So I know I already submitted some basic ideas for possible changes to the aura system but I've had more time to reflect on them, observe how they interact with different kinds of character setups, and just generally flesh out the concepts I was kicking around to the point that I thought I'd submit this as it's much more comprehensive than the original idea I put forward. I jump around a little between ideas so I'll save explanations for their relevant suggestion categories. I do get a little bit severe in some parts but I'd like to emphasize that this is because I think the current state of divination tools and aura reading reflects a general lack of real consideration for the balance environment.
Before I dive further in, I'd also like to note that while I do try as much as possible to avoid going overboard with foig material the topic of this post ultimately orbits what many players might consider to be things they'd rather 'find out in game' so consider this your warning if you're just a curious passerby going over this.
Div Feats Perk Restructuring:
-SF: Divination now provides Deck operation
-GSF: Divination now provides Aura Reading
-ESF: Divination continues to provide Scrying
Commentary: This is the most fundamental of changes I'd like to put forward as everything else sort of builds off the ideas that motivated this specific suggestion. Put simply, aura reading is overpowered and has no counterplay. For a limited use ability that's hard to access this could be argued as not a big deal but with the current arrangement of Divination perks basically anyone who wants to can read auras. What's worse, the nature of the items that enable this is such that you won't notice them being swapped over to from a character's standard gear. Meanwhile, for some reason Deck of Stars operation is tied to GSF: Div despite the Deck of Stars by itself being almost entirely without use aside from checking the leaderboards it represents.
Without going unnecessarily into foig details, I'm aware of the various uses for the Deck of Stars when I remark that by itself, without aura reading, it's largely without purpose beyond novelty. This again is why I think it would make far more sense for the Deck of Stars to be operable with just SF: Div. Meanwhile aura reading, especially when paired with the Deck of Stars, is incredibly powerful and pierces disguises with perfect reliability. The idea that aura reading is somehow less impactful than operating the Deck of Stars is insane to me and that auras can be read with both common dungeon loot and crafted gear now is similarly baffling to me if we're to meant believe that subterfuge oriented characters are meant to be a mechanically viable concept.
Aspect Aura Change:
-Aspects now have a generic Sign/Descriptive Element which is visible to those who can see auras. This generic Sign is the same across all Aspects.
-Characters who can read auras can use a Deck of Stars on an Aspected character directly to reveal the actual Aspect in their bio to see past the generic Sign.
Commentary: At the core of this suggestion is simply the recognition that Aspects and their Signs are nothing but detriments to characters who don't want to be recognized. The locational details provided by the Deck of Stars, without so much context you could probably find them without operating the deck anyway, are largely unhelpful. But again, since auras and Aspects can be observed through disguises they represent instant points of compromise to the characters who manifest them. To this end, I think the ideal would be if by default Aspects simply showed as generic blurs in a character's otherwise typical aura. This would be a visual cue for characters with a Deck of Stars on them to approach the Aspected character and activate the Deck of Stars on them to discover their Sign. As per the bullet point, this revealed Sign would then show in the Aspected character's bio.
I will note briefly that currently Aspects conceal a character's base aura. An alternative execution here might be to preserve that behavior somehow to keep things more in line with how they currently work but I'm unsure about the merit of doing this beyond keeping some Deck of Stars dialogue from becoming redundant.
ESF Caster Changes:
-Esf Illusion: Spoof an Aura (Countered by ESF Div, this means being outed implies ESF Div presence)
-Esf Abj: Hide your entire aura (this means they can tell you're hiding your aura)
-Esf Div: Counters ESF Illu, blocked by ESF Abj (but recognizes its being blocked)
Commentary: Really this idea could be just the proposed change to ESF Illusion and ESF: Divination but I wanted to keep the bit about ESF: Abj from my original suggestion because I think these kinds of overhauls represent decent chances to add depth to otherwise shallow systems. At the same time, there's a few reasons for the way I've laid this part of the proposal out. The basic idea is to establish a choice for epic casters between having their auras perfectly hidden or having their auras largely misunderstood. At the same time, the goal is to add a bit of a choice for ESF: Div characters as well. Who would become free to simply identify aura spoofers but would have to risk outing themselves as ESF: Div builds in the process and thereby reveal themselves to be -scry capable characters. Meanwhile even people with just the GSF: Div feat would be able to tell someone was hiding their aura via ESF: Abj because the information comes in the form of not being able to read someone's aura at all.
Bard Changes:
-Masking Melody: As before, but now also imitates ESF Illu (Bard w/ songs is close to Wiz in terms of subterfuge tools. This lets caster/lm builds keep their niche as long-distance spies a little while helping establish bards another tech oriented spy besides wizards)
Commentary: This suggestion is based largely around the observation that on Arelith wizards are the undisputed kings of intrigue oriented tech. I think this suggestion would bring bards closer to parity with wizards as far as being active spies while leaving wizard and loremaster builds to have the added advantage of long range -scry espionage still. The main reason this is desirable as I see it is to bring some more diversity to the landscape of intrigue oriented character builds.
Ritual Changes:
-New Illusion Ritual: For the next two (scaling higher with success %) irl weeks the affected character can be sensed via the Deck of Stars but their aura will never show their Aspect's Sign even if the Deck of Stars is used directly on them nor will their aura display a generic element hinting that the character has an undisclosed Sign within their aura.
Commentary: This gives added value to ESF: Illusion, encourages rp between people struggling with Aspects and people with the ESF, and provides an escape hatch to the Aspect system since it otherwise reaches a point of 0 counterplay when wielded carefully enough. I imagine this being a… Not necessarily cheap but not an egregiously expensive thing. It's meant to be expensive enough that for people who aren't living every day under the microscope it's superfluous but for people who are just constantly provoking an unwanted Aspect that's interfering with their work they have a way out if they're willing to pay.
New Aspect (mostly a joke):
-Shooting Star: Awarded to the Invoker/Warlock/Wildmage who has surged the most in a certain period of time.
Commentary: I play a Wildmage and I think this would be funny. So… Intent... Memes!