On a successful bane is it typical to get a free round of combat? Seems a bit much considering they already have so many other things going from them.

The Battlerager can get some free hits, yes.

is really overkill, especially before hero. It's kinda unfair and a huge disincentive to attack berserkers as a mage.

But take the bloody head of the magician. Yes, I know, often easier said than done.

But a villager without the head is probably the cabal that is by far the weakest without their powers. And when you have the head, make sure you punish the #### out of villagers.

I'm not overly fond of the huge power swing ragers face, from killing groups of three to dying to a paper tiger. This is only amplified in the middle levels.

And I have a hard time punishing ragers. I like the Village.

Personally I think that's how it should be (not so much the downside of a rager, but the upside). Attacking someone who's entire reason for being is to kill mages should be risky for a mage. Magi should be afraid of ragers when the ragers are on the warpath.

If ragers can't scare magi... what's the point of them?

Although I would like to see their powers work differently against non-magi. Possibly some kind of enhanced defense.

You can make the same argument for any cabal. "Whats the point of Maran if they can't scare Empire?" Etc.

I agree that things definitely swing pro-Battle in the Battle vs. mage equation from about 25-35 or maybe 25-40 depending on class.

Beyond that, which fights do you think look that bad as a mage?

For the most part, I'm ok enough with how it works out. Most mages know not to attack a berserker without some form of a/b/s/prot/stoneskin.

Also, most mages, other than transmuters, have area spells and other options (pets, area spells) to use that do not require direct targeting. Those that do have that option, say the sleep spell, there is a significant advantage for it landing and thus needing a deterrent or risk with casting it, that being deathblow banes.

Again, it's just the middle ranks that make deathblow spellbanes overkill. How many times have you seen a RBW one-round a mage due to that? Too often!

And if they can't get it back they log out. I never thought this was a great argument for having sick powers tbh.

I'm just missing the days of the epic retrieval I guess.

Maybe there should just be an awesome bonus for characters if they successfully retrieve against odds. Points towards edges or something.

...in our history system. It gets made note of if there's someone who faces a lot of bad odds and doesn't puss out. We generally try to make note of the ones who do puss out, too, though I'm more of a "positive comments more often than negative" guy myself.

Many folks who have been dubbed OP or, it has been said, received too much imm-loving have been the type of guys who have a really hard time logging off without their item, even at super-ridiculous odds.

Minyar's recent Scion Chancellor comes to mind in this category. I heard grumblings of how giving an air form to Alligator Chancellor was too much, but I had the mortal char that was possibly hist greatest nemesis and totally think it was deserved considering the odds he kept trying to retrieve against (and succeeded annoyingly often against).

Lornis was just that kind of char though. If he was on, the scepter was in the chasm, usually along with a few other cabal items, and that is just how it was going to be. If he went to sleep, it was with the scepter in the chasm, or he was a ghost from failed retrievel number 4.

Fourth age was fun, and I think certain chars definitely are still playing it that way as well. Of course, have not seen a Dupesque paladin running around either. Trying to play a scion bard retrieving against Twist's paladin as I recall just sucked. Managed it one time. With a lullbye that actually landed. Usually it went: Lullaby. Fail, wrathed twice. Flee, teleport and run like hell cause he is tracking me and probably will be on me in an hour or two. And then dead cause really, who is going to run to the whitecloak village to kill me, so it's safe to sleep right? :}

Yeah but I think to keep things on point, most ragers are not going to hang around and spam suicide themselves without the head. So while "take the head" seems like sound advice the reality is that its not really a good option to anyone who "gang them down" would be a bad option for.

My general answer to ragers is "gang them down or ignore them". Some people will say that's lame but no more lame than 5 lucky spellbanes followed up by some deathblows for good measure. And as tough as it is being a rager, that isn't much consolation when you get eaten up through dam redux a couple of times failing to land any spells on them.

So, regarding deathblow on spellbane, if you're legitimately worried about it at all (ie, you're not prepped to the point of taking scratches or ganging the bejesus out of the rager to where there's little chance of death either way) then you're probably doing it wrong.