Pale Master Skeletal Pet feedback

[RavenStormclaw]

So I was excited to see PMs get a pet that would scale with their level even if it was just the fightre. I looked over all the enhancements that you could give it and thought wow should be pretty devestating when you get to 20. Umm... was I wrong. I just went to the test Dojo and leveled a PM to 20 and invested every last AP into my knight that was available to me. I took every enhancement to all three tiers and took augment summoning as a feat to further boots it. I sat there for 5 minutes and watched it attack the kobolds. The damage was averaging in the 40's per hit and 80-90's on a crit never breaking the 100 barrier. For all the AP invested this damage output is quite poor. The Arti dog and the Druid wolf do much more damage and they come free with the class and get their own AP to spend instead our ours. For the investment the current return is to poor.Suggestions and things I liked1) I was surprised by and liked the fact that the knight now gets a UI like other pets and hirelings. Very cool feature and quite nice.2) If this is a pet like the Arti dog and druid wolf then please expand it all the way and let us add armor and weapons to our knight just like the dog and wolf. This would do something to up the damage to something worthwhile for all the AP invested. As it stands now it just isn't worth all the AP and it should be.3) If you aren't going to follow suggestion two at least give the knight some more umph in the form of magical weapons like hirelings get this would go a little ways toward helping up the damage.4) Also to help boost the knights umph I would give tier 3 of each of the improvement lines a special ability. Maybe an aura of fear that improves at each tier level. An aura that causes the shaken state at tier 3 of the first enhancement. A fear state (DC 10 + 1/2 level + your intel modifier) at tier 3 of the second enhancement line. A finally a despair state ( like the mummy) at tier 3 of the third enhancement line (DC 10 + 1/2 level + intel modifier).All of these together might be a bit much but bits and pieces should make the knight worth the investment.

[RavenStormclaw]

I have tried several times to edit it into something readable but these silly new forums are just converting it to a wall of text. Hopefully you can wade thru it.

[Lumi_of_Irian]

Don't forget it's almost mandatory to include three Druid past lives to make summons anywhere close to viable.

[Archangel_666]

So I was excited to see PMs get a pet that would scale with their level even if it was just the fighter. I looked over all the enhancements that you could give it and thought wow should be pretty devestating when you get to 20. Umm... was I wrong.

I just went to the test Dojo and leveled a PM to 20 and invested every last AP into my knight that was available to me. I took every enhancement to all three tiers and took augment summoning as a feat to further boots it. I sat there for 5 minutes and watched it attack the kobolds. The damage was averaging in the 40's per hit and 80-90's on a crit never breaking the 100 barrier.

For all the AP invested this damage output is quite poor. The Arti dog and the Druid wolf do much more damage and they come free with the class and get their own AP to spend instead our ours. For the investment the current return is to poor.Suggestions and things I liked

1: I was surprised by and liked the fact that the knight now gets a UI like other pets and hirelings. Very cool feature and quite nice.

2: If this is a pet like the Arti dog and druid wolf then please expand it all the way and let us add armor and weapons to our knight just like the dog and wolf. This would do something to up the damage to something worthwhile for all the AP invested. As it stands now it just isn't worth all the AP and it should be.

3: If you aren't going to follow suggestion two at least give the knight some more umph in the form of magical weapons like hirelings get this would go a little ways toward helping up the damage.

4: Also to help boost the knights umph I would give tier 3 of each of the improvement lines a special ability. Maybe an aura of fear that improves at each tier level. An aura that causes the shaken state at tier 3 of the first enhancement. A fear state (DC 10 + 1/2 level + your intel modifier) at tier 3 of the second enhancement line. A finally a despair state ( like the mummy) at tier 3 of the third enhancement line (DC 10 + 1/2 level + intel modifier).All of these together might be a bit much but bits and pieces should make the knight worth the investment.

Hope that helped OP.

[RavenStormclaw]

Archangel thanks for that.

[Daemoneyes]

The damage was averaging in the 40's per hit and 80-90's on a crit never breaking the 100 barrier.

Dunno if i should maniacally lough because i knew it would be useless or if i should cry because it is useless. :/

[RavenStormclaw]

Dunno if i should maniacally lough because i knew it would be useless or if i should cry because it is useless. :/Do both laugh at the absurdness of a 20th level fighter doing that little damage. Then cry since it likely won't get changed. Maybe it will. I hope.

[~josh2814]

When I first saw this pet, I did get kinda excited. I pictured having Augment Summons and 3 Druid past lives, so a +10 and all the enhancements. So it would be pretty powerful (summons wise not PC wise), but then I got sad seeing as it is only the Knight, no archer, and no caster. Can it tank decently? I would love to see what this thing can do when buffed to the nines, Augment/ 3 Druid past Lives/Full Enhancements/Buff Spells/Bard Songs...see if it is meh or awesome.

[Beholders_12th_eye]

firstly I know I'm necroing this thread, and I'm allowed to do it as a pm...

I might have an idea for making it able make the skelly be able to wear armor and the like other pets.
One problem is that since the skelly is an enhancement every time you would reset those you would destroy your skelly and lose the items...
maybe a solution is to make the skelly pet a feat which you get at wiz lvl 1 and activate with the the pm enhancements, this way it could 'remember' which armor it has and maybe you could name it
a possible name is 'dark temptations' or 'aspirings toward shadows' or something in that line of thought.
(and for armor was thinking of bastard swords and shields, or just a collar (it is your slave so...)
and probably giving it a pet sheet, otherwise how are you going to armor him, ad=nd it would be nice to see his stats)

btw I noticed that the pet isn't that crappy it has a good doublestrike chance, you could enhance it with artificer weapon scrolls haven't tested the armor scrolls. (so he wears a weapon (mechenics) at least i thought that it won't with unarmed)
and it has some dr breaking abilities, not sure anymore but thought it was adamant cold iron and silver (metaline) but not sure...
also the graphic of the skelly changes with level first it's a normal knight then it turns blackbone graphic (no fire imunity :( ) and at lvl 18 it turns into frostmarro (No fire vulnerbaility :) )
that is my 2c
(now hoping that is doesn't fall on deaf ears)
(and yes it is a bit randomly typed it is quite late for me atm)

edit: quick dr testing
did bypass verminkeeper (bearded devil) (devils assault epic normal) silver or good
did bypass dretch (ring of fire lvl 21) cold iron or good
did bypass iron golem (made to order elite) adamantine
did not bypass ice flencer (invaders! elite) dr cold iron and good
so I guess it didn't bypass the good portion of the last one and that it has metaline dr breaking

[die]

I have tried several times to edit it into something readable but these silly new forums are just converting it to a wall of text. Hopefully you can wade thru it.

Right click edit then hit open , that works.

[Scraap]

Maybe an aura of fear that improves at each tier level. An aura that causes the shaken state at tier 3 of the first enhancement. A fear state (DC 10 + 1/2 level + your intel modifier) at tier 3 of the second enhancement line. A finally a despair state ( like the mummy) at tier 3 of the third enhancement line (DC 10 + 1/2 level + intel modifier).All of these together might be a bit much but bits and pieces should make the knight worth the investment.

Suggested that in one of the dev-chats when they first came out as an alternate to just slapping more raw damage on it.
Know the result? The mummy aura got nerfed (or mobs got further inflated at-level, makes no real difference there).

[digital_terror1]

The skeleton pet would need a *MAJOR* overhaul for me to consider putting more than a single point into it, just so I can have a lever puller.

1. Resting at a shrine should reset the ability to summon the skeleton, even if it is already active, just like you can with the robodog or wolf.
2. There should be a way for the PM to be able to raise the skeleton an unlimited number of times when it is killed, just like you can with the robodog or wolf
3. Add a weapon and armor slot to the skeleton....again, just like the robodog and wolf have.
4. Give access to the skeleton as part of the initial core PM prestige line.
5. Fix the necrotic SLA's so they affect the skeleton, and perhaps other players as well. It's fine that they can't target self, but you should be able to use them on friendly undead allies.
6. Give the skeleton additional fighter skills as you spend points on it....such as improved trip, stun, etc...and the stun should not be the player version but that never miss no save version mobs get.

On the flip side though, since I'm not wasting all the AP on the pet, that leaves lots of AP for AM, EK, and racial enhancements

[Silkenwise]

So I was excited to see PMs get a pet that would scale with their level even if it was just a fighter. I looked over all the enhancements that you could give it and thought wow should be pretty devestating when you get to 20. Umm... was I wrong.
<...>
As it stands now it just isn't worth all the AP and it should be.
3) If you aren't going to follow suggestion two at least give the knight some more umph in the form of magical weapons like hirelings get this would go a little ways toward helping up the damage.4) Also to help boost the knights umph I would give tier 3 of each of the improvement lines a special ability. Maybe an aura <...>

The Pale Master pet is a serious kick in the can.

I've been playing my favorite character, a level capped Necromancer, for years. (had one in Everquest, too) The switch from summoned skeleton allies pre-Enhancement trees, to the Skeletal Pet post-trees, is night and day.

Before the introduction of the Pet, it took a LOT of cross-ranks to maximize your pet option, and you had 3 skeleton types of increasing power to choose from. ALL were decent through the entirety of the Heroic levels. You had an Archer, Warrior, and Mage which upgraded to Blackbone versions (fire immunity, and spammed fire spells, including firewall! ; and eventually capped out with Frostbones (immune to ice, NEVER ran out of mana, and the mage cast tons of spells)

The new pet isn't even comprable to a hireling of equivalent level, in any way shape or form.


One simple fix:

Let us equip our Pets with their own character sheet, and gear in every slot!

These are supposed to be minions that we have raised from slain enemies, and equipping them with gear just makes sense!!!