Angelus_dead
09-01-2008, 01:33 PM
Problem
The Warforged Improved Fortification feat is not serving it's intended function, which was to be something players could potentially spend a feat on without being completely insane. The feat gives you 100% fortification, but also 100% immunity to divine healing, and there's just no way that's a good tradeoff.
The source of this problem is that various changes from D&D to DDO have both increased the cost of the feat and reduced the cost of other ways to get fortification.
1. In DDO, racial + item fortification stacks, so a warforged only needs to find a Mod Fort item, not Heavy.
2. In DDO, fortification can come on belts, rings, necklaces, helmets, and trinkets, while in D&D it was just on armor and shields.
3. In DDO we have overall faster access to magic items, making mod/heavy fort affordable at a lower level.
4. In DDO there is no Artificer class (with Repair as a spontaneous spell)
5. In DDO your party composition varies completely from day to day, so you can't recruit an arcane repairer once and then know he'll be with you for the indefinite future.
Solution
Neither of these feats is a prereq for the other. They are simply different options.
Modified feat
Warforged Improved Fortification: You gain +50% fortification, but take -20% divine healing.
New feat
Warforged Complete Fortification: You gain +100% fortification, but take -40% divine healing.
Both these new feats allow a warforged character to decide to trade healability for better fortification defense, but they both allow him to be at least recovered from incapacitated by cleric magic. The 20% penalty from the lesser feat can be basically counteracted by Healer's Friend enhancements, but even without them it's a more reasonable choice than the current suicidal Improved Fortification.
The Warforged Improved Fortification feat is not serving it's intended function, which was to be something players could potentially spend a feat on without being completely insane. The feat gives you 100% fortification, but also 100% immunity to divine healing, and there's just no way that's a good tradeoff.
The source of this problem is that various changes from D&D to DDO have both increased the cost of the feat and reduced the cost of other ways to get fortification.
1. In DDO, racial + item fortification stacks, so a warforged only needs to find a Mod Fort item, not Heavy.
2. In DDO, fortification can come on belts, rings, necklaces, helmets, and trinkets, while in D&D it was just on armor and shields.
3. In DDO we have overall faster access to magic items, making mod/heavy fort affordable at a lower level.
4. In DDO there is no Artificer class (with Repair as a spontaneous spell)
5. In DDO your party composition varies completely from day to day, so you can't recruit an arcane repairer once and then know he'll be with you for the indefinite future.
Solution
Neither of these feats is a prereq for the other. They are simply different options.
Modified feat
Warforged Improved Fortification: You gain +50% fortification, but take -20% divine healing.
New feat
Warforged Complete Fortification: You gain +100% fortification, but take -40% divine healing.
Both these new feats allow a warforged character to decide to trade healability for better fortification defense, but they both allow him to be at least recovered from incapacitated by cleric magic. The 20% penalty from the lesser feat can be basically counteracted by Healer's Friend enhancements, but even without them it's a more reasonable choice than the current suicidal Improved Fortification.