Suggestions for the coming release Options

[forthenature]

I’ve run through this game twice in the recent one and a half month. It is admirable that even I’ve played the mod so many times, it’s still attractive. I am very appreciate with the changes of the recent releases. I’m so glad that this mod is still under updating and I am quite looking forward for the next release. So here are my personal suggestions for it.
1.Relief the constraint on whether the protagonist is a necromancer.
The single factor that affects the difficulty and game experience of the mod most is whether the protagonist is a necromancer. I should admit that the adventure and item designed for necromancer is very fantastic and the battle with the Old Ones is one of my favourite. However, after so many tries I would like to start the game with other roles. Unfortunately, the game difficulty could be quite different, especially in the battle with the Great Wyrm. One way to do this is to make Memory of the Apprenti and Amulet of Hades available for all characters, or other wizard should have counter abilities against Greater Silence. As a trade off, necromancer should be nerfed. RVE is a bit too powerful for a necro that in late game you nearly need no other healing method.
2.Make cleric more powerful.
Just as I said, with RVE you nearly don’t need a healer in your party. And what makes things worse is that in the recent release druid over compete cleric from nearly all dimensions: stoneskin, new items and new kits, and more useful HLAs. So to maximize party fighting power, there is no room for a cleric. But cleric is one of my favourite role in the game(and also in other PRGs), so I would like it to be buffed in the next release. I think a single class cleric should be as the same attractive as Jaheira.
3.Make ranged weapons a choice.
Damage dealt by ranged weapons can be lower than melee weapons instead of no damage.
4.Make paladin more powerful.
Comparing to other warrior roles(ranger, barbarian, champion of arvoreen, risk breaker), paladin is far less attractive. It should be buffed a bit.
5.Nalia should be buffed
She should at least have access to the 9th level spells. And her first class and low wisdom make her not a good party member. But she is one of my favourite character.

These suggestions are ordered. And I do hope the first two to come true. I think they will be beneficial for further development of this mod.

[ed boy]

I think that various thief multis/duals have a place as UAI users. They have the downside of missing out on powerful kit abilities and caster level dependent stuff (eg dispel wars), but the upside of being able to enhance their non-thief class by using items meant for a third class. Fighter/thieves get the best of this, though there are other cases a mage being able to use the druidic circlet that improves casting speed. If we had stronger caster-specific equipment, then I could see mage/thief and cleric/thief having a place as "Someone who can cast spells from X class but use items from Y class to bolster their abilities". I can't see a way to make pure thieves viable, unless we give them more strong HLAs or give them a new kit that fixes the APR problem.

Thieves and Bards have similar problems where the gap between them and a fighter in damage output is too large. They both have terrible THAC0 progression, lagging behind the cleric and beating only the mage. They both have terrible APR, with bards and non-swashbuckler thieves the joint worst APR in the game (no APR for level progression, limited to a single proficiency point in weapons so no APR from proficiency, offensive spin and haste are not compatible), and swashbucklers barely above that (an extra 0.5 APR from specialisation). Their damage per hit is also terrible, with bards and non-swashbucklers gaining no benefit from proficiency and swashbucklers getting their on-hit bonus rarely and unreliably. They classically have the ability to perform fewer big hits (eg backstabs), but IA enemies are resistant to those, and the way damage resistances and rounding works means that fewer big attacks don't have the impact of

If we want to balance them, we need to give them additional APR to put them in the middle between casters and warriors, and also create stronger class-specific items so UAI duals/multis can boost their non-thief class. Some ideas:

• Items with restricted class that a Thief/Caster will want (eg druid specific item with a casting speed bonus, cleric specific item with silence immunity)
• Additional powerful HLAs for a single class thief (to give a reason to play thief without another class)
• THAC0 changes - for reference, warrior tops out at 0, cleric at 6 and mage at 8
  • Thieves to top out at 4 instead of 7
  • Bards to top out at 2 instead of 7
• APR changes - for reference, warrior tops out at 3 (1 base, +1 from levels, +1 from proficiency), cleric and mage at 1
  • Thieves to be able to specialize (top out at 1.5)
  • Bards able to specialize and gain an additional 0.5APR at level 10 (top out at 2)
  • Swashbucklers able to GM (top out at 2)
• Thief/bard specific items that enhance combat
  • Equipment for thieves/bards to improve THAC0 (like the Melodic Fury ring from the old The Four mod)
  • Equipment for thieves/bards to increase APR (+0.5 if it consumes a minor equipment slot, +1 if it consumes a major equipment slot)

I'm not sure how I feel about swashbuckler - It should definitely be stronger than both thieves and bards in combat, but I feel like it should lag slightly behind a pure warrior. Monk is a class that I have no idea how it can be brought up to par with the others.