Suggestions, Feedback & Bug Reports (OOC) > Module Feedback and Suggestions
Blade Thirst Duration
ViktorYouFool:
--- Quote ---Blade Thirst
Spell Level: Ranger 3
Innate Level: 3
School: Transmutation
Descriptor:
Component: Verbal, Somatic
Range: Touch
Area of Effect / Target: Creature or Melee Weapon
Duration: 1 Turn + 2 Rounds / Level
Additional Counter Spells:
Save: None
Spell Resistance: No
You empower the touched melee weapon with a +3 enhancement bonus.
--- End quote ---
I'd like to propose increasing the duration of Blade Thirst to be more in line with other weapon buffs.
Hawk's flight is a level 2 spell and is the ranged counterpart of Blade Thirst for rangers. It is a level 2 spell with a duration of 1 Hour +1 Turn/Level. Greater Magic Weapon is available to just about everyone except rangers, and it's also a level 3 spell. It also has a 1 hour + 1 Turn/level duration. It begins at a lower enhancement level, but ends at a higher.. and given that rangers cant cast their level 3 spells until level 11 at minimum, when Rangers get Blade Thirst it'll be at the same +3 bonus of a mage casting GMW.
Rangers don't have a whole lot of third-level spell slots to throw around -- only 1 until level 17, by default. Blade Thirst's present duration makes it so short as to only be useful for a single encounter, and compared to something like Aid which provides an ongoing bonus (another 1 hour +1 Turn/Level buff spell) it seems kind of useless. At that point, just cast aid and throw a magic varnish on it. Use silver/platinum or have a mage hang out with you.
Thematically, it's fine to have GMW effectively broken up into Hawks Flight and Blade Thirst -- it'd just be nice if the duration of the latter was long enough to actually be worth preparing.
Iridni Ren:
The ranger class is already plenty strong and this is a ranger-only spell, so this change would benefit rangers exclusively.
--- Quote ---Hawk's flight is a level 2 spell and is the ranged counterpart of Blade Thirst for rangers.
--- End quote ---
Also a ranger-only spell, which means for ranged weapons, rangers get the equivalent of GMW at a lower circle than other classes. Rangers also have exclusive access to Bane Bow, again making them better at ranged weapons than other classes. Not surprising, given the class name :)
But for balance sake and the class's flavor, they ought not be as effective at other types of melee.
--- Quote ---Greater Magic Weapon is available to just about everyone except rangers,
--- End quote ---
It is also not available to druids, the class most similar to rangers thematically. I would presume this omission for both class's is intentional. Both classes get Greater Magic Fang, which no other classes do.
--- Quote ---Thematically, it's fine to have GMW effectively broken up into Hawks Flight and Blade Thirst
--- End quote ---
It's effectively "broken up" for everyone in that two weapons (melee and bow) must be enchanted separately. The reason it's broken up into two distinct spells for rangers is that the class is clearly meant to be ranged weapon specialists and not quite as innately good with a melee weapon.
ASymphony:
--- Quote ---Also a ranger-only spell, which means for ranged weapons, rangers get the equivalent of GMW at a lower circle than other classes. Rangers also have exclusive access to Bane Bow, again making them better at ranged weapons than other classes. Not surprising, given the class name :)
--- End quote ---
Getting a spell at a "lower circle" doesn't mean much for a ranger, since they do not get spellslots at the same progression as full caster classes and cap out at 4.
--- Quote ---But for balance sake and the class's flavor, they ought not be as effective at other types of melee.
--- End quote ---
Rangers are by no means an exclusively ranged class, this has little to do with their flavor.
--- Quote ---It is also not available to druids, the class most similar to rangers thematically. I would presume this omission for both class's is intentional. Both classes get Greater Magic Fang, which no other classes do.
--- End quote ---
Greater Magic Fang is a spell to buff animal companions in the case of ranger - aka the thing no one uses in serious combat
--- Quote ---It's effectively "broken up" for everyone in that two weapons (melee and bow) must be enchanted separately. The reason it's broken up into two distinct spells for rangers is that the class is clearly meant to be ranged weapon specialists and not quite as innately good with a melee weapon.
--- End quote ---
More then arguable, in 3.5 P&P there is actually a distinct split between melee rangers and archery rangers, going so far as to getting access to an entirely separate feat tree (though nwn is obviously mostly 3.0, even with some changes on potm, where the class is a hybrid, it is clearly not meant to be just a ranged class)
ViktorYouFool:
I would hazard that the reason that druids and rangers get magic fang and no one else does is because no other classes are nature-based with animal companions.
It's effectively "broken up" for everyone in that two weapons (melee and bow) must be enchanted separately. The reason it's broken up into two distinct spells for rangers is that the class is clearly meant to be ranged weapon specialists and not quite as innately good with a melee weapon.
I'm going to have to object here. If they are "Clearly meant to be ranged weapon specialists" then why would the class default to custom two-weapon fighting feats instead of point blank shot and rapid fire? Equally, if the class was meant to be a ranged weapon specialist, then why would their default spell list include a melee weapon buff and only a melee weapon buff, and not a single spell for ranged combat?
The emphasis on ranged combat is a tweak made by the PoTM team, which is fine, but none of that changes that the spell in its current form is overwhelmingly meh.
Iridni Ren:
--- Quote from: ASymphony on April 03, 2018, 09:31:33 AM ---
Getting a spell at a "lower circle" doesn't mean much for a ranger, since they do not get spellslots at the same progression as full caster classes and cap out at 4.
--- End quote ---
Because rangers are not full casters, they're also not supposed to be as good at casting as full casters. Saying the circle "doesn't mean much" for them is simply false as it implies that a ranger could take, say, 8th circle druid spells as 4th circle equivalents because a ranger can't cast them until she's 15th level anyway.
--- Quote ---Rangers are by no means an exclusively ranged class, this has little to do with their flavor.
--- End quote ---
I did not argue that rangers were exclusively ranged. I said their spell selection gives the class a flavor of being better with ranged weapons than several other melee classes, and therefore for balance that they are not quite as inherently gifted with non-ranged weapons appears to me clearly intentional.
Making this spell more powerful benefits only one class and a class that no one would seriously argue is underpowered at the moment.
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