Lack of Skaen Sneak Attack?

[Christliar]

Like the title says, it seems like the Skaen baby Sneak Attack has been removed. Why? I waited until this update to see if it wasn't some sort of bug, but it seems it isn't. If the concern is stacking it with the Rogue's Sneak Attack, then make it so only the highest Sneak Attack bonus is applied.

[darknessest]

Like the title says, it seems like the Skaen baby Sneak Attack has been removed. Why? I waited until this update to see if it wasn't some sort of bug, but it seems it isn't. If the concern is stacking it with the Rogue's Sneak Attack, then make it so only the highest Sneak Attack bonus is applied.

i noticed this today. am sad. 

[Boeroer]

Skaen will have some "unique" abilities/spells at higher levels.

 

Stuff like Baby Sneak Attack got removed because of multiclassing. Since it would be passive it would stack with Sneak Attack. I guess that was not desired.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Boeroer

[darknessest]

Skaen will have some "unique" abilities/spells at higher levels.

 

Stuff like Baby Sneak Attack got removed because of multiclassing. Since it would be passive it would stack with Sneak Attack. I guess that was not desired.

makes sense. 

[sajah]

Skaen will have some "unique" abilities/spells at higher levels.

 

Stuff like Baby Sneak Attack got removed because of multiclassing. Since it would be passive it would stack with Sneak Attack. I guess that was not desired.

 

That would be okay, only if there wasn't the case of the unarmed passive.

With the new beta, they added some cross class passives, and for some classes there is a baby unarmed passive.

Guess what happens if you pick a monk and another class ? The baby unarmed passive becomes unavailable so that it doesn't stack with the monk's unarmed passive.

 

They just need to do the same for skaen priests. Add baby sneak attack, and disable it if you multiclass a rogue/skaen.

[Christliar]

Like I said, they can just apply the highest sneak attack bonus, not have them all stack. I'm disappointed in this because a lot of cool combinations are not available. Like a Devoted/Skaen Priest would be essentially a Rogue/Fighter/Priest triple-class-like build. I tried a Devoted (Stiletto)/Skaen Priest in the beta, but it doesn't work very well, while the reintroduction of the baby sneak attack would be a step in the right direction. A Skaen Priest/Rogue multi-class has a lot of overlapping abilities and it just seems a waste to do it. I really don't see a problem with just not stacking the Skaen and Rogue sneak attack bonuses.

[Boeroer]

They cannot because you would get both automatically (there are no unique passives that you can pick during level ups - subclasses' bonuses are all starting abilites) and taking one away when multiclassing would be weird. Both would stack because they are both passives. Exceptions from this rule would be bad for the whole game.

 

So better to give the Priest of Skaen something else that fits instead of trying to fiddle something together I think. 

 

I personally also wouldn't mind if both would stack on a rogue/skean priest - I mean soul whip + sneak attack also stack - but obviously Obsidian didn't want this.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Boeroer

[Christliar]

Why would it be bad? If you mean bad for newbies, the game clearly states that multi-classing is an "advanced technique" when choosing whether you want it to multi-class or not.

[dunehunter]

Agreed, melee/caster combo is not fun in the game now.

[Boeroer]

No, I meant exceptions from general rules (like "all passives stack") are bad. Newbies or not. It leads to a system where you can't predict the outcome of your actions. I would have no problem if Skaen's Prey on the Weak stacked with rogue's Sneak Attack. But I would have a problem if one passive supresses the other because it would be a violation of a general rule of Deadfire. And you can see where such things lead in PoE - you have to read a whole subforum for years to know all the "exceptional" mechanics.

[Christliar]

Prey on the Weak can be a passive that you can pick up on level 3 and can be greyed out if you are a multi-class Rogue, like when you pick a passive from another class and the same one is greyed out on the other. The solutions are endless, the desire just has to be there.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Christliar

[JerekKruger]

Prey on the Weak can be a passive that you can pick up on level 3 and can be greyed out if you are a multi-class Rogue, like when you pick a passive from another class and the same one is greyed out on the other. The solutions are endless, the desire just has to be there.

 

Actually I'd say this is a good idea, though instead of making it be a new passive just allow Priests of Skaen to pick Sneak Attack as a passive at power level 2. Obviously if you're multiclassed with the Rogue that option won't be available since you already have Sneak Attack.

[dunehunter]

 

Prey on the Weak can be a passive that you can pick up on level 3 and can be greyed out if you are a multi-class Rogue, like when you pick a passive from another class and the same one is greyed out on the other. The solutions are endless, the desire just has to be there.

Actually I'd say this is a good idea, though instead of making it be a new passive just allow Priests of Skaen to pick Sneak Attack as a passive at power level 2. Obviously if you're multiclassed with the Rogue that option won't be available since you already have Sneak Attack.

In summary, casters need more unique passive talents, like in PoE 1 priest have a lot talent to boost the radiance feature they have.

Edited April 5, 2018 by dunehunter

[Boeroer]

As I said before: subclasses don't have unique passives except the starting ones. I don't believe that Obsidian will make an exception just for one priest subclass. Priest of Skaen do get unique actives though - maybe one grants temporary Sneak Attack as a buff, who knows?

[JerekKruger]

Sure, I'm not actually expecting then to get sneak attack, just thought it was a nice way to give it to them.

[Boeroer]

I was mainly answering Christliar.

 

I'm just trying to answer the initial question: "Why?" and look at it from Obsidian's perspective (with lots of speculation of course). 

[Christliar]

"Sub-classes don't have unique passives" is kind of a cop-out, though, if that's what they are thinking. Why shouldn't sub-classes have unique passives? I was already skeptical of the whole sub-class thing and now I'm even more so. Yeah, sure, it's a slippery slope after that with arguments like "why doesn't MY sub-class have uniques?", but that's not very serious and a bit whiny. It's much worse that they are removing options that were already there, especially ones as interesting as the Skaen Priest one, rather than adding some more for specific sub-classes. I would've made the sub-class effects passives that you can pick up along the level-up process, but eh, that's neither here nor there.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Christliar