Arelith

The UMD requirement for the black scepter is low enough to be laughable. The UMD requirement is 30.

Is this weapon actually meant for assassins, all rogues, WMs, and really any build that is already planning on a UMD dip in the first place? Or is this weapon really supposed to be meant only for assassins? Because with its current UMD requirement, it is firmly in the first camp.

It's a base d6, 20/x2 weapon with Keen and some minor extra damage. And it's small sized. There's no powerbuilding possibility that's gonna make it super good. Other weapons exist that are objectively better with the same UMD requirement.

Chill.

Man you're gonna flip when you see what a lesser moonblade is.

It's equal to a masterly damask shortsword.

My point is that if the weapon is meant to be used by just about everyone, why have it be assassin only in the first place? This carries over into, yes, the moonblades and other weapons that are supposed to be specialized, but dip builds can use them with basically no investment.

This design philosophy makes no sense. The UMD requirements should be higher across the board.

Durvayas wrote: Sat Apr 27, 2019 1:38 pm This design philosophy makes no sense.

Yeah welcome to Arelith, now go on and pick on other thirty design changes that defy logic and see where that takes us.

I tried but it doesn't do much, it's fun for figuring out what classes people are playing though.

I'd much rather see more UMD weapons and armour around the 30-range, it encourages builds to go beyond the 15 UMD dump, but isn't a silly meme to reach unlike some other craftables that will never be worth trying to get the UMD for.

The design philosophy is clearly to make the item UMD-restricted. If you want to wield it for flair, and your character isn't an assassin, there's a price to pay. It isn't meant to be used by everyone; it's meant to be used by characters with assassin levels or UMD30. Not every build goes UMD30 and the Black Scepter by itself doesn't incentivise builds enough to meet that requirement. UMD above 30 means that only 1) CHA-based builds with skill points to spare, 2) non-CHA builds with epic feats to spare, or 3) non-CHA builds with item slots to spare, can afford to pick up the item. I'd say that's a rather narrow range of builds out of all the staple Arelith builds, which means that the Black Scepter is accessible to a relative minority.

There's a different argument to be made about the overall usefulness of UMD, though.

Nitro wrote: Sat Apr 27, 2019 2:59 pm I'd much rather see more UMD weapons and armour around the 30-range, it encourages builds to go beyond the 15 UMD dump, but isn't a silly meme to reach unlike some other craftables that will never be worth trying to get the UMD for.

I'd rather see ALL racial and class weapons be something like 45 UMD so if anyone was dedicated enough they could wield and wear whatever they wanted. Actually crafting them should be restricted, but not use.

Why shouldn't a human be able to use a double sided orcish weapon if they go through the trouble of learning 2 weapon fighting and taking the focuses and getting to a very high, but possible point with UMD skill? They'd invariably have to track down an orcish smith and probably prove their worth to get it, which could only be good for RP.