Just a bunch of random babblings over a few things. I'm bored and I wanted to post, so here's a few thoughts that were running through my head as I was driving to the slave mines this morning.

- Maran powers

I was thinking about the current set of maran powers and what was said about the class array within the fortress. I think what people (people who say any class can join the fortress)fail to note is that power-wise I have exceedingly little incentive to join Maran as many classes. Key examples would be mages. Maran mages have some things to work with (phoenix brand to enhance damage from fire elementals, etc), but really they sorta get shafted compared to fighter types. Warlocks were a good compliment to Maran and despite their failings they had a decent purpose and great powers. Maran has excellent powers for warriors, rangers, paladins, thieves/assassins, etc. The problem though is that the powers for Maran do very little or nothing for mages. I'm not saying Maran needs to be totally mage friendly, however I don't see why it shouldn't be. I'd like something like what Scion has in regards to different classes getting different powers with Maran, a decent blend of Maran and warlock powers and not necessarily some overpowered combination but more some incentive to take the squire route.

It could well be likely that there are other plans underweigh, in which case I'll bow out, but looking at cabal choices for mages I'd be hard pressed to find a good reason to make a goodie mage. If I go evil I have Empire and Scion (and tribunal, herald, scarab technically). Scion has tanking mob which will keep the heat off me in PK and against ragers, things that auto-attack to annoy people trying to teleport, addition to hit points, etc. Empire is less of an option, but thats not saying an imperial necromancer isn't well off. Granted an imperial necromancer versus any goodie mage is comparing apples and oranges. If I'm neutral I have Outlander and Tribunal. Tribunal is rather boring, granted, but you get free money, relative safety and higher end promotions are pretty nice, it also accepts good and evil. Outlander gets chameleon, which, in and of itself is worth joining that cabal, not to mention their other powers. Lack of money and ability to buy preps is a huge hindrance, but considering the nature of the cabal its not truly meant to be mage friendly, I can understand that.

Maran may be purposefully mage unfriendly, but I really can't imagine why it would/should be given the current political layout of the game.

Key examples
>would be mages. Maran mages have some things to work with
> phoenix brand to enhance damage from fire elementals, etc),

Hate to burst your bubble but phoenix brand won't in any way affect how much damage a fire elemental does to a target. Brand offers two different affects of which neither is a fire vuln.

On a whole I dont think MARAN is that bad a group for mages when it comes to powers. Invokers obviously have one advantage that doesnt even need mentioning, shapeshifters when coupled with two different MARAN powers perform exceptionally well and from my experience with Lorimar I found that transmuters do fair enough as well. You just have to alter your approach to combat slightly with each. As far as conjurers go I cant really say because I have yet to do one in the cabal, but brand would make an archangel be ungodly powerful against many many things.

Just my two cents

Yeth

My thoughts on Maran powers: You're right, they aren't tailored much for mage classes. However, I believe there's been a fairly decent number of mages in the Brigade, so the incentive is there. If you asked me, I'd say that Maran is probably in the top three for best cabals when it comes to powers. I'm with you in that I have no clue what (if anything) the imms have planned for the future, but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for some sort of mage cabal. My advice to you is just hang in there (and keep playing Marans).

My thoughts on Game balance: You're right, there are a lot of sweet spots you can find, wherein you are superior to pretty much everyone in your pk range. All I have to say is, damn does it feel good to kill someone who's in their 'sweet spot'! Seriously, that's what this game is about; challenging yourself and rising above the numbers, the pk and the ooc angst. If someone wants to take the easy road and still has fun doing it, they can. To me however, the game being a little 'tilted' is what makes it fun. If everything was perfectly balanced, I'd have quit a long time ago. The last thing CF needs is rank-for-rank balance. I'll be the first to admit I've died to some really lame pk situations, in which I had no chance to survive. But that doesn't mean there was a screw-up somewhere in the game design. It's just the way things go.

Anyways, I can tell you put a lot of time and thought into it, and made a real effort to be constructive. I guess I just have to disagree with you on these topics.

- Maran powers

I was thinking about the current set of maran powers and what was said about the class array within the fortress. I think what people (people who say any class can join the fortress)fail to note is that power-wise I have exceedingly little incentive to join Maran as many classes. Key examples would be mages. Maran mages have some things to work with (phoenix brand to enhance damage from fire elementals, etc), but really they sorta get shafted compared to fighter types. Warlocks were a good compliment to Maran and despite their failings they had a decent purpose and great powers. Maran has excellent powers for warriors, rangers, paladins, thieves/assassins, etc. The problem though is that the powers for Maran do very little or nothing for mages. I'm not saying Maran needs to be totally mage friendly, however I don't see why it shouldn't be. I'd like something like what Scion has in regards to different classes getting different powers with Maran, a decent blend of Maran and warlock powers and not necessarily some overpowered combination but more some incentive to take the squire route.

I would beg to differ on this one. Maran powers are great for invoker. I'm sure you can speculate why.

I did mention that in a post on the "other boards" and hinted at it in this one if you read between the lines but despite that I'm hardpressed to play a maran invoker of scion. Just personal preference maybe but you lose more damage by not casting while getting phoenix brand off and the extra "elemental shield" while useful isn't really anything spectacular.

umm pheonix brand is vuln light and vuln the attack of silver maran weapons, not vuln fire. thank you have a nice day. Though fire healing makes getting wands and gear easier.

It is either or, but that wasn't the power I was referring to, heh.

...vuln the attack of silver maran weapons

Thats what led me to believe that the one was vuln fire since I had assumed that was a fire attack. Anywho, thanks for the heads up.

> I did it with a number of my characters. Right
>now I have a lowbie conjurer with 30 pks versus 1 loss that I
>barely play at all. I log in, two round a couple of people and
>log back out again. I have no reason not to and its fun but
>being a fair person I understand that it really sucks to be
>the elf warrior on the other end who can't really do much
>against me.

The hit and run tendency of some players is and of itself unbalancing. Your conjurer is probably a lot less potent if you didn't do your login, login action. That's why so many of the more successful pk'ers tended to login, quickly steamroller people in pk and then quit.

Sticking around a bit longer often changes the situation.

I don't log in for less than 2-3 hours, that should be plenty of time for anyone to do what they gotta do. Fact is, you use basic preps and jump a ranking party, there's a good chance you're one rounding the tank and wiping out a mage if you have something to lag them (wand, land a lash, etc). The only thing I could figure they could do is see me coming, wait and try to kill me very fast. Chances are though, demon kills them. The one time I died I killed two of the party that was ganging me with one left and its not because I'm a pk god, heh. Its because DEMOS/MANGLES spec attacks and 5 DISMEMBERS/MASSACRES per round from demon alone is a lot to stomach when you have 380 hp.