Mindcraft changes for TFork

Anything that has spoilers in it should go in here

Moderator: Moderator

Post Reply
Message
Author
Lord Estraven
Uruivellas
Posts: 718
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:35 am

Mindcraft changes for TFork

#1 Post by Lord Estraven »

So I'm looking over the Mindcraft spells and thinking of making some changes. I'll go through each spell and list what I think I'll modify... Tell me if this seems sensible, please. I don't want to make things MORE cheesy and abusable.

Precognition:

wiz_light is too much. I'm not sure this should even give magic mapping; detect_all should be enough. Since it never costs more than a couple SP I don't see why it should get so good at high levels.

Minor displacement:

The void jumpgate thing this does is annoying for two reasons:
a) It is very abusable, since you can just hop around for practically no energy and blast things at a distance
b) It keeps you from phase dooring away in the same turn!

I think what I'll do is just make it directed (not controlled) phase door at level 25. Again, I don't see why it should get more powerful than that, because it hardly costs anything.

Character armor:

Hmm, RPoison? That doesn't seem right, I think I'll ditch it. Maybe I'll give Mindcrafters the ability to cure themselves of poison instead, a la the Bene Gesserit. :P

Psychometry:

This is mostly useless because of instant/rapid pseudo-ID. Better to make it just ID from the beginning; the cost doesn't increase, so no problem.

Adrenaline channeling:

It heals the player, but not by a useful amount. I think I would boost the healing to 4 or 5 times the Mindcraft skill level - enough to be useful, but not enough to save you when you take an unresisted Hand of Doom. Also maybe make it cure or reduce poisoning, to compensate (slightly) for removing RPoison from Character Armor.

Psychic Drain:

I think I'd make this more like Necromancy's Vampirism - throw a powerful draining attack, or maybe multiple attacks, against one monster. Make it a bolt spell too, so you need a clear line of sight to the target.

Telekinesis:

Make it GF_FORCE so that it shoves monsters away instead of teleporting them next to you. :evil:

Yottle
Reaper
Posts: 1753
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2003 11:49 pm
Location: West Virginia

Re: Mindcraft changes for TFork

#2 Post by Yottle »

I would leave magic mapping on Precognition at higher levels, for the same reasons as adding identify to Psychometry at higher levels (around character level 30 seems right to me). Both of these capabilities are available to all characters via both stacks of scrolls and guaranteed artifacts, so they are not destabilizing. These really just free up an inventory slot.

With Adrenaline Channeling maybe you should reduce the speed bonus while bumping up the healing effect. The speed bonus is almost as destabilizing as the jump gate trick.

The resistances in Character Armor only matter to mid-level characters. High level characters are going to have resistances and immunities. Removing poison resistance wouldn't make much difference to me one way or the other. On the other hand, cure poison would be very useful for low level characters without the resistance.

Currently Psychic Drain is too unpredictable to use, in my opinion. I never use it. All it takes is one corrupted mind in line of sight and it can turn into an insta-death. Turning it into a bolt would make it less powerful but more useful.

The changes to the teleportation spells seem reasonable.

Lord Estraven
Uruivellas
Posts: 718
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:35 am

Re: Mindcraft changes for TFork

#3 Post by Lord Estraven »

Hmm. I don't want to get rid of the +10 speed at high levels; Priests can't get weapon masteries so they need some kind of edge. But it is way too much when you first get Adrenaline. Does making the speed boost one fifth of Mindcraft skill (thus, +10 only at level 50, +4 when you first get it) sound reasonable?

Re RPoison/cure poison, low level characters wouldn't get it because it's part of Adrenaline, so I guess RPoison stays.

Re Psychometry, my plan was to drop the pseudo-ID and make it normal Identify from the get-go. Since the cost never goes up, there's not really any reason to give it bonuses after that.

... I think I'm going to start implementing these changes. I'll playtest and see how they go, and upload to git if I'm happy with them.

Edit: Hey, Psychic Drain uses an additional random amount of energy, from 1-150 points, if successful! Wow! No wonder it was less than useful. I'll get rid of that I think. :lol:

Yottle
Reaper
Posts: 1753
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2003 11:49 pm
Location: West Virginia

Re: Mindcraft changes for TFork

#4 Post by Yottle »

+10 to speed at high levels doesn't sound too bad. I am used to sorcerors who can get 20-30 from Essence of Speed. That is silly.

Lord Estraven
Uruivellas
Posts: 718
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:35 am

Re: Mindcraft changes for TFork

#5 Post by Lord Estraven »

Okay, changes pushed to Git.

Post Reply