Design Discussion: Serafen & Xoti Improvements

[Ivanfyodorovich]

I just wrapped a fun BPM & CP Triple Crown playthrough with a custom party, and it's left me hankering to play through again with companions and really try to lean into their unique classes/items. Elric's fixes in BPM for Xoti's Monk Subclass and Serafen's Cipher subclass work great in terms of balancing them with the smallest number of changes. I've found myself with slightly different desires/goals, though, and was hoping to gather some feedback on some proposed solutions. 

For both Xoti and Serafen, I wanted to not only update their subclasses, but also their weapons and armor, so that they could be used throughout an entire playthrough. Ideally, the changes would make sense as a package, and point to a general playstyle for each that feels thematic and balanced. 

Xoti

• Add: Sister of the Reaping Moon gains Reaping Moon Style: while you have a shield equipped, gain bonus accuracy (+15) and damage (+50%) against Near Death enemies. 
  • This focuses the playstyle around killing blows and makes sense of the buckler proficiency, starting items, and flavor text (A monastic order of Gaun, the reaping aspect of Eothas, Sisters of the Reaping Moon are most effective against opponents who are already at death's door.) It feels somewhat balanced, in that it's still worse for raw damage compared to any other monk subclass, but makes shield oriented builds more fun. Tuotilo's Palm is already so good, and this is an indirect buff to it, so I'm not 100% sold on this implementation, but I'm stumped on how to encourage the "with shield or with buckler" playstyle without making it better. 
• Change: Resource Gain mechanic: gain +3 wounds on kill > gain +2 wounds, +2 Mortification on kill. 
  • The "worse at wounds, but then better if you can get lots of killing blows" playstyle falls flat, in my opinion, while the mortification gain from the lantern was always a unique and interesting flavor when compared to the other subclasses. I'm eager to try this out and see if it breaks anything, and if the balance of always worse at wounds, but better at mortification is fun. I'd love feedback here. 
• Change: Lantern enchants:
  • Holy Radiance: +2 Restoration, Inspiration PL > 4m Aura (include self): +% healing received (scales with religion)
    • The +PL was always a little odd to me, given Xoti's spell list (she get's exactly 1 bonus spell with one those keywords). I'm not locked in on the healing received, but it feels like the safest effect here. I'm open to suggestions, but want to have it be an aura, so that it has more resonance with the quest upgrade enchant. 
  • Soulkeeper: Gain +1 of each Monk resource on kill > gain +1 PL until the end of the encounter on kill, stacks twice
    • This effect might be too strong, esp. b/c it applies to the priest side as well, but I never liked the way the item only half-functioned if you were single class. Easy to tune. Could also replace with another stacking buff on kill. 
• Change: Sickle enchants: Soul Reaper: +5% sickle Damage until combat end on scoring Kill (stacks 4 times) (increases with Religion skill) > +5% sickle Damage until combat end on scoring Kill (stacks 4 times) (increases with Religion skill); +1 penetration with sickle attacks. 
• Change: Spiritual Weapon (Gaun): Added Soul Reaper enchant to the summoned weapon. Bit of an oddity to have the lantern enchants carry over, but not the sickle ones. 
• Change: Vestments of Gaun: 
  • Made this unique so the quality can be upgraded.
  • Added an enchant to make it more competitive for both priest and monk.
    • Sacred Duty: reduced recovery that scales with religion. -1% per skill point. (I've tinkered with this a little, but I think this is the cleanest)

Serafen

• Add: Wild Temper passive: gain bonus damage and penetration with AoE attacks. 
  • Currently this is a scaling bonus to damage (a la Sneak attack) and a flat +1 to pen. It applies to all AoE attacks, making Serafen a good candidate to keep his beloved hand mortars. It also makes Serafen the best companion to pick up Explosives as a skill. I'm not sure what the right amount of bonus is here, so I'd appreciate feedback in terms of relative balance. 
    • I really wanted something to incentivize play that caused the maximum number of wild mind procs, while actually offsetting the risk/reward. @thelee has made a strong case multiple times that randomness favors enemies, and that there needs to be a stronger benefit to offset, even if there are "great" outcomes from the random events. I also really like that this pushes an AoE damage niche rather than AoE debuff play that Beguiler. I also like how it synergizes with Barbarian in theme and mechanic, benefitting Carnage and Spirit Tornado in a Witch Build, offering unique benefit. 
  • I turned Miscast back to Friendly Fire to balance things, but kept Elric's awesome "always miscast on an empowered cast" feature. That little bit of control feels really great and enables some fun play. I like the idea of dropping Serafen into the enemy backline as a psychic bomb. Sometimes you get some collateral damage. 
• Change: Serafen's Padded Mail:
  • Made this unique so the quality can be upgraded.
  • Changed it to be padded armor (per the description), but added some bonus armor back to it. More fitting for a mid-range caster, and usable for the whole game.  
    • Concealed Chain: +1 crush, pierce, slash AR
    • Crow's Nest Comforts: +2 freeze AR, +2 shock AR

 

I'd love any feedback on these from folks who have thought through ways to improve these characters/items in a balanced way. Thanks!