I create a quick mod and uploaded it here: http://www.filedropper.com/improvedsmokecover

I'm not going to bother uploading it anywhere else, so if anyone wants to take it to the Nexus or whatever, feel free to. Simply drop the folders into the /Data/ folder in the main install directory and it should work like any other mod.

It's not a .pak, because the local-made mods are actually a lot easier to work with, since you can edit the loose files yourself at any point.

I set the AP to 1 (from 2), Cooldown to 2 (from 5!), allowed it while Stealthing (which really doesn't make any big difference, but it felt appropriate), and also increased the size of the cloud to 3 (from 2).

Originally Posted by sfzrx
Smoke is a great way on your first turn to get your enemy to move, for example, you got ambushed by bunch of enemies on high ground from afar, they can hit you but you can't hit them due to high ground range bonus, you can use this turn to self cast buffs as well as smoke cover, this'll force those people on high ground to run towards you and sometimes even cluster a few of them together so you can setup mage combos on them.

Or you killed 3 people with your mage combo and there is another enemy archer left, and you have 2 ap left, use smoke cover to stall a turn to get cds back or get full ap to run away.

I personally think it's a pretty good utility skill.
I can only really see that working if you're playing a completely solo game, since they'll go for your friends if they can at all, or if you're deliberately abusing some specifically dodgy game mechanics (such as engaging with only one guy to get all the enemies to go to a specific location or something).

And unless you're Lone Wolf, in the situation you describe, you've only got 2 AP left to do anything worthwhile with, such as buffing - whereas with a single point in Polymorph, you could simply turn invisible for two entire turns for a single AP, instead, and drink all the potions you'd ever want to drink, popping out of Invisibility when and where you want, and do that buffing anyway, at that point.

Or simply throw a Smoke Grenade - in such a specific situation, it's no major loss of investment, and if you've got Ambidextrous, it's even cheaper, and anyone can do it, regardless of points spent.

Or, since we've already spent points in Scoundrel in this scenario, I could Cloak and Dagger out of there to take cover. Really, there are so many different options and they're all superior to Smoke Cover, and will you really memorize Smoke Cover just to deal with the possibility of an unexpected ambush that can, should it arise, be dealt with in so many different other ways?