Some Lifestealer Adjustments

Started by Crow, March 15, 2023, 11:47:26 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Crow

Been thinking about this perk a lot because I find it really fun to play and I think it has a chance to feel really good with how quests are balanced these days  but there are some aspects to it that have some minor frustrations that I think could be changed to make it a bit more comfy.

-Increase the Duration of Ray of Feeblement's Buff
I think the buff itself may actually be longer-lasting  than the turns/level on the base spell of ray of enfeeblement to begin with, but even back in v5 this definitely could feel pretty short. With an overall lower level range bringing lower CLs along with it combined with quests generally leaning more towards the longer side as is, I wonder if it might be reasonable to bump this up a bit more. Could be 5 min/level, could be 10 min/level, I don't really have the perfect idea as I haven't done enough quests yet. This would be a nice change when it comes to PvP as well, if just to keep a conflict-focused lifestealer from having to go fire off another successful drain just to recharge quite as often.

-Guarantee a Partial Strength Drain Buff
Another common complaint comes down to the nature of how the drain on ray of enfeeblement works. As is, it's often pretty sub-optimal to use this offensively because you're working off of a level 1 spell DC and fort saves pretty commonly lean towards the higher side, along with the occasional nat 20 just keeping you from being able to get it at all. Anyone that has played this perk has probably experienced needing to allot 1-5 minutes before heading out seeing whether or not they can successfully drain a summon with +0/+1 fortitude. I think if it was possible to make sure that you're always getting some strength just from casting the spell I would be a lot more inclined to use it on enemies and gamble on getting a full power boost. Something like 1/3 or 1/2 of what it would have been on a failed save could be cool, especially on empowered rays where it hurts that much harder to get stonewalled by a level 1 air elemental.