As the point has been raised, I believe that the role of herbalism in this server needs to be reassessed and reevaluated, especially so at this juncture at which it has become
exceptionally more powerful.
Herbalism has long, and rightly, been considered as the 'superior' craft amongst the crafting systems.
It is by a wide margin the most accessible craft, owing to:
The small inventory size and weight of herbs.Herbs are small, light, and can be
even smaller and lighter by putting them into herbalism pouches before putting them in 60% magic bags.
This must be considered in comparison to weighty ores and ingots,
bulky wood, weighty and bulky alchemical ingredients.
It is
very easy to store vast numbers of herbs. It is not easy to store vast repositories of other crafting resources. I'll come back to this.
The low time investment needed to acquire herbs. It is not necessary to invest as much time into Herbalism as it is for the other crafts for similar returns.
Herbs are found everywhere. You can pick them up when you're dungeoning, running deliveries or travelling from A-B. There is no need to sit and watch your PC smash boulders or cut down trees.
The low time investment in processing herbs into potions.Unlike other crafts, there is just one process at one station to process herbs into potions.
These factors combine to create a
funnel effect. PotM has always had power crafters - players who want to devote time to feeding the player economy, and that's fine. But power herbalists have a disproportionately huge pool of resources to draw from, because they are
ubiquitous. Even considering the balancing factor that some herbs are hard to get, when you consider it in aggregate - dozens of players funneling into a limited number of power herbalists - it's still easy street.
What does this mean? It means that as it stands, with a small amount of determination, any mid-level PC could have immediate unrestricted access to:
Stoneskin, Spell Resistance, 50% Concealment, Energy Buffer, Haste, True Seeing and a Heal. Among others.
Now, I'd like to draw your attention to this:
* use/day - In most terms of NWN, a day only represents the time between resting, thus items that have uses per day are quickly becoming much more frequently used. Since these items never run dry, we could end up with individuals carrying such items for every needed situation, effectively making them more powerful than a spellcaster and incredibly hard to toy with as a DM.
This quote is from Bluebomber's guidelines for item submissions, specifically why we don't have use/day items. Because PCs stockpiling use/day items makes them effectively able to deal with whatever is thrown at them, counter to the server's horror ethos.
I'm bringing this up because I argue the range of spells available to ANY PC
effectively makes them more powerful than a spellcaster.Anecdotally I was told that the intended purpose of herbalism was to act as a crutch for mundane parties. That without an arcane buffer or cleric healer, a party could still 'fake it' with buffs and heals from potions. Alchemy was added because herbalism couldn't effectively replicate weapon buffs.
Incremental additions to the system has taken it beyond this initial intention, and I believe outside of one of the fundamental design choices of the server.
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Rather than just moan, I'd like to make some specific suggestions that I think would help.
I don't think that tweaking DCs or recipies is the solution.
I also don't want to say 'Remove this or remove that', although I do believe that Stoneskin, Spell Resistance, True Seeing and Energy Buffer have taken us over the brink into the realm of 'able to deal with anything'..
I think a reasonable adjustment would be to put some sort of break on the production of potions.
Lower the spawn rate of herbs by 30% or more, to bring supply more in line with the supply of other crafting ingredients. This would not penalise players who are engaged in crafting, by forcing more of
their time into potion production, but it would slow down the supply.
Thankyou.
