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.

[SparrowJacek]

Thieves and Bards have similar problems where the gap between them and a fighter in damage output is too large.

At the moment that's true for all except for Swashbucklers. I think that players haven't used Swhashies that much, which is a shame. At some point I made a calculation, which showed that swashbucklers are only slightly worse at dealing damage than kensais with 2h weapons and now Hexxat is also a Swashbuckler with her powerful upgraded weapon giving additional 1/2 APR.

and swashbucklers barely above that (an extra 0.5 APR from specialisation)

Non-warrior classes don't get that additional APR, so Swashies still have only 1APR, which can be only changed by items/abilities/spells.

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

That's a really good idea, I had no clue that their thaco is so terrible, because I only ever played a Swashbuckler...

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)

As pointed above, the engine doesn't give any APR to non-warrior classes (fighter/paladin/ranger)

Equipment for thieves/bards to increase APR (+0.5 if it consumes a minor equipment slot, +1 if it consumes a major equipment slot)

- Swashbucklers are all about dual wield, they can use weapons like Water's Edge to boost their APR to 6 + Hexxat has her cloak, which gives 7APR + their on-hit abilities
- after my new change, Assassins should become really good at dealing damage, in fact some of my ideas might make them too overpowered, that's why I'd love to hear some constructive criticism from players testing them
- at some point Bounty Hunters will also be rebalanced, I see them as ranged fighters using (rebalanced) traps, not engaging in close combat if they can avoid it
- Shadowdancer will need to be rebalanced or removed entirely, due to some changes I want to introduce

In general what I want to do is to make pure thieves (at least kitted ones) be useful without the need to dual/multiclass them, I even have a simple solution for that, you will be able to reach full potential of this class only with pure thief, though multi/duals should still be a viable option. We want to bring as much variety to party composition as we can, since v6.0 was very restrictive in that regard.

Monk is a class that I have no idea how it can be brought up to par with the others.

Did you play with a monk after the changes done in 6.2 I think? At some point they have 3-24(base) +5(enchantment) dmg, they get +4 from gauntlets of crushing, can get up to +14 from strength so 26-47 dmg with 8 steady APR (as they have undispellable IH), with their upgraded amulet and Diamond Body they get amazing Damage Reduction and regeneration (which is doubled because of how the game engine treats IH) + they're immune to most of the nasty stuff and have solid Magic Resistance, which allows them to avoid stuff like 3xADHW. Monks are very powerful and extremely cheap (as they need only the amulet and rings/cloak +2), their only weakness and downside in terms of fun is that they just punch with their fists dealing crushing damage, there's little space for intricate tactics and clever skill use. Also in the newest version Rashaad's item will be slightly better.

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Oct 9 2022, 06:21 PM