TOPIC: Psyferres + Reaver + Horror ?? not good?

Ian Lee wrote: Given that FoP options aren't the greatest, not like a lot of competition there.

Eyes has significant competition, but it's not so great that I think Psyferre's is bad.

It's a combination of a few things. One is remembering to use these effects. Another is that combats besides room 7 don't really matter much on nearly all of my runs; in the rare cases that they do, probably screwed in room 7, where using in room 7 runs into DR often. One off damage just doesn't interest me a whole lot - it doesn't feel like doing much or expending any effort, where one might wonder why healing 20 with an instant action feels differently - it just does.

As for DR, I've been in favor of DR. But, let me run some numbers to argue against it.

Loser class - 45 damage/round. Monk/ranger - 100 damage/round. DR 15.

Each Round: Loser does 30, 66% damage. MR does 70, 70% damage. Hmmm ... not as exciting as it seemed. Difference goes from 55 damage/round to 40 damage/round, which is what I tend to think of as shrinking the gap.

If losers are only doing like 30 damage/round, they add 15 to the party total, which does feel bad. Meanwhile, barbarian is doing 75-15=60 damage a round, which doesn't feel bad.

Often in RPGs, I look to close the gap on damage output to not have losers feel as bad, but damage reduction as a percentage doesn't do that. What really looking for is some marginal DR, e.g. every point of damage above 30 is halved.

That would look like 45-7=38 versus (50-10)*2=80 versus 75-22=53, which still doesn't work as the two attacks aren't that much higher than the threshold, though it closes the barbarian gap. Though, it does mean that the 30pt attacks just do 30pts., which doesn't have a NPE for that class.

Of course, whenever I get into this, someone mentions nerfing MR to fix the problem. I just don't see MR being brought down into the 60 damage/round range, where monk has all sorts of interesting abilities and great saves and ranger is a dual melee/ranged threat for being below barbarian damage output.

Speaking of wizzes ...

Welcome to the Paladin aka loser class experience in VTD. When your DR reduced 20 damages shows up in the roller and the Barbarian still hits for 60. Of course this works the same in in-person TD as well. But since you don't see the actual numbers you don't realize how inept you actually are, and if you hit you feel like your making a difference. In virtual the truth is in your face. That's why I've been playing more Wizard than Pally in VTD.

VTD observation:

"Crit! I do 64 damage!"
"Barbarian hits and does 68."

Ian Lee wrote: VTD observation:

"Crit! I do 64 damage!"
"Barbarian hits and does 68."

That’s a build choice as much as anything, right? Take a Paladin, equip a full damage 2H build and it should be around 5-15 less +damage than a Barbarian build, depending on rarity. Rage / fury will push the difference a farther, but the Paladin has abilities of their own.

Ian Lee wrote: VTD observation:

"Crit! I do 64 damage!"
"Barbarian hits and does 68."

vTD wizard observation "Does that screen say that I did NEGATIVE 17 damage?!"

Stand corrected with no limit to instance actions a turn. So easily can do six in a single turn. Three offensive and three defensive. Very cool.

I only have one FoP slot, and usually equip FoP: Pixie because I’m a Barbarian with bad reflex saves. If I know that I don’t need Pixie, Reaver is my backup. But I usually use it on an earlier monster, not the boss, because boss monsters often have some kind of resistance that negates or greatly diminishes the Reaver’s effectiveness. (But if I find out that the Reaver does work on the final boss, sure, throw it in for a little more damage.)

Typed dr is > base dr. Those that run multiple times are still advantaged. Those with “eldritch” are still advantaged. The rest of us with luck, are not disadvantaged! And being told “well that was an ice monster you hit with ice, wah wah” doesn’t feel so bad as “you pumped all your power into that hit, you even crit, and you did 1/4 what the Barbarian does in a normal round” which if it was because I choose a different type is fine, but generally seems lack luster. This puts more strain on DMs I’m STD, and a bit more programming into the VTD apps, than (just reduce by 5/10/15). Alternatively needing to remember that types are fire(norm)/fire,ice,sonic(HC)/everything except eldritch and dark(NM)/everything(epic) which would be harder in say STD than VTD.

It is an interesting thought space though.