archaicsmurf wrote:
Chiming in late here. I think the concept behind evasion is good but it's way overdone. Total spell immunity to a massive list of spells? Rogues, while being squishy, have always been compensated with huge dps and utility skills. There's no shortage of logs of rogues owning face. Bards, on the other hand, could have actually used this mega buff.
It's not total spell immunity, it just says if you saved for half damage you instead save for zero. You still need to make the save, so anything that makes the save harder also lowers the chance of evasion working. That also means things like impairment and art and the types of enchantment the rogue has put on his gear have an impact as well.
I don't think any of that keeps evasion from being pretty strong, but there are things to keep in mind when discussing the ability. It does have some requirements and limits to its protection. For instance, it's specifically for damage causing abilities and has no impact on abilities that hinder the rogue in other ways, even spells that cause instant death like FoD and petrification. The more enchantments used to protect from instant death or malediction, the less enchantments going to the reflex checks that evasion thrives on, and the easier to break down their defense.
As is, rogues were one of the least played classes in the game for quite some time prior to their buffs, and while I do agree bards could use something as well they already have tools for other anti-spell effects. Good as evasion is I don't think it would have had nearly the same level of impact with bards as it had for rogues because of that. I don't entirely hate the idea of a class like bards getting it additionally, as bards in RPGs often have a bit of "rogue-like" qualities, I just don't think it alone would lift bards up in the same way it did for rogues.