Preface: I haven't played a mage to 36 since the “new” wand system went in, so I haven't dealt with the changes that are meant to stop characters from getting wand spots that conflict with their potential RP.

What's the harm in giving mages an edge that randomly reassigns their sleek locations?

No more than every that the three locations aren't associated with each other, what's the harm in having a re-deal edge a player can use after they've gained so much exploration and observation experience (suggesting they've really tried looking)?

My assumption is still that some mages will, by chance, get sleeks locations that are really just rough for their build to get. Why not throw a dog a bone after they've given it the ol' college try?

Limit it's use to once, require quite a bit of observation/exploration xp, perhaps set a min. level of 50, and that the character hasn't already discovered 2/3 of their “set” yet, or just the black, or whatever.

Sure, rolling muter after muter or shifter after shifter really isn't that bad, if you've got the time, but I'd want to kick Zulg's booty too if I put the wrench time into a 7 path voker and, after some serious searching, was unable to find my barrier wand, or did find it someplace I was totally incapable of getting alone (more likely with a shifter or muter, but you get the picture).

For what it's worth, I've never not found either the barrier or the aura/shield combo, so I don't necessarily think it's as bad as some people say. That said, I've also gotten a barrier wand a couple times that my shifter forms had zero chance of getting alone, at least not without a solid 30 minutes of headache and burning a couple zaps of barrier in the process.

Finally, I'm sure this has been covered before. I didn't bother with the last couple cluster-#### ABS threads because I'd have to eat and sleep as little as Mavent to read the entire thing, so if the answer to this thread already exists, feel free to call me a tool and point me there instead. Otherwise, discuss.

>What's the harm in giving mages an edge that randomly
>reassigns their sleek locations?

Nothing, necessarily, but I think I would *probably* rather give them one that gives them an extra location of a specific type. This is something I had an eye towards in making the last set of wand infrastructure upgrades.

It's something I haven't decided exactly what form it should take yet or perhaps how necessary it is, not something that we've said will never happen.

>My assumption is still that some mages will, by chance, get
>sleeks locations that are really just rough for their build to
>get.

It's still possible, but less I think than it used to be. In the last round of wand infrastructure upgrades we really tried to make sure that you couldn't draw a wand location that was a lot easier for your character than other characters, or a lot harder for your character than other characters.

The caveat to this is that the average difficulty of getting an aura or barrier wand has probably increased some, and the average difficulty of getting a shield wand has probably decreased some.

>That said, I've also gotten a barrier
>wand a couple times that my shifter forms had zero chance of
>getting alone, at least not without a solid 30 minutes of
>headache and burning a couple zaps of barrier in the process.

I'm not going to say this is all barriers now, but I think most of them now present some kind of risk or difficulty to most characters. Either, you have to go into an area that will be dangerous to be caught in by an enemy, or you have to fight something that's going to cast spells that will mess you up, or you'll need to make a couple runs in or need more DR, etc. The really easy locations were or are being phased out, but some of the ones that I think were unfairly hard were, too. This is something we can keep an eye on and tweak going forward more easily than in the past -- it's easy to say now, okay, this location isn't fair for necromancers, current necromancers that have it will keep it so they don't have to go hunting again, but new ones won't get it.

notext

I've been meaning to ask this question for a while now, so here goes. With the last infrastructure changes did it essentially move more of the locations to being on mobs, particularly for evils? The reason I ask is that I've had really bad results trying to find shield and aura, but really good results with barrier over my last couple of chars.

And in general, is it safe to rule out guildguards even if you're chaotic (evil)?

In general, yes. The ones where you can walk in and easily get the wand mostly went to shield locations.

>I've been meaning to ask this question for a while now, so
>here goes. With the last infrastructure changes did it
>essentially move more of the locations to being on mobs,

Yes; aura/barrier are very rarely in containers now, and the exceptions I can think of still pretty much require combat. E.g. it's in a container, but a mob is still holding the key.

>And in general, is it safe to rule out guildguards even if
>you're chaotic (evil)?

For Tribunal-protected areas, yes. I want to say some other guildguards/guildmasters may be possibilities.

No one has ever presented a better system than sleeks. I am not an explorer, I just don't enjoy it. After a couple weeks and some specific sessions where I even had a hero running me through locations I wouldn't be able to do solo (at hero probably) I decided I'd rather #### large chunks of broken glass than waste my time looking for wands. And hence died my 2nd and probably last attempt at a mage.