duvessa wrote:Of course if you specifically want to train your skills badly - get level 9 spells, huge weapons, train stuff past 20, etc. - you can do that with Hu a lot better than you can do it with Gn. But I doubt that's anyone's reason for playing Gn...
I could be wrong about all of this, though.
I think you're right about the concept, but you're underestimating the degree of the difference. It's true that going past level 20 in most skills is a waste, but going up to 20 usually isn't. Gnolls being limited to roughly 14 is a significant nerf. No one needs to take a skill to 27, but being able to reach 20 (for at least 1-2 skills) is still pretty important.
My gnoll ended up dying in Zot, it was largely my fault and due to playing carelessly, but I will say that compared to my usual statue formers, a gnoll in statue form is significantly weaker due to how slow UC is with 14 skill. At least with unarmed that's my strategic choice which I didn't have to make, but also with dodging/armor/fighting skills, there's a real difference between 12 and 20.
My final skills as of zot:2
- Code:
- Level 12.1 Fighting
- Level 8.2 Throwing
- Level 6.1 Armour
- Level 12.2 Dodging
+ Level 13.8 Shields
* Level 13.9 Unarmed Combat
- Level 12.1 Spellcasting
- Level 3.0 Hexes
- Level 8.2 Charms
- Level 8.1 Necromancy
- Level 7.6 Translocations
- Level 12.7 Transmutations
- Level 12.6 Earth Magic
- Level 12.0 Invocations
- Level 8.5 Evocations
Normally it'd be pretty easy to have several of those skills at 20 - unarmed, dodging and fighting most likely. I'd have been at least 50 to possibly 100% stronger with those three skills at 20, primarily due to UC delay being an effective haste, but also with more hp and more evasion being a significant durability boost.
All this may be moot with the proposed change to gnolls: +3 to all aptitudes at all times, forever; lock all stats to 5 and prohibit anything from increasing them. Imho that's a terrible system because I'll never, ever want to cast any spells that require spellpower with 5 int, so you're basically locking them out of any sort of conjurations. They'll just be melee with some minor support magic, or pick up crossbows...