A discussion of attribute balance, re: PotD

[scrotiemcb]

So here are my thoughts on Path of the Damned thus far:

 

1. Slow, tanky strategies fare very well, while attempting a high damage, low survivability approach is suicidal.

 

A lot of this is because there are precious few ways to increase your Accuracy, but many ways to increase Deflection. So since you're pretty much guaranteed not to hit often, you pursue an attrition strategy where you don't need to hit often. The result is that PotD has a much slower rate of gameplay than one might expect, unless one is losing badly; your casters mostly focus on attrition spells like Priest buffs and the wizard's Chill Fog (both of which ignore Accuracy or get multiple Accuracy rolls in a single cast), and multiple tanks feels mandatory.

 

Proposed solution: remove the Deflection bonus from Resolve and replace it with an equal Accuracy bonus. This would both make it possible for DPSers to consistently hit AND limit the amount of Deflection one can get from attributes, making tanks a little less tanky. Note that enemies have Resolve too, so this would give enemies with low Resolve more Deflection and lower Accuracy, while those with high Resolve would lose Deflection but gain Accuracy (which may be scary versus tank characters).

 

2. Might seems to be very high on virtually all characters.

 

The reason for this is that it effects healing, including some sources which might not be obvious to new players but factor prominently in the decision-making of the min-maxer. For example, Fighter's Constant Recovery, Chanter's Ancestral Memories, and the Moon Godlike's Silver Tide are all boosted by Might. Thus a Fighter with 18 Might and 3 Con generally has more effective Endurance per encounter than one with 3 Might and 18 Con.

 

Additionally, Might is already very strong due to the widespread enemy DR in PotD. Base 10 damage against DR 4 deals 1 on graze and 6 on hit. 3 Might goes to 4 on hit; 17 Might goes to 2 on graze (double!) and 8 on hit. This example does not fully capture the ridiculousness of enemy DR in PotD; the reality is even more severe.

 

Proposed solution: remove "+3% healing" from Might, and add "+3% healing received" to Constitution. This would encourage players to invest in Con for the characters they'll heal most often.

 

3. Intelligence is overpowered.

 

From the obvious Wizard to the much less obvious Fighter, everyone wants their abilities to have a decent duration and AoE. Getting a high duration and AoE for Clear Out, for example, means your typical min/max Fighter or Rogue is only slightly less intelligent than your typical Wizard.

 

Why? Because 6% and 5% are both considerably more than 3%. Your abilities benefit heavily from high Intelligence investment... and suffer tremendously if you choose to neglect it, essentially removing your characters special abilities from the realm of usefulness.

 

Proposed solution: change Intelligence to +3% area of effect, +3% duration. Simultaneously, increase all base areas of effect and extend all base durations by about 15%. for example, the current base radius of the Paladin's Zealous Endurance is 2.5m, which is 3.5m with 18 Int and 1.75m with 4 Int; after my suggestion, base 2.8m, 3.47m with 18 Int, 2.3m with 4 Int.

 

I welcome your thoughts.

Edited April 5, 2015 by scrotiemcb

[scrotiemcb]

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