TGOskar
01-30-2013, 01:37 AM
When I refer to "basic" guards, I refer to those that are relatively common, such as Lesser Lightning Guard, Thorn Guard, and others. Not the high-end guards such as Crushing Wave Guard or Disintegration Guard.
For how costly they are, they're pretty underwhelming. Lesser Guards offer a piddly 1d4, whereas the better ones offer a 1d8, which isn't that much. With the boosts on AC and Dodge, these land even less, so 1d8 every now and then doesn't seem to do much.
Thus, I suggest a slight change. Minor Guards (which offer a simple 1d4 points of damage 50% of the times) should instead deal 1d4 all the time, even if it costs little. Lesser Guards should deal 1d8, and regular Guards offer 2d6. There should be Greater Guards with a +3 bonus that deal 4d6 points of damage, which would be useful for high Heroic levels, at least until you get the higher-end Guards. That should make them useful.
This should also apply to other Guards, such as Thorn Guard, Light Guard and alignment-based Guards. Allowing them to be made at Cannith Crafting would be a plus (Thorn and the elemental ones do already, but not the alignment-based or Light ones; the more advanced ones can remain as Greensteel crafting).
I use these shards and armor a lot, since I often get most of what I want in different ways (AFAIK, gear-based resistance doesn't stack with Resist Energy and acts way too specific to my tastes, and I find pots and spells to cover Deflection, which usually leaves Guards, Fortification and perhaps stuff like Deathblock to place on armor and/or shields).
Is the idea reasonable?
For how costly they are, they're pretty underwhelming. Lesser Guards offer a piddly 1d4, whereas the better ones offer a 1d8, which isn't that much. With the boosts on AC and Dodge, these land even less, so 1d8 every now and then doesn't seem to do much.
Thus, I suggest a slight change. Minor Guards (which offer a simple 1d4 points of damage 50% of the times) should instead deal 1d4 all the time, even if it costs little. Lesser Guards should deal 1d8, and regular Guards offer 2d6. There should be Greater Guards with a +3 bonus that deal 4d6 points of damage, which would be useful for high Heroic levels, at least until you get the higher-end Guards. That should make them useful.
This should also apply to other Guards, such as Thorn Guard, Light Guard and alignment-based Guards. Allowing them to be made at Cannith Crafting would be a plus (Thorn and the elemental ones do already, but not the alignment-based or Light ones; the more advanced ones can remain as Greensteel crafting).
I use these shards and armor a lot, since I often get most of what I want in different ways (AFAIK, gear-based resistance doesn't stack with Resist Energy and acts way too specific to my tastes, and I find pots and spells to cover Deflection, which usually leaves Guards, Fortification and perhaps stuff like Deathblock to place on armor and/or shields).
Is the idea reasonable?