So, who gets the most out of canister usage?

[Delicious Vlish]

In G3.

 

Well, any version for that matter, but I am basing my question on G3.

 

I have been thinking about that a lot. Tactically. Strategically. I have had canister crazy Agents, Shapers, and a Hunter Guardian... The Guardian turned out more like the Terminator at the end.

 

Agents get spells, stats, and skills, but the creation canisters don't do them much good. The canister buffed Agent shouldn't need to be discussed by now.

 

Shapers get creations and spells. Most of the stat canisters don't do them a lot of good. I mean, they don't do a whole lot for Shapers, because Shapers are not physical sorts. They sort of just play a passive game, unless of course you have a jacked up Bullseye Shaper. On canisters. (Shudder, have to try that) Skills are iffy... Shapers don't get much out of melee.

 

Guardians. Guardians have a lot to build. Leadership, mechanics, luck, physical stats, melee skills, some shaping skills, skill points get tight quickly.

 

I have been thinking about this a lot, the Guardian. You can buy two levels of magic at the keep, which is cheaper than a Guardian trying to train in any magic skills.

 

Canisters seem to do a lot for Guardians. Magic boosts and spell additions allow a lot of cash to be saved for training elsewhere... Like, if you buy two levels of blessing magic, and get the third level from a canister, that allows you to use speed. Buy two levels of mental magic, and you can get a few more from canisters and items, and a Guardian should be able to cast Strong Daze with out actually spending a single skill point in magic skills. For spellcraft, there are charms and various items. There are a lot of magic boosting items actually... Those gloves, the tribal fetish that increases blessing magic. And there are a bunch of charms of mental focus, you can even make one as I recall. The Agent's Cloak. I think with a little effort that you can get every magic skill to 4 with no effort from canisters and common items. 2 from a trainer, canisters, and the cloak. And then there are the gloves, which add to battle and mental, the tribal fetish which adds to blessing... So it is possible to jack up to five. Maybe more with some items.

 

The Guardian has a lot of untapped potential to become completely jacked, magic, shaping, and melee... A jack of all trades, but will he become the master of none?

 

I remember how powerful my canister using hunter was, and how I left so many aspects of his build go to waste. I ignored magic. I see now, with the right items, the Guardian could, at least in theory, become a halfway decent mage. With strong missile weapon support and a couple of the right creations, it should be enough.

 

I think the Guardian could potentially get more out of canisters than the other classes. Maybe not the most in terms out power... No, not that at all, but the most use. I need to make another rebuild of Deadeye.

[MagmaDragoon]

I understand your point. In the end of GF3, I was powerful enought to beat Akari-Blaze alone, without loyalist/BM/creations help. I had maxed money and all magic to a high level. This playing on Tricky.

 

And the Combat Skills, IMHO, are more attractive and powerful than the Magic Skills. The Magic Skills are only types of Magic and a omni-powerup (the SpellCraft). Mainly, only attack.

 

The Combat Skills, instead, give you 2 attack abilities, allow you to chosing your type of combat (Melee or Missile), then 2 defensive abilities, that, IMHO, all classes need: Quick Action and Parry.

 

This is because I always thinked that the Guardian is more powerful than the Agent. For an Agent, all magic types are useful (the HC too), and this cause a lot of skill points go away (a lot in HC, because is weak in shaping).

 

The Guardian, instead, give you only a choice: or Melee, or Missile. So you can focus more on what you need. The Parry and QA are for all classes, so have them with "strong mode", IMHO, is a big advantage.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by MagmaDragoon:
The Combat Skills, instead, give you 2 attack abilities, allow you to chosing your type of combat (Melee or Missile), then 2 defensive abilities, that, IMHO, all classes need: Quick Action and Parry.

A Shaper or Agent that needs to invest significantly in Parry isn't being played right. Those classes shouldn't be getting attacked in the first place (unless you particularly want a melee Agent, I suppose).

Quote:

This is because I always thinked that the Guardian is more powerful than the Agent. For an Agent, all magic types are useful (the HC too), and this cause a lot of skill points go away (a lot in HC, because is weak in shaping).

Why on earth would you ever want to put skill points in Healing Craft? There's a ridiculously huge number of Healing Craft canisters in Geneforge 3.

[MagmaDragoon]

Well, yes, there are a lot of HC improvements in GF3. I was talking too much in general.

[Aoslare]

According to Schrodinger's FAQ, you can get the following from canisters:

 

Strength

Dexterity

Endurance

2 Quick Action

Parry

Battle Magic

Mental Magic

Spellcraft

Fire Shaping

2 Healing Craft

Luck

 

Searer

Ice Spray

Essence Orbs

2 Kill

Acid Shower

2 Aura of Flames

Unlock

Terror

Dominate

Strong Daze

Charisma

2 Mass Madness

Mass Energize

Steelskin

2 Essence Armor

3 Battle Roar

Group Heal

3 Major Heal

2 Mass Restore

 

Create Fyora

Create Thahd

2 Create Artila

2 Create Roamer

2 Create Vlish

2 Create Clawbug

3 Create Drayk

2 Create Glaahk

2 Create Battle Alpha

2 Create Rotghroth

2 Create Gazer

2 Create Drakon

 

Let's be frank, for any character, these bonuses are not going to make a significant difference. The best ones (including all the basic stat bonuses) aren't available until the very end of the game. Many of the Create X bonuses aren't available until a while after you gain access to that creation, so if you make use of it in shaping you'll have sub-optimal creations anyway. That said, some of them ARE available in a timely manner. So I have to say that Shapers get by far the most out of the canisters. Vlish, Drayks, Rotghroths, and Gazers, some of the best creations, will all get extra levels. The spell bonuses are also more meaningful for Shapers than for Agents, who will have super high magic skill anyway. Guardians, of course, won't use many of the spells.

[Delicious Vlish]

But they wont need cash to buy the spells... They can spend that thousand gold or whatever on something else, like another level of training.

 

Edit. Also, they wouldn't need to spend thousands on buying creations. They could just wait till they get the creation desired from a canister, which in the long run saves more money for training.

 

Lots of potential here.