To begin with, I'd like to offer some small 'thank yous' to everyone taking the time to actually read my stuff. May sound a bit silly, but alot of things tend to be taken a little too much for granted nowadays. Anyway, on to business.


With the IMM's permission I would like to take this oppurtunity to make a couple of small comments about the Anti-Paladin class, far from all of them bad so no need to start worrying just yet. With this class going through what does seem to be quite a considerable little revamp now (it has become more difficult to save against the damage spells of high-INT Anti-Paladins, eight whole new skills have been added to the repetoire and there is of course the promise of more future 'Power Word' type spells), I feel like now might be a good time to share some ideas about this class that I've been toying around with for a while now. Here goes.


--


First off, about the Power Word Despondence spell the Anti-Paladins have recieved. I don't just like the idea behind these Power Word spells, I like it alot. Most players I've talked to or discussed this subject with over the months agree that the Anti-Paladin's Necromancer spellset hurts the uniqueness of the class a great deal, something which is made even more painfully obvious by the fact that there are 15 other classes right next to it which all have a much higher level of uniqueness and originality, which is something this MUD quite rightfully takes alot of pride in.

As a result, most would gladly sacrifice the current Necromancer spellset for something that is less powerful (Yes, you heard that right.), in exchange for something that is more reliable. Nobody will dispute the fact that the Necromancer spells are powerful and effective in the hands of an Anti-Paladin that can make correct use of them, however there is an unpredictability associated with using these spells which the majority of players find much more frustrating and demotivating than they find it thrilling or challenging. I thus sincerely hope that the implementation of the new Power Word spellset will soon become a fact, even if it means these Power Words end up being less powerful in nature than the Necromancer spellset originally was.

As such, it looks like the promised and hopefully upcoming replacement of the Necromancer spellset by the new Power Word spells constitutes a very, very welcomed change among many players that enjoy playing/roleplaying the Anti-Paladin class. I know I've been stating the obvious a little at this point, but I just wanted to ensure the IMMs from my part that I believe they are definately heading into the right direction with this class now.

But now on to something much more important and influencial.



--



Aura of Pain.

What is this Aura of Pain I'm talking about? It is something that I would like to suggest very strongly to the IMMs who are sitting behind the Anti-Paladin drawing board.

The rate at which Anti-Paladin players rage-delete even before they reach rank 36 is amongst the highest of any of the classes in Carrion Fields. Things like the frustration coming forth from the unreliability of the Necromancer spellset and the loss of a charged weapon are among those, yet there is one other thing which I have noticed, which seems to be causing even more discontent about the class than the previous two other things seem to do, namely the Anti-Paladin's crappy defenses.
I know. This has been debated so many times before. However, what I am suggesting here to you today is not exactly that Anti-Paladins would be getting the Dodge skill. Not in the least actually, because I'm one of the people who are convinced that giving Anti-Paladins the Dodge skill would make them overpowered. The class has, after all, quite a few powerful and damaging spells available while it can also Dual Wield and is on top of that strengthened by Enhanced Damage. So indeed, it must be acknowledged that Anti-Paladins need to be more vulnerable to physical attacks than most of the other physical-based classes are.

However, what I do not acknowledge and understand in this is why this means that A-Ps have to be as vulnerable as they truly are now. Perhaps I do lack proper class-designing perspectives, but I can't help but get a feeling that something's quite wrong when a Fire Giant with 23 CON and an innate resillience to physical attacks gets defeated in 2 rounds by a warrior who isn't even wielding freezing weapons, because the Fire Giant's sleep spell missed its effect. Again, perhaps I lack perspective, but it doesn't exactly seem normal that a Drow Anti-Paladin, who has Shield Block at 100% and who has all weapons available to his class practiced up in the high 80'ies, gets defeated in a single round (that means the very opening round) while at full health and by the hand of an opponent that is not even using mithril weapons. With these kinds of things happening to even experienced players of the class on a regular bases, should it then be a surprise that a negative and whiny atmosphere starts surrounding this class, particulary from new(er) players that start out with genuine enthusiasm, only to see that enthusiasm getting completely shot down by the re-occuring nature of these fun-wrecking situations? No, I don't think that we should be surprised then.
Now, since Dodge is not an acceptable alternative for reasons already mentioned, I've been thinking that a possible solution could come in the form of a unique type of semi-defensive semi-offensive spell, in the spirit of the newly added Anti-Paladin abilities. Namely, Aura of Pain.

What Aura of Pain would basically do is act as an unholy, vile aura of sorts which has a slightly below average chance of actually returning the damage dealt to the A-P back to the opponent. Please, hear me out first, for while this is indeed a powerful ability with certain impact, and thus naturally raises balance questions, it is also something that can be very easily customized in many ways as the IMMs would deem necessairy. Here, allow me to elaborate.

The basic idea behind Aura of Pain is thus a semi-offensive semi-defensive ability. It falls well within the mindset of the Anti-Paladin class, for only a vile person such as an A-P goes far enough in the experimentation with malevolent magic and pain and torture to discover and control a power such as this. The Anti-Paladin uses both his knowledge into powerful black magic and the way pain makes the body and the mind interact to literally channel everything from the sensation of the pain to the actual wound right back to the one attempting to inflict them upon him, thus momentarily introducing the opponent to the dark power of the Anti-Paladin as well as the Anti-Paladin's ways and views of life.

The ways in which this can be added to the Anti-Paladin skill/spellset are numerous. As it is I am suggesting it as an independant spell, but if you have too many balance concerns there are many possiblities to tweak it. For example, like with Charge of the Morosa you could make Aura of Pain an extension of Aura of Despair. By doing this, Aura of Pain will automatically have the side-effect that the Anti-Paladin will start being auto-attacked by certain mobs, making running and teleporting much more risky and dangerous, thus balancing out the advantages the spell would give through the disadvantages of Aura of Despair. Other things that could be done for example is giving Aura of Pain a duration equal to that of Wraithform, making it difficult for an Anti-Paladin to keep it up all the time and thus giving opponents a fair chance of catching an A-P without him having Aura of Pain up. You could also make it so that Aura of Pain would drain mana in the same way as Shapeshifter forms do, making it much more difficult for the physcially stronger races like Fire Giants and Duergars to keep it up long, while the physically weaker races could benefit from it more often and for longer periods of time. And if need be, you could even apply a combination of the above.

Etc. While a skill that will indeed have a certain impact on the way A-Ps are played and handled, there are many potential ways to compensate for its advantages, as I've just illustrated.

I sincerely hope you'll give this suggestion fair consideration, because while the current state of Anti-Paladin defense is not necessairly underpowered, it does reduce the fun-factor of the class a whole lot, certainly for newer players that choose the class for the charisma it has as the class of great evil, and are thus unaware of the challenge and difficulty they are getting themselves into, ending up with a very bitter taste afterwards all too often.



Very well, that's all I really wanted to say. All that's left is to express my admiration and appreciation for the great work the Immortals of Carrion Fields have been doing for the last 9 years now, and also to express my hope that there may be many, many more years to come.



Thanks for your time.