Item-Balancing Poll

[SixOfSpades]

OPINION: (A very widely held opinion, but still just an opinion.) Some Items Are Overpowered. An example of this would be the Flail of Ages, which, in addition to its very handy +3 enchantment and multiple types of Elemental damage (which bypasses Stoneskin and causes Spell Disruption), also has the ability to Slow the victim, without allowing a Saving Throw OR checking for Magic Resistance. In addition, this Slow effect is cumulative, which means that a Slowed creature can be Slowed again, and take another set of +4 penalties to its THAC0 and AC, and even--get this--have its Speed Factor set higher than 10, meaning it cannot make any attacks at all.

OPINION: Some Items Are Underpowered. So underpowered that you would never seriously consider using them--this is especially true for items that can only be attained after having done something else. For instance, the mace called "Ardulia's Fall" is the Quest Reward for a long, complex, and difficult quest, which includes a large hive full of Beholderkin. After that grueling endeavor, you are "rewarded" with a +1 weapon that can Slow its victim for about 1 round, IF the victim fails their Save, and they get a bonus to their Save. Chance that a party strong enough to beat the quest will actually use Ardulia's Fall: Slim to None.

OPINION: Some Items Were Just Plain Implemented Wrong. Consider the Frostreaver Axe: Its description states that it was the favored weapon of a Frost Giant. This would imply a weapon of considerable size, as Giants tend to prefer tools with a good, weighty heft to them. After all, Joril's Dagger was only a Dagger to Joril, but is a Two-Handed Sword to a Human. Why, then, can Frostreaver be held in one hand, and indeed be Dual-Wielded, and by Halflings at that?

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Please list whatever items in the game that *YOU* consider to be
A) Overpowered / cheesy / munchkin
B) Underpowered / in need of something to make them more noticed or useful
C) In need of some changes, but nothing that really makes the item drastically weaker or stronger

Please don't list any MOD items, such as Sanchuudoku. That's the MOD designer's business, not mine. Also, if you want to name any ToB items, please use invisible text (The colors are #3D2F1B for the darker posts, and #44341D for the lighter ones), even if it's an upgrade of an SoA item, such as (Carsomyr+6).

An "Item-Balancing" MOD will eventually come out of this, but for now I've got other things on my plate, so I'm just taking a poll.

[JrKASperov]

We need a good long sword and bastard sword and short sword. For those common weapons, you would have expected some more of them with higher enchantments (common is +2... come on...) and with more special abilities... All those bastards swords are +2 and take time to be found, long swords are just not fun to play until ToB and short swords... The one with Free Action is nice, but we need a good one of +3...

[SixOfSpades]

I'm not talking about creating new items, but editing existing ones. For instance, you mention the lack of noteworthy Short Swords and Bastard Swords in the early part of the game--you might take that same sentiment, and use it to nominate the Short Sword of Backstabbing and Kondar as items that could stand to be improved. (Or is it "Krondar"?)

[LennonCook]

I remember reading a while back that someone has found a way to use multiple .EFF files on an item, depending on who's wielding it. This may help rebalance things like the Short Sword of Backstabbing, the Staff of the Magi, Cleric's Staff, and Carsomyr by making them mundane weapons for everyone but their target classes - but in the hands of the target class, they become truly legendary.

CFury - that stun is just too much. An enchanted Katana that can do elemental damage should be powerful enough.

The Silver Sword's kill effect works on too many things... you shouldn't be able to use a sharpened sword to lop the head off anything bigger than yourself. Let alone dragons and giants which are meant to be atleast 10 times bigger than you.

The number of katanas in the game should be toned down. Alot. Change all of the unenchanted ones to Ninja-Tos or something, aswell as some of the enchanted ones - like the Katana + 1 you get fairly early on (forget where, though).

Robe of Vecna - change it down to reduce casting time by *2* or something.

Daystar/Mace of Disruption - while it's a good idea to have them guarded by undead (guard with your life that which can kill you easily), make it so they can't be used against their guardians.

The Wave/Silver Sword/Equaliser/Multiple other things - make atleast one of the pieces usable *before* the upgrade... it doesn't make too much sense to find a piece of a weapon that has been carried around by alot of people since the weapon broke, when the bits of it are plain useless. "I found a sword blade... it's absolutely useless by itself, but I'll keep it anyway because it's realy valuable for some reason"

And finally, there are just too many enchanted items lying round... especially in TOB. To not bother picking up an item because it is only +2 is a good sign of this.

[SpongeBobTheDestoyer]

I think the Mauler's Arm is a little underpowered. I like that it gives you 18 STR but then who wants to use a weapon that does nothing else. Maybe it could have an effect or do some elemental damage.

And why do we have arrows that do fire, acid, poison, cold, and dispel and bolts that do lightning, poison, fire(crossbow effect), and stunning but only bullets that do fire damage(sunstone). Something should be done to beef up a sling or some new bullets made.

That's just my two cents.

[Assassin]

Flail of Ages: You could make it a 50% chance, but no penalty to Saving Throw, and MR stops it.

CF: Lower the chance to 33% for Stun, and it should be all right. Come on... I know that some people are in favor of killing the Stun completely, but the main problem is the fact taht it can hit every single time for a Stun. Now, there's a 1/3 chance of it.

SotM: I say make it cursed. Now, you're going to make yourself visible, as well as cast Remove Curse every single freaking time you use it (if you want to blink using it, that is)!

LennonCook: Why tone down the unenchanted Katanas? I think that they're fine. Sure, they might do 1d10 damage, while everything else does 2d4 or something, but that's nothing too big. There should be a point for using Katanas other than for CF.

[Sagramore]

A) I definately think that the Crom Faeyr could be toned down...I understand being able to kill golems but some of the other "instant kills" (i thin ktrolls is one of them...correct me i'm wrong) could be eliminated.
B)The Lilacor could be a more useful weapon, like maybe having the ability fight on its own for 2 hours every day (it says it has the spirit of its former owner). And the bastard sword +1, +3 vs. Shapechangers...no...i never used this item or would have gotten it in time to kill a "shapechanger"
C)I just don't understand why dwarves/halflings/gnomes don't get a penalty or have to use two hands with bastard swords man...come on now, it makes sense

[jason0273]

The biggest overpowered item I found was the shield of balderam?? (the one that reflects back beholder spells) even with the -1 str it is still way to powerful. I used to have a tough time with beholders but now when i encounter them I just retreat everyone from the area but my charter with the shield and let them kill themselves.

[Morgeruat]

Originally posted by LennonCook: I remember reading a while back that someone has found a way to use multiple .EFF files on an item, depending on who's wielding it. This may help rebalance things like the Short Sword of Backstabbing, the Staff of the Magi, Cleric's Staff, and Carsomyr by making them mundane weapons for everyone but their target classes - but in the hands of the target class, they become truly legendary.

Carsomyr should be a +2 weapon unusable by non(lawful-)good character, it could be made good only, or lawful good only depending on whether you think the blade itself has an alignment and how strict it is within it's alignment (full power when used by Paladins)

most non-magical Katana's should be replaced with Wakizashi's, the ninja-to is a very rare weapon used only by the ninja, and even they disguise it as a wakizashi to avoid the suspicion that would follow if they were wielding the trademark weapon of an assassin/thief/spy/etc.

[ 07-21-2003, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Xen]

I think Ravager(ToB Item) should be toned down.
I mean i was having the ToB NPC(or almost anyone else for that matter) and everything was just too damn easy...
I think most of the weapons in ToB in general are overpowerd but with Ascension(or without it) the ToB Final Boss is though...like hell