ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

As per topic. Serpentine Cloak is powered by nature and Phase Door's arcane.

It's a slight upgrade, but mostly functions the same and is more thematic.

I don't see the phase door effect from the Serpentine Cloak as a function of arcane, but rather shifty cunningness.

Plus, as somebody who occasionally plays anti-magic characters (and AM rogues), this cloak can be a godsend and a lifesaver!

There's already an artifact with dream walk on it.

But I see where you're coming from SageAcrin. I think Switch Places would be best personally, even if it is kinda a nerf, it would be more thematic and more reliable in some situations (uncontrolled phase door can be a crap shoot).

That's a brutal nerf.

I considered suggesting Nimble Movements, though. That's a sidegrade. The main reason I don't like it is that you can't really escape from some kinds of situations with it, while instead it becomes offensive as well as defensive-it ends up a direct upgrade for physical builds, unless it's heavily nerfed, at which point it ends up useless for non-physical builds. (I wouldn't suggest nerfing, though. Two castings of L2 Nimble Movements out of a 60 power pool is good, but not that good.)

I don't say this is bad to just directly replace the teleports with Nimble Movements, though. Dream Walk's more balanced like the original effect, was all. For thematics, I feel like doing the minimal possible change is best.

What artifact, anyways? I looked and didn't find one. Just looked again and still didn't find one.

Edit: And yeah, the AM angle is also part of why I strongly suggest Dream Walk over Nimble Movements. Dream Walk is a slightly more controllable Phase Door, which is very, very rare for AM in any form. Whereas Nimble Movements is more like a Movement infusion, and AM already has those.

Was thinking the cloth of dreams (but that's slumber).

Anyway in some cultures serpents are associated with sleeping, dreaming, and astral projection (or spirit walking).

I guess Dream Walk would fit.

I could've given dream walk to cloth of dreams but then Serpentine wouldn't even have a chance

Artifacts should do rare and unusual things that you can't get elsewhere; having an artifact that has a normally-arcane effect (teleporting you randomly nearby) from a non-arcane source seems like a good thing to me.

There's already plenty of arcane ways to get phase door; the fact that it's non-arcane and yet does something usually arcane is what makes it interesting.

Also, I think it's bad to go for absolute symmetry solely for the sake of symmetry. Items with powers that occasionally go against expectations can be a good thing, because they make the world feel deep and complex rather than just a rigidly-defined game.