Shattered Kingdoms

So this was wasted typing energy by you then?

Edora, I love how you took the little bit out of what I said and ran with it. Maybe you should invest in some reading comprehension skills, instead of arguing.

Arelgama, you said that the only offensive choices for sorcs were casted charm person and petrification, therefore etherealform is their only real option. That is a statement I completely disagree with for too many reasons to count. It doesn't even make any sense.

Rodwen, I'm not sure if you're arguing with me or what anymore. In fact, the very first sentence of what you just quoted was the exact same sentiment I was summing up in my last post. It's always been very overpowered from a gameplay perspective that you can dispel non-ethereal opponents from the ethereal plane.

Why are you ignoring yourself?

My suggestion of making MR plane specific brings back the appreciable chance blah blah...

What if Etherealform needed a rest period. Something like a "your flesh needs to revert back to its solid state" and then cannot be cast or recited for a short time.

I'm not for or against any of this, just an idea.

How about we let certain attack spells bypass etherealform

I am okay with this, as long as those spells also work from ethereal characters to non-ethereal characters.

Magic Missile ftw!

Due to the nature of the spell I think it's fine that you can cast from eth to non-eth and vice versa. I like the -10 to MR idea Ardith mentioned since it could also combat MR barbs.

I think that it would be far more balanced and effective to add many new restrictions to what an ethereal entity can and cannot do, rather than these half-measures people have proposed. There could be zero transmission of actions between ethereal and material beings besides a select few: say, tell, emotes, group commands, and the like, and voodoo. This would mean no summoning or gating, no holding spells across the divide, no dispelling either way, no ordering, no persuading, and so on between ethereal and material entities. I would also make material aggressive or hunting NPCs not hunt ethereal characters, so as to prevent ethereal tiger-swarming of hapless victims. Maybe taunt could still work, and I guess animate dead because of how wraiths work. This would be a giant nerf to ethereal capable classes - especially sorcerers and necromancers - but would probably be fine. You could do all that and etherealform would still be useful, and necromancers and sorcerers would still be powerful.

I realize that massive of a nerf like this is not likely to be popular, but if you perceive a problem in game balance arising from etherealform (and I agree there is) then it is best to fix the whole problem, not chip away selectively. Being mostly invincible yet being able to affect enemies in significant ways can and has been abused in unbalanced ways over SK's history. If you look at fantasy RPG canon, you find that etherealness generally carries heavy restrictions so as to prevent such abuses, heavier than those currently in place at SK. Bottom line: remove all avenues for significant abuse.

If a MR impairment from dispel is introduced, it should not apply to innate MR; otherwise it is just a new way for MR barbarians to get buffs. All that will accomplish is the irritation of Dulrik.

All that said, my enjoyment of SK will be the same no matter what happens regarding this, if anything even happens at all. It does not rank that high on the list of stuff I'd like to see happen, nor do I think it will represent a huge improvement if all of my suggestions are followed and etherealform gets hit full-on in the face with the nerf bat. I kind of hope Dulrik is busy with other stuff.