Messages

[Healing Circle]

I would agree and say 'do it for Healing Circle too'. But adjust both to 2d8/level, so they are essentially Mass Cure/Inflict Moderate. That's then an interesting use of a L5 slot for sustained damage/heal rather than One Big Hit. They are both terrible in vanilla NWN and even a big buff to Circle of Doom isn't that attractive. I've not even seen an Astrologian cast Healing Circle and they get it as a L3!. Making them rechargeable would balance them without making the trinkets with them suddenly OP.

Healing Circle
1d8 + Caster Level healing centred on you.
Spell Focus: Abjuration heals 2d8 +1 per caster level instead.
Greater Spell Focus: Abjuration heals 3d8 +1 per caster level instead.

Circle of Doom
Damage is increased to 4d8, +1 point negative damage per caster level.
All creatures hit by the spell must make a Will save (same DC as the fortitude DC for halving damage) or be Doomed for 1 minute per caster level.

To compare, Hammer of the Gods is L4 rather than 5 and:

• Has the same range and AoE
• Does 4d8 at 9, 5d8 at 10, so very similar damage
• Doesn't have a friendly fire problem.
• Can daze your enemies

Negative Energy Burst
Negative Energy Burst's will save negates the STR drain in addition to halving the damage.

Spell Focus: Necromancy increases damage to 2d8 + caster level.
Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy increases strength drain to 1 + 1 / 4 caster levels if will save fails.

It's not *bad* but anyone seriously down with Necromancy probably has Evil or Undeath domain to drop some Empowered Negative Bursts for better damage and big STR drain.

An 18 strength Ranger with only Two-Weapon Fighting and taking the -4 AB penalty to your offhand will still have more AB on each of it's attacks than a Monk at level 9/10. You even get Improved Two-Weapon Fighting without ever needing to meet the requirements for Dual-Wielding or Ambidexterity.

I'm confused. Are you telling me 'What if you buy a redundant feat on a Ranger, and run a weird optimised build that Just About Works and comes online at L9'? Because at that point why not grab myself a fighter level and take Improved 2-weapon Fighting at 8? I've already ignored the free feat I get from Ranger!

I also don't see why you compare it to monk, which doesn't typically dual-wield. Rather than to the Dual-wielder fighter Perk, which just stamps all over a Ranger with that bonus +2AB offhand and access to Imp. 2-Weapon Fighting at 8.

I feel like your complex solution just reinforces the point I'm making, which is:

• Dual Wield is the Ranger's Iconic Flavourful Combat Thing, as it allows 2-weapon fighting without a stat requirement.
• Except it's got a de facto stat requirement, unless you like getting hit a lot.
• Dual-wield in Medium opens things up to less optimised/buff-hungry builds and lets more people be Cool Hunters With Two Swords without focusing their build on making that work. Given that Ranger gets Medium Armor as standard.

Making it have limited range, setting it up as non-hostile spell that doesn't work on enemies, and explicitly states it cannot be used to facilitate PVP or used to purposefully put players into danger, should eliminate most potential for abuse.

Exactly this. If it is non hostile only, and throws up a dialogue box where non bleeding/subdued PCs have the option to resist, then the problems just go away. Equally Teleport is fine, and that doesn't even have a consent popup. It just has a big obvious 3 round visual effect that gives plenty of time for you to move out of range.

Another way you could script it is for Regroup to summon a single use, short-duration portal, which teleports the first PC to click it to your location. Then it can only be used as an active decision by that character and is still a fun tool that unlocks ways to explore etc.

The only thing I've ever seen Regroup used for is to pull people out of terrain clipping bugs. Because if you fire it in combat, it's a Short Range AoE that probably just messes up your lines. It doesn't have enough range to get people over any obstacle except possibly a high cliff.

Meanwhile, I was on a really fun dungeon exploration yesterday where a load of people were repeatedly failing Climb checks. And I thought 'hey wouldn't Regroup be a lot of fun as a Single Target, Medium Range spell?'

Then you could use it to:

• Get clumsy PCs over a Horizontal Climb Transition.
• Pull Paralysed PCs out of a Collapsing Void.
• Pull PCs out of aggro range of a boss and back behind your lines.
• Emergency Medical Teleport for bleeding PCs it's too dangerous to reach.

All of which make you look like a Badass Wizard Who Thought Of That Problem.

[Gnomish Lizardsticker]

Small-Size Two Handers

Spears are incredible now, an easy +2 stackable damage, so on par with a Greataxe.
Short Spears etc less so. I get that perhaps we don't want a load of finesseable Waraxe-alikes.
But this could be sorted with OUB: Halfling/Gnome/Goblinoid/Reptilian //Do Not UMD.
Or if it has Disables Offhand/Shield for a non-finesse weapon, as that's no drawback to Small PCs and an actual drawback to Medium.
I'm thinking of the sort of stats we've seen on Greatswords and Spears for Medium PCs.

Gnomish Lizardsticker
Filled with the howling despite of all gnomes for those meddling, ambushing, literally undermining kobolds.
Short Spear
+2 Slashing Damage
+1 Negative Damage vs Reptilian
1d4 Massive Criticals
OUB: Halfling/Gnome/Goblinoid/Reptilian //Do Not UMD.

Ancient Halfling Greatsword
From the outrings somewhere, the weapon of a halfling champion.
Longsword
+1 Piercing Damage
+1 Fortitude Saves
+1 Death Saves
Disables Offhand/Shield,

[Interview with Acolyte Narwen Alendiel of the Priory of the Sybilline Sisterhood]

Spring's Gift

Accessible from the Caravans beyond the Lovers' Gap is the oasis of Spring's Gift. The elves there refer to themselves as Spring Elves or Springborn. They trade in plants, tools and masterwork weapons and equipment, though most is disctinctly sized for an elf's lithe form. Bring as little iron as possible when you visit. Leave none behind, for it is a bane to them. Each reacts differently to the metal. From discomfort, to headaches, to siezures. But none tolerate it.
As a note, the Colossi appear never to have mastered Iron, only Bronze. The elves of Spring's Gift likewise are experts in bronze working, but for different, obvious reasons.

Interview with Acolyte Narwen Alendiel of the Priory of the Sybilline Sisterhood

Acolyte Narwen hails from Spring's Gift. I informed her of my work. My desire to see Izdu's Light on all sapient peoples of the disc, and rumours sent to ash on the wind. She was kind enough to allow me to interview her for this work.

I asked her if they called themselves Sping Elves because of the Oasis, or the season and its connection to youth. For they are a young people, born this century. Not ancient, as we tend to see elves.
She told me:
"There are winter elves, too. And I have heard tales from other Rings and other Lands of different Courts of Elves... Summer Elves and Autumn Elves and Winter Elves. And there is certainly symbolic meaning in it, too, For born in the season of spring we were."


The Creation Tale of The Springborn, As Told by Narwen Alendiel
"My people have a Mother and a Father, whom we only know in myth and dream. Our Mother longed for children to call her own. Yet her womb was barren, and for this she wept. She wept and wept. And so, Father and Mother set out on a great journey to call upon the wisdom of their Master, who was wise and learned in many things

For many years they walked the many lands. Until they stood before their Master. And they spoke to him, and poured their hearts out. And he listened, and contemplated. And he raised his hand and reached out into the golden sands. And there he plunged his hand into the sand and dug. He dug and dug, through sand and ash, until he reached the clay beneath. And he dug through the clay setting it aside.

And he dug through the clay and found the Spring which bubbled forth. And as the Spring rose up, he shaped the clay into the bodies of the children of the Spring. He placed those nascent forms into the waters of the Spring and he breathed the breath of fire and life into them. And they too, rose up. And he turned to Mother and Father and said to them, "Here are your children.". And there we were, taking our first breaths of air, thinking our first thoughts, wondering our first wonders.

But we did not not hear the words of our Mother, Father or their Master. Their words only came to us in myth and dream and through the songs of the Spring. The first words we heard were that of the Spring itself, singing and sighing to us. Ynys Bilir.  It was a sound carried upon the wind, found in the waters, even the flowers and cacti and trees that had begun to sprout up around the blessed waters sang it."

The Anima Forges: Stars Bound to Stone

The source of the true Lions of Orentes, not the beasts used for executions in the Well.
A Lion is a construct, but a living construct. With baleful eyes that shoot the burning light of the stars. They were built in the Anima Forges. Orentid facilities, now lost to the sands, that were capable of putting a true soul into inanimate matter. Not merely the appearance of life that a construct may have.

Accounds in Anima Forges speak of 'binding a star into a construct's heart'. You may note, with the impact and polution of Goreheart and the Astral Rifts opening lately, how risky and perhaps reckless such an undertaking seems. But the clear power available from doing so, if the accounts of True Life From the Inanmate bear up. Certainly, these Lion Constructs are reported to be a cut above the mere Lamplighters.

A competent archaeologist can often unearth these Forges by triangulating Orentic artefacts, but the services of a skilled arcanist are required to determine if one's find is truly an Anima Forge. Sadly, all such devices I have ever found or heard off have been broken beyond repair. Possibly they are fine tuned and lacked upkeep. Possible put out of order deliverately by the last Orentid keepers, to deny them to the Sultanate.

[What are Orcs?]

Orcs: Forged in Fire, Beloved of the Axe

While serving as a mustered volunteer in the war against Iakmes, I have noted worrying knowledge gaps when it comes to what an orc is and why we fight.
As such, I have created a simple overview on Orcs, their Physiology and their tactics

What are Orcs?

• Orcs are a humanoid, asexually-reproducing species, adept at war and smithing.
• They are naturally resistant to fire.
• They were originally created by the Colossi to serve as defenders

Where do orcs come from?
"They are forged in the old Silverworks of Bet Nappahi". Source, Acolyte Narwen of the Sybilline Sisterhood, who reports seeing this in a Vision.

"Bet Nappahi, where there worked Cyaraxes, of silver and bronze, and there was much clanging": Quote from this vision by Ramez Hour Sohby.

This seems probable, based on the following evidence. One, no female or juvenile orcs have ever been found, nor have any villages. Only war camps. Two, we have further proof of asexually produced life on the Disc.  Given all this, plus the fire resistance, the idea that they are forged is a compelling one.

Origin Of the Thousand Clans
"Attendants to the Feast at the Har'pas valley may remember the strange words shared with some  silvery figures, large and almost gigantic in appearance. They refered to a conflict between "Silver" and "Bronze", with the first seemingly standing for peaceful reflection and the second for war, and the scourging of the world. This interaction echoes what is known as the Heinous Dialectic: a tragedy in which some giantkin led the orcan Cohorts which had once defended the Ramparts, and turned them against more peaceful members of late-Colossi society."
-Source: Balstan Gloamingdaith's Examination, Essay question, written by an entrant who apparently attended a mass feast with the Thousand Clans"

Further corroborating information may be found in the Cursed Crypts of Rampart Nusrum. Bring a good diviner and some folks skilled at undead-slaying. This information can be compared to that in the book "A Theory on the Ruin of the Giants" This book suggests that the Orcs were followers of the gardeners and creatives who dwelled around that crypt. Of people who preferred the world remain a garden. Rather than be developed into Cities, or The City of Rings as once there stood.


Orc Mutations
During the push into the Scald, we have observed variant orcs. Some are huge, powerful, and lacking the symmetry and clear form of the baseline orc. Others are weak, twisted and wasted-looking.

The orcs appear to be deliberately manipulating the 'forging' process in order to create beneficial mutations. Based on their occasional apparently failed creations, they may not fully understand the nature of whatever engine or process constructs them. However, they appear to be increasing their skills. They have produced minor Giants akin to ogres. The Chosen of the Axe, the Behemoth, the Hurler. They have produced flaming giant hounds of flesh and bronze.
(Source: Recluta Khazadun's Scout Account, as yet Unpublished. Personal observation)


Orc Culture:
Their leaders are not born into this position, for they are not Born. They instead appear to claim leadership via challenge. Accounts from an orc fort in rampart Nusrum appear to describe Iakmes claiming the leadership of the Thousand clans in a succession of challenges.


Orc Religion
Orcs worship Agaslakku. Obviously really. They are born of Fire and made for War, he is their natural patron.

By Artifice and Miracle: Created Life of the Great Disc

R. Angleton, Sandstone College

For those of us who Awoke, for those of us who fled from the Outrings, this place is passing strange. It is a barren desert, but filled in places with life unlike that which we have encountered.

The Spring's Gift elves that are born of water of the Spring, not water of the womb. The Latent, beings created by the Colossi. The Anima Forges of the Orentids, broken devices that were once capable of inserting a true soul into inert matter.

Here we find true source of the Orcs that we have fought in many places elsewhere in the City of Rings, and their origins as a soldier race, a weapon forged by the Giants.

Orcs, Inheritors, and other servants of the Giants are a Legacy. One we can use to understand their creators. When we do not document our foes, we misunderstand them to our peril. And when we do not share the truths of our friends, others misunderstand them, to the peril of all. Life on this disc can spring from the blood of Titans, the Orentid forges, the giants's workshops. This is unknown elsewhere in the City. Understanding life brings us closer to the guiding stars of Izdu.

This book is a primer on life that is made not born. It will reference other books that provide a deeper look into these subjects.

This compendium is a living document, loosely bound. It will be updated as needed. DO NOT remove from the Sandstone Library. Print editions will come later.

I think that given the randomness of Alchemy etc, a good source of corpses could be a reuse of the existing Skinning system. Plenty of Animals leave reliable bodies that can be Skinned or Butchered. Rot Wardens can consume an Animal Corpse for buffs.

It could be relatively simple to add another tool that harvests them and drops animatable Corpse items into your inventory. And unlike Alchemy, it makes Necromancers move around hunting rather than hide out.

Ranger theoretically has the unique ability to run a high-STR, low-DEX dual-wield build, as the Dual-Wield Feat has no DEX requirement. However, practically speaking, you do need DEX! Because you can't Dual-Wield in Medium Armor, and low DEX in 3/5 leathers is a very sad place to be. Meanwhile, DEX Rangers can't do much more than issue scathing papercuts unless fully buffed.

If Dual-Wield was changed to work in Medium, then 18 STR, 12 DEX dual-wielder would become a thing you can do without having suicidally bad AC. Because you could have full Chainmail AC, and better STR or a less optimised ability spread than the average Dual-Wield PC.

It would mean the promise of 'well TECHNICALLY you can make a dual-wield STR build' would be a reality, and I think it would be especially cool for Stonefolk Rangers who suffer that DEX penalty.  Rather than people defaulting to 2h weapons or shields and not taking advantage of the class's Cool Melee Move.

Yes, more things that Scribes can be paid to do! Great idea! I'd love to run fights on the right PC, but the Krak sparring ring is too small.

i don't think calling for the nerfing the only song that is better than default bard song consistently is going to solve the problem. all the bards will just go to default song.

Given how often I see them use the other songs in the right situations, I doubt it.

• Catchy tune's massive Reflex, immunities and +DEX is amazing in the right spot.
• Rat Prince song is really really good in small groups for throwing tar-pit summons at mobs while exploring.
• Ballad of the Great Ash feels underused given it's Free Blur in lots of places, and ISTR stacks with blur as it's 5/+2

I think part of the issue here is the tendency for 'high threat' problems to often actually be 'have strong HP or Just Die' problems, which makes 'a boatload of temp HP' the best mitigation. Like, if you're facing something with 25AB, AC isn't going to save you.Not much saves you from a Molten Crit but this song just might. So I think the reason this one stands out is that it can visibly save you from the otherwise Frustratingly Unavoidable Deaths. Why does Barb have such a rep as good tanking for hard places? Because when things Get Real, having 200+ effective HP when you count DI saves your ass.

[It's Simply the Best, Better Than All the Rest]

No, I'd like any DM willing to take the time on it to balance it. I would have just suggested 'take it off Voidcallers', except for the fact it punches way above its weight in all circumstances. I just picked raids as the example, because it's the worst case scenario due to the cramped spaces and Persistent AoE Bug. Not only is it incredibly powerful, you can't even see it's there. It kills PCs without any clue they're in danger.

I think it's just as overly strong in PvP, it's just we've not yet had a Bandit Astrologian go round disappointingly one-shotting entire parties with black holes to prove the point. I used to PvP with Original Flavour Evards back in V2. Even that didn't hold a candle to this WMD of a spell, because you can overwhelm Evards with more victims than tentacles. 

It's an exceptionally thematic spell for Astros and looks damn cool. It's just no-fun to be hit by as there's no good response to it other than 'hope a mate has Remove Paralyse and you make the next save'. There's nothing you can even do to prepare specifically for it as it's pure fortitude. Unlike Fossoris Fear Spam where you can crack out the Fear Saves Gear.

It's Simply the Best, Better Than All the Rest
I don't have to be PvP ganked with this thing to realise how it's a bit excessively good. If we compare this thing to the other options for L4-5 AoE on any class, there's no contest. It's a non-mind affecting total disable, with good no-save damage. And it locks down a Huge area for at least 9 rounds.  The only thing that even comes close is Cacophonic Burst. Except that is an instant effect, respects Insulations, and doesn't stop your mates running in to heal. The saves might degrade each round but that's more saves to pass than Hypnotic Pattern. More damage and a better debuff than Cloudkill. Way, way more dangeous than Sand Storm.

NPCs Fire More Offensive Spells
Besides, I'd wager 95% of all offensive spells fired are fired by NPCs, because they burn spellslots like there's no tomorrow. So yes, I think there's a strong case to review any spell that appears to wreck parties in a way they couldn't have countered. Because these spells aren't fun. Fear is fun as people get to react and save you with cheap potions. This is just 'sucks to be you' if you're in the middle.

So, yes it's one level higher, but it's also incredibly common on raids and it's even better than pre-nerf Evards. Great damage, spammed paralyse, and scales to the number of enemies well.
It would be fine if it kept  you in the Hole by spamming Slow, but Paralysis just makes it GG. Especially as it doesn't seem to be a one-round re-applying duration like say, Heart Clutch.

Evard's got nerfed because it was just too good. One black hole can just oneshot an entire frontline and mean it's too dangerous to run in and heal.

Could it be reduced to just Slow you, which is stull brutal with AOE damage and gives a rare Fort Slow?