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While fighting Jungle Lurkers in the Hohina Ravine on Tehiwai Islands I encountered a soft lock. My best guess is that Mage Slayer is successfully interrupting a spellcast but this is causing turn based combat to break. Unfortunately the combat log does not offer an indication of a spell being interrupted here, though it would if I was using the pet boar and still it would soft lock so long as there are spell disruption stacks. I have not encountered this problem before this point due to either luck or bursting down an enemy before or after their spells had been cast. This is on Veteran difficulty (solo, Eothas and Berath challenge) and can happen even with the pwgra if they attempt to cast something while there are spell disruption stacks. A screenshot

First of all, this is fairly untested idea for potd alternative Druid/Mag build that deppends on perceived dump stat of Perception by dumping Might. Yes, I'm indeed dumping Might... I ran a test with custom companion Wizard against potd Arda Dragon with same stats, and it worked remarkably, nevertheless low Might may pose problems early on when dispatching enemies quickly may be a better option. The idea is that you forget damage done for a high interrupt values. Focus is on interrupting enemies to such effect that they can't even retaliate. That's achieved by big aoe and lingering spells, and by just overloading enemies with cointinuous spellcasting when on higher levels. For that effect high Dex and light armours are needed. With low Might there is also not much need for weapon specializations and effort put into druids forms, so it's better to just equip the caster with as heavy shield as possible and be done with it. Druid is better overall choice, since Wizard should have a really hard time early on, nevertheless his endgame is arguably even better than Druids. His two walls and Thrust made me look into it in the first place. Race: Orlan for +2 on Perception Subrace: Hearth Orlan, for hits to crits, although I'm not quite sure that ability works for spells as well. Alternatives: Elf with 20 Dex, Godlike with three 19s, and nothing is preventing other races to join as well. Attributes: 2 Might 9 Constitution 18 Dexterity 21 Perception 18 Intelligence 10 Resolve Dex, Per, Int as high as possible, the rest can vary. In this example I went for higher protection offered by Constitution and Resolve. The idea is that character can take some damage while using shield, and wearing light armour. Around the field protections are high, except offcourse for fortitude, making this build truly glassy. Talents: Interrupting blows, weapon and shield, veil for Wizard, everything else into bonus spells. Spells: The higher the interrupt value the better, just as important are lingering area effects, and big aoe. More potential victims, higher the chance to interrupt someone. Walls and Druids storms work wonders. Notable Spells: Mage: 1st level: Thrust!! 3rd: Fireball 4th: Dimansional Shift, Wall of Flame!!! 5th: Wall of Force!!! Druid: 1st level: Talon's Reach!!, Tanglefoot 2nd: Blizzard, Insect Swarm 3rd: Returning Storm!!! 4th: Hail Storm 5th: Malignant Cloud, Wall of Thorns!!!

So, given how the classes act in Beta (yes, I know Chanters are going to be nerfed, but let us face facts: they are way too powerful), what do you think your makeup will be? So far mine is thus: - Paladin Main - Chanter Support or Barbarian with max Might Paladins are amazing with their stacked traits and their passives.

In the last few discissions I noticed an irritatinbly high number of people who think that mages, once low on spells, are a total dead weight. Time to disprove such flawed notions. Lets for example take your average D&D spellcaster. Are spells his main thing? Yes. But that isn't the only thing he can do. The thing holding mack mages the most is their low amount of HP* and poeple not using them to their full potential *something I have campaigning for from day 1 is that health is determined by CON alone and class has no bearing on it. This would make mages far more survivable in combat as tehy could have as much HP as a fighter. One thing to decide when building a character (of any class) is what approach to take. - focus on maximizing it's strengths - focus on minimizing weakneses - balanced approach Now, msot peoepl I know go for the first. Got a fighter? All the equipment and skilsl will be there to make him even stronger and more durable! Got a mage? All equipment and skills/feats go to makeing him a stronger spellcaster. That is a valid aproach, but overspecialization is overrated. It works wonderfull as long as everything is going according to plan. But if it doesn't, if you loose that super-specialized tank - suddenly there's total chaos. *** "A great man once said that Specialization is for insects, Mr. Riley. I believed it at the time. I always thought that any human being, man or woman, should be able to do a solid day's work at any task you set them to. Hunt a buck or catch a fish, hammer a nail, build a fire, change the dressing on a wound — I always believed that you had to be ready to do anything to survive." *** Me? I prefer a more balanced approach. You loose a bit on the offensive side, but gain survivabiltiy and flexibility. I'm gonna give a few example from D&D that work. ToEE, Elven sorcerres Aquariliyane. Being an elf, she starts with weapon proficiency: longsword and has a dex bonus. So I give her 1 lvl of fighter and take Weapon Speacilization and Weapon Finesse (use DEX bonus for to-hit insted of STR). With spells like Blur and Mage Armor (this spell lasts the whole day) her AC is quite impressive (especially if you increase DEX even more or use bbracers of defense). Add Fire Shild, Gaseous form or similar if necessary, but for now let's discount spells, since we are talking about a depleted mage scenario (mage armor still applies tough). She was quite competent in combat. Enough so that she could take on lesser enemies by herself. Then we have Avernus. A human wizzard. He was worse in mele than her, but that's OK, because he had a different role to play. He had an enchanted repeating crossbow (in which he was given proficiency). With gloves of dexterity he was accurate enough with it (and it helped some of his tough spells and AC too). Most of all he was busy making scrolls and wands. When he was out of spells, he was far from useless. I used both of them in ToEE extensively, not backtracting or resting untill my entire party was tired. I cleared enitre dungeon levels without spells and wihout dying. *** What a mage can do even without spells: - make and use items like wands and scrolls (plenty of usefull wands are cheap enough to make and start with 20 charges). They might cost gold and EXP, but EXP can be gained back fast enough (especailly since those lagging behind the group get more) - ranged support - mele distraction/support Note that with combat manouvers being availlbe to every class, even a mage can get behind an enemy and attampt to trip him, or charge and knock him over. A character doesn't have to have to deal a huge amount of DPS to be usefull. A completely average character can turn the tide of battle with proper application.

I am. A new element to branch out of would be a great way to add replay value and something new to the genre. Fire, water, ice, earth, lightning have seen its fair share of use since the ancient greeks first go the idea they made up the cosmos. Well, now that its 2013, how about we draw some information from more current sources understanding? Biology, particle physics, quantum mechanics, there's a great deal of awesome fields of knowledge to draw inspiration for! Why isnt anyone trying something new like this? The setting doesn't necessarily demand it, theres no rule saying a fantasy rpg has to stay with old tropes, neither does it preclude the use of modern science-inspired elements, you can always rephrase them in a way that aligns them with the rest of the arcane world. Yes, i realize some of the "elements" might best be suited as individual skills, but you get my point.