Let's talk about ability duration

[ballad]

First off, let me take my hat off to Obsidian for introducing Turn-based mode. You guys are awesome!

 

Now, apologies if this has been talked about before, but ability duration, as it currently stands, seems a little messed up. More specifically, every short-term ability now lasts a single round irregardless of its original duration in RTwP, leading to at least three kinds of problems

 

1. Very short term abilities (5 seconds or less) are now much more powerful. For instance, the Shieldbearer's Lay on Hands can now keep anyone alive indefinitely so long as the paladin has zeal left. It is also now very easy to disable-lock enemies, thanks to the abundance of fast-casting 1 round disables. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Brisk Recitation now gives you two overlapping phrase effects due to the 1 round minimum duration of any effect.

 

2. Moderate-short term abilities (around 8 seconds) seem unjustly nerfed. For instance, Glorious Beacon now has a 1 round base duration, making it very difficult to use in conjunction with offensive abilities (I'm thinking of Heralds here.) That is, unless the character has an extremely high INT score, which leads me to my third point

 

3. Having stratospheric INT is now a prerequisite for many classic multiclass builds. Take this popular Herald build which relies on casting Inspired Beacon followed by the Seven Night She Waited invocation. This wasn't difficult to achieve in RTwP - all you needed was 15 or so INT and the two abilities would overlap. In Turn-based, however, you need at least 20 INT to bump Glorious Beacon into the 2 round range, and I'm still iffy whether this is enough for the combo to work effectively. 

 

What do you guys think? I'm sure there are a lot more points to be made and examples to be brought up.

 

 

 

[Elric Galad]

+1 entry on the list of messed up things without Dynamic Turns.

[Wormerine]

I do get quite a but if milage out of 1 turn spells - more than I expected. One turn doesn't sound like much, but as it lasts all the way until that unit takes his/her turn means there are quite a few action inbetween to take an advantage of the spell. 

 

I think with proper data, Obsidian should be able to see if it is enough or if they need to last longer.

[Lamppost in Winter]

Some of it will come down to us getting used to the idea of rounds, I think - one round lets you do a lot of things. And when you think about it, you weren't getting a whole lot of mileage out of INT when it came to short duration effects, either - at 20 INT, 5 seconds became 7.5 seconds.

 

However, I think it unarguably feels bad that you really have to pump INT to feel any benefit on some things. Even though it was relatively small, INT still gave you benefits on short buffs in RTWP. Perhaps INT scaling bonuses need to be bigger, or effect durations could be more aggressively rounded up, e.g., having 7 seconds round up into 2 rounds.

 

Maybe a more granular stat could also govern duration? The same way Initiative determines who acts when in a round, some stat could increase effect durations within a round on a similar basis.

[Wormerine]

If strick turn system were ditched and units were to act in order and frequency dictated by Initiative, inteligence buff could be a bit more flexible expanding duration by aound of actions (how many units take their turns before it expires) rather than current "per turn" duration - and extra turn is a lot of milage, and some spells have been buffed to accout for "shorter" duration. 

 

I do believe the bigger issue is inteligence not adding much beyond defences. 

[SChin]

Hey everyone!

 

Thanks for the additional feedback about the ability durations!  I'll add this to the report we have about this so that the team can use it as a reference.  If you think of anything else to add about ability durations, please continue to post about it here since it's linked to the report.

 

Thanks for all the help!