Logrin

I can honestly say that while I am a tremendous fan of the inventive worlds and wonderful writing/encounters throughout most (if not all) of spiderweb's offerings I've found the combat to be shallow and poorly balanced. Crystal souls was yet another enjoyable but flawed offering that had me hoping it would be revamped from the ground up rather than yet another (I continue to stress--enjoyable none the less) polishing of an old gem. Miss streaks, huge swaths of damage being resisted and (perhaps the greatest offender) the imbalance between melee and magic bog down what should have been a masterpiece. Combat desperately needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. To that end I offer a few suggestions I think would add a new layer of tactics to combat. Magic Rebalances Magic should absolutely remain a versatile and lethal force in the gameworld, with high-level priests and mages devastating large groups of enemies whilst bolstering your own party. However. I would also suggest treating them more like artillery, with magic never being able to miss under ideal circumstances--but most situations being far from ideal. Many actions would lower your chance to successfully cast a spell. (While the skill/trait tree would expand to help mitigate this) Moving, being too close to an enemy and especially having been recently attacked in melee would all negatively effect spellcasters, making the decision to be a warmage/warpriest (by taking skills that reduce penalties) or to be a glass canon caster more meaningful. Mages and priests should have specialized tools that require spellcraft or priestly magic to wield. Wizards would end up with mystical knick-knacks that grant them one passive bonus or another, usually with a competing penalty. Priests would grant a very minor buff or debuff to adjacent friendlies/foes by equipping theirs. (They could still of course opt to be a hybrid Caster/Fighter instead. As some of these would be small enough to stow in an off hand.) Manaclashing could be to casters what parry and riposite are to fighters. When two spellcasters start flinging magic at each other they'd have a chance (Based on appropriate skills/traits and stats) to diminish some of their attackers mana or absorb a portion of the spell that struck them--bolstering their own reserve. These effects would of course not actually impede any actual damage or disabling effects of a successful spell mind you...that should fall chiefly to armor/wards/etc. Melee and Ranged Improvements Perhaps the elephant in the room it's my earnest belief that a fundamental re-imagining of mundane combat will inject new life into the series. Let's start with threatened space. As is the current norm one doesn't simply skirt passed an adjacent enemy without being slowed (And I suggested above that a mage being in this zone should have trouble casting.) I'd suggest two small additions to how this works. First and foremost two-handed polearms should threaten twice as many surrounding squares as smaller knives and blades, making a spearman great at slowing an enemy advance. Secondly, shields should reduce how effective threatened space is against their wielder, adding the risk of enemies slipping passed swordsmen to get at mages/rangers. Next I'd like to talk about mobility and the role it has to play. Previously I compared mages to artillery for a reason. Magic has plenty going for it already but it lacks the simplicity of drawing a bow or thrusting a sword. To that end I'd suggest mundane actions such as physical attacks or firing projectiles always allow you the option to reposition afterwards. This would allow for a more rapid advance, fighting retreat, flanking maneuvers or skirmishing as enemies and players attempt to prioritize targets. Additionally as a core mechanic sources of damage and resistances thereof should be more diverse. Meaning that enemies (And selectable character races) should be more susceptible or resistant to slashing/piercing/bludgeoning damage (As opposed to a net 'physical') while the same applies to the less mundane means by which a mage might attack his foes. While stats should certainly play a role, I feel as if what you're wearing should be much, much more important. Going by flat positive and negative values instead of a percentage to measure how effective a flavor of damage will be. I'd even go so far as to suggest a lesser war-curse like debuff be attached to weapons/projectiles/spells when they hit. Such a blade making it's target bleed, blunt weapon 'winding' a foe (reduced stamina) or metal armor getting a stacking vulnerability as mages continue to heat/chill it with ice, fire and frost. Shields are almost never taken over dual wielding and I'd aim to make that choice harder. For one they could reduce the effect of threatened space as I mentioned above. Another benefit they could offer would be a slew of shield specific battle-disciplines like lending your chance to parry to adjacent allies or cutting off a cone behind yourself from being targeted at range (Though AOE could still 'splash' passed you) Thrown weapons, like javelins and razor-disks could have a stock of uses per engagement (Instead of just being infinite or needing to be rebought over and over) The goal here is to make bows a reliable weapon for the dedicated ranger while also allowing for powerful (but not plentiful) thrown weapons as an alternative. Gathered back up automatically whenever combat ends. Thoughts?