastion

Activation: At the start of your turn.

Effect: You may transfer as many points from DEF or RES or from RES to DEF as you desire until the start of your next turn.

One of these skills is much more powerful than the other. I guess because it's a "mastery skill"?

Bastian does seem rather broken, though perhaps with the class specific low caps in Res for Generals it may not be overpoweringly so. However it still kicks the shit out of

Class: Swordmaster

Name: Keen edge

Activation: At the start of your turn.

Effect: You may reduce your STR by 2. For every 2 STR you reduce, you may gain +1 to your skill dice until the start of your next turn. Can be used multiple times.

I'd suggest changing this to a 1 for 1 trade, and also allow either addition or subtraction to be applied to the skill die.

Class: Thief*

Name: Steal

Effect: Deal 3/4’ths damage (rounded up). Additionally, if you rolled a 5 on your skill roll, you may steal 1 item from a enemy that is not equipped. You may not critical or activate any other skills on the attack in which this skill is used.**

*The thief base class can use this even though they are not promoted.

** Only potion-types can be stolen from player characters without permission granted by the player.

I will repeat my earlier ideas about the modifications to this skill.

A 1/6 chance to steal something seems very underpowered. Not to mention the fact that items have almost gone the way of the dinosaur (more potion carrying enemies who will actually use them please!) I would suggest the following revision. "Deal 3/4 damage (rounded up). If you have more speed than your opponent, and did not roll a 5 on your skill roll, you may steal 1 item from an enemy that is not equipped. You may not critical or activate any other skills on the attack in which this skill is used."

Class: Sniper

Name: Deadeye

Activation: Passive

Effect: If you get a 5 for your skill roll, you may knock a non-player character out of the fight for one round (bosses and specials exempt).

This is worthless. I don't have any ideas on how to fix it though.

Edited June 20, 2010 by Balcerzak

[Snike]

Weapon slayer is too underpowered, as well, so, we need to look at that. Again, I suggest that we reduce the skill cost, anyways. Plus, Bastion was ignoring caps, I think.

[Ether]

On that note,Pierce seems odd.

1 point of Str for 2 Res?Res is again,a stat that isn't generally invested in.I know that Damian'll probably never use it if it remains the way it is.Compare that to Bastion...yeah.

[Ansem]

Its still overpowered since Damian will have more defense

[Ether]

How is it OP?he can't even use it...well,I guess I can activate pierce,take -0 res,and +0 Str...

[Ansem]

Oh i thought that skill was for Halbediers.