Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

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glorfindel
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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#41 Post by glorfindel » Wed Mar 04, 2015 5:16 am

From my years of playing this game, I want to throw a few things more into this:

- From the right angle every char above a certain age is OP. That has nothing to do
with the guild, just the power of the character.
- It might seem to you that a certain guild is OP, but often this observation is made from
the expectation that every guild is equal to others. If that is the case, I got a lot of
complaining to do :).
- From this, let us not waste time on analyzing which guild is OP from which point of
view, but rather figure out what is game breaking?

Speaking of game breaking... for me that's basically two things:

- The joke of an amount to build a cleric. Some people recently joined the taniels and
they are already very powerful clerics. Sure, all these chars had previous trainings, yet it
bugs me indefinitely that you can max out your cleric skill within a month or two and
thus be as powerful as possible (onlly talking cleric power). Try being a shaolin once, or a
Mage, or even your standard ranger and see how long it takes you to be as good in your
profession then a cleric can be in two months.
- The ability of a cleric to focus almost entirely on melee power, minus that little bit of
wisdom they have to invest to get their miracles.

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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#42 Post by Delia » Wed Mar 04, 2015 5:49 am

A good question could be: should cleric characters take a longer time to develop or should others take less time?

Also, IMHO, when discussing what beats what one should keep in mind that there is no such thing as a gentlemanly fair fight in Geas.
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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#43 Post by Phelan » Wed Mar 04, 2015 6:01 am

Delia wrote:A good question could be: should cleric characters take a longer time to develop or should others take less time?
It should take longer time to develop a cleric character. I liked the old masteries for miracles, you could really develop your cleric and 'specialize'. Now you just need one skill and you can cast all miracles with the same strength/power.

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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#44 Post by ferranifer » Wed Mar 04, 2015 7:24 am

I think a miracle mastery solution addresses the time investment issue and is flavorful (and that alone is grounds to implement it no matter what) but it fails to address the balance issue.

I rather see an increase on the number of mental skills they have to train so clerics have to pay the opportunity cost in similar ways to other classes (thinking shaolin, mage and thief). Skillcost is the control system for multiclassing, after all.

I think Delia raises a fair point too. Developing characters takes a considerable amount of time in this game. Maybe it is in order to take a look at the amount of commitment Geas expects from its player base in this day and age.

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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#45 Post by Aslak » Wed Mar 04, 2015 10:13 am

ferranifer wrote:I think a miracle mastery solution addresses the time investment issue and is flavorful (and that alone is grounds to implement it no matter what) but it fails to address the balance issue.
I think I can agree here, it is rather easy to train the one required skill for casting. I would rather like to see a system where the skill is for the aspects involved, like war, death, life, water....
That way we would not need a seperate skill for every miracle, but still have a set of skills that work for different miracles. Also would make switching cleric guilds a bit harder.
What I do not know how to convert the current system to the new one. Either everyone who is cleric for a bit starts with maxed out skills because he has it already now, or he is fucked up if everyone needs to start anew.
ferranifer wrote: I rather see an increase on the number of mental skills they have to train so clerics have to pay the opportunity cost in similar ways to other classes (thinking shaolin, mage and thief). Skillcost is the control system for multiclassing, after all.
First, having more skills needed for clerics, it would also cause a drastic increase in mental skills needed, second, the requirements for mental skills ain't as low as everyone claims to be.

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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#46 Post by ferranifer » Wed Mar 04, 2015 12:21 pm

Aslak wrote:it would also cause a drastic increase in mental skills needed
Yes, that's the point. Clerics wouldn't be able to have warrior-like stats anymore.

About transitioning, I assume there would be conversion plans for all existing clerics.

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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#47 Post by glorfindel » Wed Mar 04, 2015 12:54 pm

Aslak wrote: First, having more skills needed for clerics, it would also cause a drastic increase in mental skills needed, second, the requirements for mental skills ain't as low as everyone claims to be.
believe me, compared to the requirements for any other combat related activity, it's a joke. Glor, 10 years ago, could wield every miracle in existence without having put much into mentals. And it got downgraded since then...

And from my point of view, a cleric should easily be putting 30% of their gained experience into mentals, at the lowest point.

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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#48 Post by mazarmormuk » Wed Mar 04, 2015 1:09 pm

i agree especially to the point of cleric hopping. a single skill for all clerics is far too less.

i agree too that a skill system based on the different miracles is a nice thing. but i doubt the system is buildt as simple as you say.

having a single skill "beseech deity" does not mean necessarily that this skill is easy to develop, leaving enough space for other skills to develop and leaving enough xp to be put in fighter skills.
A single skill can easily be hard to develop, eating your xp in huge heaps and putting it automatically into mental stats
.
As an example i did always push physical stats more than mental ones, but finally mazars mentals together reach higher level than mazars physics.
well, mazars stats are set together out of 15 years of different codes, so i cant tell yeh if thats still the case.

About the development of clerics, the main point i dislike is that the
strength of miracle effects hardly improves. young clerics get -with entry-
a quite good set of miracles, and the miracles power hardly depends on their ability.

maybe a detailled skill set for miracles would solve many problems here:
-cleric hopping
-a development in proportion
-less whining about that "single skill thing" :-)

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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#49 Post by luminier » Wed Mar 04, 2015 10:32 pm

mazarmormuk wrote: having a single skill "beseech deity" does not mean necessarily that this skill is easy to develop, leaving enough space for other skills to develop and leaving enough xp to be put in fighter skills.
A single skill can easily be hard to develop, eating your xp in huge heaps and putting it automatically into mental stats


maybe a detailled skill set for miracles would solve many problems here:
-cleric hopping
-a development in proportion
-less whining about that "single skill thing" :-)
I don't think the skill is easy to develop. I know at least two Taniel clerics that focused on physical stats first and then became clerics. They are still learning to master beseech, but they aren't far off.

But thats the beauty of beseech deity that you mentioned, clerics don't need to have it mastered. beginner clerics get the same strength miracle at level 0 as expert clerics do at level 100. Imagine that with another skill... spear at level 0 able to be just as effective as spear at level 100, you just don't hit as often. Crazy. Mastery just allows clerics to cast more successfully. Goes from almost successfully casting 70% of the time to 99% of the time going 0-100 beseech skill.

Every guild has their own skill set to learn. Under "magic skills", unless you are a mage, clerics have two skills. Beseech and ritual (arguably theosophy I guess, but doesn't really impact effectiveness) . I would easily trade in everything a crusader gets offered (unicorn, towers, free armours/weapons) if it meant I could be a Taniel cleric. Training two extra skills for me would be a drop in the bucket... What does that say about the clerical guilds? Crusaders are devout Evrenites AND Tanielites, why don't they get access to free miracles? :)

As for the new types of skills, would clerics have to study aspects to cast? War, death, air, fire, water, earth, destruction, life, order, light etc? I feel like that would definitely be cooler and more in depth than the current system. And it certainly "evens up" the skills with the other guilds. Also it forces clerics to have to learn less other skills like learning languages or alchemy or book bindery or whatever... lets them focus more on what they actually use. And clearly this is quite the disadvantage to some. It means you would have a harder time being a fighter AND an alchemist AND a cleric AND a language master.


______Crusader portion of my response_____

I don't use Crusader armours. I use their weapons for training purposes mostly, I don't use their weapons in PVP fights unless I am desperate. Unicorns don't hit particularly hard at all if you have chainmail or plate, what they help most with is having another body on the field. And towers are exceptionally easy to avoid, they are almost never at choke points because that limits their field of view. Crusaders abilities are either fairly helpful sort of like a Cleric breeze or hardened armour that can't be kept up forever. It's not practical on "long" missions. After an hour im completely spent with no way of getting my righteousness back in the field.

So basically I've made my own armour and weapons that I use, making one thing that the crusaders are "known for" 99% obsolete. I use a unicorn for mobility and having another body on the field, that could be done with a war horse too, which everyone has access to. And towers are very good for spotting, easy to avoid, and I wouldn't mind having them gone if people really see them as making hunting people down too easy. They are a bit spammy anyways. I don't need to know when Gerrit is walking into Elvandar.
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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#50 Post by Delia » Thu Mar 05, 2015 12:43 am

Big characters tend to grow out from the guild gear. In most case, I think, guild eq offers a good step up for small and medium sized characters but as your abilities and resources grow, mithril gear can be more optimal. Also, not every piece of gear fits for all purposes. Robe wearers have it easy as they can do their guild thing without much thought needed for optimization. Unless one wishes to go for the looks.

Personally I always wished, that guild would offer more than the uniform gear. If I still remember correctly, Legion offered multiple different weapons and armours of all main types which was quite cool. Atleast some customization within the guild would be nice as your character progresses through the ranks.

As for special abilities...Having them is always a bonus no matter what but with that getting all spent thing...its a bit of a glimpse into a mage's life ;)
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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#51 Post by luminier » Thu Mar 05, 2015 2:02 am

Instead the Taniel clerics actually -lost- armours haha! :D
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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#52 Post by Delia » Thu Mar 05, 2015 3:41 am

There are some things I like how the clerics work and that is how they differ from the mages. Magic is something that you actively pursue and try to understand by seeking more knowledge and understanding. It is next to impossible to know everything and you always have to experiment with your power in order to develop it. A small mistake or lack of concentration can prove to be costly.

Cleric powers are on the other hand granted, not attained yourself and as such they enjoy some priviledges mages can only dream of as they truth are just vessels for divide power. In a way I would like if there were more consequences to it though. For example when a god pours his might to you and you happen to be unprepared or distracted at the moment, you suddenly find yourself overwhelmed and out of control with the power surging through you breaking out uncontrollably, or burning you from the inside leaving you a hollow husk.

Oops! Taniel seems to have made a mistake.
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Last edited by Delia on Thu Mar 05, 2015 3:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#53 Post by fernao » Thu Mar 05, 2015 3:43 am

Aslak wrote:Beside, Asrals indeed seems stronger on the paper then other cleric guilds, at least 1on1. But Asrals have little to offer to teammates, while Taniels and crusaders boost their entire team heavily.
Sathos are playing on an entire different league anyways, at least once they bring undeads in.
I think a satho would love nothing more than to bring their undeads in. Unfortunately a satho cannot. A satho can raise undeads but after that, they are stationary, apart from the hunting zombies, but you cannot control them.
So undeads are only nice to have in traps, but since one can look, scout and Taniels have a miracle to look in other rooms without having to enter, well, that makes undeads a rather limited resource in actual fights.
Besides, while a satho creates an undead he is rather defenseless....
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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#54 Post by Delia » Thu Mar 05, 2015 4:20 am

Having necromancy as a full branch to be specialized in could be fun for sathos. Meaning you would have to invest in it and be offered with more options as you grow. More undead types and having them actually follow you for one. This of course would mean you yourself would rely on the undead to fight the fights for you.

Though currently, most undead are geared for high level fights where they either completely disappear or are freakishly strong and insta-kill a character or two before being destroyed. For the casual player they are far from fun though, I think.
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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#55 Post by Delia » Thu Mar 05, 2015 5:59 am

Hmm...if clerics were to be made more complicated somehow, perhaps they could dedicate themselves to an aspect of their god at some point? Bit like mages have to pick aspects and an elemental source set.

It could affect various things giving bonuses and perhaps some penalties, affect what miracles you have or what is stronger and what is weaker. It could represent branches or cults within the main body along with bit different eq and stuff as well. Some could be geared more towards fighting stuff, some more towards the mystical and the academic, some more towards you name it.
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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#56 Post by Aslak » Thu Mar 05, 2015 6:07 am

fernao wrote: I think a satho would love nothing more than to bring their undeads in. Unfortunately a satho cannot. A satho can raise undeads but after that, they are stationary, apart from the hunting zombies, but you cannot control them.
So undeads are only nice to have in traps, but since one can look, scout and Taniels have a miracle to look in other rooms without having to enter, well, that makes undeads a rather limited resource in actual fights.
I would love to see walking undeads with Sathos IF they were substancially weaker then the current bread of undeads. The revenants were a good example I think on how strong a walking undead should be, at least the offense of the revenant. They last a bit too long to be fun for any pure meele build to fight.

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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#57 Post by Delia » Thu Mar 05, 2015 8:51 am

In my experience all the other undeads are kiddie stuff compared to the Revenant, but I guess this is again one of those things that depends on your character.
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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#58 Post by Aslak » Thu Mar 05, 2015 11:42 am

Delia wrote:In my experience all the other undeads are kiddie stuff compared to the Revenant, but I guess this is again one of those things that depends on your character.
Revenants are usually unarmed. They ain't giants with big fat twohanded weapons.

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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#59 Post by mazarmormuk » Thu Mar 05, 2015 3:07 pm

as an answer to luminier,

yes, i would love to see aspects as skills and gesture, mind and voice, too.

raising your beseech skill with a hundred million of ground blessings as taniel cleric and suddenly your smite is perfect - then you change the temple and suddenly you perfectly know how to create a firebird - is strange.

some miracles would need an aspect review, but that ould be worth it

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Re: Clerics, Too strong? (minor spoilers!)

#60 Post by Delia » Fri Mar 06, 2015 5:11 am

Just for comparison...

I sometimes wonder what kind of Taniel cleric or a Satho dark elf ghoul Delia could have been with the points from her ~25 magic skills being in cleric/other skills instead :D
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