Unique Items that are failures instead of rewards

[Gel214th]

Why are there so many utter failures of  Unique Items in Deadfire? Case in point Voidwheel. The description literally says that it was a failure, and it killed its owner. Looking at the description this thing damages you for 10% of the damage you deal, and then restores 15 Health to you IF you kill the target. In what world is that a good choice for a weapon? 

 

It's as though every blacksmith and mage in Deadfire is a complete failure. That's like in DnD you get a Greatsword +8 but everytime you use it , it casts Vorpal on the wielder. Like ...what? Why? Who said that to "balance" your game every item needs to have a crippling drawback? 

Are there some mods that add actually USEFUL Unique items that you get and are like WOW! I got a super Item, I'm powerul now let me go wreck things! ?

[Boeroer]

First of all: D&D is silly.

Secondly: your tone is aggressive and you are overexaggerating - both will not help you to get reasonable answers. But maybe that's not what you were looking for in the first place.

I'll try nonetheless:

You're complaining about one of the weapons with the highest per-hit damage potential in the game. The Necrotic Lance that Voidwheel casts on enemies profits from all the dmg bonuses that a normal sword hit would also get (including the Legendary 60% but also Sneak Attack, Deathblows, you name it). So it's often one-shotting enemies once it procs (and that's like every 5th attack when fully enchanted). That damage doesn't count towards the self damage, also the lashes of the sword don't. It's only 10% of the physical damage roll. All in all the self damage isn't really that much of a problem if you have access to any healing - it's no problem at all if you are a Steel Garrote or have a Chanter with Old Siec (drains more life from every hit than Voidwheel's self damage). It's especially devastating with an Assassin/whatever because the Necrotic Lance will also get the Backstab- and Assassinate bonus if it procs. Getting healed for 15 while only receiving 10% of the physical damage is okay if you one-shot a lot. 

Also there are classes that can profit from the self damage (see Monks - they can generate wounds without getting hit which enables them to spam abilites like Torment's Reach) or just shrug it off (Paladins, Chanters, Heralds). A Steel Garrote/Monk with Swift Flurry/Hearbeat Drumming is especially interesting.

The 15 health on kill do scale with MIG and other healing bonuses by the way. 

It's not a great weapon for everybody - like your friendly Helwalker/Assassin or 3CON-Bloodmage from your neighborhood might die if they use it without the supervision of an adult healer. But it is a unique and powerful weapon nonetheless.

Saying that there no weapons that are powerful or even useful in Deadfire is as (unknowingly?) ignorant. You simply don't know where to look it seems. There are plenty of items that completely break the game balance if you combine them with the right things. Ever tried Grave Calling with Chilling Grave on a Beckoner/Berserker? Engoliero do Espirs with Blade Feast on a Soulblade/Rogue or an Evoker? Detro's Cage Helmet on a Helwalker/Bloodmage or Warlock? Did you try Whispers of the Wind with Hand Mortar & Fire in the Hole? Or both weapons with a single class Stormspeaker? I guess the answer is no.

What you could be angry about are the obscure descriptions that don't let you grasp what a uniqe items' effects really do. One has to test everything in order to find out what the descriptiuons really mean in game. So I would call the tooltips and descriptions of Deadfire a failure - but not the items (or who made them) themselves.
 

[xzar_monty]

9 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

What you could be angry about are the obscure descriptions that don't let you grasp what a uniqe items' effects really do. One has to test everything in order to find out what the descriptiuons really mean in game. So I would call the tooltips and descriptions of Deadfire a failure - but not the items (or who made them) themselves.

And this really is a legit point. This kind of documentation can be really, really poor in the game. Which is a shame.

[Gel214th]

Well poor animancer lady then! Guess she didn't know that the sword sucking her life essence with every strike was a "feature"  

Bottom line, the unique items are not just directly powerful and a net gain the way they are in other games. Just reading what you said, items need to be carefully combined and used with specific builds to be useful. And really, yes that is fun to explore builds but what percentage of players are going to do that... let's be honest. What percentage CAN do that? 

Yes I was ranting. Thanks for the helpful response. 

[Boeroer]

Yes, Deadfire doesn't take the rather lame power-fantasy approach to simply give you Riddonculou's Staff of Sheer Awesomeness which makes all other weapons obsolete - but instead Deadfire tries to offer unique but balanced items. So that every character you come up with might find a useful and cool item that doesn't make you regret you skilled for (or like) something else.

If you played Icewind Dale and didn't skill for specific weapons you'd regret it. This usually doesn't happen in Deafire. Also not every unique weapon you find has to be a strict improvement to stuff you already own. It's a different approach than the old Infinity Engine games.

So if your Wizard finds Voidwheel he might think "eh?" - but he might like the Chromoprismatic Staff he finds later because of the Power Level bonus. And he might outright love Engoliero do Espirs once he finds out that Blade Feast procs on every kill (not only the ones done with the weapon itself but also kills from spells...).  
 

[Achilles]

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Voidward

 

[house2fly]

Most of the abilities on unique items are nothing but positive. I can think of like half a dozen that have a negative effect associated with them

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, Achilles said:

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Voidward

 

Unfortunately that ring does not really counter the self damage from Voidward (recently tested - but other sources of raw damage it does counter).

[Boeroer]

25 minutes ago, house2fly said:

Most of the abilities on unique items are nothing but positive. I can think of like half a dozen that have a negative effect associated with them

And most of those are from the Deck of Many Things.