[Least Liked Companions]

Eder, GM, and Durance were all great, though Durance is the one that continues to get better as the game goes on. At any rate, his comment at Noonfrost seals the deal for me.

Hiravius has more depth than it would appear, and in his defense, if you gave the same character concept to Bio, I would have murdered him after about five minutes. "[benevolent] Spare companions obnoxious joke character."

I like Kana and Sagani well enough, Kana for his attitude, Sagani for demonstrating the difference between down to earth and dull.

So... that leaves Pallegina and Aloth. Of the two, Aloth does at least have some plot relevant character development, so that leaves Pallegina with the short straw.

[So there is no good ending?]

I'm somewhat surprised you couldn't remake Eothas with the missing souls.

 

I don't think the souls are really important, it's just the essence they contain. Essence is substance or energy. Soul is form and substance (the how and why of souls has yet to be explained, but it's probably a trait of living matter that grew in complexity over the course of evolution, mapping somewhat to intelligence).

 

Essence is what separates animate from inanimate (in fact, is pretty much a synonym for anima in our world's classical phiosophy). Even plants have simple souls. It seems that ordinary matter (rocks, water, etc.) lacks essence -- adra is living rock, because it can contain essence (inluding whole, unscathed souls).

 

Anyway, I get the sense that, with the gods, the "form" side of the equation is handled by Engwithan machinery (I guess you could say the game ends with a "deus ex machina", hurr hurr hurr) -- you could dump all those souls into the device, but to produce Eothas, you would still have to reprogram it, and that's assuming that it wasn't built as Woedica at a hardware level.

 

I guess the alternative would be to somehow redirect them to the Eothas machine (assuming it wasn't physically damaged by feedback from the Godhammer somehow) and travel there to do that. But in either case, I don't think the PC's past life ever had enough knowledge to do so, and it's possible that Thaos didn't either.

 

[So there is no good ending?]

The whole "gods do not exist" thing is kind of a misnomer. The voices in your head communicating to you are real entities in the game plot. They do exist, they just aren't immortal and aren't that old; they're only as old as the Engwithan civilization.

 

Gods in this setting can be created or destroyed, and they're basically just really powerful beings that escaped the cycle of the Wheel completely, and can retain memory (or rather, they just don't die, they've increased their lifespan by hundreds or thousands of years--so maybe they don't age).

 

They're just soul-powered supercomputers. Built to last, from Adra and Engwithan technology. But while they can reach out and influence things through magic (all magic being soul based), they don't have any physical form in the normal sense, so age is sort of meaningless.

 

Their "realms", as such, are only experienced spiritually, not physically (hence, at no point do you ever see a god's realm -- just a text box and some Adra with pulsing energy). They're hallucinations, magic VR.

[Well that was disappointing (The End)]

You make some good points. About #1, the problem with the gods is that they just aren't important until Act 3, aside from Eothas (who is only backstory material) and Magran. Contrast that with the Legacy, which is tied to so much in setting, atmosphere, main quest, side quests, etc. For a plot that revolves so heavily, in the end, around the gods and their followers, the game just doesn't give you the grounding you need to care.

 

It also doesn't help that the big reveal isn't really all that surprising in the context of typical fantasy world mythos, or comic books that draw on mythology, or hell, actual real world polytheistic religions. Had they made more of an effort to put you in the mindset of a person in the world of Eora, and not a random outsider whose frame of reference going in is Faerun or space aliens with lightning hammers, then maybe it would have been a twist.

[Suggestions for the Expansion]

One thing that might be nice for an X pack is a fancy Watcher power that lets you draw on the experience of your companions' past lives (without literally awakening them), basically enabling you to create a character that functions identically for story purposes, but which has whatever stats, class, etc. you choose. They could retain the same XP, or it could work more like the Nameless One's class changes in PS:T.

[Ok, I will fix your stat system for you]

My crack at it:

 

Mig: Damage, Heal
Con: Fortitude, Recovery
Per: Accuracy, Sight radius
Dex: Reflex, Move/Attack speed
Int: Deflection, Area
Res: Will, Duration

 

Balance the numerical bonuses as needed. Endurance/Health bonuses are gone, Interrupt/Concentration is gone as a special thing. Aside from perception (but accuracy is boss) each has a defensive/support and offensive application.

[I can't see ****! Pls make combat clearer]

Yeah, in Pause, it would be nice (at least as an option) to adapt the UI for maximum information over maximum pretties.

Showing an icon or number in circles to help find your party or identify enemies, showing easily readable AOE for persistent effects, and above all else -- making sure that UI stuff is always shown above anything else.

Beyond that, speeding up effects and slowing down the pace of combat will reduce the amount of time the screen looks like a complete mess.

[Hard Talk on Character Build Freedom, Attributes and Combat]

Thanks for all the great replies and suggestions, guys!

 

I just came to think of one thing that is far too underused in PoE, without any real reason for it, and that is ranged spells when you try to sneak up on a group of baddies. It happens at some very rare encounters, like those big dank spores using their charm ability and a certain boss or two, casting spells from afar, if you have escaped and try to get back into the fight. It would be a simple way (not requiring any real AI) to keep us players on our toes. Imagine sneaking into some Defiance Bay manor, only to be greeted by a panicky fireball from a distance (from the fog of war/shadows), just because your stealth was a bit sucky.

 

The main thing I took away from your comment was a reminder of how ridiculous sight ranges are in this game, in broad daylight and unobstructed areas. I mean, given that the goal was a successor to Baldur's Gate, it makes sense, it's just a "feature" that was best left on the cutting room floor.

[Hard Talk on Character Build Freedom, Attributes and Combat]

I feel like Engagement and Flanked are sort of dealing with the same issue. In practice, you should only be applying your active defenses when engaged with an enemy in melee. So, "disengagement" attacks should maybe be less powerful, but applied whenever an opponent is doing anything other than melee combat -- casting a spell, shooting an arrow, fleeing in terror, facing the wrong way, or already engaged with too many enemies, etc.

 

Combine that with an overwatch mode for throwing a full-attack smackdown on enemies that run by, and you've solved half the problem. Even better if you use talents that cause such an attack to inflict Hobbled.

 

If facing becomes more clearly important, then weapon threat arc is probably going to be as important as reach in balancing things.

[Hard Talk on Character Build Freedom, Attributes and Combat]

 

There are ways to discourage movement without taking a cane whip to the player's backside every time he tries.

 

I still don't understand why we want to discourage movement at all. I've been slowly replaying BGTutu over the past couple of weeks, and movement ends up being one of the more dynamic and interesting parts of combat (and the loss of movement or control of movement is a huge risk). Engagement strikes me as ever more pointless.

 

 

I doubt the philosophy is "movement is bad" so much as "adding the ability to control and restrict enemy movement and positioning makes for more interesting tactics". It just maybe isn't implemented so well.

 

[Level Cap. Is it "hard" or "soft"? Please.]

Yeah, they should add another five or six levels. No actual abilities or advancement for those levels, just a little empty ability in the abilities section whose name is a validation of your capability to continue earning XP.

 

Like level 13, you get the ability "Wow, you're totally awesome." Level 14, "Oh boy, you must have done lots of quests", Level 15 "Nobody can earn experience points like you!"

[Gilded vale: in the Temple of Eothas.]

Check your journal, I think it records what you saw from the ghost, which is relevant.

[Ok, I will fix your stat system for you]

 

Devs tried tying accuracy to one of the stats. It wound up being imbalanced, because accuracy is the single most important number in the entire game.

 

I, for one, definitely put thought into the mechanics of my revised stats suggestion. I wanted to achieve a result which made sense thematically while still promoting interesting and balanced gameplay. So far, most people seem to think my proposed stats look pretty good. My mod-fu is weak, but I'll see about testing it out once I've finished the vanilla game

 

 

Well, yeah. You wouldn't tie accuracy to one of the stats, because there are three defenses. It would make more sense to have a separate accuracy stat corresponding to each defense. Then use Might to provide anti-Fortitude, Perception to provide anti-Reflex, and Intelligence to provide anti-Will. (Edit: to be clear, these would be in lieu of the Fortitude/Reflex/Will bonuses; those would be limited to Con, Dex, and Resolve)

 

 

Put the Deflection bonus solely on Resolve, and the Accuracy bonus (that is, the one that is used specifically against Deflection) on Perception. Make sure each class has a variety of abilities that attack different defenses, even if some are more common than others.

[An idea on how to make all classes combat super-fun, like the Cipher already is]

While I agree that metamagic is fun and would make wizards more fun, I don't see how wizards are boring. Are you bored of all Vancian spellcasters? They're definitely more fun than autoattack classes. Cipher is probably more fun, mainly because he both uses abilities more often AND a lot of his spells require you to be more creative with positioning and application. I'd say wizards would be more fun if they had more diverse spells and more highly specialized but extremely effective in certain condition spells (this would also give some meaning to having multiple grimmoires).

 

 

Well... they are more boring than in many of their Black Isle/Bioware/Obsidian D&D incarnations, let's leave it at that. It isn't vancian casting that is the issue, just their spell selection. I don't know if making them metamagic-heavy would fix that, but it would at least set them apart from druids and priests on a more fundamental level.

[I love guns in Pillars of Eternity...]

 

They are indeed awesome and its good they got implemented. 

 

Unfortunately they will remain... boring, situational and underwhelming until the devs fixes the broken fact that reload times are not affected by action speed / dex.

 

Afaik, they used to be affected.. no? I remember it being discussed extensively during BBv480, and how Dexterity favoured Firearms because the reduction got applied three times; fire, recovery, and reload, while everyone else just got their fire and recovery affected.

 

I may be wrong, simply because I wasn't the one that did the crunching, but I wouldn't expect this to be "fixed". I think they did "fix" it already, into the opposite of what you (and me) wants.

 

I never understood the argument that guns don't belong in fantasy. They were in use at about the same time as the pikes and full plate that are omnipresent in the genre. To say nothing of trying to bring up realism in a game where I can duel-wield spears or have my saber slice through plate armor, on top of all the dragons and magical shenanigans

You say "omnipresent in the genre", but that's actually extremely far from the truth. Firearms may be somewhat ubiquitous now, but fantasy still usually doesn't include it, and certainly not two decades ago or less.

 

To me, it's all about setting, and PoE pulls that off admirably. The firearms just fits. Whether pikes and full plates ever shared battlefields with firearms in the real world is completely irrelevant.

 

 

He was saying that pikes and full plate are omnipresent, despite being from around the same period as early firearms, which are usually absent.

 

Of course, the reason they're usually absent is that they steal a lot of the wizard's thunder. "Oh, you can point at someone from forty meters away and make them fall dead with a dramatic burst of smoke and flame? Me too, and I didn't have to go to school for twenty years to learn how to do it."

[An idea on how to make all classes combat super-fun, like the Cipher already is]

Then you could have the Druid, which has a static pool of Nature's Favor or something (the name is immaterial) which would start at 0 every encounter.  In order to regenerate the Nature's Favor the druid needs to spiritshift into animal form, the Nature's Favor would charge up to 100 on the same timer that the spiritshift form lasts.  Nature's Favor is required to cast Druid spells.  You could cancel the spiritshift at any time, but of course the Nature's Favor pool wouldn't have charged to full, so you couldn't cast as many spells before bottoming out, and you also can't spiritshift unless the pool is at 0.  It would give the class a lot of dynamic back-and-forth that meshes with their signature power.

 

 

Maybe a reverse metamagic scenario. Give the Druid an at will ability (Natural Attunement or something) that lets them go into a trance and set up one of a list of massive AoE small-impact effects with a natural theme (mud, snow, geothermal vents, plant growth, stormy weather, etc.). Each Druid spell would be linked to one of these attunements. While attuning, the Druid can take no other action. When they finally cancel, or hit max attunement for their level, they have an attunement level. For each attunement level, all Druid spells that are linked to that attunment get bumped down one vancian level, and spells that get bumped to level 0 or below can be cast on a per-encounter basis. Maybe balance it out by only giving 3 spells per tier instead of 4.

[An idea on how to make all classes combat super-fun, like the Cipher already is]

Tbh I think wizard's grimmoires should either be ditched or some new mechanics (like metamagic) should be introduced fro them to make sense. As for cipher being OP, he might be on low-mid levels, although he's quite squishy to compensate. At high levels, when priests and wizards have a lot more spells per day and much more powerful effects available to them. They were much more important for tough encounters in my party playthrough. Also, wait for the expansion when fireballs are per encounter at level 13 (unless Obsidian decides to completely rework the system, which I doubt) and see how's cipher OP then.

 

Personally I enjoy Vancian casters and I think they're fine apart form some gimmicky mechanics like wizards grimmoire and some spell balance problems, with only a handful of spells useful per level. As for martial classes, yes, they are low maintenance, but I don't see much wrong with having a low maintenance class. You're playing with a party of 6, 6 wizards would be a lot of clicking. I've played with 4.5 casters (I count chanter as 0.5) and that was more than enough for my liking. You have a freedom to chose how much micromanagement you want in your party and compose it accordingly. Some minor improvements for martial classes per encounter abilities are imo in order though (Rogue's high level strikes are bloody useless for instance).

 

Wizards may have been less boring if metamagic was the core class concept -- if they were something like a Warlock with more flexibility and Vancian spell limitations.

[I love guns in Pillars of Eternity...]

The only thing I would change about guns (and crossbows) is automatically reloading them OOC. Otherwise, they are the best, especially Leadspitter.

[RPGCodex Review #1 - Hŵrpa Dwrp]

I read the review, but not the 29 pages of comments here, so sorry if I say something out of context.

 

The review is way too negative IMO, but I have to agree to some of the points. And I feel the need to share because I hardly manage to continue playing (Skaen dungeon really annoyed me, too).

Reasons:

 

- The main story just won't catch fire. I don't understand the motivation that's supposedly driving the player character. Why am I even doing all this?

 

- I also don't understand the motivation behind the NPCs. Why is Aloth following me through hell and beyond? Who am I to him? To Kana or to the little druid guy? Why are people helping me, why do I help people? Believable motivations are scarce in this game.

 

- Combat is extremely repetitive. I use the same skills over and over, each encounter is the same. Druids, lions, trolls, spiders, ... just send your tank(s) ahead, use a few disablers/debuffs, focus-fire each enemy until they are dead, done. I never need to adapt my strategy, except for ghosts - maybe, a bit (I play on hard).

 

- The attributes are unimmersive and easily exploited by minmaxing. I have a 3 con main char and never regretted it.

 

I haven't played for days and might dump the game for a while if nothing changes soon. But then again, most games nowadays need a few weeks/month and at least 2 or 3 major gameplay patches to become good, so it's not overly surprising

 

1. Act I: What is up with my condition, what does it mean? Act II: Find the guy who caused my condition, maybe he knows how to undo it so I don't end up like the guy from Act I (and in so doing, learn a lot about his nature, group, and agenda). Act III: If I'm a good person, I want to find the guy who caused my condition because of all the evil stuff he has done, which I learned about in Act II. Otherwise, well, I still don't want to end up like the guy from Act I, and part of my problem is clearly unresolved business my soul has with his. Either way I need confront this clown.

 

2. Eder has basically ceased to give a **** about anything, including self-preservation, until you show up and (due to your condition) give him some hope for finding answers about his god, his family, and so on. Aloth's motivations don't fully surface until Act 3, but it's a similar case of seeing in your mission (not so much your abilities) a chance to find some direction. Sagani is following you because your abilities are pretty much essential for completing an otherwise impossible quest. With the Grieving Mother, it's a sense of relief at finding someone who can break through the not-entirely-voluntary isolation she imposed on herself with her cipher abilities, for backstory reasons. Durance is complicated, but initially he is just seeing whether you should be destroyed by fire as an abomination or not. With the other three, it basically comes down to wanting to have a group backing them on their personal quests, which is about as much motivation as, say, Minsc or Kivan ever had.

 

3. It's not as bad as some parts of Arcanum, but for a game that doesn't even bother to give combat XP, there sure are a lot of repetitive trash encounters.

 

4. Fair enough. Having two attributes for each defense (rather than, say, splitting them between 3 accuracy and 3 defense) is a contributing factor. The interrupt/concentration mechanics are also not enough to carry two attributes.

[Ranger should get an overhaul]

While we're on pets, it feels Wrong to put surplus pets in a chest at stronghold. It should be possible to release them in the stronghold where they could roam free, or even release them in the wild.

 

This forum doesn't have a Feature Request section, does it ? I have a few pages of notes in my notebook. I don't know where to post them.

 

No thanks, I already have a passel of little animats underfoot everywhere I go.

[How to dispel domination?]

What is this.. "Dispel"?

 

Don't you know that hard counters.. are boring?

 

Edit:

 

 

 

 

 

No dispel in the game, seems like an oversight. [...]

No, it's fully intentional. Honestly I'm surprised we got "suppress affliction"-mechanics at all, even.

It wouldn't have to be implemented as a hard counter. The "remove X seconds of duration" mechanic is a soft counter, and you could theoretically run a recheck of the priest's will against the caster's accuracy (assuming they track affliction source) to remove 0%, 50%, 100%, or 150% of that X seconds.

 

The larger issue, as has been alluded to, is that Charmed and Domination (and maybe confused?) turn allies into foes for effect determinations, so you have to use hostile spells against them (double Dominate) rather than healing or defensive magic. Hopefully they will fix that in a future patch, because it's a terribad mechanic -- not just for this, but also subjecting such allies to autoattacks from their own party, making them targetable with foe-only spells, and so on. Just because they think the greens are their enemy doesn't mean the greens shouldn't know better.

[An idea on how to make all classes combat super-fun, like the Cipher already is]

Well, I have put the Cipher through its paces on Path of the Damned triple solo, and I must say, it's the best. It's skills are super-flexible, varied and they replenish via Focus (which always starts at half when combat ensues), and this Focus grows when you hit/damage your opponents, so you can always claw back and come back. You can confuse and retreat, even stop a fight entirely, and then come back at it. In comparison to all the other classes I've tried on Path of the damned: Druid, Wizard, Priest, Ranger, Fighter, as well as of the classes I've tried on easier difficulty levels in the beta, it's a class on its own - and my honest opinion:

I don't want to see it nerfed in any way or form. It's simply brilliant and so much fun to play.

 

However, what I do propose is a buff, in a way, to all other classes, in order to ensure that they are equally varied, fun and resilient/resourceful come-back-kids.

 

My proposal (not thought through in any combat mechanical detail) is that all classes (yes, even fighters and rogues), should be given a resource that gets replenished when you hit/damage opponents. It mustn't be called focus, though. It could be Mana for wizards, and Holy Power for priests, and Wrath for barbarians, well, you get the picture (and no, this is not a call for Diablo 3 in any other aspect, I promise).

 

Let's take the wizard. The spells are probably thrown and gone after like three fights, and then you have to rest or something. But on PotD, you have two camping supplies, and perhaps you don't want to build a CON beast char anyway, so I'd love to see wizards being able, during longer fights to regain some mana, and earn the power to get to throw a spell or two later. It would make for much more varied use of spells as well, both defensive and offensive, since buffing takes place during combat.

 

And how about fighters? Two knock-downs and then finito in one encounter? While Sporelings have unlimited knockdowns? Unfair! Let Fighters hit and damage a lot to work up a Zeal, which translates into one or two new opportunities to use a per-encounter skill during those long fights.

 

I could go on and on, but I really think the game would benefit from having all classes as flexible and fun as the cipher. And the fix for it is pretty straight forward.

 

Obviously, it would be cool if the expansion added more in-combat abilities for all classes, offensive and defensive, which can be slowly replenished via some Focus-like source, as some classes are a bit lacklustre and unvaried in that regard. It would be so neat.

 

What do you think?

 

Off the top of my head,

Fighters - could work more like Chanters; you can swap on the fly between up to four Styles, which you create by stringing together Techniques (earned at a rate similar to phrases, no cost to use). Each technique has its own effects, but also provides benefits to follow up techniques. Every tech (or basic attack) you hit with increases a hit counter. Once your hit counter reaches a high enough amount, you can execute a Finisher (similar to invocations). Grazes do not contribute to the hit counter, it drops with misses or over time when not attacking, and being disabled (prone, paralyzed, etc.) resets it to 0.

 

Paladin - Aura. Regenerates over time. The Paladin's Aura by default provides DR (increasing with Paladin level), at the cost of depleting aura by the damage absorbed. That is, if Aura DR is 10, then when the paladin is hit for 20 points of damage, it is reduced to 10 points, and aura is depleted by 10 points. Paladin modal abilities lower Aura regen or even impose degen if several are stacked. Paladin active abilities require aura.

 

In some respects, the DT aspect acts like a secondary regenerating endurance pool. However, there are pros and cons compared to fighter regeneration -- on the one hand, it can only absorb so much from any hit; on the other hand, unlike endurance, it doesn't go to health damage, so you could just take small hits all day long without needing to rest.

 

Rogues - Initiative. A resource that encourages a guerilla style of engage, attack, escape. Rogues don't have Recovery. Instead, each point of initiative represents 0.1s of recovery. Initiative regenerates over time, but the regenerated points are not usable until Initiative hits 100%.

 

That is, if have you 100 max points of initiative, and regenerate 10 initiative per second, and have executed four attacks that each take 20 initiative, you have one such attack left (20 initiative remaining). Two seconds from now, you still have one such attack left, because the 20 points you regenerated are locked away. Eight seconds from now, you have five such attacks left, because you regenerated back to 100%. I guess a different way of looking at it is that each time you use Initiative, you add to a cooldown before Initiative is reset to 100%. Anyway, the basic goal is to allow Rogues to suppress their Recovery and burst several attacks, then eat the whole Recovery penalty when the burst is done.

 

Ranger - Rangers are unsalvagably boring. Give druids their animal companions (Animal Spirit Guide, they can merge with it for Wildshape or leave it independent for Companion). Give wizards their ranged abilities (Spellslingers with six shot gunoires or something) or maybe fighters for a non-melee alternative.

 

[RPGCodex Review #1 - Hŵrpa Dwrp]

 

I haven't called Sensuki any "****" words at all. I have said many times, that I had alot of respect for all the hard work Sensuki poured into the game, but that doesn't change what goes on now.

 

"What goes no now"? How is it 'bad behavior' to make a thread for linking a negative review - just because you don't agree with it?

 

Even though I, too, think that the review is needlessly hyperbolic/antagonistic and lacking in perspective and fairness, it did raise some good points and I'm glad that Sensuki linked it here as I would have otherwise not noticed it (since I'm not on RPG Codex).

 

My post was about the lack of productive debate, and this thread was an example.

 

A productive debate about things like how to improve the 'Graze vs Hit' mechanic was starting here, just before you posted (and derailed it again ).

 

 

I don't know if a mechanic-heavy discussion like that is possible with the... controversial... presentation in the review sucking all the oxygen out of the room. It might be possible if someone were to start a separate thread, extract a de-sensationalized bullet point list of mechanical criticisms from the review without linking to the review itself, and use that as the jumping off point for discussion.

[A proposal -- the community can contribute if the code if open-sourced]

For most of the things people would want to change (rules, AI, etc.), it's probably something Obs could open up (I would hope it would mostly be scripts rather than code anyway). The question is whether they have the resources to really do that.

 

Given that Steam is now letting people make money off of Workshop, the benefits of modding capabilities for a game for all parties might be even higher than before (or it might be a cluster**** of epic proportions; I imagine we'll just have to see how it shakes out for Skyrim). For customers, it could mean more and better mods,  with the downside of needing to pay, but probably less than DLC prices. For modders, of course, it means earning at least a little money to justify the time expenditure. It will also be a source of revenue for Obsidian, since the company selling the game also takes a cut. That alone could financially justify releasing modding tools.

[RPGCodex Review #1 - Hŵrpa Dwrp]

 

In IE magic usually helped to solve stalemates as it spells always hit, but their target could save against their effects, where in PoE spells use same ACC-DEF system than weapon attacks.

 

So miss-graze-hit-crit system only gives larger variety of hit types.

The IE games also had a solution to the stalemate problem for NON-magic battles. They use the D20 system, where 1 is always a miss and And a 20 is always a hit.

 

Personally, though, I've come to terms with the Miss--Graze---Hit--Crit system that PoE uses. I like it. My only issue with it is how....universal it is. It applies to everything. Which means we'll never see those dramatic high level magic battle moments from BG2 and IWD2 where a heated, intense battle could end suddenly in a nail-biting moment due to, say, a Finger of Death, or a Wail of the Banshee. After all, what's the point of scoring a critical hit with your death spell? or a Graze with your Destruction spell?

 

 

It doesn't really work with spells nearly as well with as damage, because the marginal utility curve works the opposite way. With damage reduction, that 50% damage on a graze can easily become 10% if all of it falls under the DR. Similarly, the 50% bonus from crits can actually be much higher since it's more likely to fall above the DR.

 

On the other hand, for conditions, often adding or losing 50% duration means nothing to a win button sort of condition, so the only real consideration is the miss chance.

 

Both damage and conditions could have really benefited from an effect table; for damage, you could let attacks that roll higher on the table also inflict permanent-until-rest Injuries like the ones you get from some scripted bits (like Crippling in Fallout). For effects, it would let you define the effect of a spell as an Affliction class that would grow in power as you roll higher on the table; e.g. from Dazed to Confused to Charmed to Dominated, or Frightened to Terrified to Paralyzed, etc. Ideally, there would be some means to trade an accuracy penalty for a better roll on the table, similar to aimed attacks in Fallout.

 

On a mostly unrelated noted, death magic would have also been workable as a soft counter if implemented like death spells in Morrowind -- basically, a big but very brief drop in endurance, so either it kills them outright or basically does nothing. Grazes and crits would actually make sense there -- obviously increasing the damage would be helpful, but also increasing the duration would allow a tiny window where another hit or two could finish them off.

 

As long as we're on the subject of Fallout, one rule change that would mitigate the supremacy of tank and spank would be the use of (a chance of) friendly fire for ranged attacks (or even melee with the right talents on the defender). Realistically, if the guy who wants to stop your squishy arrow-shooting ass from being pummeled by the enemy brawler has interposed himself directly between you and said brawler, he has also positioned himself directly between your arrows and the brawler, which is a problem. Implements should be reimagined as essentially telekinetic weapons rather than projectile, taking a penalty to damage in exchange for ignoring friendly fire or any other talent that would block or affect projectiles.