Shattered Kingdoms

Having just played a hellion, I like the idea. And the penalty is probably slight, like -1 per use.

...why are you worried about petrification?

Impairments are a nice, small feature that steers the mud in the right direction.

Good question. Yes, it unintentionally was boosted as well. I'll fix that for the next reboot.

Yes, it was. Sorry, guess I overlooked that in the announcement.

Yes, it is a buff to spells that did nothing if your target successfully made their saving throw, which includes most maledictions. (The major exception is charm person, which is not on the list of impairment spells.) This is the right time to mention that the impairment amount is related to the casting time of the spell. Fast cast spells cause a smaller impairment than long cast spells. This is also why casting a spell from a device does not cause any impairment.

As with any major update, there is the possibility that the change has thrown some spells off balance. If you think so after playing for awhile, feel free to let me know either by private message or as part of this forum thread. I reserve the right to make changes at any time.

Ah, the casting time thing makes a lot of sense. By the way, I was posting from my phone before so couldn't write much, but thanks a lot for all the work on this. I think this will shake things up a bit and make for some interesting new combinations to try out.

I am not sure how spells cast on weapons work, if they count as devices or not? Would you get impaired by resisting a weaken cast on a weapon?

No, you should not. Think about it this way: impairment is a consolation prize for risking taking the time during combat to cast a spell which would do nothing if the target successfully saved. If the spell is pre-cast onto a weapon, you aren't taking any additional risk. Given that, I'd still say it's preferable to pre-cast it onto a weapon if you have the time to prepare before combat.

Note that many warlock spells are impairment as well, even though they still do half damage on a save. In general, there are two categories of spells that got impairments - maledictions and warlock spells. They both got access to the new system, although for different reasons. Warlocks got it as part of their buff package.

I think the earthquake change is awesome. You can bash third rank characters now.

All the more importance to "always be flying."