Dynamic Priests - Making Priests Great Again

[Stardusk78]

Priests and clerics have historically always been my favourite class in RPGs but I have felt them tremendously lacking in Deadfire. As such I have attempted to transform myself from incompetent non-modder into still highly incompetent modder to effect changes I thought would be appropriate to make priests fun, effective and worth playing. The intention behind this mod is relatively simple: to differentiate the various priest subclasses such that each subclass plays differently from the other. Whilst there will always be overlap between them (they are all priests after all) a priest of Berath should feel and play differently from a priest of Magran or a priest of Eothas or any of the other subclasses.

 

To this end each subclass (including Gaun and Rymrgand) has been reworked to give them all several unique features. These include new spells (of course lifted from other classes but never repeating priest spells that already are present) typically up to PL 7 with a few exceptions, a passive that includes both bonuses and penalties unique to the priest subclass in question and a complete re-work of holy radiance. All priest subclasses now have their own special holy ability that scales with deity reputation as would the standard holy radiance and is reflective of the ethos of that particular deity. The only exception here is Eothas since I believed the original ability fit the god well in terms of his alignment and outlook. Finally the horrible spell Incarnate has been improved and now lasts thrice as long and instead of decreasing your Power Levels by -5 it now increases them by +2 as long as the Incarnate is present, or in other words, if your deity’s avatar is down on Eora it better well do something, especially for you.

 

As far as balancing is concerned I have attempted to maintain reasonable balance but in making this mod I thought that interesting should take precedence over perfect balance. Overall, priests are somewhat stronger than they are in vanilla POE2 if only because of new abilities but more importantly they should be a fair bit more interesting now as well. Two mods I would strongly recommend to go with this mod would be Checoden’s Deadfire Tweaks, specifically his Vanilla Priest Rebalance and Priest of Rymrgand DLC and Other Hidden Classes. In the first instance Vanilla Priest Rebalance synergises well with this mod, improving priest’s performance without any drastic changes and in the second instance both the priest of Gaun and Rymrgand have been reworked and if you wish to play them as a protagonist, as opposed to just having Xoti and Vatnir respectively then this mod is a must. Below you will find the list of the altered priest subclasses and the changes implemented to them.

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/287

 

Do leave your feedback.

Edited January 21, 2019 by Stardusk78

[Retro1210]

Wow, I'm impressed. I always felt the priest class was a bit too narrow, and lacking flavor. Making Holy Radience change based on deity is something I wish was in the main game.

[Ophiuchus]

Priests and clerics have historically always been my favourite class in RPGs but I have felt them tremendously lacking in Deadfire. As such I have attempted to transform myself from incompetent non-modder into still highly incompetent modder to effect changes I thought would be appropriate to make priests fun, effective and worth playing. The intention behind this mod is relatively simple: to differentiate the various priest subclasses such that each subclass plays differently from the other. Whilst there will always be overlap between them (they are all priests after all) a priest of Berath should feel and play differently from a priest of Magran or a priest of Eothas or any of the other subclasses.

 

To this end each subclass (including Gaun and Rymrgand) has been reworked to give them all several unique features. These include new spells (of course lifted from other classes but never repeating priest spells that already are present) typically up to PL 7 with a few exceptions, a passive that includes both bonuses and penalties unique to the priest subclass in question and a complete re-work of holy radiance. All priest subclasses now have their own special holy ability that scales with deity reputation as would the standard holy radiance and is reflective of the ethos of that particular deity. The only exception here is Eothas since I believed the original ability fit the god well in terms of his alignment and outlook. Finally the horrible spell Incarnate has been improved and now lasts thrice as long and instead of decreasing your Power Levels by -5 it now increases them by +2 as long as the Incarnate is present, or in other words, if your deity’s avatar is down on Eora it better well do something, especially for you.

 

As far as balancing is concerned I have attempted to maintain reasonable balance but in making this mod I thought that interesting should take precedence over perfect balance. Overall, priests are somewhat stronger than they are in vanilla POE2 if only because of new abilities but more importantly they should be a fair bit more interesting now as well. Two mods I would strongly recommend to go with this mod would be Checoden’s Deadfire Tweaks, specifically his Vanilla Priest Rebalance and Priest of Rymrgand DLC and Other Hidden Classes. In the first instance Vanilla Priest Rebalance synergises well with this mod, improving priest’s performance without any drastic changes and in the second instance both the priest of Gaun and Rymrgand have been reworked and if you wish to play them as a protagonist, as opposed to just having Xoti and Vatnir respectively then this mod is a must. Below you will find the list of the altered priest subclasses and the changes implemented to them.

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/287

 

Do leave your feedback.

First thought going into this post: Will this work with Checoden's incredible Priest tweaks? I'm looking forward to trying this out tonight. Looks good.

[Stardusk78]

 

Priests and clerics have historically always been my favourite class in RPGs but I have felt them tremendously lacking in Deadfire. As such I have attempted to transform myself from incompetent non-modder into still highly incompetent modder to effect changes I thought would be appropriate to make priests fun, effective and worth playing. The intention behind this mod is relatively simple: to differentiate the various priest subclasses such that each subclass plays differently from the other. Whilst there will always be overlap between them (they are all priests after all) a priest of Berath should feel and play differently from a priest of Magran or a priest of Eothas or any of the other subclasses.

 

To this end each subclass (including Gaun and Rymrgand) has been reworked to give them all several unique features. These include new spells (of course lifted from other classes but never repeating priest spells that already are present) typically up to PL 7 with a few exceptions, a passive that includes both bonuses and penalties unique to the priest subclass in question and a complete re-work of holy radiance. All priest subclasses now have their own special holy ability that scales with deity reputation as would the standard holy radiance and is reflective of the ethos of that particular deity. The only exception here is Eothas since I believed the original ability fit the god well in terms of his alignment and outlook. Finally the horrible spell Incarnate has been improved and now lasts thrice as long and instead of decreasing your Power Levels by -5 it now increases them by +2 as long as the Incarnate is present, or in other words, if your deity’s avatar is down on Eora it better well do something, especially for you.

 

As far as balancing is concerned I have attempted to maintain reasonable balance but in making this mod I thought that interesting should take precedence over perfect balance. Overall, priests are somewhat stronger than they are in vanilla POE2 if only because of new abilities but more importantly they should be a fair bit more interesting now as well. Two mods I would strongly recommend to go with this mod would be Checoden’s Deadfire Tweaks, specifically his Vanilla Priest Rebalance and Priest of Rymrgand DLC and Other Hidden Classes. In the first instance Vanilla Priest Rebalance synergises well with this mod, improving priest’s performance without any drastic changes and in the second instance both the priest of Gaun and Rymrgand have been reworked and if you wish to play them as a protagonist, as opposed to just having Xoti and Vatnir respectively then this mod is a must. Below you will find the list of the altered priest subclasses and the changes implemented to them.

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/287

 

Do leave your feedback.

First thought going into this post: Will this work with Checoden's incredible Priest tweaks? I'm looking forward to trying this out tonight. Looks good.

 

With Vanilla Tweaks yes but because he changes the priest progression table there would be a conflict. I combine my mod with the Vanilla Tweaks.

[Ophiuchus]

 

 

Priests and clerics have historically always been my favourite class in RPGs but I have felt them tremendously lacking in Deadfire. As such I have attempted to transform myself from incompetent non-modder into still highly incompetent modder to effect changes I thought would be appropriate to make priests fun, effective and worth playing. The intention behind this mod is relatively simple: to differentiate the various priest subclasses such that each subclass plays differently from the other. Whilst there will always be overlap between them (they are all priests after all) a priest of Berath should feel and play differently from a priest of Magran or a priest of Eothas or any of the other subclasses.

 

To this end each subclass (including Gaun and Rymrgand) has been reworked to give them all several unique features. These include new spells (of course lifted from other classes but never repeating priest spells that already are present) typically up to PL 7 with a few exceptions, a passive that includes both bonuses and penalties unique to the priest subclass in question and a complete re-work of holy radiance. All priest subclasses now have their own special holy ability that scales with deity reputation as would the standard holy radiance and is reflective of the ethos of that particular deity. The only exception here is Eothas since I believed the original ability fit the god well in terms of his alignment and outlook. Finally the horrible spell Incarnate has been improved and now lasts thrice as long and instead of decreasing your Power Levels by -5 it now increases them by +2 as long as the Incarnate is present, or in other words, if your deity’s avatar is down on Eora it better well do something, especially for you.

 

As far as balancing is concerned I have attempted to maintain reasonable balance but in making this mod I thought that interesting should take precedence over perfect balance. Overall, priests are somewhat stronger than they are in vanilla POE2 if only because of new abilities but more importantly they should be a fair bit more interesting now as well. Two mods I would strongly recommend to go with this mod would be Checoden’s Deadfire Tweaks, specifically his Vanilla Priest Rebalance and Priest of Rymrgand DLC and Other Hidden Classes. In the first instance Vanilla Priest Rebalance synergises well with this mod, improving priest’s performance without any drastic changes and in the second instance both the priest of Gaun and Rymrgand have been reworked and if you wish to play them as a protagonist, as opposed to just having Xoti and Vatnir respectively then this mod is a must. Below you will find the list of the altered priest subclasses and the changes implemented to them.

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/287

 

Do leave your feedback.

First thought going into this post: Will this work with Checoden's incredible Priest tweaks? I'm looking forward to trying this out tonight. Looks good.

 

With Vanilla Tweaks yes but because he changes the priest progression table there would be a conflict. I combine my mod with the Vanilla Tweaks.

 

You two have made my Cleric of Berath dreams a reality. Much obliged.

[Squilla]

This looks great! I will give download and give it a go on my priest playthrough that I just started.

[Squilla]

This may be a discussion for the modding / technical section of the forum, but how were you able to add a wizard spell to the priests (for example alacrity of motion)?

 

Overarching line of thought here is - can you add spell casts for any class so long as they meet the prerequisite?

 

I know I've messed with the unity console and added disciplined barrage to a not-fighter and it showed up, but didn't work since the class / subclasses didn't have discipline to spend.

 

Made me curious on how the game recognizes spells and if there's any 'resource' needed in order to use them.

[heldred]

I understand Priests were highly effective in POE, but the dev team really made the class mediocre in POE2.  To be clear, you can have effective Priest builds, but when I think of an area a Priest could shine in POE2, another class does it better...

 

1) Healing... I can make an argument that Passive healing (Paladin and Chanter) is better in the mid-to-late game (especially when augmented with scrolls for quick fixes).  A vanilla Druid can heal really well and a Lifegiver-Druid wins the healing title.  To be honest, if you are healing more than once in the late game (standard fights), you are probably not playing with an optimal build or team.

 

2) Damage... I'm just going to say scrolls break the game and allow any class to become a DPS-casting-machine (mid-to-late game economics make it possible).  Sure, I can build a DPS-focused Priest, but a Wiz or Druid does it better.  Even a Cipher does it better.

 

3) Efficiency of Build...  Wiz has grimoires (free spells), while a Priest has to buy everything outside of the 1-domain specific spell.   When playing, it makes the class inefficient when buying skills or really narrow in focus.  

 

4) Durability...  Unless you go Wael, it really doesn't have a lot of buffing options (neither does a Druid, but they have beast forms - maybe that was the dev rationale).

 

5) Cast times...  Wow, I'm sure there is a reason for the long cast times on spells, but I keep thinking it is a artifact of POE1-hate

 

6) Signature spells...  I've played a bunch of spells and many have cool effects, but nothing grabbed me as critical when playing multi-class (since other classes have better spells at those tiers).  The T8/T9 spells are good, but not all of them are created equal... there are winners and losers in the upper-tiers as well.  

 

I could keep going and I'm glad there are mods to address, but I wish the dev team just realized they over-nerfed a great class from POE1 and made some adjustments last year.  At this point, I find myself constantly avoiding the class in any playthrough or build test.  No big deal, there are plenty of great options, but I just wish the Priest class wasn't so blah...

[brasilgringo]

So the Rymrgand mod makes an interesting option for Rymrgand/Tactician that can get Brilliant via Chill Fog and still have decent healing (if it's needed via Fighter's unbending and constant recovery, not to mention scrolls/potions - though one is inclined to run a BDD build extending it thru Salvation of Time and Brilliant (repeting Salvations, which also affect other buffs).  You can do some power level shenanigans too with Tactical Barrage and (if you use the other mod) Crowns of the Faithful or Litany of Spirit, on top of the PL from the Rymrgand special.  The AOE priest ability Winter's End is likely OP, to be fair.

 

For Woedica, the passive is going to make Storm of Holy Fire and Pillar of Holy Fire hit like a truck I assume, if you are also stacking +5 fire PL on top of the +2 Punishment PL, and maybe +1 or +2 PL from Crowns/Litany and Potion of Ascention.  I'd like to test it out.  The charm spells (Puppet Master and Ringleader) add some flavor to what in vanilla are lame spells at those levels, though I suppose potentially OP.  And Concelhaut's Crushing Doom is a nice addition for flavor, tho thematically it probably fits better with Abydon.   If you run a BDD Thaumaturge build (like my Deathless Thaumaturge), you'll probably have some tasty nukeage that you can drop on yourself.  Honestly a Woedica/Bloodmage is likely more powerful than the Rymrgand/Tactician, even though you'll have to rely on Shroud of the Phantasm for Brilliant and otherwise use BDD + Blood Sacrifice to return spells.

[Stardusk78]

This may be a discussion for the modding / technical section of the forum, but how were you able to add a wizard spell to the priests (for example alacrity of motion)?

 

Overarching line of thought here is - can you add spell casts for any class so long as they meet the prerequisite?

 

I know I've messed with the unity console and added disciplined barrage to a not-fighter and it showed up, but didn't work since the class / subclasses didn't have discipline to spend.

 

Made me curious on how the game recognizes spells and if there's any 'resource' needed in order to use them.

Yes, you can add anything in theory.

[Stardusk78]

I understand Priests were highly effective in POE, but the dev team really made the class mediocre in POE2.  To be clear, you can have effective Priest builds, but when I think of an area a Priest could shine in POE2, another class does it better...

 

1) Healing... I can make an argument that Passive healing (Paladin and Chanter) is better in the mid-to-late game (especially when augmented with scrolls for quick fixes).  A vanilla Druid can heal really well and a Lifegiver-Druid wins the healing title.  To be honest, if you are healing more than once in the late game (standard fights), you are probably not playing with an optimal build or team.

 

2) Damage... I'm just going to say scrolls break the game and allow any class to become a DPS-casting-machine (mid-to-late game economics make it possible).  Sure, I can build a DPS-focused Priest, but a Wiz or Druid does it better.  Even a Cipher does it better.

 

3) Efficiency of Build...  Wiz has grimoires (free spells), while a Priest has to buy everything outside of the 1-domain specific spell.   When playing, it makes the class inefficient when buying skills or really narrow in focus.  

 

4) Durability...  Unless you go Wael, it really doesn't have a lot of buffing options (neither does a Druid, but they have beast forms - maybe that was the dev rationale).

 

5) Cast times...  Wow, I'm sure there is a reason for the long cast times on spells, but I keep thinking it is a artifact of POE1-hate

 

6) Signature spells...  I've played a bunch of spells and many have cool effects, but nothing grabbed me as critical when playing multi-class (since other classes have better spells at those tiers).  The T8/T9 spells are good, but not all of them are created equal... there are winners and losers in the upper-tiers as well.  

 

I could keep going and I'm glad there are mods to address, but I wish the dev team just realized they over-nerfed a great class from POE1 and made some adjustments last year.  At this point, I find myself constantly avoiding the class in any playthrough or build test.  No big deal, there are plenty of great options, but I just wish the Priest class wasn't so blah...

Well, you might have a fun time then with the mod. I should add that with my mod, the Priest of Eothas is probably the best healer in the game...a multiclass Lifegiver/Priest of Eothas (Universalist)or Templar would have insane healing...even so, with the passive the Priest of Eothas is a great healer. Edited January 22, 2019 by Stardusk78

[Stardusk78]

So the Rymrgand mod makes an interesting option for Rymrgand/Tactician that can get Brilliant via Chill Fog and still have decent healing (if it's needed via Fighter's unbending and constant recovery, not to mention scrolls/potions - though one is inclined to run a BDD build extending it thru Salvation of Time and Brilliant (repeting Salvations, which also affect other buffs).  You can do some power level shenanigans too with Tactical Barrage and (if you use the other mod) Crowns of the Faithful or Litany of Spirit, on top of the PL from the Rymrgand special.  The AOE priest ability Winter's End is likely OP, to be fair.

 

For Woedica, the passive is going to make Storm of Holy Fire and Pillar of Holy Fire hit like a truck I assume, if you are also stacking +5 fire PL on top of the +2 Punishment PL, and maybe +1 or +2 PL from Crowns/Litany and Potion of Ascention.  I'd like to test it out.  The charm spells (Puppet Master and Ringleader) add some flavor to what in vanilla are lame spells at those levels, though I suppose potentially OP.  And Concelhaut's Crushing Doom is a nice addition for flavor, tho thematically it probably fits better with Abydon.   If you run a BDD Thaumaturge build (like my Deathless Thaumaturge), you'll probably have some tasty nukeage that you can drop on yourself.  Honestly a Woedica/Bloodmage is likely more powerful than the Rymrgand/Tactician, even though you'll have to rely on Shroud of the Phantasm for Brilliant and otherwise use BDD + Blood Sacrifice to return spells.

I would respectively disagree about the Hammer. The idea behind it is judgement but yeah it could go either way. Assuming I get around to making a Priest of Abydon we will see.

[Verde]

Priest of Abydon is such a cool idea. I'd play that in a second.

[Stardusk78]

Priest of Abydon is such a cool idea. I'd play that in a second.

I have vague plans for a priest of all the remaining gods that are missing. Ondra, Abydon, Galawain and Hylea.

[brasilgringo]

 

So the Rymrgand mod makes an interesting option for Rymrgand/Tactician that can get Brilliant via Chill Fog and still have decent healing (if it's needed via Fighter's unbending and constant recovery, not to mention scrolls/potions - though one is inclined to run a BDD build extending it thru Salvation of Time and Brilliant (repeting Salvations, which also affect other buffs).  You can do some power level shenanigans too with Tactical Barrage and (if you use the other mod) Crowns of the Faithful or Litany of Spirit, on top of the PL from the Rymrgand special.  The AOE priest ability Winter's End is likely OP, to be fair.

 

For Woedica, the passive is going to make Storm of Holy Fire and Pillar of Holy Fire hit like a truck I assume, if you are also stacking +5 fire PL on top of the +2 Punishment PL, and maybe +1 or +2 PL from Crowns/Litany and Potion of Ascention.  I'd like to test it out.  The charm spells (Puppet Master and Ringleader) add some flavor to what in vanilla are lame spells at those levels, though I suppose potentially OP.  And Concelhaut's Crushing Doom is a nice addition for flavor, tho thematically it probably fits better with Abydon.   If you run a BDD Thaumaturge build (like my Deathless Thaumaturge), you'll probably have some tasty nukeage that you can drop on yourself.  Honestly a Woedica/Bloodmage is likely more powerful than the Rymrgand/Tactician, even though you'll have to rely on Shroud of the Phantasm for Brilliant and otherwise use BDD + Blood Sacrifice to return spells.

I would respectively disagree about the Hammer. The idea behind it is judgement but yeah it could go either way. Assuming I get around to making a Priest of Abydon we will see.

 

I'm not complaining, I think it's a great spell and I get the hammer = gavel = judge symbolism. 

 

One things I've been thinking about - and really this is powergaming talking -- is that Rymrgand priest is kind of getting the short end of the stick in a Tactician build or Thaumaturge build, because you're locked into Frost spells and acid/decay spells, most of which (if not all) are also available to Wiz ...and yet Wiz gets greater variety.  And at the same time, Rymrgand priest is locked out of some of the things that make Priest most fun, like the 2 higher level nukes (Pillar of Holy Fire and Storm of HF).  

 

Basically I'm better off making a Woedica/BloodMage which gets all the good priest spells (plus nice PL bonus) and can supplement the frost and decay suff from the Wiz side as needed (Ninagauth's Teachings + some other grimoires).  

 

With this in mind, maybe rethink the penalities for Rymrgrand (e.g., don't lock out the Punishment/Fire spells) or give some other bonuses that counter giving up the flexibility on spells.  For example, some class bonus like the Death Godlike "Pallid Fate" (+3PL when near death) and/or the Human "Fighting Spirit" (+15% damage, +7% accuracy when Blooded or worse) - which thematically would fit with "being closer to the White Void" when dying.  Or move up some of the higher-level Rymrgand spells by 1 level so you can at least access the cool stuff (symbols etc.) sooner, which also makes sense.   Just something to think about.  The way it stands, I'll probably do Woedica/Bloodmage for my next playthru-testing. 

[Stardusk78]

 

 

So the Rymrgand mod makes an interesting option for Rymrgand/Tactician that can get Brilliant via Chill Fog and still have decent healing (if it's needed via Fighter's unbending and constant recovery, not to mention scrolls/potions - though one is inclined to run a BDD build extending it thru Salvation of Time and Brilliant (repeting Salvations, which also affect other buffs).  You can do some power level shenanigans too with Tactical Barrage and (if you use the other mod) Crowns of the Faithful or Litany of Spirit, on top of the PL from the Rymrgand special.  The AOE priest ability Winter's End is likely OP, to be fair.

 

For Woedica, the passive is going to make Storm of Holy Fire and Pillar of Holy Fire hit like a truck I assume, if you are also stacking +5 fire PL on top of the +2 Punishment PL, and maybe +1 or +2 PL from Crowns/Litany and Potion of Ascention.  I'd like to test it out.  The charm spells (Puppet Master and Ringleader) add some flavor to what in vanilla are lame spells at those levels, though I suppose potentially OP.  And Concelhaut's Crushing Doom is a nice addition for flavor, tho thematically it probably fits better with Abydon.   If you run a BDD Thaumaturge build (like my Deathless Thaumaturge), you'll probably have some tasty nukeage that you can drop on yourself.  Honestly a Woedica/Bloodmage is likely more powerful than the Rymrgand/Tactician, even though you'll have to rely on Shroud of the Phantasm for Brilliant and otherwise use BDD + Blood Sacrifice to return spells.

I would respectively disagree about the Hammer. The idea behind it is judgement but yeah it could go either way. Assuming I get around to making a Priest of Abydon we will see.

 

I'm not complaining, I think it's a great spell and I get the hammer = gavel = judge symbolism. 

 

One things I've been thinking about - and really this is powergaming talking -- is that Rymrgand priest is kind of getting the short end of the stick in a Tactician build or Thaumaturge build, because you're locked into Frost spells and acid/decay spells, most of which (if not all) are also available to Wiz ...and yet Wiz gets greater variety.  And at the same time, Rymrgand priest is locked out of some of the things that make Priest most fun, like the 2 higher level nukes (Pillar of Holy Fire and Storm of HF).  

 

Basically I'm better off making a Woedica/BloodMage which gets all the good priest spells (plus nice PL bonus) and can supplement the frost and decay suff from the Wiz side as needed (Ninagauth's Teachings + some other grimoires).  

 

With this in mind, maybe rethink the penalities for Rymrgrand (e.g., don't lock out the Punishment/Fire spells) or give some other bonuses that counter giving up the flexibility on spells.  For example, some class bonus like the Death Godlike "Pallid Fate" (+3PL when near death) and/or the Human "Fighting Spirit" (+15% damage, +7% accuracy when Blooded or worse) - which thematically would fit with "being closer to the White Void" when dying.  Or move up some of the higher-level Rymrgand spells by 1 level so you can at least access the cool stuff (symbols etc.) sooner, which also makes sense.   Just something to think about.  The way it stands, I'll probably do Woedica/Bloodmage for my next playthru-testing.

 

I am going to wait for multiple feedback points but I will bear this in mind. Alternatively I could remove one of the spell limitations and add something else. Also, I should point out that Incarnate is now pretty good and Wizards do not get that.

Edited January 22, 2019 by Stardusk78

[Stardusk78]

 

 

So the Rymrgand mod makes an interesting option for Rymrgand/Tactician that can get Brilliant via Chill Fog and still have decent healing (if it's needed via Fighter's unbending and constant recovery, not to mention scrolls/potions - though one is inclined to run a BDD build extending it thru Salvation of Time and Brilliant (repeting Salvations, which also affect other buffs).  You can do some power level shenanigans too with Tactical Barrage and (if you use the other mod) Crowns of the Faithful or Litany of Spirit, on top of the PL from the Rymrgand special.  The AOE priest ability Winter's End is likely OP, to be fair.

 

For Woedica, the passive is going to make Storm of Holy Fire and Pillar of Holy Fire hit like a truck I assume, if you are also stacking +5 fire PL on top of the +2 Punishment PL, and maybe +1 or +2 PL from Crowns/Litany and Potion of Ascention.  I'd like to test it out.  The charm spells (Puppet Master and Ringleader) add some flavor to what in vanilla are lame spells at those levels, though I suppose potentially OP.  And Concelhaut's Crushing Doom is a nice addition for flavor, tho thematically it probably fits better with Abydon.   If you run a BDD Thaumaturge build (like my Deathless Thaumaturge), you'll probably have some tasty nukeage that you can drop on yourself.  Honestly a Woedica/Bloodmage is likely more powerful than the Rymrgand/Tactician, even though you'll have to rely on Shroud of the Phantasm for Brilliant and otherwise use BDD + Blood Sacrifice to return spells.

I would respectively disagree about the Hammer. The idea behind it is judgement but yeah it could go either way. Assuming I get around to making a Priest of Abydon we will see.

 

I'm not complaining, I think it's a great spell and I get the hammer = gavel = judge symbolism. 

 

One things I've been thinking about - and really this is powergaming talking -- is that Rymrgand priest is kind of getting the short end of the stick in a Tactician build or Thaumaturge build, because you're locked into Frost spells and acid/decay spells, most of which (if not all) are also available to Wiz ...and yet Wiz gets greater variety.  And at the same time, Rymrgand priest is locked out of some of the things that make Priest most fun, like the 2 higher level nukes (Pillar of Holy Fire and Storm of HF).  

 

Basically I'm better off making a Woedica/BloodMage which gets all the good priest spells (plus nice PL bonus) and can supplement the frost and decay suff from the Wiz side as needed (Ninagauth's Teachings + some other grimoires).  

 

With this in mind, maybe rethink the penalities for Rymrgrand (e.g., don't lock out the Punishment/Fire spells) or give some other bonuses that counter giving up the flexibility on spells.  For example, some class bonus like the Death Godlike "Pallid Fate" (+3PL when near death) and/or the Human "Fighting Spirit" (+15% damage, +7% accuracy when Blooded or worse) - which thematically would fit with "being closer to the White Void" when dying.  Or move up some of the higher-level Rymrgand spells by 1 level so you can at least access the cool stuff (symbols etc.) sooner, which also makes sense.   Just something to think about.  The way it stands, I'll probably do Woedica/Bloodmage for my next playthru-testing.

 

OK I made some changes to Rymrgand along the lines you suggested. Go to the mod page and check them out.

[brasilgringo]

The new version is making available all the updated Priest subclass/powers except for Woedica, which remains unchanged from the vanilla (unmodded) game.  Any idea what could be causing this?  All the other subclasses reflect the mod's tweaks/changes.

[Stardusk78]

The new version is making available all the updated Priest subclass/powers except for Woedica, which remains unchanged from the vanilla (unmodded) game.  Any idea what could be causing this?  All the other subclasses reflect the mod's tweaks/changes.

I will look at the files.

[Nssheepster]

Lemme just throw a generic comment in here to remind me to keep track of this thread so I can try the mod once development's settled down.

[Stardusk78]

Lemme just throw a generic comment in here to remind me to keep track of this thread so I can try the mod once development's settled down.

You can follow the thread.

[brasilgringo]

All is working for me with Woedica.  For Woedica, the original spell line-up shows when you click on the Priest Subclass at char creation, but if you click thru to see the skill tree, you see the adjusted spells.  As expected Storm of Holy Fire and Pillar of Holy Fire hit like trucks with the +PL from Woedica and +5PL you can stack for fire.  The resolve penalty seems a fair trade.  I did not get to use Puppet Master or Ringleader much, and Hammer is cool but very situation vs just "kill it with raining down fire" -- good for interrupts without having to swtich to concelhaut grimoire.

 

Meaning to try out Rymrgand/Tactician...

Edited January 24, 2019 by brasilgringo

[Ophiuchus]

I haven't had a whole lot of time to test stuff out this week but I'll give it a thorough look over this weekend. I'm excited to try out Nalpacza/Skaen, Assassin/Skaen, Helwalker/Magran, and Berserker/Magran among others.

 

I've been playing Greatsword Cleric of Berath (a build I've wanted to work since beta) and I'm having loads of fun with it so far. However, I think the disposition scaling of Berath's Quickening is off: it's giving me a +180% damage bonus (+Berath), and when combined with other bonuses, is ticking for 20 Corrode damage at level 5 (~60 damage altogether). Stoic and Rational are barely above one point each as I just cleared Port Maje. Is this intentional?

Edited January 25, 2019 by Ophiuchus

[Stardusk78]

I haven't had a whole lot of time to test stuff out this week but I'll give it a thorough look over this weekend. I'm excited to try out Nalpacza/Skaen, Assassin/Skaen, Helwalker/Magran, and Berserker/Magran among others.

 

I've been playing Greatsword Cleric of Berath (a build I've wanted to work since beta) and I'm having loads of fun with it so far. However, I think the disposition scaling of Berath's Quickening is off: it's giving me a +180% damage bonus (+Berath), and when combined with other bonuses, is ticking for 20 Corrode damage at level 5 (~60 damage altogether). Stoic and Rational are barely above one point each as I just cleared Port Maje. Is this intentional?

Probably needs some balancing then. I will look into it later.

[Ophiuchus]

Holy crow is this a phenomenal mod. I have to hand it to you for going the distance and learning modding from scratch - your efforts have definitely paid off.

 

I'm about to pass out so I'll go into more in depth feedback tomorrow/Sunday but I'll leave you with my two favorite combinations so far:

 

 

(Also, your changes to Berath's Quickening were right on the nose.) Edited January 26, 2019 by Ophiuchus