ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

So I started playing a little over a week ago and got my first winner yesterday, a Skeleton Sun Paladin. I only died once which was just me being sloppy. http://te4.org/characters/15451/tome/3e ... c9ce0b1f0a

I can tell you I probably would've lost all my lives by level 40 or so if I wasn't a Skeleton. It's just that big of a deal. Half duration on all status effects combined with a huge heal and huge shield, a free life, and if you're a class that can spare the points, 10 extra str and dex, and complete immunity to Fear, Poison and Cut.

Being unable to use infusions is hardly a big enough disadvantage as long as you don't get horribly unlucky and never find some decent shield runes, and the EXP penalty isn't really a big factor since you will hit level 50 before High Peak easily anyway and never be behind in levels.

Ghouls also have pretty powerful racials but they get a very very big hit with their speed penalty. Skeletons get nothing of the sort and as it is now I seriously doubt Skeleton isn't just the best race for every class.

I agree that Skeletons are quite overpowered, but Sun Paladins also have incredible synergy with Skellies that alleviates most of their biggest issues:

- no wild infusions means that every confuse/stun/pin/disarm/blind in the West is a potential death sentence. Even in the East, you'll find powerful random bosses that can keep you locked down for longer than the Skeleton racial+storyline talent can compensate for. You had level 5.2 Providence, presumably from your late teens onward, which takes care of all these problems handily.

- SunPas have multiple extra means of healing AND their own long-duration, low-cooldown shield. When your only heal is on a 25 turn cooldown and your main shield is on a 30 turn cooldown, you start running into major problems in the late game if you don't have either a) huge damage output, or b) another way to regenerate significant amounts of health quickly. I bet you'd find a Skeleton Bulwark significantly harder to play, even though the Bulwark is generally considered to be at least as strong as the Sun Paladin.

- no Melinda follow-up. Missing out on one of the best romances in gaming history is an incredible price to pay.

Looking at your profile, I also notice that your heavy focus on defensive abilities prevented you from investing a single point into weapons mastery. You only have 86 damage, which is really quite low even for sun paladins, and you only got "Size Matters" at level 44. This hyper-defensive track was obviously a winning choice for this class/race combo, but a lot of players would probably have gotten bored or careless with your build eventually.

As for fixing Skeletons, giving them a -50% healing modifier with anything but their own heal would probably cut down on their synergy options quite a bit. The shield honestly doesn't need a huge nerf, but tying its size more closely to the character's Dexterity would make the class less desirable for mages and their ilk.

By the way, how many hours have you logged? My archer had roughly three times your base damage output, and he took 25 hours from start to finish.

Yeah Skeleton definitely has incredible synergy with Sun Paladin and a defensive build in paticular. However they do have the means to deal with status effects, though wild infusions are great I don't think losing them and other infusions is anywhere near as big a disadvantage as the gains. Using wintertide phial for most of the game along with the 50 turn cooldown that reduces status duration which you get for free after beating the master (basically a full status cure as a skeleton) i'm sure people can manage especially since you can use shielding runes during confusion and any skeleton will probably be using 2.

I'd just like to see them toned down a bit so that when I next make a character I won't feel like I have to be a skeleton or have a much harder time.

I had a little over 24 hours I think, probably 27-28. I was able to mindlessly clear most non-boss enemies by just cycling shields/heals and mashing attack.

I pretty much completely disagree Im afraid. I agree that some of the skellie abilities are pretty good, but if you want to invest heavily your taking a lot from generics which most classes dont want. The shield is amazing, which compensates for the lack of being able to have any healing infustions which makes a lot of melee heavy classes a challenge. Try a skellie rogue / warrior / marauder... they take a lot more practice especially after the east. The 50% duration knockoff is good, but there is also vitality for other abilities and things like providence out there and as previously stated Wintertide.

(Also note by being a skellie you also lose the movement speed increase infusion which is amazing for most melee chars too).

Ive played a sun pally and there is someone on the forums that got further than anything else thought possible in the Neverending descent on a palla without any difficulties. Personally I think if anything it is the Sun Pala that is overpowered.

The bonus Dex and Str is only good if you need them and even then most people just put 1 point in it, (or more end game), the shield normally get a 5/5, not every goes full on Resilient bones (bare in mind spell save, physical save and mental save now have the ability to completely negate abilities aswell.) I used to love the heal and extra life you could get from skellies, but bare in mind if your not undead you wll normally end up with a Blood of Life giving the extra life and have to spend 5 points to get a worthwhile yet often underpowered infusion of straight healing.

Playing a paladin on the other hand, if you put all the skills on auto cast, you can just walk around, never needing to toucha button and win with no issues pretty much no matter who you play as.

But hey that is my two cents Glad you got a winner out of it though.