Life after Slackers

[Occhidiangela]

Sure. Put your slvl 20 Shadow Master to work, and help her with the light work. :P

[Occhidiangela]

It would be possible once hell hits to re-evaluate, if the team is not progressing quickly enough for overall taste. I've never had a problem with altering a variant or rebalancing on the fly if problems arise.

*snip*

I would expect a pally team with multiple overlapping auras and no restrictions on stat point allocation to do considerably better.

Aye.

An underlying theme the Samurai team included the problem of the imperative of that style of warfare, light armor and a big sword: the best defense is a good offense and good movement. The original 7 I wrote would probably have had few problems beyond Physical Immunes being a slow down. Beyond that, overlapping auras would likely do as you say.That was by design, since every one of those lads is a paper tiger.

Occhi

[Shishak]

All good ideas. It came to my mind another variation of the merc marriage...use no mercs at all and go with matched pairs of chars. A naked ranger must work with a fully equipped melee. Examples would include (but certainly not limited to):

1) Sorc ranger paired with Melee barb
2) Trapassin paired with Paladin
3) Curse necro paired with werewolfe
4) Passive Zon paired with Spearazon

Of course, no twink. Maybe stat restrictions for rangers and skill restrictions for melee. Whichever alternative we choose, I'm sure of one thing...we will have fun

[KingOfPain]

That sounds a little too easy, doesn't it? hehe

KoP

[Bam-Bam]

Count me in for the next team. The Seven Samurai modded variant is my preference. I've always liked the idea behind that variant, and enjoy underpowered melee.

[Zed-F]

Heh, that's cute. Maybe a pair of chars should share stat points and skill points too? So, for instance, every time both of them level up, one of the pair could allocate 5 stat points, while the other could allocate a skill point? Of course they both get quest rewards, so they can freely distribute quest points.

I like that much better than the merc marriage proposal, since it does away with the whole mercs do all the killing angle.


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Occhi - of course, the SM must leave some of the work for the merc too... and with maxed cloak of shadows and a maxed kick, she could maybe even kill a few things on her own.

Now, a naked melee asn with no merc and no shadow, no stats allocated, and no skills allocated, that would be interesting to see solo-killing mobs in hell. Think you can pull it off, KoP?

[Hawkmoon]

I'd vote first for the Seven Samurai-style all-pally team; I was bummed when the team fell apart when we tried it on Roland's server. I think Zed's streamlined rules would be easy for everyone to remember, and we ought to have a go with the skill restrictions at least up until Hell, at which point we can re-evaluate if Tedium sets in.

My second vote would be for the all-naked team - we had floated that idea probably a year ago, and it never got off the ground, but I think it would be great fun. With no mercs, it would be challenging but not impossible. And it would certainly get around the twinking issue!

Cheers,
Hawkmoon

[KingOfPain]

Now, a naked melee asn with no merc and no shadow, no stats allocated, and no skills allocated, that would be interesting to see solo-killing mobs in hell. Think you can pull it off, KoP?

Ouch, gives me pain just thinking about it. Provided that she can get there to begin with, that naked Asn might be able to fake a few kills at the Bloody Foothill

KoP

[CelticHound]

I'd be willing to try 7 Samurai, or a variation on it.

However I'd probably be playing a spear-only amazon - the busty, blonde samurai! (With a Rogue merc as a handmaiden.)

I earned a pass on playing Paladins after FoS, just as I've now earned a pass on Necros after Slackers. (BTW, that's why Occhi amended the original 7S rules to allow a 'zon in the first place.)

As a variation on the merc thing how about this: Followers are not as resilient as our heros and take a week to recover when raised.* The effective result is that they can only be raised between gaming sessions. (So, when the going gets tough... the going gets tough!)

-- CH

* Or maybe Mercs are ressurected using the 5th level Raise Dead spell from the original D&D game, so they are helpless for a week

[Zed-F]

Re: the Rogue handmaiden, I think I would prefer that if we are going to have resurrectable mercs, that everyone stick with barbs. The 'zon has only 2 choices for aura to start with, and one of them doesn't get appreciably better with skill points invested, so the only logical choice for the 'zon aura is Inner Sight. A high-level rogue will have Inner Sight at a level that eclipses whatever the Amazon could provide, and I wouldn't want to see mercs upstaging the players at any point.

As far as res only at the beginning of a session... possibly. I'd probably still want to see restrictions on what kinds of gear a res-able barb could equip, I think; a high-level barb with good gear can be quite difficult to kill, especially with several auras to help him out.

A case could be made that an A1-A2 merc hired in hell immediately upstages the players as far as auras go, so this could be an issue even with mortal mercs. Even in normal, if everyone hires a mortal prayer merc in A2 once we get there... well with 7 prayer auras going off, they aren't all that mortal, are they? I'm beginning to think no merc, or a barb merc with only normal-grade gear, might be the best way to go. Maybe even barbs with no weapons at all? That might be a bit much, not sure.