Introduction and Principles :
I have the project to make a "small" balance mod for PoE1.
I haven't much time to work on it right now, my target date is more about this summer, but I think it's better to get comment as soon as possible since the activity on this forum is decreasing... Mostly, I would like to gather some feedback before it's too late to get "enlightened" reviews.
I am already the author of a rather big balance mod for PoE2 ( Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com) ). I don't want to do something that big for PoE1 since modding PoE1 is a bit more complicated and I don't have that much time to invest again. In addition, I won't find it that suitable since I'm in love with many of PoE1 « unbalanced » features (such as Dragon Trashed. builds..). Finally no multiclassing tends to reduce the number of potentially OP combinations.
My objectives are only to make every combination of Races and Classes relevant enough.
All classes shall be able to fullfill a particular role (or combinations of roles) better than anyone else in a party (Solo is a secondary concern for me).
A couple of warnings before sharing the details :
- I won't try address all bugs and glitches. By experience, there are just too many of them.
- I won't do anything else than tweaking numbers beacuse of the technical difficulty to do so. I can increase damages, duration, values of bonus or even add a scaling per level (seems simple enough). So please try to avoid making suggestions that would require adding new properties to a particular ability.
- The total number of changes should be close to the list I will present below (I can include a couple more suggested changes, but not too many...).
My vision of current class balance :
Tier S : is about casters who can unleash many (great) casts when needed
Tier S++ : Priest. Close to impossible to replace as party support (and solid for everything else). Playing without a Priest in one's party is like rising the level of difficulty... literally since PotD adds like +15 Accuracy and Defenses to foes, while a priest get basically adds around +30 Accuracy and +60 Defenses (even if it requires casting time and a party slot).
Tier S+ : Wizard. Incredibly strong on its own. Special mention to Ninagauth Shadowflames which is way too strong (even for a special reward) and you can cast it every encounter from lvl 15.
Tier S : Druid
Tier A : Solid tier
All of these classes have some very strong specials. Here are the reason why most of the classes fit in this category :
Chanter : Dragon Trashed is crazy strong, and they can do that while standing in the strongest armors (and pocking with weapons).
Paladin : similar to Chanters (even tankier) thanks to Sacred Immolation, less powerful but with a lots of other support goodies (instant resurrection, auras, spike damages with FoD, etc...)
Ranger : very strong ranged damages with Twinned Arrows (basically doubles DPS), a good pet from the later version of the game, reccursive Stuns from Stunning Shots.
Monks : very versatile with summons, Crowd Control, good DPS abilities, and tankiness through Iron Skin
Barbarian : great AoE damages with possible added Crowd Control (through interrupts or overbearing weapons). Spike AoE damages with Heart of Fury.
Cipher : extremely versatile casters with great weapon damages. Defensive Mindweb is super good.
Tier B : slightly subpar Tier
Tier B+ : Fighters : some nice goodies, but not something as gamechanging as the previous ones. Just needs a trump card similar to what is Sacred Immolation or Twinned Arrows for their respective classes.
Tier B : Rogue : great Single Target DPS... but not that much greater than Ranger with a lots more weaknesses and no really great other goodies.
As a consequence of th I will try to do the following :
- Give a super endgame ability to Fighters
- Improve the Rogue substancially and also give them a super endgame ability
- Tweak down a couple of Priests and Wizards spells that I consider particularly annoying. Note that I would include nerfs in an optional component. (as I did for my PoE2 nerfs)
- Try to reduce the gap caused by Rest Spamming (see below)
Focus on the Rest Spamming issue :
Limitating rest is part of the usual game experience. If you rest spam, some classes (casters) are way stronger and restricting oneself from using per rest ressources is part of PoE1 game design. Of you roleplay a minimum, you won't go back to the nearest inn every other fight. You may find this gamplay annoying, but I don't want to touch this.
However, it would certainly be a good idea for another mod !! It would most likely require to lower Wiz/Priest/Druid casts to 1-2 per spell level as it was done in PoE2.
On the contrary, one of the general principles of this balance mod would be to increase the number of per Rest casts for all non spellcasters. One of the biggest strength of casters (Wiz, Priest, Druids) is that they have a lots of casts for boss fights, making them God tier for such battles. Increasing the number of Per Rest casts of martial classes would reduce the gap. A lot of Per Rest abilities are actually quite good vs bosses (Unbending, Deprive the Unworthy, Finishing Blow), and I feel weird that they usually get 1-2 casts of them while casters get 4 casts on each Tier (not even counting mastery).
Since my purpose is to give more Per Rest casts to martial classes in general, my rule would be by default to give 4x Per Rest cast of everything Per Rest. Because 4x Per Rest cast is what casters gain per spell level, it would feel fair.
Sometimes I would make exception to 3x if the ability feels a bit strong (Unbending, as it is) or 5x if weak/spammy (Binding Roots as it is, or Hastening Exhortation). Expect +2x Per Rest cast compared to current values, with some exceptions (Unbending and Binding Roots feel quite balanced as they are, so no +2 Per Rest cast).
The result of this tweak would probably to have martials/cipher/chanter to do the biggest part of the work for "minor" fights due to passive and Per Encounter spams (until Mastery at least) while Druid/Wiz/Priest would still carry the party for boss fights, but with other classes also contributing more than before.
Detailed preliminary list of changes:
Fighter
Clear Out : 4x per Rest
Sundering Blow : duration 8s -> 30s, -8DR -> -10DR
I want to make Sundering Blow the best DR reducer of the game by a significant margin. This would ensure the utility of fighters versus bosses. Also note that using it with a blunderbuss makes it basically an autohit, unlike similar abilities. Ney it's melee only
Paladin
Hastening Exhortation : 5x per Rest
Deprive the Unworthy : 4x per Rest
Monk
Clarity of Agony : 4x per Rest
Barbarian
Barbaric Shout : 4x per Rest
Wild Sprint : 5x per Rest
Ranger
Revive Companion : 3x per Rest
Master's Call : 5x per Rest
Rogue
- Sneak Attack : +50% base +10% per 3 lvl beyond 1, up to +100% at level 16
- Dirty Fighting : 10% => 15% crit
- Riposte : 30% chances on miss too
- Withering Strike : 1x => 2x per encounter
- Fearsome Strike : 4x per Rest
- Feign Death : Prone 10s -> 3s, invisible 6s -> 12s
- Deep wounds : add +3 raw damages scaling per 6 lvl beyond 1 up to 9 raw damages per 3s tick at level 13
- Finishing Blow : 4x per Rest
Finishing Blow : +5 Acc, +50% damages, +3% damages per 1% health loss below 50%
=> +10 Acc, +3% damages per 1% health loss from 100% (up to +300%)
Devastatating Blow +5 Acc, +50% damages, +5% damages per 1% health loss below 50%
=> +10 Acc, +4% damages per 1% health loss from 100% (up to +400%)
Most Rogue changes have already been discussed here : Melee Rogue is too weak on PotD Upscale - Page 2 - Pillars of Eternity: Characters Builds, Strategies & the Unity Engine (Spoiler Warning!) - Obsidian Forum Community
Wizard (in a distinct nerf component)
Shadowflame : Paralysis 6s -> 4s
This one is specifically annoying because an AoE Paralysis with a significant duration that can be spammed every fight or 6x times on a single encounter can really break the game.
Priest (in a distinct nerf component)
Devotion for the Faithful : -20 acc for foes -> -10, -10 mig for foes-> -4, +20 Acc for friends -> -10 (in a nutshell, that's PoE2 values)
Crow of the Faithful : +25 Resolve -> +6 Resolve
As stated above, Priests are just too good at buffing party.
DftF is arguably the best spell of the game since High Accuracy help everything including landing Crowd Control, and you're even debuffing your foes on top of this !
Also Resolve is arguably the worst attribute, but at least it brings a sometimes critical resistance to interrupt. By buffing it so much, CotF basically makes your initial Resolve attribute insignificant.
Race changes
Death Godlike : damages to foes under 25% endurance : 25% => EDIT 25%+7% damages per 3 lvl, up to +60% at level 16.
Nature Godlike : bonus set to +3 to Mig, Dex and Con when under 50% health, +1 per 6 lvl up to +5 to Mig, Dex and Con at lvl 13.
Mountain Dwarf : +20 -> +40 vs poison and disease (+20 is too weak and was basically only useful for 1 single build, @Boeroer's Bilestomper)
Additional change :
1-Handed Style : 15% Crit -> 25% (basically the same level of power as what I did for my PoE2 mod)