ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

The armour skills are basically useless, beyond getting one level in them. 5 levels of massive armour training gave me +7 to armour (vs +1 for 1 level). That makes a difference in the barrow-downs, but doesn't achieve much beyond that. Maybe it would be more useful if it reduced fatigue as well. Or if you could advance it up to 10 levels, with increasing benefits, but also increasing requirements.

OTOH, shield wall in the far east was giving me +33 to defense and armour.

Between mithril plate, shield wall, a decent shield, and massive armour training, "normal" monsters didn't give me much trouble. It's nice to hear the tell-tale thunk of an arrow hitting (or missing) me, and realise that I don't have to care Unfortunately, it leads to complacency, which is a good way to die. Nagas seemed to cut through me without effort, and spellcasters and dragons were trouble.

I didn't advance riposte until late-ish (moria, maybe), when my dex was already quite high. So at level 3, it was giving me 60% chance. I didn't advance it any more, because level 4 also said 60%. If you're taking a long-term view, more than 3 levels is pointless.

1 level in assault gets me a guaranteed two critical hits (assuming I hit). Shield damage is nice, but critical hits with my main weapon seem like the main benefit, so I never advanced it beyond that.

The juggernaut skill doesn't give a duration.

I didn't take Shattering impact -- it didn't seem like a good idea. Despite shield wall / heath / high constitution, my ability to deal damage still exceeded my ability to take it. I don't know how high the percentage goes, but I could see myself doing 100 points of damage to myself with each hit, which didn't seem safe. If I'm surrounded by grunts (e.g. drakes, regular uruk-hai, assassins, archers), then I can kill them easily. If I'm surrounded by nastier foes, then I really want to get out of there, rather than smashing everything in sight plus me..

Dragons and mages and wyrmic uruk-hai burn all my scrolls to ashes. An indestructible form of phase door would be _really_ handy.

Off-screen monsters are a pain. Is there any way to look around in windowed mode? Perhaps the monster display could, at least, give an indication of direction (N/S/E/W).

shift+left mouse button lets you scroll along the map in windowed mode.

Much thanks to Greycat for making this wiki entry otherwise I wouldn't have known this either.

Dragons and mages and wyrmic uruk-hai burn all my scrolls to ashes. An indestructible form of phase door would be _really_ handy.

There are fireproof scrolls no?

Also fire resistance should cut down on this (correct me if I'm wrong). The chance your items get destroyed is proportional to the amount of damage you take.

Then again... the calculation to see if stuff is destroyed may be checked before resists.

But I do see what you're saying. I was thinking last night of writing up an artifact ring based on one of the chronomancy spells called Backtrack. Basically a short range teleport but only into 'explored' squares. Once I think of what else the ring should do I'll write it up and hopefully DG will dig the idea.

There are fireproof scrolls no?

Yeah, but not that common. If I could pay for fireproofing that would work too

Yeah some form of phase door tied to an artifact would do, as for others I'm still pondering having rods & wands at all.
Maybe .. Maybe not. Maybe I'll switch charged egos to rods/wands. humm

I was thinking something like this DG.

Timekeeper's Crystal (Amulet)
- Insert nice fluffy background text here

Willpower +4
Temporal Resistance +25%
Increases Temporal Damage +5%

Allows the wearer to cast Backtrack (at a range of 5) costing 1 power out of 2. (Short range, targeted teleport into any explored tile).

1 power out of 2 means it can be used every single turns

But yeah something like that would work.
I would need the fluffly background text obviously

Which reminds me, can you tyr to think of how to unlock the various chronomancer classes, I have some ideas but I'd like to hear yours

Haha.. alright. How about 30/60? Is that twice in a row and then 60 turns to recharge fully?

As to fluffy background text I'll pm Tax and see if he can come up with something. I've seen the movies and read the hobbit and the three main books once but couldn't get through the Simarillion. In other words, Tax seems like he knows more of the lore then I do.

And I'll get back to you tonight on the Chronomancy unlock ideas. I had an idea for one class when the thread started but it could probably use revisions. I'll PM you. I also still plan to add some fluff text for the three individual classes. The stuff in the Chronomancy Overview document is meant to be fluff text for the meta-class.

I would agree that the armor bonuses would either need to be greater (which I think isn't a very good solution), or also include a reduced fatigue amount when wearing the associated armor. Maybe a reduction of the fatigue penalty of the armor instead as suggested earlier. Maybe a progression of -2, -4, -6, -8, -11 fatigue of the worn armor?

Hum yes good idea and fitting

Speaking of it, what's the effect of fatigue on character? I can't get a clue. If it is lower regeneration rate of stamina and such, as one would expect, honestly, I never noticed.

Fatigue acts as a multiplier on the stamina cost of your skills/talents. If you have 40% fatigue, then your shield pummel (etc.) costs 1.4 times its base stamina amount.

By the way, just lost my fighter:

[LOG] The Master hits Arzgh for #PURPLE#145.71 arcane damage#LAST#.
[LOG] Arzgh quaffs a potion of healing!
[LOG] You have #FFFFFF#18 potion of healing#LAST#.
[LOG] The Master casts Congeal Time.
[LOG] The Master rushes out!
[LOG] The Master performs a critical stike!
[LOG] The Master hits Arzgh for #aaaaaa#435.56 physical damage#LAST#.
[LOG] The Master killed Arzgh!

Yes, I know he's nasty, but really... FOUR HUNDRED thirty-five points of damage in a single attack? How is one expected to survive that?

Yeah nasty crits are nasty.
I should maybe add a -%crit chance as ego armour, reducing the chance to be critically hit?

Yeah, that's one option and probably not a bad one with free action potions being added (giving up stability is more of an option now).

Some talents that reduce chance to be crit make sense too, especially for fighters.

I have some other ideas I'll run by you.