Making Ritual Levels More Useful

What scott does for HQ I do the same in NJ. I just think the dataabse doesn't like the players when it tries to pull 4 create undead scrolls when I do a request for 10 scrolls. LOL

Justin H-
 
Keep in mind, I don't throw all useless scrolls out the window. It's fun to get a create or transform occassionally, especially for the more shady characters. However, putting out 4 or 5 an event is not fun.

Scott
 
Our chapter is small enough that I think we can only put out 1 scroll.. and if it happens to be a create scroll.. how lame is that.

I just think that certain "foundational" scrolls should be going out first.

let formal casters cast formals even if they are usless like mark or invest or whatever.
 
paythin said:
What scott does for HQ I do the same in NJ. I just think the dataabse doesn't like the players when it tries to pull 4 create undead scrolls when I do a request for 10 scrolls. LOL

Justin H-


Ditto for Ohio to both Scott and Justin H
 
I just did the scrolls for the upcoming HQ event. All Transform to Corporeal Undead scrolls for those suckers!

Wait...I'm PCing....

Crap.

:cry:
 
After playing for far too long, and having the advantage of having been able to play on both coasts, I would have to agree that there are two distinct playing styles.

East Coast: Teams, houses and Wars.

West Coast: Small Units fighting for power in extremely harsh campaigns.

I loved going to the East Coast and getting to somewhat relax as a player. I was able to see the structure and see how one could work their way within it.
And, I have to admit, when we started the old Garrenshaw (Alliance SF old campaign) we very purposely went for an oppressive and bleak game world to have a reason to fight back.

The reason I am back playing is that the new Stonehaven campaign is really trying very hard to feel much more like an east coast game with west coast antagonists. They are working hard to come up with a great mix between the two play styles.

That being said, back to this topic:

I being a Templar who has scraped serious points out to have even 10 Formal levels, understand that is can be rough having that point sink and not having anything to do in a combat situation. I am lucky that as a Templar I can at least be a stick jockey when need be. But I can seriously see the desire for something interesting to do with those formal levels. There are some great ideas in this thread, and i look forward to seeing discussions about ways to make Formal casting a touch more relevant to gameplay, more than just a way to do a DA.

-Jason 'Jakartin' Mendoza
 
My idea is to either allow the current wand ritual to stack with the new wand proposal, or creating a new ritual to increase the damage, and or times per day it is usable. Secondly the creating of an earth/chaos equivilant. That should do the trick I think.
 
Agahi said:
My idea is to either allow the current wand ritual to stack with the new wand proposal, or creating a new ritual to increase the damage, and or times per day it is usable. Secondly the creating of an earth/chaos equivilant. That should do the trick I think.

I can say there are no plans to include earth/chaos as a element that can be used in wands. As for the current wand rituals we have something in the works for that.

Justin H-
 
I know, I was saying that creating an earth one, and also a similar ritual to buff it for ritualists would make the earth formalists have also have an in battle use (that is to say if the celestial version was allowed to stack). Do you mean, a plan for incorporating the ritual itself, or a plan for getting rid of it all togather? If just getting rid of it..thats not what I was saying.
 
Earth Casters already have a place in battle. They can choose whether to be a pure healer.... or if they want to go offensive with Curses and Binding Magics.

Both of these are valid roles in combat.

The issue that Wands solve is that the entire purpose of Celestial magic is to do damage... and they just weren't doing enough of that.

Earth Casters are fine. They just need to Lrn2Play.
 
I will still say that introducing ritual cantrips and allowing both Celestial Scholars and Earth Scholars (or half classes of their respective types) to create healing and damage pools would solve the problem of letting ritual casters "feel cool" and burn lots of components... You could also make it a spellcraftable ritual.

On the note of pure healer I have to admit that one thing that has always bothered me about Earth casters is that they actually can't really be TRULY "pure" healer. This is a small point I know but my biggest beef has been with 3rd level earth spells and with the minor exception of sanctuary there really is no good earth or general defensive or helpful spell at this level. Basically you have to have something offensive and I wish there was something better for "pure" defensive casters at this level...
 
Dreamingfurther said:
I will still say that introducing ritual cantrips and allowing both
Celestial Scholars and Earth Scholars (or half classes of their
respective types) to create healing and damage pools would solve the
problem of letting ritual casters "feel cool" and burn lots of
components... You could also make it a spellcraftable ritual.

I'm personally of the opinion that the best way to make levels in formal more useful is to drop their cost for scholars to 2. If it's not such a build sink it becomes less of a waste; inherently the build spent on it is more useful.

On the note of pure healer I have to admit that one thing that has always
bothered me about Earth casters is that they actually can't really be
TRULY "pure" healer. This is a small point I know but my biggest beef
has been with 3rd level earth spells and with the minor exception of
sanctuary there really is no good earth or general defensive or helpful
spell at this level. Basically you have to have something offensive and
I wish there was something better for "pure" defensive casters at this
level...

Help Undead is a perfectly viable defensive spell.
 
Dreamingfurther said:
On the note of pure healer I have to admit that one thing that has always bothered me about Earth casters is that they actually can't really be TRULY "pure" healer. This is a small point I know but my biggest beef has been with 3rd level earth spells and with the minor exception of sanctuary there really is no good earth or general defensive or helpful spell at this level.

I'm a huge fan of Weakness. -5 to swings? Suddenly, that thing kicking your rear isn't so big anymore. Especially if you have a Protection Aura, you could be taking 9's, to taking nothing. How is that not useful?
 
Thing swinging 8 Drain + my PA 3 + weakness = no effect on the healer ;)

My earth caster is a mix of healing, binding and other defensive spells. In her mind it's her job to stay alive and heal others - she's pretty useless dead. So no she's not a pacifist in that she will throw an offensive spell, but she's not an undead-nuker type or a bindomancer type or the like.

If you truly want to play a pacifist style healer you can go that route - but anytime you decide to pick such a narrow character theme you're going to limit yourself. Sanctuary is a perfect choice for a pacifist IMO. It's the players' choice to exclude those spells - not the rules.
 
I wasn't saying that 3rd level earth spells aren't good... Personaly I think weakness is amazing! =) Just saying as far as pure defensive... And yes I agree that its a limiting character choice. I just wish there was one better 3rd level defensive spell than Sanctuary thats all... =\ Not a big deal really.
 
Desecrate also works pretty well. Also a 3rd level Earth spell.
 
Well if you can get away with Chaos incants...
 
...and the walking around with your hands across your chest carrying a big sign that says "spell down the necromancer, win a prize".
 
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