galehar wrote:I guess you didn't like the old crusader either, since none of the things you pointed out are new.
I liked it, because pure charms berserk outweighted everything + guaranteed access to haste is a nice thing to have. My deep elf crusaders that used regeneration+berserk combo starting from D2 were so cool and branched so nicely. I loved minotaur crusaders, it takes some time to victory dance charms, but then I got berserker with access to other buffs. I liked mountain dwarf crusaders, armor and shield aptitudes were nice for armoring up, and -2 charms isn't that bad. They was one of my favorite classes even with drawbacks, but now only drawbacks left
galehar wrote:There's no such thing as a heavy armoured caster, at least not until the very late game. I talked about medium armour, which means evp 3 max.
By heavy I mean heavy for casters. ring mail+. I know that it's almost impossible to wear plate armor and cast anything until the very late game. Also most crusaders start with 12 str or less, so it's obvious that they can't use something heavy right from the start. But with ring of wizardy I had crusaders in pretty heavy armors.
galehar wrote: You only need str 9 to wear this. In this kind of armour, you can also have decent evasion, and you don't need high int for low and medium level spells.
It's a reason why casters are better for melee hybrids. casters have 8 str, 15 int, 13 dex, crusaders have 12 12 12. If you don't plan to wear anything heavier than leather armour you don't need str, damage bonus is neglieble, and casters have slightly better evasion + cast better. Also, if you plan to fight in robes, you simply don't need 1 armor skill level. And if you do plan to use armor, then you usually pick-up more melee oriented race and get needed str anyway because they got racial str
galehar wrote:It's a very flexible background.
can you explain how it's more flexible then other backgrounds?
galehar wrote:It may have a weaker start than many others, but it can be played in a variety of ways and adapt easily.
Really? Can you give me examples of variety of ways to adapt?
You mean like this? You found a good artifact armor\large shield, you can switch to it, and became inferior magicless fighter, with worse attributes, and tons of xp wasted on now useless skills? Or - you found necromancer's book\gone kiku and know you are inferior necromancer, with worse attributes and some nearly useless skills (fire or poison). Or what?