could we make skills more impactful?

[cavemandiary]

Right now, mechanics and lore ( and to a certain degree, stealth) are worth picking up, short of any scripted interaction that might occur.

 

Also they are somewhat uninspiring.

 

What if we made skills more impactful in combat?

 

For example, athletics could easily reduce knockdown duration and increase disengagement defense, both which are a logical byproduct of being physically fit.

 

What do you think?

[Fardragon]

Araghh!!!!!!

 

"Impactful" is such an awful corporate-speak neologism.

 

 

I think the game would be improved by making skills more significant. However, they are already very unbalanced, so care would have to be taken to make things better rather than worse.

[cavemandiary]

Araghh!!!!!!

 

"Impactful" is such an awful corporate-speak neologism.

 

 

I think the game would be improved by making skills more significant. However, they are already very unbalanced, so care would have to be taken to make things better rather than worse.

Okay? English isn't my first language, i simply use it to the best of my ability.

 

Care always have to be made when balancing though. Athletics(past 3 points) has very little impact on the game, as does survival. These two could easily use a secondary function.

[Gromnir]

we get considerable use from athletics, lore and mechanics.  am knowing that traps has been nerfed considerable since day 1, but particularly for battles we is pushing the limits as to whether or not we can survive w/o a rest, careful chosen traps is making a difference 'tween life and death.  the thing is, with the accuracy penalties that were added to most traps after release, it takes considerable levels in mechanics to make the skill useful as anything other than a universal key for opening treasure boxes.  on the other hand, we got considerable motivation to put at least a few points into lore and athletics.  is perhaps ironic that lore benefits characters such as monks and fighters more than priests and mages, but that only increases the value o' the skill from our pov.  

 

stealth is currently useless to Gromnir as we can always sneak into range so that we get a first attack even with 0 points in stealth.  am gonna need see how 2.0 improvements... improve.

 

survival, beyond its usefulness in dialogues, is underwhelming.  is few battles that last so long that we gain benefit from the survival boost to consumables.  

 

am genuine not certain how to make skills, as a whole, better.  traps can be tuned to be more or less powerful, but we sure don't want traps to be determinative o' success.  scrolls is already a bit too powerful, particular in the hands o' a high accuracy character-- lore should get some kinda nerfing if we wanna see balance. am not seeing much need for a change in athletics, but we rest infrequent, so perhaps we notice the benefits more often than some others do.  am thinking that the duration enhancement o' consumables needs a dramatic boost for survival to be worth the investment o' points.  eat a meal and have the benefits last hours rather than minutes?  

 

*shrug*  

 

as an aside, we see no need to link skills to particular classes.  the combat abilities and talents of the classes result in more than enough class differentiation.  as the skills is current a secondary or tertiary consideration, we don't see value in forcing a moribund rpg anachronism into yet another game.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[EdwinP]

POE has a "few" scripted events where athletics imparts fatigue upon characters that don't meet the athletics criteria. There should be more of these.

 

These are examples of what I would like to see for the Athletics skill:

 

• Climb a High Cliff - Athletics 8+ Minor Fatigue, Athletics 4 to 7, Major Fatigue, Athletics 0 to 3 - Critical Fatigue
• Climb the tower wall - Athletics: 8+ No Fatigue Penalty, Athletics 0 to 1 Critical Fatigue Penalty, Athletics 2 to 5 Major Fatigue Penalty, Athletics 6 to 7 Minor Fatigue Penalty
• Swim the Sewers - Athletics: 6+ No Fatigue Penalty, Athletics 0 to 1 Major Fatigue Penalty, Athletics 2 to 5 Minor Fatigue Penalty

 

Since fatigue impacts your accuracy and defense (Minor -10 Accuracy/-5 defense, Major -25 Accuracy/-12 Defense, Critical -50 Accuracy/-25 Defense) this would have a major effect on gameplay, especially if there were hostile NPCs at the destination.

 

The other skills; especially Survival, would need to be beefed up to, so that Athletics does not become the one must have skill, next to Mechanics.

[EdwinP]

survival, beyond its usefulness in dialogues, is underwhelming.  is few battles that last so long that we gain benefit from the survival boost to consumables.  

 

 

What would you think about survival opening up new paths on wilderness encounters maps?

 

Example: Survival skill reveals a shallow ford across a river or an easy climbing route up a cliff. Fail the check and your PC party needs to take the longer, more dangerous, or more fatiguing route.

 

Example

 

PC party walking along the river bank, Survival Skill Level 5 reveals a shallow ford across the river OR

 

PC party walking along the foot of a cliff. Survival Skill Level 5 reveals an easy climbing route for the party to take

 

PC party walking along the foot of a cliff, Survival Skill Level 7 reveals a hidden entrance to a cave.

 

PC party walking through a forest, Survival Skill Level provides a 10% per level chance (0% at level 0, 10% at level 10) of providing a warning about an ambush (if check fails, enemy units appear around the PCs and get the first attack). If the skill level check succeeds, the PCs can see the enemy units lying in wait ahead. They are not surprised and can maneuver to attack or avoid combat.

 

I would  make survival level a requirements for crafting Food items. Let's face it, not all adventurers are great cooks, but those skilled in survival tend to do more cooking. Thus crafting food is not class level dependent, but rather survival skill level dependent. 

Edited June 30, 2015 by EdwinP