Doubledge's suggestion thread

[doubledge]

This thread will contain all of my suggestions.

(It makes more sense having just one thread, rather than posting a ton of threads.)


Table of Contents:

Savant Enhancement Tree Revamp


Links to previous suggestions:

More Pale Master Forms

Artificer Battle Engineer Enhancement Revamp

[doubledge]

Savant Enhancement Rework:

Now, you might ask me "Why do you want a sorcerer revamp? The savant trees are completely fine!

I agree that they're in a decent place, but they feel like they're missing something. This is my attempt to remedy this problem.

Before I start, however, I'll need to explain a new concept I want to introduce: %Absorb bypass.

%Absorb bypass will be granted in set amounts in the Savant trees (And ONLY the savant trees), as away of giving the more specialised sorcerers a way to contribute, even against mobs that are resistant, or even outright immune to their spells.

I say ONLY savants, because they are the least versatile type of caster, and it's thematic for them to figure out how to bypass immunities.

Now, here's the interesting thing: treat anything with an immunity to an element as having 100% absorb.

Preferably, %Absorb Bypass will NOT be able to reduce a mob's absorb below 0. It should never directly be the cause of purple numbers. It should just allow Elemental Sorcs the capacity to operate in areas where they'd previously be sitting ducks. (Cold sorcs in areas with skeletons, fire sorcs past level 15, electricity sorcs in the forgotten realms…)

Right now, a capped Fire Savant is useless in 1/2 of content. Let's give them something to smile at.

Now, all of the savant lines are essentially identical. So I'll only post one, but have options where the differences vary.

Underlined enhancements have been changed/edited/are entirely new.

My comments are italics this time.

Anything in [Brackets] is a placeholder name, often for consolidating the similar names together. Other times, it's completely off the wall (*cough* Savant combo procs *cough*). A majority of the names will be descriptions,rather than the actual names of enhancements.

When dealing with Spell Power grants, Air receives benefits from both sonic and electricity.

"Rest Unchanged" means that the stat bonuses previously granted have not been changed.


Savant
Cores:
Core 1: [Element] Savant

Every point you spend in the [Element] Savant tree grants you +0.75 universal Spell Power,+0.75 Spell Power for your Savant element (For a total of 1.5 per point), and -0.25 Spell Power with your opposing element. (For a total of 0.5 per point)

Rest unchanged.

I have no idea why Savants, which are by definition a caster tree, have less than 1:1 scaling with Spell Power. This new spread benefits maxing the tree for more power, by giving it similar scaling to Pale Master.

Core 2: [Element] Affinity
You gain 5% Absorb Bypass with [Element] for each [Element] Savant core enhancement you have,including this one.

Rest unchanged.

While technically only a small amount right away, this change is supposed to be minor.

Core 3: Greater [Element] Affinity

Unchanged.

Core 4: [Core 4 Bonus Effect]

Unchanged.

Core 5: [Core 5 Immunity]
You gain an additional 10% Absorb Bypass with [Element]. (For a total of 30%)

Rest Unchanged

Core 6: Elemental Apotheosis: [Element]
You gain an additional 15% Absorb Bypass with [Element]. (For a total of 50%)

Activate this ability to transform into a(n) [Element] Elemental.

While in elemental form, you gain 100% fortification. If you are Warforged, you are no longer considered a Living Construct, and so are immune to Repair and Rust spells, but can be healed normally by Positive Energy spells.

Okay, so there's a ton of benefits and downsides from this enhancement already, so I am just going to make an easy-to-read list.

Benefits:
+20 bonus to [Element] Spell Power
+2 bonus to [Element] Spell Critical Chance
+20 bonus to [Element] Spell Critical Damage
+2 bonus to [Element] Spell Caster Level, Maximum Caster Level, and DC.
+20 Racial bonus to [Element] resistance, +25% Racial bonus to [Element] Absorb
+25 bonus to PRR

Penalties:
-10 Spell Power to [Opposing Element]
-3 Penalty to [Opposing Element] Spell DC, Caster Level, and Maximum Caster Level
+10% increase in Spell Point cost to non [Element] spells
50% Vulnerability to [Opposing Element]

Rest Unchanged

To be honest, I've never understood why the elemental savant capstones were as restrictive as they are. The +10% increase in spell points is an interesting idea, but it feels wonky. By giving the form some more power (Notably, critical damage, and a boost to SpellDCs), this incentives Savants to use spells that actually have DCs, rather than splashing and going shiraidi. They're still not going to be able to CC like a wizard, but their AOE nuking should remain unparalleled.


Tier 1:
Savant T1 SLA:
Unchanged

Savant Skills:
Unchanged

One with the [X]:
You gain a 6/12/20 bonus to [Element] Resistance, +3/6/10 to [Element] Spell Power, and a 3/6/10 penalty to [Opposing Element] Resistance.

One with the [X] always felt to me as if you attuned yourself to the chosen element, rather than just getting some poor resistance buff. That means taking a resistance penalty for your opposing element.
Spell Critical 1:
Unchanged

Spell Power Combo Effect:
Unchanged


Tier 2:
Efficient Metamagic:
Unchanged

Pierce [Element] Resistance:
Reduced to 1 AP per rank.
Otherwise unchanged

Spell Critical II:
Unchanged

[Element] Temporary Spell Points:
Whenever you damage an enemy with a(n) [Element] Spell, you have a 10/20/30% chance at gaining 3/6/10 temporary spell points.

I think that cutting this out and replacing it with an element-restricted version of Scourge might actually be better. The whole 10/20/30% thing is entirely unreliable.

Tier 3:
Efficient Metamagic:
Unchanged

Spell Force:
You add +1 to your caster level check to overcome an enemy's Spell Resistance. In addition, you gain +1 DC to [Element] Spells.

Spell penetration on a sorcerer is sorta weak. Boosting DCs of combat spells makes more sense.

Spell Critical III:
Unchanged

Charisma or Secondary Stat:
Unchanged

Tier 4:
Tier 4 SLA:
Unchanged

Efficient Heighten:
Increased to maximum rank 3

Seriously, what the heck? It has data for 3 ranks but only has 2.

Elemental mimicry:
For the love of… The ones we are currently given are TERRIBLE. Just terrible.

You gain a +25% absorb towards [Element].

Air Savant: Toggle: Non-boss enemies that enter melee distance of you are knocked away, and must make a DC (5 + Charisma Modifier + Sorc Level + Epic Level) Strength check or be knocked down for a number of seconds equal to your sorcerer level/2. Every 2 seconds, they may make another save to stand up early. An enemy can only be affected by this ability once every 60 seconds.

Earth Savant: You gain 20 PRR, a +10 exceptional bonus to DR/-, and 50% fortification.

Fire Savant: Toggle: Aura of Flame: While enabled, you afflict enemies around you with an aura of flame, dealing 3d6 fire damage per two seconds to affected targets. This damage scales with 100% Spell Power.

Water Savant:Toggle: Freezing Spray: While enabled, enemies that attack you have a 25% chance at being affected with Freezing Spray for 10 seconds. This can only apply to a single enemy once every 20 seconds.

Yeah, I think Air Savant wins here, by a significant margin.

Spell Critical IV:
Unchanged

Charisma or Secondary Stat:
Unchanged


Tier 5:
Tier 5 SLA:
Unchanged.

Awaken Elemental Weakness:
You gain a 15% [Element] Absorb Bypass.
You are able to curse an enemy, increasing [Element] damage they take by 15%.

Just some more elemental bypass for taking t5.

Elemental Mastery:
Air Savants: Wind Dance
Unchanged

Earth Savants: Earthgrab, Mass
DC increased to (20+ (Greater of Constitution modifier or Charisma Modifier) + Sorcerer Level + Epic Level + Conjuration bonuses)
Earthgrab effects everything in a small area around the target as well. (Radius is about the same as acid blast.)

Fire Savants: Heat Death
DC increased to (20+ (Greater of Constitution modifier or Charisma Modifier) + Sorcerer Level +Epic Level + Evocation bonuses)
Metamagics are free for this enhancement.
Target must make a fortitude save, or take 200 points of fire damage, saving for half damage. This damage is effected by Spell Power.

Water Savants: Icy Prison
DC increased to (20+ (Greater of Constitution modifier or Charisma Modifier) + Sorcerer Level +Epic Level + Evocation bonuses)
Metamagics are free for this enhancement.
Target must make a fortitude save, or take 50 points of cold damage, saving for half damage. On a failed save, the target must make an additional reflex save or be encased in ice. The target gets occasional saves to break free. This damage is effected by Spell Power.

Okay, so it might seem weird that I'm nerfing the damage of Heat Death, and Ice Prison. I'm not. If I threw scaling directly onto Heat death, as is, it'd be a quadruple-power fire ruin that is available at level 12 for 50 sp. Which would be absurd. By cutting the base damage into a tenth of what it was before, you can now have it scale with Spell Power, and Metamagics, without any further problems. New version is potentially weaker in heroics,until you realise that free Metas means + 225 SP at all times for it, which should make it only about half as strong as it was before.

In addition, the DCs are no longer garbage. For some reason, they were previously only scaling off of constitution modifier, which makes no sense for anything besides the earth savant, and even then, it's iffy. New version has endgame-viable DC that scales with gear and metas.

Sorcerer Focus:
AP/rank reduced to 1, maximum ranks increased to 3.
You gain +1/2/3 to the DCs of your Conjuration and Evocation spells.

Just a DC bump.

Elemental Diversification:
AP/rank reduced to 1, maximum ranks increased to 3.
Choose 1:
You gain + 10/15/20 to [Tertiary Element] Spell Power

OR

You gain +5/10/15 to Force Spell Power.
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Changelog:


Fixed formatting error