Swap Serpentine Cloak's Phase Door with Dream Walk

[SageAcrin]

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.

[tiger_eye]

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!

[edge2054]

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).

[SageAcrin]

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.

[edge2054]

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.

[PureQuestion]

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

[Aquillion]

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.