Racial Enhancement Proposal

[~angelamm]

No matter how many times I reset enhancements, no matter which character I’m rebuilding I keep getting hung up on one problem, namely Racial Enhancements. It seems to me as if racial enhancements need their own separate AP system. No more than say one pt per level, but even having a max of twenty racial AP would solve the spell power issue. That issue being that unlike melee classes, caster classes seem to be punished by spending AP in their racial tree because it costs them spell power in a points spent in tree equal points toward spell power system. Melee classes would feel short changed too if ALL melee trees gave hit points or AC or PR per point spent in tree.

This might also solve an issue before it becomes an issue… I’m referring to qualifying for Racial Prestige classes. We all want them, we’re all looking forward to them and currently there is only one. Arcane Archer. In the current setup spending so many points in the racial tree just to gain access to the Prestige Tree is unappealing.

In the two cases where I might have wanted to qualify for AA through the racial tree, 1) Bard, 2) Fighter it made better sense simply to splash ranger levels. On the bard, ranger levels gave access to much needed feats and opened up three additional trees where just a couple points gave better benefits than sinking so many AP into the racial tree before qualifying for access to AA. On the fighter, well a strength based Kensai AA doesn’t need much from the elven racial tree and could even make better sense not to be elven at all.

If Racial Prestiges or access to them is considered such a powerful opportunity consider that in the sytem I propose of getting one racial AP per character level, max of twenty, that it would be far into the game before anyone gained access to their racial prestige tree.
However, once unlocked we should not feel too AP starved to spend in that tree. Note I am not saying that the racial AP I propose be able to be spent in class trees including the unlocked racial prestige tree, only in the racial tree itself. The largest problem with this system would be a hard limit of twenty points in choices from the racial tree. A smaller side problem, would be the slow rate at which racial AP could be acquired and spent.

I’m not sure how people would feel about that… I personally do not see any instance on my characters where that would kill a build. But I would like to hear from others, so if you are planning a build that absolutely must have more than twenty points in your racial tree please tell me about it.

[EllisDee37]

I have yet to spend more than 5 AP on a racial tree in the 5 builds I'm working on adapting to the new system. Most of them spend only 3 AP.

[Failedlegend]

Agreed alot of racial abilities whilst highly flavourful and very unique (except morninglord whos enhancements are either irrelevant to cleric or not worth spending points in said irrelevant enhs to unlock) and relatively effective feel like your wasting points and even feel like a punishment with any thats using an X per AP spent in tree system.\

So yeah definitely /signed

[mezzorco]

I totally agree and signed.

An easy fix for the hard cap of 20 racial APs would be:
Characters gain 4 AP per level (1-4 ranks), like on live. They can spend them both on racial and class trees.
On the fifth rank (upon leveling) they gain a racial AP, that can be spent only on racial tree.

This way racial-focused builds could start spending their general APs on racial tree as it is now, then they can reset their enhancements when they feel confortable with their racial APs. Also, they could spend more than 20 APs on racial tree, using both racial and general APs.

Many players made many suggestions to adjust racial trees, particularly the caster-related issue. Devs already answered: they will not give us 5 APs per level, nor they will remove AP spent per tree requirements. Basically, according to them racial trees are fine as they are.

[OverlordOfRats]

Many players made many suggestions to adjust racial trees, particularly the caster-related issue. Devs already answered: they will not give us 5 APs per level, nor they will remove AP spent per tree requirements. Basically, according to them racial trees are fine as they are.

So what is left?

As I suggested in a different thread (see post "Suggestions for Racial Trees" for full details).

Change APs spent in tree to 0,1,2,3,4 or 0,2,4,6,8 for the tiers.
Make all enhancements cost 1 AP and remove the up arrows.

These two give us the ability to afford racial enhancements without giving us more APS or making the racial trees different than the class trees.

A quick example with Human Improved recovery. Move them to tiers 1,3, and 5. Using 0,2,4,6,8 APs in tree level 1 is 2APs, 2 is 5APs and 3 is 9APs. On live right now it is 2,6, and 12. And with the arrows removed the gaps can be filed with different enhancements.

[Dagolar]

Perhaps a solution would be to have racial enhancements offer bonuses per AP, just as class trees do. In example (and if implemented, this would have to be standardized across races, they're overspecialized as is):

Per AP (in racial tree) gain + .75 Universal Spellpower. Per 2 AP spent, gain +1 HP. Per 5 AP spent, gain +1 AC. Per 10 AP spent, gain +1 PRR.

In other words, while I don't agree that racial enhancements should use another AP system, I do agree that they should offer generalized per-AP bonuses, as racial enhancements ought reflect a character's overall aptitude, much as per class enhancements reflect aptitude in the specific class.