cut Haste spell, replace with cooler charms
Posted: Friday, 16th September 2016, 21:54
The point of getting Haste as a spell is that you can use it for all moderately dangerous fights (as opposed to very dangerous ones where you'd probably use a potion/wand anyway). In my opinion this is bad for at least two reasons: (a) it adds tedium, in much the way Phase Shift/Stoneskin did (especially when you factor in waiting out the contamination), and (b) making Haste a nonrenewable resource may make late game challenges a bit easier to design.
In addition to these benefits, and maybe more importantly than them, cutting Haste would open up design space for more interesting (and active) offensive high-level Charms. Ideally I think Charms should be for players who want to rely on melee for most of their damage, but want a more involved playstyle more like that of dedicated offensive casters. A few ideas:
In addition to these benefits, and maybe more importantly than them, cutting Haste would open up design space for more interesting (and active) offensive high-level Charms. Ideally I think Charms should be for players who want to rely on melee for most of their damage, but want a more involved playstyle more like that of dedicated offensive casters. A few ideas:
- a spell that gave your melee attacks an AoE effect, maybe hitting a line past your target, or a cone like Sauron in LotR;
- a spell that let you bypass a portion of your target's AC based on spellpower, but quickly drained your MP;
- a spell that periodically teleported you to a random monster in LoS, but could be cancelled instantly & at will and had a chance of confusing monsters you ended up next to;
- a spell that moved a target monster next to you;
- a spell that gave you a chance to instantly cast a (random or preselected) Conjuration at the target of each melee attack (but at the normal MP cost), sort of like a combination of Infusion and Spellforged Servitor (or, really, Arcane Combat in ToME).