Men are from Slars

Just Strength. For creations Dex ONLY influences dodge rate. Strength covers damage and hit rate for all creation attacks.

Well, you can always pretend he's a missle guardian using gems (very slowly) and give him Essence Orbs or somesuch attack. I fail to see how an acid baton would be in any way unbalanced, btw. The base damage is lower than Searer (1-3 instead of 1-4) and Artila, which are available very early, get to use Searer. A few points in Magic Shaping and they'll be many levels higher than Alwan, too, and stay that way the entire game. Alwan won't run out of energy, so that's nice I guess, but still. If you want further realism, I'd recommend giving Alwan some armor protection. He's nakeder than a servile!

*facepalm*

Quote: Originally written by bigfix: vlish are hairless ballons. That's awesome. If I had not decided to stop namechanging, this post would totally have been made by 99 Vlishballons.

Quote: Originally written by bigfix: Quote: The point is that he is so wretchedly gimpy compared with Greta he is not, just cast essence shield and uagument on him and he's fine. Do you understand what the words "compared with" mean?

Nobody is arguing that Alwan is impossible to use, and that he can never be helpful at all. The point is that he is so wretchedly gimpy compared with Greta, with practically any creation, or with a Guardian or Agent. I don't think that can be contested.

The point is that guardians and battle betas are competing to get dumped on the most by us

Hmm. Maybe "Guardians vs. Battle Betas"

If you keep your creations at high level by creating as soon as the type you want becomes available, they will likely have high enough natural Dex to act before almost all enemies, even on Torment. My Vlish have *never* gotten second strike as of yet.

I think we've found the Geneforge equivalent to "Nephils vs. Sliths." It's called "Guardians vs."

I haven't tested this with Alwan and Greta specifically, but for creations -- and it should be the same for them -- Dex only affects dodge rate. Hit rate for any creation attack is determined by the attack, the creation, and the creation's Str. (Has anyone tested this specifically with them?)

For a missile user, the Tiny Orb of Mist enhancement, which gives +5% to dodge all attacks, might actually be better than a Golden Crystal, and significantly so. For anyone else, your dodge rate will be too low to count anyway, due to not pumping Dex. It also might be better on Normal, where it's easier to dodge.

It's been a while, but I believe my no canister Melee Agent who relied on Strong Daze had a Mental + Spellcraft score of around 30-32 by endgame and had no trouble dazing things.

I don't know how Wild Magic worked in BG2, but I'm guessing that it didn't create permanent effects of potentially drastic power increases. Save and reload isn't very effective in most fights because there are a large number of tiny dice rolls made every turn. If you have a single dice roll that could give you a Fyora or an Eyebeast, something useless or something broken, permanently, for the rest of the game -- save and reload is very effective there. And the key part is the permanent part. Even if the difference is just between a level 5 Vlish and a level 6 Vlish, that's a permanent power difference for the rest of the game. I don't like using save and reload, personally, but I would still find it very hard not to reload if I knew that I had been dealt a lesser option.

Yes, that 5% damage reduction saves my life every day. Instead of taking 40 damage from that Artila, I take 38. Oh Joy.

Simplest formula for success as a shaper: Upgrade to Artila as soon as possible. Pump your Magic Shaping skill and make as many as you can afford. You should have no problems at all on the first island. Then upgrade to Vlish. If you do that, you can pretty much handle other details however you want, and you should be fine.

I don't think I've seen a single RPG that's handled this sort of thing well -- aside from the bulk of them, that don't let you attack friendly characters in the first place. In theory, it's nice to be able to role play a character with few morals, and kill and loot whatever you like. But given a game engine that is really designed for at least moderately amicable characters, I don't see the point in even having the option.

That would be wonderful. Man -- that would increase the design space of Geneforge about a zillion times. Here's to dreaming.

No, it's not. Being able to attack from a distance is a huge advantage for any attack type. HUGE. MONUMENTAL. That's why melee weapons had better dice than spells and missile weapons in G1 and G2. What was perhaps unfair is that battle magic had two pumpable stats to missile weapons' one. Given the other advantages of battle magic (unlimited supply, lack of encumbrance, lack of hassle) that was a pretty unfair comparison.

On the one hand, that sounds like a cool system. On the other hand, as things stand now, it would be a purely cosmetic change. The only difference between a Fyora and a Charged Fyora is base level. The only difference between Battle Alphas, Betas, and Gammas is base level. So the creations would still need to be differentiated.

No, it's not. Strength has always added to melee damage.

Just because hand gestures are involved doesn't mean understanding isn't.

Also, it will become very hard to hit, but it will still get hit at least once in a while; if enemies hit for a lot, creations with stronger offenses might be more practical. That said, Thahd Shades do have a very nice base level (= endurance and total HP) and decent base HP bonuses.

Random results on that kind of scale = really, really bad. It would be one thing, though, to have a really complex algorithm that seemed sort of random, but where the same input always gave you the same output. That would encourage empirical experimentation, rather than just magic 8 ball save-reloads.

Quote: Originally written by Delicious Vlish: I'd really like to see a game where you are actually in Shaper society, rather than isolated on an island or in some backwater outpost. Good luck. A1/2: Remote, isolated area (caves, exiled), recently settled A3: Relatively remote, isolated area (quarantine), relatively recently settled VODT: Remote, isolated area (valley, quarantine) ASR: Remote, isolated area (island, quarantine), relatively recently settled ZKR: Remote, isolated area (caves, warzone), never settled DWTD: Remote, isolated area, recently settled Nethergate: Remote, isolated area (valley) G1: Remote, super isolated area (island, quarantine), deserted G2: Remote, isolated area (valley, quarantine), recently settled G3: Remote, isolated area (islands, quarantine) Did I mention that if I never see the word "quarantine" in a Spidweb game or scenario again, I will be very happy?