KregorRanger wrote:I have a suggestion for the Shadowdancer companion.
Instead of the shadow fiend as it currently summons, which both implies evil undeath for a Shadowdancer which could be any alignment, which also pretty much sucks compared to.. Everyone else's companion now, let it summon a shadow mastiff that scales with level, like the other companions, and amplifies with the feats.
Kuma wrote:I was instead hoping for a character-appearance clone with shadow shield and concealment VFX.
Yellena wrote:SD summon won't be an undead anymore. Name and lore will upgraded to reflect something else. It's the first thing I took into consideration when designing the cew creature.
*keeps fingers crossed* I hope the new form will be at least humanoid/bipedal with some sort of darkness / dark aura about it. As in, not too far off the current sprite used to represent it. If not I might have to abandon my current SD, whose shadow summons is a manifestation of a certain aspect of himself *cry*
Yellena wrote:SD summon won't be an undead anymore. Name and lore will upgraded to reflect something else. It's the first thing I took into consideration when designing the cew creature.
Will the epic summons be worth taking all those SD levels? At the moment it is a serious waste of levels going that high in SD. And will it scale as the old Epic ShadowLord did in some way? I would like to know if I just wasted 10 levels of SD on my character. Been planning for this update since I got here, and I am wondering if I need to make room in a corner to cry in.
Epic Shadowlord Feat will be worth it.
The upgrades were intended to make summons more interesting and the investments on them worth it.
And yes, the idea is for SD summons to get better the more SD levels you get, or at least gain some spesial perks. The higher your SD levels, better and more fun working with your summon may be. Doing them for last because they will be very special and fun.
Hold tight fellow shadowling, SD summons are the last of the upgrades because of the coolness I want them to have (leaving best for last).
And be pacient... two works don't give me much time to do heavy mind/detailed work with much frequency. I avoid working on them during the few free time I have in a rushy week so things like... well... creatures with Improved Knockdown not being able to Knockdown... don't happen*.
*: A fix patch that adress this issue is ready so don't lose your hopes.
Griefmaker wrote:Personal choices regarding RP which[..] limit a character in some way[…] should in no way be an argument for changing something on the server
why is it may i ask that when it states that a snake can deal with traps mine cant and as a point why the change to familiars for sorc's they have no tank ex. hell hound/bear notting else has a attack over 1 dmg to start just asking because it has turned me off playing the sorc's and there my fav
Sorry quinnra, but your familiar is not much of a combat aid on Arelith. All familiars stay at level 1 and any time an NPC chooses to attack your familiar, the NPC will instead attack you.
Think of the familiar as an RP tool (you can speak through the familiar by using the -f command, aside from being able to possess the familiar like in base NWN) and a scout that won't trigger hostility from spawns, not as an extra summon for combat.
My guess is that they got it at a level higher than level 1 in the original familiar update, but since they are sick at level 1 now, they don't receive it.
Yes I'm also surprised that the familiar is what makes or breaks the class for you. Familiars have always been a very small part of the mechanical power of a sorcerer at higher levels anyway. If anything, the Arelith changes at least make them useful as scouts (while possessed) since they won't draw any enemy aggro unless you attack something with your familiar, at which point it will charge toward wherever your mage is hiding.
It's a perfect scout and can perfectly draw enemies to you/your party even from across areas. That's more useful than another crappy meleer being on the field.
At higher levels yes, but when you're a lvl 2 sorc with 8 health maximum, you need your familiars to screen you, or even rats will eat you alive in melee.
All this has done is make low level combat with sorcs in particular, harder, because summons no longer hold aggro. Shelgarns persistant blade barely holds aggro. Sure people playing mages have a 'new' RP tool(we could emote with our familiars before, now they just look different, and in some cases more mundane), but they just got hamstringed for low lvl combat.
The difference between the perfect scout and that 'crappy meleer' is that the meleer can hold aggro when you step across a doorstep and find five giant rats rushing your lowbie.
Durvayas wrote:At higher levels yes, but when you're a lvl 2 sorc with 8 health maximum, you need your familiars to screen you, or even rats will eat you alive in melee.
All this has done is make low level combat with sorcs in particular, harder, because summons no longer hold aggro. Shelgarns persistant blade barely holds aggro. Sure people playing mages have a 'new' RP tool(we could emote with our familiars before, now they just look different, and in some cases more mundane), but they just got hamstringed for low lvl combat.
The difference between the perfect scout and that 'crappy meleer' is that the meleer can hold aggro when you step across a doorstep and find five giant rats rushing your lowbie.
The feels... just imagine, I'm playing an Evoker...
No conjuration spells.
Bane's tyranny is known throughout the continent, and his is the image most seen as the face of evil.
-Faiths and Pantheons (c)2002
Durvayas wrote:At higher levels yes, but when you're a lvl 2 sorc with 8 health maximum, you need your familiars to screen you, or even rats will eat you alive in melee.
All this has done is make low level combat with sorcs in particular, harder, because summons no longer hold aggro. Shelgarns persistant blade barely holds aggro. Sure people playing mages have a 'new' RP tool(we could emote with our familiars before, now they just look different, and in some cases more mundane), but they just got hamstringed for low lvl combat.
The difference between the perfect scout and that 'crappy meleer' is that the meleer can hold aggro when you step across a doorstep and find five giant rats rushing your lowbie.
I know this is something you probably do not want to hear. But it will need to be said anyhow.
I would like to heavily recommend that you decide to partner up with some individuals as it would greatly increase your chances of survival.
Probably every second or third character I play is a sorcerer, so I do empathize with the experience of being a lowbie sorc.
That said, the meat shield that a low level sorcerer needs can be provided by a summon (even Shelgarn's) when it is properly utilized by a careful player, or, better still, by another PC.
The functionality of the new familiars as a possessable scout that can pass through hostile territory without drawing any hostility from hostile creatures, even if detected, is not something anything else can do.
I'd far sooner take the second--it's useful at all levels instead of just early on, and fills the unique role of a perfect, risk-free scout. The proportion of time spent as a level 2 character is vanishingly small in a character's lifetime.
Yellena wrote:Summon upgrade patch ready to be shipped!
Expect some changes and sweets soon (tm).
Wouldn't it be great if the IPhone came with windshield wipers right about now?
"Playin' nobody, no how since AR 112"
Griefmaker wrote:Personal choices regarding RP which[..] limit a character in some way[…] should in no way be an argument for changing something on the server
