Proposed change to spellcraft: 3 skills instead of 1

[RavenStormclaw]

First I am ignoring perform fot the moment.

I had debate in another thread and someone threw this idea out...in a more or less snarky matter but it actually clicked with me. I present it here for debate .

Instead of Spell craft skill being the end all and be all skill other than heal and repair for spell power create two additional skills. One for sorcerers/FvS and one for clerics/druids. The simple basics:

Spell craft as is based off on intelligence.

Channeling (name subject to change) based off of charisma.

Spirituality based off of wisdom.

Having one locks out the others ( to avoid the exploits I could see coming).

Discuss.

[redspecter23]

I was going to suggest something similar. I would keep spellcraft as is and add "channeling" (good term by the way) as a cha based skill for each individual element. In that way a sorc could take spellcraft with a penalty compared to wizards or take "channeling: fire" for instance and have fire spellpower equivalent to what a wizard would have for spellcraft. It's more limiting than your suggestion, but I feel it keeps sorcs on par with their main element or allows them to diversify and take spellcraft instead if they prefer. In the end it would mean a higher need for int for the necessary skills, but not necessarily attempting to max out int with items to keep spellpower high.

[gphysalis]

I like that spellcraft is a nice buff to wizards.

The difference between the wizard and the sorc right now is what? 50+ in the sorc's main element

This closes the gap by maybe 15 spell power.
Wiz might have +20 int bonus.
Sor 10 int +8 item +2 ship buff -> +5 bonus

[LVSammy]

I like that spellcraft is a nice buff to wizards.

The difference between the wizard and the sorc right now is what? 50+ in the sorc's main element

This closes the gap by maybe 15 spell power.
Wiz might have +20 int bonus.
Sor 10 int +8 item +2 ship buff -> +5 bonus

The point is that sorcs SHOULD have a significant advantage in spell power. They are meant to be damage dealers, while wizzies are meant for cc, insta kills and other non spell power related focuses. I believe the 50 spell power different is actually not enough of a difference and should be closer to 100 tbh. this spellcraft thing being int based is yet another reason that makes me wonder if the devs want us all playing wizzies instead of any other caster.

[Khatzhas]

Until we see the enhancement trees for Wizard and Sorcerer, we can't judge on how much spellpower each would get. For all we know, Sorcs get a bit extra just to compensate for the Int/Cha difference, over and above what they would normally get.

MMO classes are generally balanced as a whole rather than making sure that every single numerical value of one matches that of the other. As you say: there probably should be a spellpower difference, but it makes sense that Wizards get more of their spellpower from academic skills, and Sorcerers more from innate capabilities (enhancements).

[Singular]

I like that spellcraft is a nice buff to wizards.

The difference between the wizard and the sorc right now is what? 50+ in the sorc's main element

This closes the gap by maybe 15 spell power.
Wiz might have +20 int bonus.
Sor 10 int +8 item +2 ship buff -> +5 bonus

If Int becomes responsible for spell power on my sorc, annoyingly so, then Con takes a hit. Clearly Drow would be the best option, and it would be 20 Cha, 18 Int, 12 or 10 Con, whatever is left. Who would play a spell-power gimped sorc?

[Vellrad]

I had similiar idea:
Spellcraft (for all classes) increases all spellpowers.
Each race got one enhancement in its tree, allowing to swap spellcraft's ability to charisma or wisdom.

[chanw4]

If Int becomes responsible for spell power on my sorc, annoyingly so, then Con takes a hit. Clearly Drow would be the best option, and it would be 20 Cha, 18 Int, 12 or 10 Con, whatever is left. Who would play a spell-power gimped sorc?

You don't need max int to gain the benefit of spellcraft. Spellcraft is not the main way to gain SP. Putting AP into the spellcasting enhancement tree is.

[Forzah]

If Int becomes responsible for spell power on my sorc, annoyingly so, then Con takes a hit. Clearly Drow would be the best option, and it would be 20 Cha, 18 Int, 12 or 10 Con, whatever is left. Who would play a spell-power gimped sorc?

Yea, if you want to have 4 more spellpower than sorc with 10 Int, that's the way to go .

[Jay203]

i think they need to put heal, repair, and spellcraft as class skills for everyone now >_>

and it might be complex to implement, but make spellcraft uses highest mod between int, wis, and cha

[chanw4]

i think they need to put heal, repair, and spellcraft as class skills for everyone now >_>

and it might be complex to implement, but make spellcraft uses highest mod between int, wis, and cha

Making hem as class skill is kinda neccessary for any spellcasting class. but for stat mod, i think its fine to use int for spellcraft.

[SilkofDrasnia]

Making hem as class skill is kinda neccessary for any spellcasting class. but for stat mod, i think its fine to use int for spellcraft.

Jay203 is right.

[Charononus]

i think they need to put heal, repair, and spellcraft as class skills for everyone now >_>

and it might be complex to implement, but make spellcraft uses highest mod between int, wis, and cha

If they're dead set on the stat tax yeah, this is the way it needs to be. It'd be better if they scrapped the whole idea and burned it with fire, dunked it in acid, then lit it on fire again.

[RavenStormclaw]

If they're dead set on the stat tax yeah, this is the way it needs to be. It'd be better if they scrapped the whole idea and burned it with fire, dunked it in acid, then lit it on fire again.

They shouldn't scrap it. Spell casting is an art and a skill whether your spells are spontaneous, studied, or given by divine intervention. Making some skills usefull and tying some level of spell power to skills is actually brilliant. However, under the current system with most of the casting classes only having 2 + intel mod skill points per level make this a real stretch as many have ponted out. I think it would be easier as I've said before to create three seperate casting skills (spellcraft, channeling, and spirituality (heal is rolled into this one)) based on the three primary casting stats and increase the base skill points by 1 to allow the casters to take them. This would be a neurtal change. They charged a skill tax and then gave you the money to pay it.