I've been playing this game a long time. I'm pretty sure I started in late '95, perhaps mid. I've seen the evolution of the game through various stages. Becoming progressively harder to play and more time consuming regarding skill perfection, cabal induction, and empowerment, to becoming more newbie friendly and expansive with the different staff members, areas, classes, races, etc. I've seen different skills, supplications, spells, and combinations absolutely break the game. Character builds that were pretty much 'immortal' due to whatever part of their build, or some bug they were exploiting. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I just don't see these current changes as having anything to do with 'Game Balance.'

Sure, the Empowerment change will enable more people access to play Priests without requiring the attention of an Immortal. But to anyone actually playing the game, are you willing to take the huge reduction in build power? And in some cases, it is huge. Unempowered Druids and Healer's are not worth playing due to Herbs and E/N Healing ability. With Herbs, it's not worth it to build any kind of Herb diversity, as you just plain won't get those Herbs due to the -1 factor. With E/N Healers, they now heal others at 30% and 50% respectively. It's just not worth it.

Also taken away from these classes are Transmute Metal to Wood, the ability to Gate to non-trusting PC's, and Healer's lose the Fly supplication. I just don't understand how these abilities are game breaking. They're part of what made these classes great to play. In fact, I see the Gate modification as a huge strike against Healer RP, and I'd always thought that CF promoted RP.

But what I did see as I played Chirkaw, was an Imbalance in my PK range. Starting at rank 25 the majority of my PK range was 7-9 levels above me. I did my best to avoid these situations and moved away to out of the way places. At 28, I was Neurologically Disrupted by Jacopo (Rank 37, 9 levels my superior). At rank 35, I was Pillared to death by Zakhun (Rank 44, 9 levels my superior). And these are just two situations out of many that I encountered. At rank 42 I had almost every rank 51 in my range. Keep in mind, I'm an Arial Assassin, not a Storm Paladin, Fire AP, or Elf whatever. If the staff is striving for Game Balance, why are the PK ranges so skewed?

Just a small rant. Constructive criticism welcome.

Yes, a mage with 9 levels and spellcraft can be a pain. I would not shrink the PK range with our current playerbase, but a possible tweak to the level difference with regard to spells might make sense.

For example:
mage has one level on you +5 with spells,
2 levels +10
3 +15
4 +18
5 +21
5 +23
6 +25
7 +26
8 +27
9 +28

So, you're still at a disadvantage, but the penalty/level is not a line graph, but a curve.

That dude with inherent fly and 25 dex. I don't mind you being handicapped against human transmuter levelsitter who'll delete after 100 PKW anyway as they all do.

P.S. And really, you know there's an ass in realms, gather your -svp set and then throw him to death and drop him a fuil loot. You're OP assassin after all.

I was pretty surprised when it turned out to be Battlecharmed. Based on interaction/pk I thought it was his first character. I definitely don't think the entire pk structure of CF needs to be tweaked because he forgot how to pk at some point.

I say he was OP assassin. Funnyone can elaborate on that.

PK ranges should, if anything, be extended due to the low player count. Distention takes care of anyone level sitting for too long. You have the option of choosing a 0xp penalty race at creation if you fear PK ranges that much.

That half the game is about not dying to rock when you are scissors, and finding some paper.

I'm sure chirkaw had some lower ranked people too. Also, if you have an exp pen there's a good reason for it. You generally are equipped to kill those with ranks on you.

Elf warrior at 20 is a victim, and is generally only fighting people higher ranked.
Since xp penalty only applies to race, saying you are equipped to fight people with 9 ranks on you is not true.
Mages can land every spell, and its harder to gear at lower levels.

I have no problem with penalties, but it is not because these races are always equipped to fight low xp races with 5-9 levels on them.
Its just one of the drawbacks of a race, and by 45 it levels off

Mages can't land every spell, or my aps would have been neuro'd to death repeatedly at 36 instead of killing muters with 9 ranks on them.

Also auto sneak is really valuable in pk. Plus healing potions go a long way.

It's not completely equal (I agree your point re gear although I believe that if you focus on hp and saves over damage you should be able to hold your own) but that auto sneak is useful, and one of my most enjoyable warrior pk periods was with a Drow dagger spec in the 20s. Legacies kicking in certainly will make a difference though. But you should be hard for these guys to pin down if you prep sensibly (eg appropriate use of enlarge against bashers etc).