Im curious what the players think about this. It only makes sense that attacks you cant see coming and you cant even see the person coming, should not be stoppable by chargeset. It should only work when you are being attacked by an opponent you can see or SENSE. I dont see any reason why someone would purposefully impale themselves on someone's polearm when that someone cant even see or hear them.


1. Should chargeset work when you are snared?
2. Should chargeset work when you are sleeping and being attacked.
3. Should chargeset work against backstab? (the very definition of the word implies a NO)
4. Should chargeset work vs blackjack?
5. Should chargeset work vs assassinate? (dont know if it does, i landed mine vs pole specs)


I am of the opinion that if a polearm spec sees movement from a person he cant see, in the room, his chances for a successful chargest improve, starting with 5% (luck). Then it goes up 25% first time, then 30% second time and 35% third time the hidden char does something before attacking.

EXAMPLE:

Fire polearm spec sits in woods out of moves.

Ranger spots him and comes in. (chargeset success = 5%)

Ranger does bark skin without stepping out. (chargest success = 30%)

Ranger does protection heat/cold without stepping out. (chargest = 60%)

Ranger eats a steak. (chargeset success = 95%)

Ranger ambushes = 5% change to avoid chargeset.

Now these things dont all have to happen all in the same room. They can happen in different rooms to stack as long as both chars are in the same room when the hidden one does something. Maybe something along the lines of assassin stalking?

The same should work against thieves and assassins, but only vs blackjack, assassinate, backstab and strangle. Chargeset should hit like normal vs trip, dirt etc. Thats my opinion.

Yeah because Polearm specs are so damn overpowered already! *snort*

That which does not kill us,
makes us stronger.

No, not really, just cant flee, chargeset, excellent defense, few classes that can use polearm, hard to parry for all other ones.

You're obviously not interested in the full explanation from the staff, so I'll leave it at that.

Whilst I agree with Xaanix on the realism front, I think that his tendency to play "stealth" classes might be giving him a someone one-sided view of the game balance issue. Most Xaanix characters are thieves, assassins or rangers iirc. I could be confusing him with Romanul but I was under the impression that both tended to play "stealth" classes almost exclusively.

I could be confusing him with Romanul but I was under the impression that both tended to play "stealth" classes almost exclusively.

You are quite correct.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you kick dirt at someone, you're not running towards them at a speed where you can't slow yourself before its too late.. If you're doing that kind of thing at all.

How far can you kick dirt?

Most polearms are in excess of 10 ft (~3 m). Not that it needs to be changed anyway (see Nep's post), but your argument that you don't need to get in close doesn't hold water.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

because gamebalance is kinda like haveing characters go:

"ok we gotta immoblizie that pole spec so we can avoid chargest"
"we need to knock him out somehow, otherwise we eat the tip of the halberd."

That would be game balance. When there is SOMETHING you can do to avoid chargeset, reduce the other character to a state where he cant use one of his skills. Kinda like curse for word of recall, kind of like deafen for mages and bards...

We could do that for thieves.

Of course, to make it fair I'd have to have potions of detect hidden, fly, and sleep immunity sold cheaply in the warrior's bar.

Alternate answer: You do have a counter for chargeset. It's called sneaking up on the warrior, noticing that he's wearing a polearm, and just walking away. There are others, but that's the easiest -- and if you think using stealth to pick when and when not to start a fight, intelligently, isn't one of the major strengths of the stealth classes, then you don't really understand how to play them.

The pole warrior, in most cases, doesn't get that same choice. He has to be ready to whip a thief or assassin straight up every minute of his life. I'd say that's a worse situation than having to factor charge set into your attack plan.

Alternate alternate answer: There are ways to avoid charge set.

Ok I agree, there are ways to avoid chargeset. Yes, i know them all i think.

Yes you are right bout warriors, having to be ready all the time about that stuff. So, ok fine, dont change chargeset...das'ok, i kill em anyway

Seriously tho, i see your points.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I think it's very hard to pass up pole as a spec for any warrior -- it gives you an answer to a lot of things that warriors can't deal with half as well any other way.

And, yeah, the neat thing about specs is that there's an opportunity cost there. If I'm not the axe/mace spec, there are times I wish I was. If I'm not the whip spec, there are times I think: I can't do jack about X, but if I were a whip spec, boy would they get it. And so on. Thus, the polearm spec that is well set up to fight stealth characters is less well set up to fight, for example, invokers.

But, all that said, while a well-played polearm warrior gives me trouble as a stealth character, I'd still rather be the stealth character -- but that says more about my preferred style of play than it makes any statement about which I think is better. I'd rather be the character who needs to be patient and capitalize on my opponent's mistake to find a fatal opening than be the character who can't be seen to make any obvious mistakes to create such an opening.

Area scrolls and staves rangers can use both and thieves scrolls, madman.