Offhand focus
Posted: Wednesday, 24th November 2021, 22:13
I propose adding a new category of items, the offhand focus, as an alternative to shields. These would not provide any defensive stats or egos, but would provide bonuses that facilitate sneak/stab and magic usage (I'm thinking stealth++, MP+15, Wiz++, archmagi) play styles. I think this level of power is an appropriate trade-off for the survivability SH offers, which is generally useful even to stabbers and mages, especially in emergency situations. But, as a trade-off for offering this amount of power without a skill investment gate, and especially if there are only 4 varieties to choose from, these items should be more rare than amulets or magical staves.
For meleedudes and melee hybrids, there is a meaningful choice between choosing a two-handed weapon and a shield, either double down on killing enemies faster or reduce the threat they pose if they survive longer. This choice does not exist for stabbers and pure casters, as short blades and magical staves are all one-handed weapons. There's no reason for them to not wear a shield, if only to pick up an extra ego, and 4 skill levels to reduce the penalty on a buckler of fire resistance, for example, is so trivially small to a late or extended game character as to be a no-brainer, if the penalty is even impactful in the first place, and any further investment just blends into the generic behavior of putting excess skill points in defensive skills. Adding offhand foci would present a simliar choice between offense and defense, for these characters that don't have two-handed weapons. For melee hybrid characters, having additional options from offhand foci would just make the decision for how to utilize the offhand just that much more interesting, because they would have more options for how to enhance offense besides just "deal more damage in melee".
Furthermore, skill investment requirements tends to be higher for stabbers than for pure meleedudes (especially 2-hand weapon users), and even more so for casters, in no small part because all characters will want to max fighting, dodging, and armour eventually, simply because even a small boost to survivability is better to have than to not. Providing an offhand item category tailored for stabbers and mages which does not require any investment in the shields skill to make full use of would help to balance out the skill point distribution game somewhat.
Flavor-wise, jewels may be the best choice, as most other traditional magic focuses have already been implemented in other forms, although I believe all such implementations for crystal balls have been removed at this point.
For meleedudes and melee hybrids, there is a meaningful choice between choosing a two-handed weapon and a shield, either double down on killing enemies faster or reduce the threat they pose if they survive longer. This choice does not exist for stabbers and pure casters, as short blades and magical staves are all one-handed weapons. There's no reason for them to not wear a shield, if only to pick up an extra ego, and 4 skill levels to reduce the penalty on a buckler of fire resistance, for example, is so trivially small to a late or extended game character as to be a no-brainer, if the penalty is even impactful in the first place, and any further investment just blends into the generic behavior of putting excess skill points in defensive skills. Adding offhand foci would present a simliar choice between offense and defense, for these characters that don't have two-handed weapons. For melee hybrid characters, having additional options from offhand foci would just make the decision for how to utilize the offhand just that much more interesting, because they would have more options for how to enhance offense besides just "deal more damage in melee".
Furthermore, skill investment requirements tends to be higher for stabbers than for pure meleedudes (especially 2-hand weapon users), and even more so for casters, in no small part because all characters will want to max fighting, dodging, and armour eventually, simply because even a small boost to survivability is better to have than to not. Providing an offhand item category tailored for stabbers and mages which does not require any investment in the shields skill to make full use of would help to balance out the skill point distribution game somewhat.
Flavor-wise, jewels may be the best choice, as most other traditional magic focuses have already been implemented in other forms, although I believe all such implementations for crystal balls have been removed at this point.