Sunday, 2nd December 2018, 03:09 by Nekoatl
I don't know why anyone would think they can add 10 EV and start dishing out mad riposte damage, but if people actually think that, then that's all the more reason to put the actual chance a monster has to hit you in the log. Again, if you're relying solely on Dodging, you're going to have a bad time, and if players aren't learning that after trying it once or twice, that's a sign of inadequate feedback being provided, not a result of a problems with riposte itself.
A successful riposte-oriented character strikes a healthy balance between their skills, does not assume they'll ever be able to dodge all attacks and therefore does not neglect AC, and takes advantage of the extra properties of their attacks to further boost their survivability where possible, e.g. vampiric brand, draining brand, antimagic bite. My favorite is the aforementioned vine stalker skald because with maxed fighting, long blades, armour, evasion, and spellcasting, plus a good set of medium dragon armour, liberal use of Shroud of Golubria, appropriate resistances, and max Zen piety, there are very few enemies in the game that pose any threat to them whatsoever (large swarms of hellfire wielders being a notable example). Attacks you successfully dodge makes you stronger and the enemy weaker; attacks you fail to dodge are often deflected by your shroud; your respectable AC makes it harder for the shroud to break; attacks that gets past your shroud are mitigated by your AC; even without a vampiric brand, you still have peerless natural HP regeneration and a magic shield that's constantly getting recharged by your successful ripostes and standard melee attacks. If you haven't tried this, you don't know what you're missing (don't start with Zen though, Gozag is better to help you get a nice long blade that can preferably cauterize hydras... the stockpiled gold can be used to buy max Zen piety when you're ready to tackle malmutate or hell effects, and Potion Petition covers for vine stalker's inability to heal from quaffed potions). Also, don't use Spectral Weapon; the shared damage will drag you down.
It sounds to me like some players gave riposte a try, were frustrated when the experience didn't live up to expectations and didn't provide adequate feedback to help them adjust their attempts, and gave up on the mechanic before discovering its potential. Which is a shame, but again, the problem is the inadequate feedback, not the mechanic. Clarity may only be a minor design goal, but if lack of clarity is frustrating players to this extent, it should be addressed IMO. If there's a concern that having the % to hit shown in the log would be too distracting or whatever, why not show the chance for SH or EV to prevent an attack when examining a monster, next to the possible damage output? E.g. "You have an X% chance of blocking its attack with your first shield block and a Y% chance of dodging attacks from this monster."
As for stabbers, I'll admit that starting out with a background other than enchanter can make them hard to get off the ground, but once they get rolling, progress is mostly a breeze. You have to really load up on stealth bonuses for them to reach their full potential, but when you can just walk up to almost anything and instantly kill it before it can respond at all, that's not my idea of weak. Now, granted, certain parts of the game are significantly harder for stabbers to deal with than others, but most of those are optional. And, I'll admit that being unprepared to deal with the sudden arousal of a dangerous enemy can easily be fatal for the unprepared stabber, but if preparing for that possibility weren't necessary for success, then the stabbing mechanic would be broken to the point where it would need to be either reworked or removed. The biggest threats to an established stabber are overconfidence and greed.
Spell hunger, I can agree with you about. There are valid reasons to invest heavily in spellcasting, but spell hunger is generally not one of them. My vampire enchanters would be disappointed to lose the mechanic because neglecting spellcasting is a convenient way to keep them bloodless in the early game until some other nutrition sink is found (and with reworked vampires, there's not much of an upside to being full anyway), but that's such a niche case that I don't consider it a valid reason to keep the spell hunger mechanic.