So, was excited to run Ravenloft on my alt-account Sorcie, and got to the NPC who gives away a free Barovian weapon... and stopped dead. What to choose?
The ML 8 Barovian's Sceptre seems... well, it seems specialized for a generalist. +69 Potency (46 + 23* insightful) is on a par with the Cannith Crafting benchmark of 70 for an ML 8 item, and the insightful Spellsight is a nice bump, but... if it takes one of the hand-weapon slots, is it worth it for most casters? Wouldn't any but a true generalist wizard rather have something dedicated and higher power? Or does the Insightful Potency + Spellsight more than make up for that?
(* With the insightful Spellsight, that's +15 more than a Runic Trinket, but it does take a hand slot that would be used for his 2nd element. That, in turn, can be covered with gloves or a ring, but that then bumps whatever effects were there and dominoes along... having Insightful Spellpower in a trinket is handy. And for only 2 levels, until CC'd stuff at ML 10?)
Just don't want to jump at a "Oooh, shiney!" and then find I've bought a bill of goods.
(My alt thinking is to grab something that he can use as a gish, for a later life - staff or scimitar or great sword, depending on the build. Or a Heavy Crossbow for... yeah, well.)