36 replies to this topic

[CamDawg]

I hate the idea of giving Peanlelian more HP.

The changes to Peanelian will, in practice, reduce her HP. She currently has 20 HP with a 90% physical damage resistance, which means you need 200HP worth of damage to kill her. That 20HP is also completely resistant to magic as well. 75HP with resistances removed will make her more vulnerable.

That being said, there's no reason we can't include the original as an install option.

[mobius327]

How about having kitty start weaker and improve durring the game? Maybe tie upgrades into events in the game. Raising tashia after fighting Arelistan, the start of TOB, master wraith?

[Bri]

How about having kitty start weaker and improve durring the game? Maybe tie upgrades into events in the game. Raising tashia after fighting Arelistan, the start of TOB, master wraith?

That could be possible to do as well, but then we would have to still decide what abilities she would get...and at what levels

[Lord Ernie]

This thread has gone on too long for me not to react on it, so here it comes:

First of all, I second the general opinion that Arilistan's loot is far too much and too good. The items themselves are already a bit over the top, but the sheer amount of them is, well, not quit right. I mean, like 4 amulets of power? 6 or so of that special +2 katana? Perhaps creating a few unique items or so would improve the balance a bit, and not dropping half a dozen of them will undoubtebly help as well.

As for the downtuning of Peanelian, I can't really say much. I didn't use her all that much (like once to try out what she was about) in the original mod, and probably won't in the update. Basically, I don't allow whatever enemies I'm fighting to cast Timestop anyway... Apart from that though, if her resistances are as high as CamDawg is saying, well, that's perhaps a tiny bit too much, isn't it?


As for Tashia's own items and resistances, I say do away with the innate resistances, cause they are a bit high. About her items though, I have my doubts...

Edwin and Nalia both come without bracers, and Jan is the only NPC I can remember that comes equipped with more than two magic items (armor, gloves, crossbow).

True enough, but apart from the fact that Jan's crossbow (or at least the bolts) are quite good (in Tactics they're lifesavers, I tell you), Nalia's wearing quite a powerful ring (+2 to AC, +2 to saves, 50% Fire resistance). And Edwin's amulet? +2 Spells/Spell level is extremely powerful, much better then any amulet in the game for a pure mage. True, the two latter ones can't be removed, but who cares? There isn't any better material out there...

So I'd say, do away with some of the items, but perhaps give Tashia some kind of unique item as well. What disturbed me most about the items, was not that they were too powerful or that there were too many of them, but that there weren't any new things among them... (Yes, I know, making new items is extra work as well; but it's worth a shot, no?).

[CamDawg]

Yeah, I'm thinking about backtracking on Tashia's items a bit. I forgot that Peanelian is non-removable, which is IMO a penalty since she loses a quickslot. I think I'll add back one more item, though I doubt it would be unique since she already has her cat.

A one-shot upgrade for Peanelian is also logical, as mage familiars upgrade for ToB. I've always considered her scrimshaw as a familiar equivalent, so I'll work on coding this as well. I'll check what sort of changes occur to the familiars and try to make her boosts in-line.

[LordRikerQ]

Wow.. Whats with the "Nerf Tashia!" Stuff? Maybe the enemies (except atril) should loose uber loot but Tashia should keep her stuff, if you dont like her having it its not hard to sell it and give her junk to use. No offense, but nerfing her into oblivion is alittle insane.

[kirkjobsluder]

Yeah, here is another vote that the kitty is a bit too powerful. That darn cat was pretty much a single lych-killer, (just throw in a breach spell early to get rid of the stoneskin), and the attack rate made her more deadly than the skelleton warriors.

[Uriel]

Yeah, here is another vote that the kitty is a bit too powerful. That darn cat was pretty much a single lych-killer, (just throw in a breach spell early to get rid of the stoneskin), and the attack rate made her more deadly than the skelleton warriors.

(Off topic) Yes, the cat is a lich killer alright, but are you sure that liches can be breached? Liches, I believe, are immune to fifth level and lower spells.

[kirkjobsluder]

Yeah, here is another vote that the kitty is a bit too powerful.  That darn cat was pretty much a single lych-killer, (just throw in a breach spell early to get rid of the stoneskin), and the attack rate made her more deadly than the skelleton warriors.

(Off topic) Yes, the cat is a lich killer alright, but are you sure that liches can be breached? Liches, I believe, are immune to fifth level and lower spells.

I don't know about that. I've never had a problem using breach so far.

[Rassadihn]

Anyone who removes Peani's immunity to Time Stop shall Face my Wrath ™. I spent a whole day on figuring out how to put it in. :-D

Seriously, though, as far as my ?0.02 go: make the uber-loot undroppable, nerf some of Peani's resistances if you must but don't touch the HP (it's supposed to be low) or the TS immunity (come on, it's not like he can shapeshift into a Mind Flayer or summon the Infernal Host while in there :-). Regular liches fall way too easily to cheese anyway. Tactics' smarter liches make mincemeat out of Peani, TS immunity or no. Don't read more into it than there is.

Tashia's resistances are just Mary Sue indulgence on Arian's part -- I asked him once, and basically she's got MR because she's a sorceress and cold resistance because she used to live somewhere cold. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether that's reasonable, but I can tell you now that lots of NPCs should get some bonuses based on that :-) That said, removing them will only make the worshippers at the Temple of Realism happy, and theirs is a cruel god.

Finally: Peanelian is a he. ("He has aided me more than once in most perilous times... Treat him well, please!") Don't fall into the "your name sounds female" trap. And don't look at the .CRE in any case (actually, I don't know what it says. :-)

[CamDawg]

If Peanelian's gender is anything but 'Summoned' then that's something else to fix.

[CamDawg]

CRE files only have one gender field.

[Arian]

Peanelian is not overpowered starting halfway through the game. I admit he (note: he is a male ) is quite powerful in the beginning, but loses his "uberness" quite fast. By ToA he's pretty much just another wand-like item that never gets used. The resistances are high, of course -- but 20 HP guys! Single Burning Hands could kill him from what I recall. When I was making the mod, I did thorough testing before putting him in. The idea was to make him unique, and useful in only certain pushover situations (read: lich fights), not make him in line with everything else. If there's one thing that truly frustrated me was how overpowering liches and timestop-casting NPCs were. Peanelian was just a small way of mending the problem, the way I saw it.

As for multiple powerful items from the fights -- I agree with you all, they should be toned down. As JC said, I wanted to make the bosses challenging, and not by beefing up stats, but by adding items -- making them just like the players themselves. Just playing it fair.

[Rassadihn]

CRE files only have one gender field.

Then Near Infinity should be fixed.

Either that, or "gender" is no longer a synonym for a specific meaning of "sex".

[Darlatan]

Peanelian is not overpowered starting halfway through the game. I admit he (note: he is a male ) is quite powerful in the beginning, but loses his "uberness" quite fast. By ToA he's pretty much just another wand-like item that never gets used. The resistances are high, of course -- but 20 HP guys! Single Burning Hands could kill him from what I recall. When I was making the mod, I did thorough testing before putting him in. The idea was to make him unique, and useful in only certain pushover situations (read: lich fights), not make him in line with everything else. If there's one thing that truly frustrated me was how overpowering liches and timestop-casting NPCs were. Peanelian was just a small way of mending the problem, the way I saw it.

As for multiple powerful items from the fights -- I agree with you all, they should be toned down. As JC said, I wanted to make the bosses challenging, and not by beefing up stats, but by adding items -- making them just like the players themselves. Just playing it fair.

Well, it's a good idea to have the evil stuff have gear, and have some of it be droppable, but it shouldn't really be equippable by the party.

One unreality is giving the party TONS of gear, the other is giving them nothing but some gems and gold. A few amor and weapons ranging from +1-+3 level, and anything else be pretty evilly enchanted.

[Rathwellin the Bard]

Peanelian is not overpowered starting halfway through the game. I admit he (note: he is a male ) is quite powerful in the beginning, but loses his "uberness" quite fast. By ToA he's pretty much just another wand-like item that never gets used. The resistances are high, of course -- but 20 HP guys! Single Burning Hands could kill him from what I recall. When I was making the mod, I did thorough testing before putting him in. The idea was to make him unique, and useful in only certain pushover situations (read: lich fights), not make him in line with everything else. If there's one thing that truly frustrated me was how overpowering liches and timestop-casting NPCs were. Peanelian was just a small way of mending the problem, the way I saw it.

As for multiple powerful items from the fights -- I agree with you all, they should be toned down. As JC said, I wanted to make the bosses challenging, and not by beefing up stats, but by adding items -- making them just like the players themselves. Just playing it fair.

Agree about power level of Peanelian. By ToB he only gets summoned once the big spells and big summonds have failed and I'm giving every last ditch effort to buy time for my melee folks.