Arelith

Hi folks!

So I recently took interest into whips (don't judge!).

And I've noticed quite a few discrepancies on many aspects, so here's a feedback post to point out the issues.

First, facts

The base item:

Requires a feat (exotic)
Finesseable
Small weapon
1h concussion
Can only be wielded in main hand
Does 1d2 damage (weakest of all possibilities Arelith offers)
Crits on 20 (weakest of all possibilities Arelith offers)
Crits are *2 (weakest of all possibilities Arelith offers)
Offers a free feat: Disarm

Note: a handful of years ago Disarm got gutted. PVE: has no effect on monsters with no weapons, and for some reason, does nothing a lot of the time even if you succeed the disarm, on pve foes that carry a weapon. PVP: I don't think anyone really use it but i could be wrong. And even if I am wrong, no one would use it effectively with a SMALL weapon and without the ability to take improved disarm. So stay with me when I blatantly ignore the free "disarm" feat situation in my reasoning.

Just a FAIR quick comparison, a kukri (requires a feat, finesseable, same damage type, same size): can be dual wielded, 1d4 18-20/*2. More damage, best crit range in the game.

Now, the upgrades:



There is a clear tax going on, everything is MUCH more expensive than a standard weapon counterpart, and oftentimes, to have a much less powerful weapon.

1 silver ingot (hardish to get at level 3) and 1 large leather (impossible to get without help), to get a +1 whip, that you can enchant in the pool anyway. Weird.

No "steel" equivalent.
Masterly steel equivalent is usable only at level 13.
No greensteel equivalent.
No damask equivalent.
The illithid thing could have been a supercool "unique boon" to whip users, but i don't see anyone using it due to low dc, int being mostly useless to target and 1 enhancement. For RP only.
M.D is there, but costs twice as much adamantine so basically it doubles the crafting price of the item compared to normal weapons.
Ultimate weapon: Ok. It's a cool one. It barely compensates how bad a whip is baseline, but out of all the problems above, it feels like it's the only point that more or less "works as intended" (although it's still doesn't hold up mathematically within a meta-context).

Conclusion:

Anyway, so a whip user has to have a +1 weapon between level 3 and 13, and not any weapon, the weakest one in every category. This is, I assume, a legacy of the old weapon system where Whips didn't receive the update or something.

Now, I'm not advocating for a huge buff for whips. It's not so much about making them competitive. Marginalized as a weapon is where it should be. However here's what could be done to at least rectify the oddities (by order of what matters the most):

- Bring level requirements in line with the server's policy (example: Masterly steel equivalent is level 2+)
- Nerf the crafting costs of almost all whips (bring it in line with metal weapons)
- Bring normal weapons equivalents recipes (Steel, Damask, Greensteel)
- Buffs Whips with useful flavor: (Example: Remove disarm and add a built-in invisible-blade bleed, built in vampirism, built in shadow displacement (but the target doesn't move, you yoink yourself to a prop, enemy, ally, etc)...)
- Buff Whips with mechanical numbers (Example: 1d2 19-20/*3 or 1d2 18-20/*2 Add bludgeoning damage type, etc)

Any of the above would go a long way.

Thanks for reading, cheers!

Variable Whip. I don't know who added it but I've only positive feelings for them.

With variable whip, fire tamer, and the +5 drow ones, I wonder if just tipping them to 19-20 or so might work, but someone probably has math for this.

Disarm is from NWN itself so it's not an Arelith addition. It's probably something that works okay in the much easier base game.

I don't know if it could be changed but called shot seems more appropriate and useful to me.