If Emp could look at Sandra and recommend how to spend levels I'd be pleased.
Remove Luck. It is no longer a stat. Does she even use SYN? If not, remove the point from that as well.
Self-Taught: Utility Perk, not much to say other than that Sandra would be very good at crafting using chemicals, which is fine because I suspect anything crafted that way will end up as a (hopefully not literally) consumable item rather than as equipment. Oh, and I guess it will also play very well into your favor if you're planning on giving her a Transformation into a Heisenberg-esque alter-ego, or really any Breaking Bad reenactments. Also, I'm pretty much obligated to suggest that you try getting the Trespassers addicted to meth, thereby motivating them to protect the Multiverse to keep their drug addiction going
Peace Maker: May want to define "non-lethal". Because the only Offensive Action she has that appears to be Non-Lethal is
Bedtime, and I don't think you're planning on using solely damage from that to deplete anyone's HP.
Butchery: Very good and almost definitely going to be nerfed. Seriously, if Sandra went with Mio and Aesford on the Trespasser Team, a Trick Play to give it to Mio would have made the fight far easier. I mean, it has a higher damage multiplier than Godhand, which is Level 3, and doesn't have additional effects like bleeding. I mean, could you imagine what would happen if it got brought up to Level 6?
Fleshlance: Useful for when grid-combat pops up, letting melee units just gank foes at their leisure. I'd suggest giving it some use for non-grid combat so that it isn't just situational (such as making all multiplying all Melee damage taken by the victim for one turn). Upgrading it so that it may be used Just Cause style, making it more versatile in grids (like tethering melee foes away) is also an option.
Saliva: Regen's always nice, but you may want to halve the duration in exchange for greater potency, 20 turns is a bit too long. I mean, has any battle actually gone on for that long? Shouldn't Regen scale, as with most healing, with INT though? An average of 3 HP per turn is rather weak.
Bedtime: Its generality weakens it. On one hand, it can mess with foes who have unique stats like Shade's characters, but it won't really do much against specialized characters who have 0 in half their stats. Consider making it percentage-based and targeting something like Damage, Damage Reduction, or Effect Chance. You could always take a Perk like
Tactician if you want to power it up, but I'd only recommend it if you want Sandra to focus on debuffing.
Adrenaline: Normally something that buffs stats before becoming a debuff afterwards is a lot more potent. I'm not entirely sure what role this is meant to even fill. The boost and subsequent drop isn't really high enough to make that much of a difference as far as I can tell.
Cocoon: Well, seeing as Transformation is apparently possible now, at least with a Perk backing it up, you could massively buff this by making Cocoon a different form entirely, one with focused on survivability with high durability, and perhaps some Abilities to take hits for allies. I mean, it already requires a turn to enable and disable. Otherwise, I guess it's okay?
Here's the issue, I have no idea what Sandra is even meant to be. I'm thinking Support, but Butchery is more of a Damage Dealer's Action if only due to the absurd power,
Adrenaline is weak, and
Cocoon don't really help anyone else either. Only real theme I see here is her actions taking time.
Saliva requires more than one turn to apply,
Bedtime has a delayed effect, and
Cocoon needs turns to toggle on and off.
So please bear that in mind, because my following suggestion isn't as someone who knows what Sandra's purpose. It's as someone who is currently envisioning her as Xan and Rico Rodriguez's illegitimate psuedo-vampire daughter.
What I'd suggest is that, since
Fleshlance just does its job, with no rolls needed, you focus on that. Upgrade it, maybe even invest your free Perk slot on it (yes, you actually are allowed to have the Perk "make this Action better that normal") and have it inflict a Status Effect, such as say, "Tethered". Try and inflict at least two Tethereds per
Fleshlance via upgrading. Doesn't even have to have an effect on its own. You can even let enemies try to remove them one-by-one without using a Dispellation move, since you'd still be making them waste their turn anyway. Then, just make your Actions capitalize on this Unique Resource, just like Hatred Stacks. Then break off the dragging effect into its own Action. That way you can spend Tether to drag foes over and make them take more Melee damage. Or spend it to impair them by spending Tether to attach them to the environment, or even another foe. Use the tendrils to inflict
Bedtime, making it more powerful with the more Tethered stacks on them, maybe also counteract its weakness by allowing Sandra to stack the debuff, worsening it so long as she continues using that Action on the same target. Spend Tether to empower
Butchery. Use Tether to drain nutrients for sustenance, vampirically draining afflicted foes when
Cocoon is active. Consider replacing
Adrenaline with a Tether-based Action that slowly steals a foe's buffs. Also reflavor
Fleshlance so that it just fuses to its victim, melding with them rather than impaling them, that way
Peace Maker gives a bonus to basically everything other than
Butchery.
ITE could prooobably use a look. I say, knowing you'll eviscerate it.
She hasn't used at least one of her perks even once. :V
Pfft! She doesn't have several different "Hit Harder" Actions and has some synergy in her Perks and Actions, both of which a good chunk of the PCs lack so no, she's not bad at all.
Formless Form Fatale: Needs to scale.
Passion-Lip's Love: Soul-Crushing Ten-bladed Embrace: Huh, that's interesting, a Basic Attack leveled up to the point of being a decent primary attack method. More people ought to do this seeing as it saves them an Action Slot. Especially people whose attacks are expressed in terms of their Basic Attack. The multi-targeting overlaps with
All Embracing Goddess though, making it pointless to multi-target unless there are more than three foes.
The Soft Grasp of a Mother's Warmth: Huh, guess we actually do have someone able to heal multiple people decently. Again, thanks to
All Embracing Goddess. The boost's also nice.
A Sweet Lullaby Sung to a Restless Child: Why is Stun, something that one could reasonably expect most Bosses and Minibosses to resist or negate, the go-to choice of Status Effect? Yes it's balanced, I can tell because so many people have this exact same Action just with different flavoring. Look into other options, such as lowering their rolls from sleepiness, or making them so lethargic that whoever they target has an increased chance on using an on-attack effect (such as counterattacking, blocking on reaction, dodging, etc).
Taunt to the Shadows with the Immovability of Light: Sort of iffy that having a higher INT stat makes a foe more vulnerable. But that doesn't really matter since only something with 4 or less INT will be able to resist, and
Flare with the Awe of Greater Creation will easily cover them.
So, a Support/Tank.
Detached From This Plane Of Existence makes it harder to judge. A bit messed up in that its got better attack-drawing capabilities than basically all the other tankier characters other than Yuki, who isn't even a PC. Let's see, I suggest she learns how to play American Football or otherwise work with Aesford more, because
Flare with the Awe of Greater Creation and
Brilliance of a Star Burning Upon The Earth works very well with
Interception. If you do upgrade
Flare with the Awe of Greater Creation, a damage reduction bonus, or being able to autocast
Light Barrier as a Free Action upon use ought to make it safer to use.
As for progression, not too sure, perhaps give
Passion-Lip's Love: Soul-Crushing Ten-bladed Embrace a chance to autocast
A Sweet Lullaby Sung to a Restless Child (perhaps with the chance rising with the added SYN damage, to encourage continuous hugs)? That gives some synergy between the two. Oh and to boost the already good synergy between
Taunt to the Shadows with the Immovability of Light and
Flare with the Awe of Greater Creation, see if you can't upgrade the former's effect to stack (maybe with diminishing returns) that way drawing aggro from everyone just ends up with them really demoralized.
She is really, really weird in that her Actions are pretty effective even though she has 5 unspent Action Points. Seriously.
What, Twi? Thought I was going to berate you for not using her Perks? Nope! I'll just badger you to spend all that unallocated AP!
General FeedbackOkay, so, I've been seeing the same issues in a good proportion of everyone's sheets. So, this is about improving them so that characters start being more useful, and hopefully making the game a bit more fun.
Lack Of Player CommunicationI see shitposting. I see shipping. I see whining. I do not see any actual communication.
This is by far the worst issue. People don't talk to each other about what they're doing, what they want their character to do, how they want them to develop, or anything like that. They don't rarely give any opinions about a character, and often it's only complaints about being overpowered. Half of what I've posted here in the past week should have even been necessary if everyone just took more of an interest in each other's characters as actual combatants rather than as just shipping partners.
This is the root from which many of all the other problems stem from.
The worst part is, short of offering everyone a restat, there is no way to fully fix this anymore. The damage has been done. You should have made your first characters together, known what role everyone fits into, what they could do, what they could benefit from. At the very least, you should have discussed and ensured that there's a far greater distribution of Status Effects at the party's disposal than just Stun! Yes, making a foe miss a turn is great! But guess what? Not everything is vulnerable to it! A good chunk of bosses will be at least immune to it! And no, if you're Freezing a foe, or making them fall Asleep and miss their turn, that is still mechanically the same as Stun.
What we still do now, is at least ensure that everyone grows well, fit into some sort of useful role, and don't become underpowered. If someone spends Action Points or a Perk slot, look over it! It would save an enormous amount of hassle for Elf and Sanure if other people also gave their opinions and analysis of other people's Level Ups. Because at the end of the day, you are the one who benefits it. Right now, most of the Tanks don't actually take hits for others, they just survive, which is horrible because the actual Damage Dealers are basically left to fend for themselves. If your Glass Cannon has to invest three Perk slots into survival rather than damage, then something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. We don't even have dedicated Buffers!
There's no coordination, no organization, nothing. Talk to each other. Talk to each other seriously. Not just about shipping or mechanics, but about the actual character sheets and how to get the most out of them both now and with each following Level. Everyone will be better off because of it.
Crippling Generalization:From what I can only presume to be a direct consequence of the above, generalization has become quite the issue. Each character ought to have a specific role in mind. They need to be specialized, because that is what makes them strong, that is what promotes teamwork, what makes you want to give a damn about everyone else's sheets.
Two Jacks of All Trades cannot hope to outperform a Tank and a Buffer.
Why? Because synergy. There is synergy in a specialized build. You can have your Perks and Actions build upon each other, become codependent, and from that, become powerful. If you generalize, all you'll have are some umbrella Perks and a disjoint series of Actions mostly unrelated to each other. Having Actions that do little to serve the rest weakens you, they are missed opportunities.
It is because of this that we don't even have any Proper Buffers. That is utterly insane, to think that we have all these varied characters and not a single dedicated Buffer. The Damage Dealers should not have to buff themselves. The Glass Cannons shouldn't need to shield themselves. But they do, because they've generalized and aren't any Proper Buffers.
Furthermore, it isn't just the character builds, their Actions themselves often become too general trying to do too much at the same time. Buffing or debuffing all stats sounds nice on paper, but you're spreading yourself too thin unless it's from some sort of supermode. Making your heavy hitter inflict a Status Effect also isn't always the best idea as it weakens the raw damage, when you could have just tried commissioning a Crafter to make a Weapon or a Bauble that gives a chance of inflicting it instead. I mean, don't me wrong, it can work out very nicely if you got Passive Actions and Perks backing up your intent to deal damage and inflict an ailment. Except you probably don't, because your character is too generalized.
You can still fix this. Firstly, the GMs have been pretty lenient on respeccing so far. Secondly, you can always just make future Actions and Perks strengthen connections between what you currently have, and gear them towards a specific purpose.
Redundancy:Something I noticed among the Damage Dealers is the tendency to have multiple "hit harder" Actions. You only need two at most. A steady attack, like a RES-piercer, multi-hit combo or a damage boosted strike, something that works in most situations, see if you can't roll it up into your Basic Attack (maybe with the help of a boosting Passive) like with It That Embraces. A situational attack, something that is more powerful but which won't come up as often, something like a counterattack or something that requires specific circumstances or a Limit Break. Preferably if you do have both of these, Perks and Actions that power up one will also power up the other.
Damage Boosted Strikes, such as
Godhand are if you want good general-purpose attacks. RES Piercers like
Piercing Strike should still do decent damage normally, but shine against foes with tough defenses, consider pairing them up with a Passive or Equipment that weakens the target's defenses making them vulnerable to a followup. Multi-Hit Combos like
Heroic Barrage are best used if your Perks, Passives or Equipment come with positive effects that may kick in when hitting or attacking (like inflicting Status Ailments) and work best against foes with less RES as you'll be hitting with reduced power against their full RES each time.
Offensive Bias:Everyone seems to want to be a deal damage one way or another. That's probably why we have a shortage of proper Buffers, Tanks, and Healers. Killing seems to be glorified. You don't see Motya getting a theme override and a detailed description for when she heals someone, but we see plenty of that for whoever lands the final blow. I suppose buffing others, or taking hits for them, just practicing medicine isn't as glamorous, but they're still vital. And people seem to realize that seeing as they do say they need more medics and whatnot. Issue is, few seem to be willing to actually play that part.
Oh no, they want to person with enormous sword or the fire that can boil away oceans. Not the best idea, unless you like the thought of not hitting as hard with your blade due to having really weak buffs, and using all your immense arcane power to try not to die because too few people draw aggro and only one of them (an NPC no less) has any way to protect others against one of those "hit everything" attacks. The world's most powerful cannon is useless without the supply lines and infrastructure to back it up.
ComplacencyAnd despite all this, you accept it all. You seem to realize that there's
something wrong. I mean a few of you did mention the need for more dedicated Medics, the lack of dedicated Debuffers, some of you even asked for your sheets to be critiqued. You know that there should be more dedicated Medics, that there aren't any proper Debuffers, that your sheets might benefit from someone reviewing them. But that's all you do. And that's what's wrong.
Sl4cker and Sentient made reference to the possibility that crowding me with requests is just bleeding me dry. Well, it certainly isn't doing wonders for my free time I can tell you that. But don't any of your just stop and think, "Why is the person who has participated in only one battle and barely skimmed the threads, the one being asked?" why didn't anyone ask "Why are they asking for the opinion of an outsider, when the rest of us know the game better?", why not? All I do is skim through sheets, look at what Precedents they set, and try and figure out what the hell I'm looking at is meant to achieve.
You all have more spare time. You all have more experience. You should all be capable of doing a far better job than I at auditing this. But no one took the initiative.
If you had spoken to one another. If you had built your sheets together. If you took an interest in what your fellow players were doing, rather than gouging them with barbed remarks and infantile jokes. You could have made your characters specialized. Your could have had clear, distinct roles. Tanks that actually protect the Glass Cannons. Glass Cannons that actually focus on attacking. Actual Buffers and Debuffers. Healers in sufficient quantities. Synergy between one another. Synergy within each character. You would have had a nice spread of Status Effects, not just this mass of Stun that can't even stack assuming it can even hit. I wouldn't need to tell everyone to make Perks scale, or that their Actions are redundant. It would have all been fine.
Not perfect.
Never perfect.
But still playable. Still something resembling a proper party. A group that through teamwork and interdependence can overcome whatever obstacles stand in their way, rather than struggling against an overgrown tree-munching protozoa that wasn't even meant to be that hard.
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Topic: Trespassers of the Multiverse: Gaiden [OOC] Compleation is a drop away... (Read 933994 times)