Attribute scaling with skills and weapons (Mainly) - 25/09/17 02:12 PM
After playing for over 100 hours and trying out many different builds my main issue of the character development in the game is one of synergy, item diversity and scaling. An example;
If you want to focus on damage with necromancy skills you would need to put those points into Warfare to boost their physical damage. Yet even if you do that you would still be putting points into intelligence which does not affect any physical damage weapon, and using a strength or finesse weapon won't scale with your intelligence so you can not actually build a damage-focused necromancer.
There's several solutions to this specific problem, like having a "Blood" element wand and staff in the game. But that's just a bandaid for a bigger problem which many character concepts deal with; the main attribute scaling. You can't effectively use any weapon not associated with your main skill types.
So for that, why not a somewhat different approach? Multi-attribute scaling. What if each skill(and potentially weapon) would have two attributes to scale on? Let's take a bow for example and make it scale with both strength and finesse; It would get a 20% increase with either 14 Str/10 Fin, or 12 Str/12 Fin, or 10 Str/14 Fin.
It would only affect the high-end scaling after people reach the cap with one of those attributes, but at that point each point is worth relatively less anyway (an additive 5% increase if you already have a 200% bonus modifier is only ~1.66% compared to the first point actually being a 5% increase)
Give skills the same treatment, like Searing Daggers scaling with both Intelligence and Finesse for example; You could have a dagger-wielding pyrokinetic that actually throws searing daggers.
(There could be a talent that lets you add one attribute modifier to a weapon or skill group; "Telekinetic Grasp" to let you use Intelligence for melee weapons for example, with a side-benefit of boosting their range by X according to your telekinesis skill perhaps)
In the end, each skill group has one common attribute like it is now, but individual skills also get a secondary attribute to scale from; "Searing Daggers" would be Finesse/Intelligence, but another pyrokinetic ability "Supernova" could be Strength/Intelligence. For scoundrel abilities like "Chloroform" could be Finesse/Intelligence while "Sawtooth Knife" or "Terrifying Cruelty" might be Strength/Finesse.
And then to Huntsman and Scoundrel skills; The huntsman skills require a bow or crossbow, preventing you from using a wand or shield while using them. While I understand with many of the huntsman skills like Pinning Shot for the wand, there could be made specific exceptions to those skills. And a hand-crossbow to let you use a shield and huntsman skills would also be nice for more build diversity(like huntsman and Bouncing Shield?) In the same vein the scoundrel skills nearly all require a dagger; why not open up that item pool to other weapons depending on the skill itself? "Backlash" could easily work with any melee weapon, while Rupture Tendons could work fine with any slashing weapon like swords and axes.
TL;DR: You're prevented from using certain weapon/skill combinations due to attribute scaling and weapon availability which is limited even further by the limited selection of weapons for Huntsman/Scoundrel skills.
If you want to focus on damage with necromancy skills you would need to put those points into Warfare to boost their physical damage. Yet even if you do that you would still be putting points into intelligence which does not affect any physical damage weapon, and using a strength or finesse weapon won't scale with your intelligence so you can not actually build a damage-focused necromancer.
There's several solutions to this specific problem, like having a "Blood" element wand and staff in the game. But that's just a bandaid for a bigger problem which many character concepts deal with; the main attribute scaling. You can't effectively use any weapon not associated with your main skill types.
So for that, why not a somewhat different approach? Multi-attribute scaling. What if each skill(and potentially weapon) would have two attributes to scale on? Let's take a bow for example and make it scale with both strength and finesse; It would get a 20% increase with either 14 Str/10 Fin, or 12 Str/12 Fin, or 10 Str/14 Fin.
It would only affect the high-end scaling after people reach the cap with one of those attributes, but at that point each point is worth relatively less anyway (an additive 5% increase if you already have a 200% bonus modifier is only ~1.66% compared to the first point actually being a 5% increase)
Give skills the same treatment, like Searing Daggers scaling with both Intelligence and Finesse for example; You could have a dagger-wielding pyrokinetic that actually throws searing daggers.
(There could be a talent that lets you add one attribute modifier to a weapon or skill group; "Telekinetic Grasp" to let you use Intelligence for melee weapons for example, with a side-benefit of boosting their range by X according to your telekinesis skill perhaps)
In the end, each skill group has one common attribute like it is now, but individual skills also get a secondary attribute to scale from; "Searing Daggers" would be Finesse/Intelligence, but another pyrokinetic ability "Supernova" could be Strength/Intelligence. For scoundrel abilities like "Chloroform" could be Finesse/Intelligence while "Sawtooth Knife" or "Terrifying Cruelty" might be Strength/Finesse.
And then to Huntsman and Scoundrel skills; The huntsman skills require a bow or crossbow, preventing you from using a wand or shield while using them. While I understand with many of the huntsman skills like Pinning Shot for the wand, there could be made specific exceptions to those skills. And a hand-crossbow to let you use a shield and huntsman skills would also be nice for more build diversity(like huntsman and Bouncing Shield?) In the same vein the scoundrel skills nearly all require a dagger; why not open up that item pool to other weapons depending on the skill itself? "Backlash" could easily work with any melee weapon, while Rupture Tendons could work fine with any slashing weapon like swords and axes.
TL;DR: You're prevented from using certain weapon/skill combinations due to attribute scaling and weapon availability which is limited even further by the limited selection of weapons for Huntsman/Scoundrel skills.