Enchanting - The warmage apprentice staff #2.0

[Savras]

Gonna start another topic here, enchanting. A mainly martial focused thing to desire. This discussion is in regards to the idea of a staff as a catalyst spellslot item. Mostly my annoyance at the wizard spellbook item. Could casters please be allowed to make very weak ish enchanted staves? Level 1 slot, level 2 slot, skill or two. That's it, just spell book level. But it'd be a different appearance. If i see a guy in outskirts with a book. 9/10 times, it's a wizard with his deathgrip upon that infernal book. At night, he takes it with him into the Inn room and as he speaks to his comrades. Not once, does he dare let it leave his gaze.

Can offer suggestions or comments.

[Mark Johansen]

I don't belive there's anything against adding more varied wizard gear as long as it dosen't add to the power creep at high levels. If you have any specific idears you're more then welcome to make a suggestion for items in the item request thread: https://www.nwnravenloft.com/forum/index.php?topic=44496.0

[Savras]

I don't belive there's anything against adding more varied wizard gear as long as it dosen't add to the power creep at high levels. If you have any specific idears you're more then welcome to make a suggestion for items in the item request thread: https://www.nwnravenloft.com/forum/index.php?topic=44496.0

It's not really items i'd wanted added, it's more of a custom spin on the item itself. Enchanting itself doesn't hold much sway for most casters outside some save gear, especially not for the weapon slot. A minor option in the crafting block would be nice. Exp investment for a caster is a detriment so it's unlikely they'll attempt it but some more option variety might tempt it. Feel it'd be more inciting to go for a more flavor way to go about it instead of a random drop in the loot table. Would allow for more wide spread access among different casters while not really changing much near the end game. Keep it a low enough benefit so you don't see every caster walking around with their beat stick and don't overlap current gear power balance. But keep open as a possibility.

[Mark Johansen]

If I'm getting what you're putting down you're asking for crafted wands/staffs for caster classes. I'm not entirely against it but it would be a time investment from the dev side to implement. It would need a great deal of care when discussing how to implement these things as we do not want to make the caster classes more powerful then they already are. While loot items do fill a purpose in regards to becoming valuable artifacts that not everyone and their mother has.

What would your suggestions for a craftable wand/staff be in terms of skill/feats/ability and how do you figure we could take advantage of the diffrent materials for making said staffs and wands?

[Savras]

If I'm getting what you're putting down you're asking for crafted wands/staffs for caster classes. I'm not entirely against it but it would be a time investment from the dev side to implement. It would need a great deal of care when discussing how to implement these things as we do not want to make the caster classes more powerful then they already are. While loot items do fill a purpose in regards to becoming valuable artifacts that not everyone and their mother has.

What would your suggestions for a craftable wand/staff be in terms of skill/feats/ability and how do you figure we could take advantage of the diffrent materials for making said staffs and wands?

Amusingly, MAB just mentioned to the community if he could, he'd desire to add gemcutting and jewelcrafting which would fit amazingly well, woodworking alongside jewelcrafting, but that's more of a dream. Like you said, it'd be a time investment. My original idea was just grab a plain quarterstaff and do the usual enchanting with some new materials, problem i'm seeing is how you'd specify spellslots in an enchanted or crafted item tied to your class. Since spellslots items are "Sorcerer spell slot +" so you'd need a menu prompt or a detection method. The most flooded method would be abunch of different gems, green for druid and you'd have different versions of it. Suppose it's easier just to have an item purchasable from the vendor if it's a craft which will fetch in the class specific. If we were gonna turn it into a crafting application. I'll write up some plausible examples of items could be crafted in the morning with relevant materials already IG. Very late for me atm.

[Mark Johansen]

We're always open to suggestions, the easiest way of implementing something like this would be to do it though the already existing crafting system. Write up a simple high level suggestion of how you'd see it work, don't put too much time into it just yet.

Keep in mind i'm not going to promise any kind of implementation as we're just discussing how an implementation could be done, it is a decision that would be needed to talked over in the dev team before i could say yay or nay.

[HM01]

Agree with this, most wizard gear has been nerfed into oblivion and often carry a heavy malus. Enchanting a staff for slots, or a boost to spellcraft, concentration, lore, ect - would be pretty refreshing.

inb4 "wizards are OP and don't need anything", just make it expensive xp cost and niche. Like OP said, wizards don't need to enchant anything other than minor save boosts. The design philosophy is that enchanted crafted gear is 95% of the time better than loot drop items, thats not the case for spellcasters.

[Savras]

Keep in mind i'm not going to promise any kind of implementation as we're just discussing how an implementation could be done, it is a decision that would be needed to talked over in the dev team before i could say yay or nay.

Completely fair, just made the topic to see how the community and PoTM teams would feel about it.

[Wilkins1952]

One think I'd love to see not just for wizards but any spell casting class is the following Craftable rings/Necklaces that when enchanted give bonus spell slots at 5th/6th/7th circle. Depending on the material used in the Ring/Necklace. Or in the case of Half casters give 2nd and 3rd spell slots. Cause right now. A wizard has endgame gear at level 2. Which is honestly misterable.

[Mark Johansen]

One think I'd love to see not just for wizards but any spell casting class is the following Craftable rings/Necklaces that when enchanted give bonus spell slots at 5th/6th/7th circle. Depending on the material used in the Ring/Necklace. Or in the case of Half casters give 2nd and 3rd spell slots. Cause right now. A wizard has endgame gear at level 2. Which is honestly misterable.

As i stated before we're not going to be adding more high level feats/abilities/spell slots at this time as we don't intend to add a fruther power creep to already powerfull type of classes (casters).

[Zyemeth]

I would be happy enchanting craftable wizard staves for like 3rd and 4th slots. Those are the most contested slots as a warder that even at level 20 as a character built entirely around warding I find myself falling short on at times. These circles also aren't at all considered powerful for offensive casting but could let you squeeze in a fireball or something if you were more offensive casting minded so it's mildly useful without much impact of power creep

[Frankz]

Could perhaps add in items that compete for already competitive item slots.

So the wizard spell book could have the exact same caster spells added, but could also add like 5 lore or 5 healing or 5 influence, or even tumble. Some less pvp oriented skills could go a long way.

Or the option for some male sorcerer gear. As many of their options are female only.

[apeppertoo]

As a Shapechange enthusiast I'm not really into spell slot items.

Maybe some damage resistance or reduction depending on material. Almost certainly some skill bonuses. I'd like enchanted staves that boosted spellcraft by some amount greater than double-fisting Athames.

Oh I know, how about a rare material that when worked into a magic staff and enchanted grants immunity to knockdown? Some caster equivalent to Astral Driftmetal, a counter to the martial I-Win Button.

[Zyemeth]

Most of these exist in tailoring. Discipline, spellcraft, and DR.

[remnar]

Personally, I would not tie any sort of overwhelming or extra-desirable mechanical benefits to anything where the only gate is rarity or cost.  In a game with infinite resources where only time is a barrier, rarity means little to nothing.

And if there's anywhere where time isn't a barrier, it's POTM.

[Anarcoplayba]

And, how about instead of more spell slots, one cast of a certai. Spell per day?

We could have a staff, for i stance, with one charge of lesser mind blank.

[apeppertoo]

Most of these exist in tailoring. Discipline, spellcraft, and DR.

Yeah, and?

I want more. Because nothing else useful can be put on a magic staff.

Personally, I would not tie any sort of overwhelming or extra-desirable mechanical benefits to anything where the only gate is rarity or cost.  In a game with infinite resources where only time is a barrier, rarity means little to nothing.

And if there's anywhere where time isn't a barrier, it's POTM

Didn't stop them from putting force resist in wherein the only gate is rarity/cost.

Knockdown immunity magic staves please.

[Madame Trousers Son]

Yeah, the argument that things shouldn't be balanced by rarity is certainly a valid perspective, but that particular horse has bolted here.

[Profezzor_Darke]

I'm not even playing main caster classes and I would appreciate a staff crafting category. First of all are there could be unenchanted staffs that could give minor but useful skill bonuses, depending on their materials, maybe AC against certain creatures? (to not make them more offense weapons, though honestly I wouldn't mind seeing more wizards hitting people with staves, for certain archetypes pretty on point) and then regulated through a certain material component, yes, spell slots by enchanting. Players could as such influence which circle spells they need.

It sounds a bit overkill though