Shattered Kingdoms

Something really does need to be done about MR trains, since if the new Z/CMUD deal actually does bring in new people, putting a bunch of time and effort into an MR barb only to finally realize all the effort was for nothing is a good way to make sure those people never stay to make a second char. Even if this means just putting a disclaimer in the helpfiles that this is unwise, or not allowing newbs to build MR barbs, or even just barbs period, just like necros aren't allowed for newbs, although I think actually reworking it would be a much better idea.

Although I never thought of it in those terms, Baldric's post about the look of a barbarian is pretty spot on. They don't run around in full plate mail. If its cold outside, they wear furs and leather skins. If not, they run around in loincloths and warpaint. So maybe that's what's missing.

Skill: Warpaint
The trained barbarian becomes all the more ferocious and intimidating. He can place warpaint on himself anywhere he is not wearing a piece of armor, but if he then decides to wear something over it, the armor will interfere with the paint, thus decreasing its usefullness.
I would see this kind of like the disguise skill, where the barb could paint himself before battle to give himself boosts, and the worse he was, the more quickly it would come off and need to be reapplied. A berserked barb would also find it much harder to paint than he would otherwise.

Skill: Pigment Preparation
The true power behind a barbarians warpaint comes from the spirit power imbued into the paint by their holy shamans. Shamans can prepare special pigments for the barbarian, which when used, would provided the warpainted barbarian with even greater ferocity than one who simply warpainted himself without the aid of the spirits.
I could see this working in a few different ways, but one might be to make this somewhat like enchant armor for shamans, though it would only be for barbs, and they would still have to apply the paint themselves. Even better, would be to tie in Scouts into this group as the other wild class, and allow shamans to prepare pigments using the herbs that scouts collect. With herbally produced pigments, MR barbs could place buffs on themselves, and maybe, just maybe, become a viable build.

I agree that at a minimum, the help files could be changed to say that training MR will reduce the maximum potential of your character.

Be warned, however, that training resistance will also keep beneficial spells from landing. This means that a resistance-trained barbarian will be unable to reach the potential of one who relies on enchanted armor to ward off harmful spells. It will make it especially difficult for the resistance-trained barbarian to participate in adventures, since these often require flight, water breathing, or consistent healing.

In the helpfiles, it mentions that successful resistance on an MR barb can convert whatever spell they've resisted into healing energy. I made an MR barb recently for spits and giggles, and I didn't notice that happening at all, to be honest. I think that because of the severe drawbacks of training MR on a barb, they should at least get a very significant buff to that particular side effect of having trained it.

edit: Filter didn't catch my naughty word.. O_o

I hadn't thought specifically about flight, but as there are flight herbs, shamans should be able to produce flight pigments. As for healing, that might be a little tricky to keep it from being overpowered. But with healing herbs would come healing pigments. I would imagine that the more often they provided a benefit, the quicker they would fall off and need to be reapplied.

Although it's not along the warpaint line, it is along the improve MR line: shamans could make healing spirit dolls that the barb could wear. I've never used or id'd a doll, so I'm not sure how they work, but the doll could be crafted with a target word like scripted eq, that would suck ME for healing when used.

FYI airy water is no longer resistable as it is effecting the environment. So barbs do have an underwater alternative.

From helpfile Magic resistance



Is this happening?

Don't see any reason why not. However, if you only have 20 MR (2 trains) it may not be noticeable at all. It's dependant on the level of the spell, the manacost of the spell, and the length of the spell if I recall.

So with access to airy water, as Dulrik said, and access to flight via a scout's herbs being properly prepared, and healing done via healing war paints or spirit dolls, that mostly seems to cover the buffs that a barb would need. Scaling toughness and warpaint with armor type would allow for the individual to choose what sort of path they wanted their barb to take, from the way most are now, to a more true magic hating guy. Any piece of heavy armor would completely negate the affects of toughness or warpaint for that area, while no armor whatsoever would allow for the full benefits, and clothing and light armor falling in between.

The MR barb would then be able to prep himself with what are basically enchantments and buffs from the warpaint, allowing him to fight both magic users and melee fighters, the tradeoff being that his buffs and enchantments could easily wear off like a disguise does, so that a paintless barb caught off guard could be attacked, and have none of the enchantments or buffs that their enemy had and would be unable to get them until the fighting ended. I think this would go a long ways to making an MR barb a real possibility, while still not making it too completely overpowered.

It is hard for me to say just how much it was healing (or for that matter, just how many MR trains the barb I was healing had) but it is certainly happening. When I witnessed it, it was in small amounts, though. I wonder if scales based upon the strength of the healing spell you use.