Some of this is of course completely subjective. And some of it may be due to ignorance. In which case I apologize ahead of time!Kalopsia wrote: ↑Sat Jul 02, 2022 11:05 amI'd be curious about an example for this. User experience is important to me, so if stuff feels unfinished, I don't mind investing an hour or two and improving things.Arienette wrote: ↑Sat Jul 02, 2022 10:53 amIt does sort of annoy me that classes are sometimes made or revamped, and before they feel “done”, the development folks have moved on to something else new. I understand that it’s volunteer work driven by a persons interest and desires. But that’s really the the only thing that peeves me about class design on Arelith.
1. Blackguard
The Aura of Despair: This ability, unlocked at 20th BG level doesn't work. It has no apparent effect in the combat log, and others have said that they tested it more thoroughly (I assume with a friend in PGCC) and have found the same. Also, if it DID work, a minus 2 to saves doesn't feel like something super useful for a BG. Almost anything else would make more sense: a fear aura (admittedly this would likely be way to powerful), -1 to AB, or to AC, or minus 1/2/3 to Discipline, or -10 to saves vs poison, or any number of other things.
Summon Undead: This class feature seems entirely "left behind" to me. A dev in a BG feedback thread I made a couple weeks ago indicated they are working on this or are planning to, which is great!
+DC to Poison: Blackguards get a bonus to ACP DCs, which is a (potentially) SUPER cool custom Arelith system. But the bonus to DC would need to be like... 2x what it is now, in order to be of any significant use. A +6 to DC brings maybe 1 or 2 of the poisons into the realm of "not fishing for a 1". IMO, a 20 or 21 DC is functionally the same as a 14 or 15 DC.
2. Spellsword
Prior to the change from path to class, I played 2 regular SSs and 2 different versions of SS/WM. Regular SS had its ups and down, and SS/WM could hit some truly hilarious damage numbers, but with massive downsides.
I have not played a new SS yet. Looking at it on paper, and seeing them in action in my party, it seems like they are way overpowered. I have been holding off on playing one because I keep thinking any day now there is going to be a significant overhaul (nerf) to them at any moment, and I prefer to wait until that sort of dust has settled. They seem to invalidate most other melee classes (other than divine melee) completely. Running epic dungeons with them in a group and seeing them take down fairly difficult bosses in 1 or 2 rounds before the rest of the party can even engage feels very "off".
I could be totally off-base in this, and maybe the team is more or less happy with where they are now! Just my gut feeling.
3. Totem Druid
This is by no means a "new" class/path, but at one point it was. And I am sure this is a VERY low or non-priority for the dev team.
There is a note on the Wiki that says "Panther Totem doesnt work, we know and are looking into it." This note is from Mithreas so I must assume its several years old. It could be that the Wiki is out of date.
I think everyone I have spoken to on the topic thinks Totem unarmed attacks should could as +(something). Not high enough to pierce premonition, but high enough that you can damage mobs that require a magical weapon. This SEEMS to me like it "should" an easy fix; but perhaps its difficult/impossible to do for some coding reasons?
4. The Arelith Custom Poison System
Obviously not a class, but this one really baffles me. Some awesome person CLEARLY put a lot of time and effort into devising this! They came up with TWENTY FIVE custom poisons, created and implemented crafting recipes, etc. But the DCs are so low, that virtually ALL of them end up as "fishing for 1s". With the aforementioned BG and Assassin bonuses, 2 or 3 of them enter the realm of "fishing for 2's/3's", only for targets with the very lowest Fort Saves. In PvE, I seriously doubt there are any mobs in the module that have low enough Fort saves to make use of poisons who you wont kill in 1 flurry or round anyway.
Then, you have the secondary effects. My understanding of how poison in general works in NWN is that if you fail the DC initially, you get the primary debuff. And then, after one turn, they make ANOTHER fort save roll and if they fail it they get the secondary debuff. So to get the secondary debuff, the target would have to roll two 5's in a row. I'm no mathematician, but in this condition, the secondary effects may as well not even exist.
Three of the poison's have NO initial effect, only a secondary. I really cannot imagine a situation in which a Player Character would even attempt to use any of these poisons. 1. Being/Finding a Poison Immune Herbalist, 2.Collecting the ingredients, some of which can be troublesome to find, 3. Crafting the poison, 4. Applying the poison, all for a 1 in 400 chance of landing a secondary effect (assuming the target doesnt clear the poison after rolling a 1 on the first fort save) truly seems like nobody would ever actually do in-game.
Again, this one isnt a class but its a system someone clearly put some serious effort into and its a shame that it is largely useless. Yes, I know that it is worth it to apply some of these poisons and fish for a 1. If your opponents fails the save, they lose 1 CON, their HP drops by 30 and their -pray heals less. But I don't think pointing that out invalidates my above points.