Shattered Kingdoms

Currently any character can wear a stat mod to get through the effects of any malediction based spell. Get hit with weaken, wear enough stat mods to counteract the effects of the spell. Feeblemind, and taunt? Wear enough int mods to get around the lowered int. The same with slow, plague, chill touch, etc. This is also the case with the fatigue effect. Wear enough str mods or con mods to get around the lowered con.

Essentially what this does is make it so that malediction class spells are less useful than they should be. Finney posted something about this earlier, I don't know where, I don't care to dig it up, but I agree that stat mods shouldn't undermine the punishing effects of malediction class spells. Spells like weaken should affect the maximum stat score for the duration of the effect, or until it is cured. This way mods can't save a character from an affect that they should rightfully be suffering through.

Some of these spells will still need brought into line though. Weaken, feeblemind, and taunt are crazy powerful. Overall though, I think it would buff the shaman, hellion, and swashbuckler class, all of whom I think deserve to be buffed.

I like the idea of being able to counteract stat-based spells if you have the EQ and are willing to sacrifice the necessary slots to wear them. Sorcs have already got plenty of nerfs, they don't need any more, and neither do priests, warlocks, shaman, paladins, or anyone that holds concentration-based spells.

I agree with Edoras. If you did this, you'd need to need things like taunt and then do the back and forth balancing act. You already have to pay an opportunity cost for wearing excess stat mods and I don't think it's broke.

This would not be a nerf to shamans.

I did not realize weaken could be countered with stat mods. That would have been useful information.

A change like this would have a huge affect on game balance because of how it would buff taunt, mostly. Taunt is already a -8 to -12 hit to int without any real save that locks you in place and has no drawback in use against casters. Ardith mentioned it already but I'll reiterate that if anything like this change were implemented, taunt would have to be nerfed significantly. I don't have a problem buffing maledictions. I'd like to see more of those in pvp as opposed to i-win spells like sleep/charm/petrification/FoD.

I seriously think all of you should QQ more about taunt. It's supposed to be the premier skill of the swashbuckler, and it's just about useless because it's penalties can be negated. Yes, I admit that it's ridiculously powerful with the amount of int it drops, but I think that can easily enough be fixed by reducing it.

I think most of you are just spoiled by going into rambo mode through use of escape routes to get out when [REDACTED] doesn't go your way. Swashbucklers suck, taunt is a non-issue as it can be modded through, and etherealform escaped. They don't have the utility of barbs, and mercs, and have to stand front row. I suggested a give and take relationship though.

Dude, you rolled an elf merc specifically so that you could have a 5% retreat cost, and you think the rest of the pbase is too crazy about their escape mechanisms?

2%

My dwarf only has a 4% retreat cost....

Maledictions only lower the current stat, which is flawed. They should lower both current and maximum to prevent stat mods from being a counter. There are already multiple counters to most malediction spells - remove curse, remove plague, cancellation, remove compulsion, cure blindness, etc. All of these are in addition to the saving throw the victim gets, which with most maledictions completely negates them if successful. I notice Dulrik attempted to address this issue in a recent update, but it doesn't really matter whether your malediction spell succeeds if the victim can shrug it off cause he is wearing +stat gear.

In a game where stat mods can be enchanted, it is not really a valid argument to claim wearing a stat mod hinders you in any way. The veteran crowd will invariably be using/wearing the best scripted gear, mods, etc. and have it all enchanted.

There's a pretty big difference in saves between walking around with mods to max your int, and walking around with mods to max your int + 10 more on top of that.