Have the withering affect monks and paladins differently

[Barber]

This idea is entirely unformed.  It is not inspired by alcohol.  Maybe someone else can refine it into a way to be more awesome, but maybe there is something to this.

Both monks and paladins are cool classes with resistance to disease.  Both classes are mechanically... difficult and tend to get multiclassed.

Why not have the withering effect them different?  Different how?  I'm not sure.

Perhaps pure class monks and paladins can get access to a pure class monk/paladin only perk which slows the growth of the withering?

Perhaps instead of turning them into an undead beast, their unique chi/divine blessing instead, slowly kills them, resulting in 1-2 HP loss per level, instead of appearing to t urn into an undead?

What about something else very cool which you suggest and I've not thought of?

[Ebok]

The withering is not a disease, it is a curse.

[VanillaPudding]

I'm rather against this myself, as the Withering barely effects -most- characters in a truly terrible way as it is. If anything, increasing the speed of the withering slightly might be cool!

[Nuclear Catastrophe]

I'm rather against this myself, as the Withering barely effects -most- characters in a truly terrible way as it is. If anything, increasing the speed of the withering slightly might be cool!

Might be for this.

Barber, you may well have doomed EfU with your forum suggestion.  I hope you're happy with yourself.

[Egon the Monkey]

The trouble with increasing the Withering is how XP-intensive Remove Curse is, so PCs don't want to offer it because healing it off PCs would rapidly become a major XP drain. I think that making it a bit quicker to develop but also a good deal easier/cheaper on XP to remove would make the setting feel more like a constant battle rather than the Withering being a background problem for most PCs.

[CryptWarden]

150 xp is easily regained off of one quest unless you are high level, and by then, you should have convinced people to remove the withering from you. :)
 
It's fine as is, and slightly increasing the rate of withering can only be a positive thing.

[Egon the Monkey]

You've got it backwards there. The point isn't that it is hard for a single, moderately questing caster to remove the Withering from themselves alone. it's that it's hard to convince someone to do those regular Withering removals because of the successive 150XP losses to the caster stack up enough to burn up all their quest XP. In a similar vein, try getting from 7-8 or 8-9 on a PC who makes a lot of potions. They set you back enough that it's noticable, and they don't cost all that much. So you either end up quitting brewing every time you near a levelup, or powergaming.

I'll even make a prediction that increased Withering speed will lead to a Cleric of Waukeen who will be:
1: Permanently L5.
2: Rich as Croesus.
3: Turning Char Advancement XP into Gold via Remove Curse to accomplish 2.

[A Painted Jezebel]

Seemed to me like that withering was much like radiation. Building up within one's body faster in more "irradiated" areas. Some zones are like pockets of this radiation where the curse builds up fast enough so you can basically watch it go up. So, if it's too slow for you, find one of those areas, problem solved!

Hurrah, I'm helping :D

[HaveLuteWillTravel]

This thread has gone entirely off the original topic, so excuse me if I feel the need to push it further along that path. The Withering is tied to an ongoing plot, and one can assume that as H'bala advances the curse will spread further as well as get stronger. Hence making it too strong too early means there's no place to go from that point. It starts weak, it gradually gets stronger, this seems to me to be the entire point.

[The Boom King]

I don't know about monks, but it does feel like paladins and clerics should have an increased resistance to the withering- they have divinities shielding them!

[Ebok]

I don't know about monks, but it does feel like paladins and clerics should have an increased resistance to the withering- they have divinities shielding them!

They do. They can remove curse.

[The_Sacrilegious_Scorn]

So can wizards and sorcs, your point?

[Ebok]

My point is that the withering already effects people differently. Some easily have free ways to cure it, some spend FAR more time in withered lands then others, and some approach it with gold and npcs. I do not believe that any class deserves to have an advantage over others outside of the natural divisions which the current situation already creates.

In my experience, the longer life your PC typically have, the more the withering matters. The shorter and flash in the pan types of PC never live long enough to see it have any effect at all. I do believe that Capricious shares my mindset in regards to this: the slower paced withering will gradually get worse as the END of mistlocke starts to pick up. As Hbala starts to get past the mountains and against the edge of the forests, etc.

Howland spoke in the past, before efu:m, about have a system in place that subtly rewards players who play long-lived and influential pcs. I always thought that the withering was actually this advancement goals in practice. It allows the longest lived pcs to have made some real impact on mistlocke's story while gradually beginning to suffer under the withering. Which give them the benefit of playing into a storyline which the flash in the pan pcs cannot play in. This gradual change allows that pc to play up the effects, and it makes it more of a natural passage. In this way we don't have 1 week old pcs playing withered marauders.

In the same light, I don't believe that decreasing the effect over certain classes impacts the story is a positive way. Since it is more of a narrative story element, it serves no purpose to truly regulate this. You are vulnerable for the following is true: You spend a large amount of time outside the mist, and You do not have easy access to remove curse.

The present allows quiet a few different groups who are able to specialize in the removal of curses. Cleric being the most productive in this matter, because for a level 5 cleric the exp cost is an extremely small in comparsion to the ease at which the exp can be gained. Wizard is the middle ground, as they get it at level 7 however they must also pay for the scroll or take a versatility hit but sacrificing one of their option spells for it; the wizard is also higher level which makes the same exp cost slightly more expensive. Sorcerer's are the worst, as if you spend you only level 8 spell on remove curse you're an idiot. I mean... You lose your only forth level spell and the exp cost hits you more profoundly each time.

The other classes are stuck relying on gold, which helps have the withering have a real cost on the market. that said the withering being increased too far, will force some people who were never good at gaining gold, to be put into a vice.

[Ebok]

This idea is entirely unformed.  It is not inspired by alcohol.  Maybe someone else can refine it into a way to be more awesome, but maybe there is something to this.

Both monks and paladins are cool classes with resistance to disease.  Both classes are mechanically... difficult and tend to get multiclassed.

Why not have the withering effect them different?  Different how?  I'm not sure.

Perhaps pure class monks and paladins can get access to a pure class monk/paladin only perk which slows the growth of the withering?

Perhaps instead of turning them into an undead beast, their unique chi/divine blessing instead, slowly kills them, resulting in 1-2 HP loss per level, instead of appearing to t urn into an undead?

What about something else very cool which you suggest and I've not thought of?

To respond to this directly, as there are quite a few conversations being brought up.... Monks and Paladins both face multiclass restrictions and neither are difficult classes to play correctly. So neither are often multiclassed. Also, part of the Horror of the withering is that it is inescapable, if you only needed to be a monk or a paladin you've already shot the fear in the foot.

If anyone leaves the isle with her curse, they will eventually succumb to it. If a paladin or monk just got weaker, literally escaping would only be beneficial and it would have no horrific ending. EFU is about the horror, even the most pure have no defense, so they should be most motivated to approach the subject IC. Make war against her. Cure it, etc.

I see nothing beneficial in giving any class a bonus. However I am partial to the idea of them looking at the horror of being damned to turn into an undead beast.