Call Lightning

[Portal Rat]

1. I understand perfectly well what Egon is suggesting. As I have said twice, and now a third time, the spell is balanced in its present form. If it is changed in the manner Egon suggests, [COLOR="Red"]the damage will have to be reduced because the spell will be ridiculously out of balance[/COLOR]. The reason it was limited to rainy times is because it was given a damage boost. Remove that limitation, and suddenly you've got a very different spell. I'm not sure how to make this any more clear.

2. Quest areas? Are you serious? Think about that for a moment. Three level 5 druids could finish the wolves quest in about six rounds. Scalemount could be done in about half the time. Orcs part 1 wouldn't even be a challenge. You'd end up with a server full of nothing but druids and clerics of Talos and Valkur. No thanks. I don't see a whole lot of fun RP possibilities when everyone is waiting for rain so they can go quest and zap the shit out of everything.

3. This is the most powerful spell in the entire game. It can potentially deal over a thousand points of damage. You can literally wipe a whole party with it. You can turn the tide of a battle in your favor, even if every single one of your opponents has powerful elemental protections up. You can clear out whole areas with it (try using it in the Webbed Wood sometime). It is the closest thing to a win button you're ever going to find on EfU:A, and yes, it can only be used in the rain, outdoors, and not in quest areas. If you call that "a waste of a spell slot," then quite frankly you should probably stick to melee until you figure out how to make more effective use of your spells.

[derfo]

It's fine, if you prepare it, you are taking a big risk in hoping it'll rain when and where you need to use it, and even then it's pretty counterable by a quite a few things

[ExileStrife]

I don't want it to change.  I'd kinda like this spell to stay as a more risky choice, rather than one that always has an optimal payoff.  The risk is exactly what was mentioned in the original post, "you might be wasting a spellslot."  Yes, that rain may never come, and if you're a druid that wants to always have something to offer, Call Lightning may not be your best choice.

However, if you would like to be a druid that likes to wait for the perfect moment, here's a spell that will blow off everyone's socks as well as the faces of your enemies with 1-d-10-fricken-damage.  That's 1-d-10-fricken-sweet.

Other notes:

Yes, nearby areas should keep similar weather.  That functionality is scripted, but sometimes builders can label something with the wrong region which can cause bordering areas to have this problem -- if you notice that happen, feel free to report it!

If it's not raining enough for the likes of your druid, maybe you should make it rain more.

There's nothing wrong with rushing during a rain storm.  They don't last forever.  It makes 100% IC sense to say, "Hurry, this storm won't last much longer!"

Druids can rest practically anywhere, making it very easy to prepare the spell on the spot if you come across a rain-storm.

I don't think there are any DMs that are interested in this spell just becoming an electric version of a wizard's fireball again.  Wizards are balanced to have those.  Druids, with the million other things they can do, are generally accepted not to be.

This particular spell has been discussed to death and it probably won't be changing for awhile.

--

Hell, and Portal Rat mentioned something even more obvious that I forgot.  Nature factions tend to be pretty common, so having something like 3 or 4 level 7 druids is not unusual -- it's almost a norm for those groups.  That means, at any point in time, that group of characters can unleash an instantaneous 28d10 (or more) damage, and it's not like they are sacrificing anything major to have that ready.  I would argue that no other group of characters could ever have that capability.  Perhaps maybe a solid group of Spellguard or a solid group from the Conclave, but you have to app for both of those!   Any group of nagas and kruntos could just roll up a couple of druids and have the server under their thumb.  Holy SHIT what is going to stop that?

[Equinox]

Any group of nagas and kruntos could just roll up a couple of druids and have the server under their thumb.  Holy SHIT what is going to stop that?

This made me lol.

[KjetilofNorway]

The more weather is something else than vfx backdrop the better! More stuff like this, I say!

[lovethesuit]

needs moar npcs using this spell

[derfo]

curse those 'nagas and kruntos'

[TheImpossibleDream]

curse those 'nagas and kruntos'

[Drakill Tannan]

Bascially portal rat, this spell should only be usable when not-necesary, because it is so powerful, if used when necesary it would have to be toned down?

In that case, reduce it to 1d8. But i want to be able to use it.

As i said before though, as long as there is enough rain (wich there is) and similar weather in adjacent areas, specifically SQAs, i prefer it to remain as it is,

[Caddies]

This spell is terrible, more often than not a waste of a slot. I know this from experience.

It was majorly nerfed from its last incarnation, where it could be used anywhere anytime and hit only enemies in the radius for 1d8. Giving it 1d10, restricting it to rain-only and making it hit allies rendered it useless for any PC who builds around this spell (such as a cleric of Talos).

TBH I'm all for reverting it back to its former state. Never again would I bother taking this spell, I think I used it like twice in three weeks as a cleric of Talos and I died in PvP because I wasted slots on this spell.

[Portal Rat]

Bascially portal rat, this spell should only be usable when not-necesary, because it is so powerful, if used when necesary it would have to be toned down?

I don't accept the premise of your question. Its use has nothing to do with whether or not you need it. Its use has to do with whether or not it is raining. As ExileStrife said, there are ways to make it rain. If you need it to rain, there are about a half-dozen different gods in the FRCS pantheon you could pray to for rain.

The quests are designed around parties that don't have the ability to rain hundreds of points of damage down from the skies. If it rains in quests, then all the quests have to be modified so that one class doesn't have this amazing ability to get experience points faster than any other.

If, on the other hand, Call Lightning is changed to grant even the limited functionality Egon proposes when it is not raining alongside the massive pwnage it gets during rain, then it becomes more than just the most powerful spell -- it becomes the only spell worth taking. A spell with that kind of versatility puts the druid class far above any other. Level 3 druid spell slots would suddenly become the most efficient method of dealing damage on the server.

In short, it's a lot easier to just leave the spell alone than to redesign the whole module. What is so damn hard about resting when the rain starts? Even for a wizard this is easily doable.

[Decimate_The_Weak]

If you got struck by lightning in real life... how much damage do you reckon that would do? :]

[Caddies]

I don't accept the premise of your question. Its use has nothing to do with whether or not you need it. Its use has to do with whether or not it is raining. As ExileStrife said, there are ways to make it rain. If you need it to rain, there are about a half-dozen different gods in the FRCS pantheon you could pray to for rain.

Relying on DMs to change the weather for you isn't really reliable for obvious reasons!

The quests are designed around parties that don't have the ability to rain hundreds of points of damage down from the skies. If it rains in quests, then all the quests have to be modified so that one class doesn't have this amazing ability to get experience points faster than any other.

That's not really realistic. AOE spells no matter their damage (and especially if you can't cast them near allies) have always been superfluous on quests. No quests would need to be rebalanced at all.

If, on the other hand, Call Lightning is changed to grant even the limited functionality Egon proposes when it is not raining alongside the massive pwnage it gets during rain, then it becomes more than just the most powerful spell -- it becomes the only spell worth taking. A spell with that kind of versatility puts the druid class far above any other.

Again, I'm sorry but that's not close to being realistic at all.

In general, I think you are giving this spell too much credit! Even with Egon's suggestion, its still not very good.

[putrid_plum]

The world is over... I agree with Caddies.  I also add that a druid should be able to call lighting from any cloud in a tropical climate, it is magic right?

[Relinquish]

If anything this will make people keep those fickler helms!