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Growing Pains 3
Summary: December 8, 2002
This phase of Growing Pains implements major changes to many aspects
of the game, with the most substantial changes including the conversion
of many spells to self-cast, implementation of skill requirements
for magic item activation, and modifications to spell bonuses, durations,
creature casting strength, armor casting hindrance, and damage reduction.
A (lengthy) summary of the changes follows. In some cases, more
detailed information on the specifics of the changes will be provided
in future posts on these message boards.
These changes are expected to be released next weekend.
Many defensive spells have changed to self-cast only, and several
have seen changes to magnitude of their bonuses. A few spells have
been completely replaced with new spells. Each spellcasting profession
still retains a handful of shareable spells.
In a major change to the TD system, all TD boosting spells have
been designated as Spirit, Elemental, or hybrid. Full TD bonuses
apply vs attack spells of that same magic sphere, and lesser bonuses
apply vs attacks from other spheres of magic. The result will be
that spellcasting characters will find themselves very resistant
to magics from their sphere(s) of knowledge, and somewhat less resistant
to magics from other spheres. Coupled with these changes to TD,
fifty-nine creature types have had their CS reduced, some well in
excess of 100 points. Ten creature types had their CS increased,
most of which were creatures under 10th level that previously had
extremely ineffective spells (sea nymphs and death dirges, for example).
In addition, most spells that previously had durations based on
caster level now have base durations that increase as the caster's
spell knowledge increases. For spells that are activated from items
or via scrolls, durations will increase with the knowledge of Magic
Item Use or Scroll Use, respectively.
The use of magical trinkets now requires skill in Magic Item Use
in most cases. The exceptions are some items distributed as "common"
treasure (small statues, gold rings, blue crystals, etc.), drinkable
or edible items, and some unique or nearly unique items. Failed
attempts to activate magical trinkets or invoke scrolls will now
result in 3 seconds of Cast Roundtime and greater failures may have
detrimental results. The increased hard roundtime for waving wands
while encumbered has been replaced with increased hindrance in properly
activating the wand. Recharging of magic items with spells that
are not known to the caster will be more difficult, and recharging
will now eventually degrade an item until it can no longer accept
a charge, similar to the way that Imbed currently works.
Armor spell hindrances have been revised to be spell circle-specific,
meaning that Ranger hindrances are now different from Minor Spirit
hindrances, and Minor Spirit hindrances are different from Major
Spirit hindrances. Each armor type has a maximum spell hindrance,
regardless of how far undertrained a caster may be for the armor.
Spell failures resulting from armor hindrance will now result in
3 seconds of Cast Roundtime. Donning armor will also now incur roundtime
based on the armor type.
The MSTRIKE verb has been changed in several ways, providing
more control to the player, adjusting the roundtime determination,
making increased training in Multi-Opponent combat desirable, reducing
the screen scroll, and implementing a short duration fatigue effect.
TRIP has been revised to factor in the attacker's stance.
Many weapons and bolt spells have seen adjustments to damage and
speed attributes, and bastard swords are being revised to be more
user-friendly via a new GRIP verb. Improvements to Ranged and Thrown
weapon attack and defense are also part of this release.
Major Shock has seen a reduction in DF, while Minor and Major Cold
saw increases. Wizard Bolt AS rate of increase concerns have been
addressed with modifications to Elemental Focus (513) to increase
its offensive bonus with increased training in the Major Elemental
circle.
Two-weapon fighting has been revised to no longer automatically
increase roundtime when the weight of the offhand weapon is >=
the primary weapon. The speed of the offhand weapon compared to
the speed of the primary weapon and the weight of the offhand weapon
with respect to the attacker's strength are now factors.
Damage reduction for highly physical characters has been revised
to shift Swimming and Climbing skills to from primary to secondary
skills, to include all weapon skills as secondary skills, and to
consider spell training on a spells-learned-per-level basis. Those
characters with less than two spells per level will eventually receive
some amount of damage reduction. Damage reduction has not been capped,
but the benefits at the very high end have been revised to increase
at a slower rate.
Finally, treasure output has been adjusted to substantially increase
the number of imbeddables that are released. Players will find that
many trinkets are found already imbedded with spells, and some will
even be Wizard rechargeable. The spells available on scrolls have
been revised significantly, as well.
To discuss the previous information visit the
Strategies, Tactics, and Hunting Topic, in the Game Balance Category
in our Forums.
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