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Post by pi4t on Aug 10, 2010 10:34:50 GMT
I think we can all agree that some disciplines are more useful than others. For instance, who would pick animal kinship over healing? Balancing the disciplines, so that they are all more or less equally useful would make the game more enjoyable, and that's what I'd like to do, with everyone's help, of course! Of course, different disciplines are more useful to different playstyles: having everything add 2CS is no fun! Kai disciplines first: The first step's to assign a rating to each discipline based on its usefulness: 10=absolutely essential, cannot win without it, 0=no benefits at all. Camouflage: 4 Hunting: 6 Sixth Sense: 6 Tracking: 5 Healing: 9 Weaponskill: 7 Mindshield: 4 Mindblast: 8 Animal Kinship: 2 Mind Over Matter: 2 Any comments on these ratings are welcome at this point. EDIT: The Kai Discipline rules are now completed. They're here, for easy viewing: Kai DisciplinesOver the centuries, the Kai monks have mastered the skills of the warrior. These skills are known as the Kai Disciplines, and they are taught to all Kai Lords. You have learnt only five of the skills listed below. The choice of which five skills these are, is for you to make. As all of the Disciplines may be of use to you at some point on your perilous quest, pick your five with care. The correct use of a Discipline at the right time can save your life. When you have chosen your five Disciplines, enter them in the Kai Disciplines section of your Action Chart. CamouflageThis Discipline enables a Kai Lord to blend in with his surroundings. In the countryside, he can hide undetected among trees and rocks and pass close to an enemy without being seen. In a town or city, it enables him to look and sound like a native of that area, and can help him to find shelter or a safe hiding place. If you choose this skill, write ‘Camouflage’ on your Action Chart. HuntingThis skill ensures that a Kai Lord will never starve in the wild. He will always be able to hunt for food for himself except in areas of wasteland and desert. The skill also enables a Kai Lord to be able to move stealthily when stalking his prey. If you choose this skill, write ‘Hunting: no need for a Meal when instructed to eat’ on your Action Chart. Sixth SenseThis skill may warn a Kai Lord of imminent danger. It may also reveal the true purpose of a stranger or strange object encountered in your adventure. If you choose this skill, write ‘Sixth Sense’ on your Action Chart. TrackingThis skill enables a Kai Lord to make the correct choice of a path in the wild, to discover the location of a person or object in a town or city and to read the secrets of footprints or tracks. If you choose this skill, write ‘Tracking’ on your Action Chart. HealingThis Discipline can be used to restore ENDURANCE points lost in combat. If you possess this skill you may pick a number from the random number table after each battle. Divide this number by 2, and round fractions down, to give a number between 0 and 4. This is the number of ENDURANCE points you may restore, to a maximum of the number of points you had before combat started. If you choose this skill write ‘Healing: +0 to 4 ENDURANCE points after combat' on your Action Chart. WeaponskillUpon entering the Kai Monastery, each initiate is taught to master one type of weapon. If Weaponskill is to be one of your Kai Disciplines, pick a number in the usual way from the Random Number Table, and then find the corresponding weapon from the list below. This is the weapon in which you have skill. When you enter combat carrying this weapon, you add 1 point to your COMBAT SKILL. The fact that you are skilled with a weapon does not mean you set out on the adventure carrying that particular weapon. However, you will have opportunities to acquire weapons in the course of your adventures. If you pick the axe, you are lucky enough to be skilled in the one weapon Lone Wolf is carrying from the start of the adventure. (Explained fully in the Equipment section.) You cannot carry more than 2 weapons. If you choose this skill, write ‘Weaponskill in _______ +1 COMBAT SKILL point if this weapon carried’ on your Action Chart. MindshieldThe Darklords and many of the evil creatures in their command have the ability to attack you using their Mindforce. The Kai Discipline of Mindshield prevents you from losing any ENDURANCE points when subjected to this form of attack. If you choose this skill, write ‘Mindshield: no points lost when attacked by Mindblast’ on your Action Chart. MindblastThis enables a Kai Lord to attack an enemy using the force of his mind. It can be used at the same time as normal combat weapons and adds one extra point to your COMBAT SKILL. Not all the creatures encountered on this adventure will be harmed by Mindblast. You will be told if a creature is immune. If you choose this skill, write ‘Mindblast: +1 COMBAT SKILL point’ on your Action Chart. Animal KinshipThis skill enables a Kai Lord to communicate with some animals and to be able to guess the intentions of others. It will allow you to add 4 COMBAT SKILL points in any battle involving animals, be it fighting an animal, fighting a mounted enemy, fighting an enemy while mounted, etc. These bonuses are not cumulative, so if both you and your enemy are mounted, for instance, you will still only gain 4 COMBAT SKILL points. If you choose this skill, write ‘Animal Kinship: +4 COMBAT SKILL points in combats with animals in’ on your Action Chart. Mind Over MatterMastery of this Discipline enables a Kai Lord to move small objects with his powers of concentration. It will allow you to add 3 points to any random number to avoid being hit by missiles If you choose this skill, write ‘Mind Over Matter:+3 to random number due to missiles’ on your Action Chart.
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Post by kamikaze1900666 on Aug 10, 2010 11:37:31 GMT
I'd actually say Weaponskill is more useful than Mindblast- you only need the right weapon and NOTHING is immune to it. Considering how many combats you encounter with creatures that are immune to Mindblast, and how many are capable of using it, I'd venture to say Mindshield is just as important as its inverse, if not more so- including non-combat sections where they can be used. I'd bump both Animal Kinship and Mind Over Matter a notch- simply because you don't need the Magic Spear in FotW, nor the Silver Key in TCoK. With the availability of potions and curative meals, Healing isn't as important- though only by a notch or two. I have my reasons for the rest, but my list would read:
Camouflage: 4 Hunting: 6 Sixth Sense: 5 Tracking: 5 Healing: 7 Weaponskill: 8 (only because it's a 40% chance I'll get any sword) Mindshield: 6 Mindblast: 6 Animal Kinship: 3 Mind Over Matter: 3
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Post by altwren on Aug 10, 2010 15:32:43 GMT
First, a small examination of a LW book's structure. The object of any Lone Wolf book is to reach the final section of the book. The most common reason for this not to happen is death. Death can mainly occur in three ways: Hard Battles, Bad Choices and Falling Masts. As usually nothing but luck can save you from a falling mast, my choices are based on the disciplines ability to help in one of the other two areas.
Here's my rankings, in order. I do differ in opinion on some points from your list.
Healing - 9 Absolutely vital for survival, to the point of almost being cheating. I used to not take it, just because in sucks any challenge out of most books. However, in my recent legit runthrough, I learned to accept it a vital. It will, quite literally, keep you alive! Healing's job is to ensure that, once you reach a tough combat (looking in your direction, Helghast), you are at full full EP to help deal with it.
Sixth Sense - 8 Now, I haven't done any math on what disciplines block which deaths in which books, but I'm pretty sure Sixth Sense can save you from a few of them. Couple that with all the useful information you can gather with it, and it becomes a skill no Kai Initiate should travel without. Knowledge is power.
Tracking - 7 Another knowledge skill, Tracking will help you again avoid paths that lead to death. I know for a fact that in book 1, if you don't have tracking you face a 50/50 death chance. There's a section to pick between left and right. Tracking reveals the correct path, and the wrong one kills you. 50/50 is not a chance I'm willing to leave up to fate; my Lone Wolf never leaves the monastary without Tracking.
Weaponskill - 6 Weaponskill is the most reliable way to get a bonus to CS. Roll your weapon, find one, then reap the benefits. Though +2 is not a great bonus, it helps a lot over time, saving you an endurance or 2 one fight, then the next. Keeping your CS as high as possible is key to surviving when the big baddies show up. Now, this skill loses a lot of it's edge post-Sommerswerd, but it will get you to the Sommerswerd and you might even get a chance to use it again down the road in Book 5.
Mindshield - 5 A personal favorite of mine. Mindshield is underrated. It might not be useful all the time, but when you need it, you NEED it. As mentioned above, it's not the little pirate thugs or wild animals that are going to kill you. It's the Darklords big baddies, in books 1 - 5 case, the Helghasts. You need every advantage you can get when you go up against these guys and if you don't have Mindshield when you take on someone of this calibre, you'll be feeling it.
Animal Kinship - 4 Only Book 2 keeps Animal Kinship even this high on the list. The encounter will the mice is a lifesaver, and without Animal Kinship, you're probably dead in Book 2, even if you find the spear, which is a 50/50 chance. Then, you either keep the spear, or have this discipline. Other than that, it's fairly useless. Well, I guess it have uses, but not life saving ones.
Camouflage - 3 Camouflage falls in at being a very useful and neat skill, without being vital. It can do cool things, but it probably won't save your life as much as other skills. Camouflages usual job is to avoid a combat, and not too tough of one either. It's cool, but really, you could do without.
Mind Over Matter - 2 Now we're getting down there... Mind Over Matter is very much like Camouflage in that it's neat, but not vital. It can get you through a situation in an interesting way, but you can probably find a way past that problem without too much trouble without Mind Over Matter. The only reason it ranks above Hunting is due to the added save it can provide in the revised Book 1. This or Mindblast can save you from another 50/50 death roll.
Hunting - 1 Big fan of Hunting? Oh, you're not going to like me. Hunting is the second most useless skill Lone Wolf has available to him. It blocks damage from not eating meals, and only works half the time. For god sakes, just carry some meals! They're plentiful. I think you get, like 5 just for starting Book 4. Huntings other draw is the ability to add 1 or 2 to random numbers when doing agile stuff. Yeah, that can be useful, but it certainly doesn't help as much as the above skills, nor is it as commonly useful as Camouflage or even Mind Over Matter. Avoid this one.
Mindblast - 0 And finally, the most useless Discipline of them all, Mindblast. Mindblast is a chump skill that adds 2 to your CS, whenever you don't need it. Remember what I've said before... It's not the easy combats that kill you, it's the tough ones. And you can be sure that if it's hard, it's immune to Mindblast. It's not only mentally endowed monsters that are immune either. It seems if a monster is mad enough, it can block Mindblast with anger alone. Do Lone Wolf a favor and pick something more useful than this... Namely anything!
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Post by blackstoneca on Aug 10, 2010 20:29:04 GMT
Weapon Skill to me is the one of the more important ones, and I will admit, I normally cheat and have the sword be one of the ones I choose. That extra +2 can mean the difference between -1/2 to Even on the combat chart.
Sixth Sense, as it saves you too many times to count
Healing. You can get by without it in books 3 and on when you have ready access to Laumspur potions, however, books 1 and 2 are really rough without it. (I know I normally die without it in book 1, but then again, I go looking for fights)
Mindshield: Again most of the real bad guys have it, and saves you damage
After those four it starts to get fuzy
Hunting helps you in Book 1, and gives bonuses to some random choices that prevent you from bad luck death. Also in the first two books, meals are hard to come by, and the 5 meals that you can get at the start book 4 don't matter much unless you get to book 4.
Tracking is tied with Hunting. I guess I am lucky and never seem to run into the section where it is a 50% flirt with death. I think it is because I have Sixth Sense and gives me a different path choice.
I normally choose mind blast next, as while many bad foes are immune to it, not all are, and that extra +2 gives me that much more a chance of "autokill" and less chance to take anyoying damage.
Camaflauge is near the bottom, and I found doesn't help too much till you get to books 4-5.
Mind over Matter and Animal Kinship are near the bottom always, despite the fact you need Animal Kinship to get past book 2 if you don't want to have to hunt for the magic spear. I could never justify it, and that is the only book where it has a major impact. Book 5 it comes to play a little, but not much.
Magnakai Disciplines are completely diffferent.
No matter how many times I play through, my first three always seem to be
Weapon Mastery (For +3 and for the Bonus to Bow, this plus the Silver Bow from Book 6 makes anytime you need to use a Bow an instant win choice)
Huntmastery for the never needing a meal, the bonus to avoid random bad luck times, and to complete Lore Circle of Fire for the +1/+1 bonus
Then Mindshield, again because it is worth its weight in gold.
After that, I start working on the Lore Circle of Spirit, so by book 9 I have it to give me the +3/+3, which makes the fight against the Zim at the end a bit easier.
I normally go for Nexus in Book 7, then Psi-Surge in Book 8, but I have interchanged it, with getting Divination in book 9 to complete the circle.
After that its the Lore Circle of Solaris. It depends on the route I take in book 10. If I go through the swamp, its Pathmanship I take, if its to the battle, I take Invisibility, taking up the other in Book 11.
Only in Book 12 do I take Curing
Animal Control I don't touch. Just never liked it.
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Post by pi4t on Aug 10, 2010 21:53:45 GMT
Camouflage: I'd agree about it being 'a useful and neat skill', but I think that's worth more than a 3. 4 Hunting: While you can get meals, they take up backpack spaces that could better be used for other things. In addition to this, the random numbers the increased agility grants you are more often prevent-death ones than, say, camouflage. 5 Sixth Sense: Fair enough, it can be pretty useful. I think I underated it. The information aspect becomes less useful in replays, though. 7 Tracking: Again, I underrated. 7. Healing: Sorry, but this is ridiculously overpowered. Why would you get Weaponskill, for a possible +2CS, over +1E per section? Those potions are useful later on (book 11, perhaps?). 9 Weaponskill: Hmm. I see what you mean, and I suppose it is nearly half the Kai series that you don't have the SS (and you have a 4 in 10 chance of getting it compatible with the SS). 8 Mindshield: OK, but it's so rarely useful! 5 Mindblast: I disagree. It may not be A little pirate or thug, but there are lots of little enemies to each big enemy. It will often increase your damage by 2 points, or reduce your enemy's by 1. 7 Animal Kinship: Yeah, the MS situation. But that is nearly its only use. 4 Mind Over Matter: This seems to have been generally agreed upon. And I'm talking about the PA editions, Altwren! 2 So here's the updated list: Camouflage: 4 Hunting: 5 Sixth Sense: 7 Tracking: 7 Healing: 9 Weaponskill: 8 Mindshield: 5 Mindblast: 7 Animal Kinship: 3 Mind Over Matter: 2 Hmm, quite a large mix. We probably want to get everything to about 5-6, so there's still a reasonable challenge without it being impossible. Any suggestions are welcome. Here's one to start with: Healing. This method, which I saw in the Dark One fan series, had it restore 1-10 E after each combat, to a maximum of the amount of E lost in the battle. This makes healing potions more important, and should make Healing about 7. Oh, if anyone hasn't entered their ratings, there's still time to do so
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Post by kamikaze1900666 on Aug 10, 2010 22:31:18 GMT
Healing. You can get by without it in books 3 and on when you have ready access to Laumspur potions, however, books 1 and 2 are really rough without it. (I know I normally die without it in book 1, but then again, I go looking for fights) Even looking for fights, I usually don't die in Book 1 unless it's a low-stat run. There's only a couple real tough ones that may make me shave it close near the end, but usually I'm OK. Book 2 has cures everywhere- restore half, restore 1-2, restore 6, then full cure before your trip home. I usually start a rampage in Gorn Cove if I have Animal Kinship and decent stats (what? someone tried to poison me so I see red), I spare the villagers lives (though the town watch usually falls) if not and still make it out of the Helghast with a couple EP left. It's a handy skill, just not nearly vital IMO Mindblast - 0 And finally, the most useless Discipline of them all, Mindblast. Mindblast is a chump skill that adds 2 to your CS, whenever you don't need it. Remember what I've said before... It's not the easy combats that kill you, it's the tough ones. And you can be sure that if it's hard, it's immune to Mindblast. It's not only mentally endowed monsters that are immune either. It seems if a monster is mad enough, it can block Mindblast with anger alone. Do Lone Wolf a favor and pick something more useful than this... Namely anything! It's only real use is if you're a brawler- the extra CS MIGHT help save an EP or two from the weaker combats so you have it for the big baddies who are usually immune. If you're not looking for fights, then yeah I have to agree.
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Post by altwren on Aug 11, 2010 3:46:31 GMT
The reason I put Mindblast so low is because of Healing. Most fights usually have several sections in between without combat for healing any scrapes and bruises Mindblast would have saved you. I considered it so low because I always play with Healing now, but I can certainly see Mindblast's usefulness in the absence of Healing.
I didn't really assign scores between 10 and 0, just ranked them in the order I value them. I pretty much agree with the value's Pi4t is giving them. I'd lower Mindblast to 5 since it's only a help in some combats and Tracking to a 6, one below Sixth Sense, cause Sixth Sense is useful in more situations. Other than that, I agree.
Something I thought of during the day after my previous post is about Weaponskill and the ever ongoing debate about the shield and two-handed weapons. Since you don't get to pick which weapon you get, if you roll a spear, broadsword or quarterstaff, 30% chance, you can't use it with a shield. That could cost you a plus +2 to your combat skill, same bonus that weaponskill gives, negating it. Just an interesting point I thought of. Could be reason to lower the ranking.
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Post by pi4t on Aug 11, 2010 10:52:55 GMT
Since there's nothing in the text AT THIS POINT to indicate you can't use a shield and 2H weapon, I say you can for the purposes of this thread.
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Post by egleris on Aug 12, 2010 16:12:34 GMT
I would have something to say about the current values, and have a couple of suggestion to make.
Animal Kinship and Mind over Matter, I feel, are equally unuseful; I don't feel AK is worht 2 more, I would put both to a vote of 3. This is because, while AK has one determinant use in LW 2, there are place in LW 1, 2 and 3 at least where, after you take a couple of wrong turns, MoM could save your life just as well.
Sixth Sense and Tracking are both invaluable in the first playthrough, but lose a lot from second play onward. Sixth Sense is slightly more useful than Tracking since it also work in towns while Tracking is also good in the wild. I would give Tracking 5 and Sixth Sense a 6. Also, usually having one make the other worthless, as you can substitute one for the other as their main use is the same: remain on the right path.
Camouflage is useful in that it make you avoid lesser fights; it's the only thing it could do, but it does is useful in preserving healt. Mindblast is similar in effect (make you spare END in the lesser fights), while different in use. These two disciplines are in a similar relation as Sixth Sense and Camouflage; Mindblast is more consistent in that you can use it more often than Camouflage, but Camouflage has an higher effectiveness as it allow you to skip the entire fight. I say Mindblast 6, Camouflage 5, and usually one is enough, though in this case both can cooperate to obtain a better result.
Hunting is not as situational, but the fact that it can turn unuseful sometimes does influence it's relative value; it's true that it only enhanche a couple of rolls, but those rolls are usually important ones. It also open more space in the backpack, so I would say 6 is a reasonable value for Hunting.
Mindshield is alike to Mindblast and Camouflage in being an END saver; the main difference is that, differently from them, Mindshield is consistently very useful in the harder battles. Also, depending on how good are te stats one rolls at the start, the layer of protection it grants is more valuable. I would say that Mindshield is better than Mindblast since it works where Mindblast fails, and those are usually the strongest enemies.
That leaves the two best disciplines: Weaponskill and Healing.
Weaponskill do is good, but I would say it should be lowered to 7 because, even if it's very effective, it lose a lot of importance after you get the Sommerswerd; also, depending on which weapon you roll, it could be very hard to come by the one you need. When you have it, though, it's very useful, and something you can always depend on.
So, I would say my votes are:
Animal Kinship: 3 Mind over Matter: 3 Tracking: 5 Camouflage: 5 Sixth Sense: 6 Mindblast: 6 Hunting: 6 Mindshield: 7 Weaponskill: 7 Healing: 9
So, suggestion! I like a lot to suggest.
If the target is to have all abilites in the 5-7 range, the first thing to do is to weaken the broken Healing. I would add that making Healing weaker didn't just reduce it's value, it also make Mindblast and Camouflage relatively better as their ability to reduce END loss become more important.
I don't like particularly the 1d10 option; I think it too random, it change the feel of the Healing discipline too much from the standard gameplay. Instead, I would go the route of the NO Healing (yes, they call it Deliverance, but come on, NO Deliverance is pathetic against Kai Healing), that allow you to regain a max of END in any book. Playing the NO books, i felt that the 10 END limit was too low, but I say a 15 END limit should do. It's half of the max END, so I say it should work well. Also, whit limited healing power, it push you to use it only for major wounds instead of curing every single scrap, as we're used to do now.
The only disciplines needing empowering are AK and MoM. Short of rewriting the series completely, I think the best way to go is to have them give some kind of bonus to compensate for their low usefulness.
For AK, I say it should give a big bonus - like +4 CS - in battle involving animals (enemy animals, mounted enemies, or even mounted LW). It would be highly situational, but also highly effective; if Mindblast can get away with being situational and remain useful, AK could do it too.
As for MoM, I say to go the Hunting route, whit it adding to rolls involving moving objects... like arrows. All the arrows rolls in the Kai series involve heavy END damage if failed, and it would make logical sense for MoM to give you a bonus to that kind of rolls.
So, to sum up, I suggest:
Healing - can heal only a max of 15 END (one can potentially modify how much END it's allowed to recover to change the difficulty of the books)
MoM - giving a bonus to all "avoid arrows" rolls (and all rolls related to thrown objects).
AK - +4 CS on all fight involoving animals (attacking animals, mounted enemies, mounted LW)
This should put all the disciplines on a more or less equal footing.
So, what everybody think? Are these suggestion useful? Is anybody willing to try the books whit the disciplines tweaked like this and document how well the modifies would work?
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Post by altwren on Aug 12, 2010 16:54:47 GMT
Maybe healing could work in conjunction with eating meals. Then it feels like you're taking a little break from travelling and resting up, allowing your body to repair some of it's injuries over time. Sections could read like "You stop in a sheltered grove along to forest edge to wait for the rain to die down before continuing. During this time, you realize your hunger and must now eat a meal or deduce 3 points from your endurance. If you have the Kai Discipline of Healing, you may restore 4 points to your endurance at this point."
That wouldn't require too much rewriting, just adding a few lines here and there when LW eats or maybe sleeps.
I like your idea for Mind Over Matter, Egleris. I'm sure everyone hates getting killed by arrows from a random roll and this gives a lot more potential to the skill.
About the Animal Kinship suggestion though, doesn't Animal Kinship usually allow you to avoid battles with animals? It could still help against mounted opponents though. I like that one. And there's an instant kill roll in Book 5 when your bird thing is crashing while trying to make it to Banedon. Make it help there too. I hate dying there.
And I still say Hunting is not more useful than Tracking. Even if you have no meals... (what do you guys keep in all that backpack space anyways? I've always got like 4 meals, 2 potions and a rope.) Anyways, no meals and no hunting = 3 damage. No tracking = make the wrong choice, and you could die! I know which one I'm sticking with.
Last point, I kind of think we should be ignoring this 'less useful on subsequent playthroughs' thing. If you've read before and have all the info given by Sixth Sense and Tracking memorized and are making use of it, it's like you're taking an extra discipline. The benefits they give are that information. It's like says "Well, I used to have Weaponskill with a Spear in one of my other playthroughs, so I'll give myself a +2 here too". I know what Kai Wisdom says about making notes for aid on future adventures, but calling these two skills less useful on subsequent playthroughs because you've already read that information is taking it to a bit of an extreme. Just my thoughts on it.
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Post by kamikaze1900666 on Aug 12, 2010 17:34:16 GMT
I still stick be my claim that Healing shouldn't be raised so high- there is damage it WILL NOT heal. It only heals battle-related damage, or for the strictest sense of the rule ONLY damage done to you in battle itself. Either way, if you run through some briers, fall down a hold, suffer from frostbite, skip a meal, or ANY incidental damage from non-combat text you cannot heal. A couple wrong turns and bad rolls could mean you can't heal half your lost EP in certain books. This is further compounded by the fact Healing can't identify some potions- you need to have another skill, reached a level in experience, or have visited somewhere before to ID them. This skill just ISN'T as overpowered as you think- it's just our foreknowledge of knowing where to turn in a pinch to keep non-combat damage down.
A true 9 starts in the MK series with Curing- it heals ALL TYPES of damage, lets you identify even the alien herbs of the Daziarn, let alone all rare ones found in Northern Magnamund, and the boosts that come with leveling up. It's what? a +20 EP in a pinch after a certain point? This is where it gets real unbalanced.
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Post by blackstoneca on Aug 12, 2010 18:02:04 GMT
They fix this in the further Kai books by only allowing healing up to 10 EP per adventure through the use of Magnaikai Curing.
I didn't know the distinction between Healing and Curing. That would make the books different.
If you wanted to make the earlier books more challenging, insitute the New Order rules, and only allow Healing to heal 10 EP combat damage, and Curing only allow to heal 10 damage period.
The +20 EP is a one time deal, and only really available in Book 12 and beyond, and the way I read the rules, only available once per book.
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Post by pi4t on Aug 12, 2010 21:37:30 GMT
I like the MOM and AK ideas, but not the 15 maximum healing one. That means it just adds 15E to your score (well, more or less), and doesn't really fit in with how healing feels (constantly working in the background, helping you to recover). On the other hand Healing is random in how much it heals, it's just worked into the text. You heal the same amount during a 1 minute mad dash from enemies as a 3 day ship journey? And the amount healed isn't random? This way it heals about the same amount, satisfies the 'only combat damage' people, leaves a nice gap for Curing (also heals out of combat damage in the same way) and increases the use of healing potions (since you can't just wait for Healing to put your E to full). The maximum-amount-of-E-healed method adds another stat to deal with, which complicates matters. It can also make one or two situations easier. I mean, of course, those where there are several tough fights in a row with little to no time to heal in between.
The healing when eating could also work, but it might be better to, rather than rewriting passages of the book, just say that if you have Healing you will restore 4E whenever you eat (this also makes meals, and Hunting, more important of course).
I also agree that I overrated AK, but it's still better than MOM. In book 5, for instance, AKcan save you losing all your gold, while MOM can stop you from getting a free bow!
Have reduced AK to 3 on previous list.
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Post by egleris on Aug 14, 2010 8:50:10 GMT
Well, I'm happy at least a couple of suggestions I made where well liked!
Animal Kinship allow you to avoid battle whit animals... sometimes. Never consistently. If it had worked consistently, it would not have been as despised as it is. My propose would make so that, if you met an animal, it always give you some advantage; if it chase it away, better, otherwise you can at least have an easier fight.
I'm not clear on why MoM should be ranked lower than AK, outside of the whole "Magic Spear" discussion. In LW 1, graveyard of the ancients, it saves you from an Insta-death. In LW 2, kelmar cabin, it saves you from an insta-death. I'm not sure if there are others, but it is usually very useful against traps. Still, since it is a pathetic ability, it doesn't really matter; wheter it's better than AK or not, it needs empowering anyway.
So... Healing. I have to say that I never quite understood the logical reason behind Healing not being able to heal a scratch of 2 END but being capable of heal the sever wounds I received from a Drakkar. It makes no sense, and there are other ways that could make Curing better, if that's the reason.
Anyway, why I make that suggestion? Because, the way I see it, the true strenght of healing is in it having no limits. I'll explain.
A book has 350 sections, with a variable number of fights. Let's say a common playthrough on a normal-lenght book is about 100 sections. Of these 100, if the book is a fight-intensive one, you have about 10 fights (unless you go searching for them; in my experience, the two Kai book where I fight the most are 4 and 5, and even there the total number of fights is under 10).
So, in 10 section you can't use healing; that means you have... about 90 END point you can recover through use of healing per book. Right?
Healing make avoid battle almost pointless, unless the battle are sequential, which is a very rare occurence. That's why I suggested the max heal limit; in the NO order books it was not that hard to check it.
The problem I have whit the dice sistem is that, with enough luck, you could end every battle back at top END; not only is this ridiculous, but it defy the entire purpose of the fights in the first place, that is to reduce your END little by little. Lone Wolf is a though fighter, and it's very rare for him to be killed by a random dude; when is the last time in LW 1 that you died by Vordak instead than by Gourgaz? Are the Vordaks killings even wort considering on a statistic basis? In my experience, only the stronger enemies in every book even got the chance, and aside from LW 9 and LW 11, they only can because of the END you lost in previous fights. I'm not against the dice system per se, only about the fact that it still could heal you of more than twice your total END, meaning that, for your survival in a book, Healing become far preferable to any alternative.
Because the point here is this: make healing a discipline you can not take without feeling stupid. If taking camouflage to avoid fights and taking healing to be able to survive fighting are both equally viable options, it's okay. At the moment, they're not; the advantage healing give is far too high.
To the random roll, I would say you get a max number of dice to roll for your healing (say, 2 or 3) per book; that way it's limited.
I think that's the needed change with healing; somethig that limits its potential. Is the one thing that keep it above the rest.
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Post by kamikaze1900666 on Aug 14, 2010 9:33:41 GMT
I'm not clear on why MoM should be ranked lower than AK, outside of the whole "Magic Spear" discussion. In LW 1, graveyard of the ancients, it saves you from an Insta-death. In LW 2, kelmar cabin, it saves you from an insta-death. I'm not sure if there are others, but it is usually very useful against traps. Still, since it is a pathetic ability, it doesn't really matter; wheter it's better than AK or not, it needs empowering anyway. Book 3 it also lets you get the Silver Helm without needing the key or wasting a dagger. Book 4 it gives you a few extra rounds of underwater combat and bonuses to a couple rolls. In most of the Kai series it distracts some guards and opens locks (sometimes avoiding combats). It is semi-useful in a low-stat run, but it's effects are marginal at best.
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