Ranger nerfs

[AstralUniverse]

Scurvy's in depth explanation is excellent and it's been said several times in past threads by different people already - a brief 99% slow of 1 second when shooting, with 6 seconds cooldown, is really the direct fix to this problem, not nerfing arrow damage (although nerfing arrows damage is better than nothing I guess). Trail and error and player feedback can later reveal exactly how much to nerf/boost that brief slow to make archers still good for kiting but not invincible.

[ReverentBlade]

I could not imagine a way to make NWN's already obnoxious movement and pathing any more annoying than the snare suggestion. That would feel atrocious.

[malcolm_mountainslayer]

Does poison even stack with blade thirst?

[Skibbles]

Does poison even stack with blade thirst?

Tried this just yesterday, and so far no.

Unless there was something else going on that was blocking it. It said the poison was successfully applied, but nothing happened. Smacked a few enemies around with it to make sure, and there weren't any DC checks.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

The WASD thing is really absurd.

That needs to go.

We can tinker numbers, but this will undoubtedly pop up again in X years times, as some ranged archetype becomes flavour-of-the-month again.

I've also (always) felt that ranged classes should be inherently under-powered vs. equivalent melee builds, because of how pathing in NWN can work, and map knowledge and positioning could absolutely catapult any archer into demi-god value during certain PvP encounters.

I've died too many times to misclicking around those desert staircases or mountain hills, or gotten stuck on a rock, with a level 30 archer plopped at the top. It's terrible.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

To briefly address one sentiment in the OP, about making it against the rules to exploit;

Utilizing exploits is already against the rules. The problem is, the HiPS "exploit", even if done "intentionally", is an uncontrollable, unparsable, unprovable exploit. It's an exploit because it works when it's not supposed to (read; the other guy's detection scores are a hundred points higher than your stealth scores) and because there's literally nothing anyone can do to stop that from happening, other than have true seeing on, which is nerfed in Arelith for "stealth QoL."

It's not the kind of exploit that happens out of malice, it's an exploitative mechanic that happens automatically by existing, because there's no way to prevent it other than not using it. It's not like you can look at your opponent's character sheet and go "oh, their detection is higher than mine, so I shouldn't stealth."

[ReverentBlade]

Add a puff of smoke as a visual effect to HIPS and boom, justification for your Spot not mattering for a second.