Bardic Soul Guardian Defender

[Gando]

[Portralis 0.4.0 Character Dump]

Name : Sunsong Alignment 4 STR: 5 735 -2 730
Sex : Male Misfortune 0 INT: 5 727 -1 728
Race : Celestial Death Count 38 WIS: 5 728 0 733
Class : Bard Reincarnate 4 DEX: 5 600 -3 599
Element : Light CON: 5 218 -3 220
Score : 39 CHR: 93 84 -1 177

Level 44 Max Hit Points 13645882
Experience 2280486 Cur Hit Points 13645882
+ To Hit 4018827 Max Exp 2280486 Max SP (Mana) 210242
+ %To Damage 33290 Exp to Adv. 2400000 Cur SP (Mana) 210242
+ To AC 5311111 Gold 1810171
Ability P 0 Stat Points 0 Blows/Round: 108
Skill Points 0 Blows/Round(2): 108
Class Level 10 Shots/Round: 1
Class Kills 1000 Wpn.dmg: 18289161-475518
Wpn2.dmg: 19203615-40327
Sht.dmg: n/a
Sht2.dmg: n/a
Infra-Vision: 0 feet
(Character Background) 0
You are a messenger of heaven sent in Portralis to protect
innocents from evil. You have golden eyes, large shining
white wings and a shining, fair skin.

---------- CHARACTER'S SKILLS ---------- --- MISC. INFO ---

a) Fighting: 234 A) Polearms: 0 Wpn.dmg: 18289161-475518186
b) Spellcraft: 521 B) Daggers: 0 Wpn2.dmg: 19203615-403275996
c) Shooting: 39 C) Axes: 0 Sht.dmg: n/a
d) Throwing: 0 D) Rods: 0 Sht2.dmg: n/a
e) Defense: 170 E) Martial Arts: 0 To_h : 4018038
f) Agility: 110 F) Bow: 0 To_d : 32501
g) Stealth: 100 G) Crossbow: 0 To_a : 5311111
h) Combat Feats: 10 H) Firearms: 0 AC : 460876
i) Dual Wield: 70 I) Elemental: 0
j) Leadership: 0 J) Alteration: 0
k) Alchemy: 0 K) Mysticism: 0 Dual Wield: Yes
l) Crafting: 0 L) Conjuration: 0 Press 'u' to toggle.
m) Swords: 70 M) Divination: 0
n) Blunt: 0 N) Magic Defense: 236


Remaining skill points: 0 Press one of the letters to increase the skill.
Press 'x' to view next skills page(if any).


-------------- ABILITIES --------

Counter Attack [10]
Piercing Spells [1]
Absorb Elemental Energy [3]
Heavy Armored Defense [5]
Armored Spellcasting [5]
Armored Health [5]
Improved Songs [10]
Bardic Reputation [5]


-------------- RESISTANCES ------

Fire: 0
Cold: 25
Electric: 25
Acid: 0
Poison: 0
Light: 100
Darkness: -75
Warp: 20
Water: 20
Wind: 45
Earth: 20
Sound: 20
Radio: 20
Chaos: 20
Physical: 25
Mana: 0


You have defeated 22567 enemies.


[Character Equipment]

a) a Blue Steel Long Sword (L:43, K:139/215) (20d26) (+789,+789) [+9630] (+144103
b) a Blue Steel Long Sword (L:43, K:139/215) (21d21) (+1800,+1800) [+6729] (+14410
e) a Ring of Resist Uncommon (L:43, K:139/215) (+731,+731) [+9630]
f) a Ring of Resist Physical (L:43, K:139/215) (+731,+731) [+9630]
k) The Amulet Balcia Shan's Blessing (L:43, K:90/215) (+6694,+6694) [657,+1884] (4
m) The Orb Quazar (L:40, K:181/200) (+1185,+1185) [+787] (10 points.)
n) a Blue Steel Plate Mail (L:44, K:0/220) (+1725,+1725) [5229,+20309]
o) a Battle Cloak (L:43, K:139/215) (+10375,+10375) [876,+6158]
p) a Blue Steel Bracers (L:43, K:139/215) (+759,+759) [121,+7698]
s) a Titanium Helm (L:43, K:139/215) (+717,+717) [292,+6158]
u) a Pair of Blue Steel Gauntlets (L:43, K:139/215) (+717,+717) [166,+6158]
x) The Pair of Leather Boots 'Footpad's Boots' (L:43, K:90/215) (+1075,+1075) [133
{) 23 Blue Steel Tipped Bolts (L:43, K:139/215) (8d10) (+789,+789) [+9630] (+6158
|) a Celestial Harp (L:43, K:139/215) (7d12) (+789,+789) [+9630]


[Character Inventory]

a) a Soul (Naga Princess of Archery)
b) a Soul (Shadow Panther)
c) a Soul (Naga Great Huntress)
d) a Soul (Hand of Evil)
e) a Soul (Red Wyvern)
f) 2 Souls (Crystalline thingyatrice)
g) a Soul (Iron Golem)
h) a Soul (Donoriel)
i) a Soul (Young Black Dragon)
j) a Soul (Mermaid High Sorceress)
k) a Soul (Kobold Ghost)
l) a Soul (Balgam, the Kobold Thief)
m) a Soul (The Knight of Balance)
n) a Soul (Golem)
o) a Soul (Gargantuan Green Worm)
p) a Soul (Demon Elf Warrior)
q) a Soul (Light Lord)
r) a Soul (Naga Archpriestess)
s) 2 Souls (Lesser Four Elemental)
t) a Soul (Nymph Sorceress)
u) 4 Souls (Fused Warrior of Earth)
v) a Soul (White Winged Serpent)
w) 2 Souls (Fused Warrior of Water)


[Home Inventory (page 1)]

a) a Lute (3d8) (+17,+5)
b) a Lute (3d8) (+60,+60) [+250]
c) a Celestial Harp (5d8) (+0,+0)
d) The Celestial Harp Balcia #2 (L:42, K:4/210) (7d12) (+1565,+1565) [+1795] (2 po
e) a Celestial Harp (5d8)
f) The Guitar Furgh (L:27, K:117/135) (5d10) (+343,+343) [+599] (6 points.)
g) The Horn of Unhealth (3d8) (+30,+30)
h) a Licialhyd (Mana, Power: 2450)
i) a Licialhyd (Healing, Power: 100)
j) a Licialhyd (Magic Resistance, Power: 7)
k) a Nightmare Licialhyd (Phantom of Misery, Power: 20)
l) a Potion of Cure Light Wounds (30 Healing Rad: 2)


[Home Inventory (page 2)]

a) a Potion of Cure Critical Wounds (400 Healing Rad: 2)
b) a Potion of Deadly Poison (700 Poison Rad: 2)
c) 3 Potions of Restore Stats (100 Restore Stats Rad: 2)
d) a Potion of Restore Levels (100 Restore Levels Rad: 2)
e) 9 Scrolls of Magic Mapping {25% off}
f) 13 Scrolls of Word of Recall
g) 14 Scrolls of Teleportation
h) 3 Scrolls of Object Eternality {50% off}
i) 3 Scrolls of Item Leveling
j) a Scroll of Instant Item Level Up
k) a Soul (White Wight)
l) a Soul (Demon Elf Battle Mage)

This is highest level character that I have gotten without deleting it. Leveling past this is highly unlikely. Even at level 100+ the experience points are hardly worth the effort. Took me a whole day to get from 43 -44 not counting deaths.

I finished the last main quest with this guy at 39 but wanted to get the best suit I could so I tried to get as much blue steel as I could. As you can see the stats are quite high but ultimately meaningless. Not a single stat there is sufficient to monsters over level 60. Any randomness can kill you (and this isn't counting the times you walk into a summoned phys returner or get deluged by summmoned flow monsters 100 levels higher because a Nymph got carried away. Flow monsters can kill you without even trying.

Anyway the vast majority of minor monsters of course fall to the wayside against this Guy even though they can be quite a nuisance. Main methods of dealing with returns was use of Fields and Bardic songs. Returned Magic isn't usually as lethal in this game as melee attacks. Though there was that one time I got hit for 650mil out of the blue.

I did not try the avemorsh challenge with this guy because I already know the outcome. He is good but isn't up to snuff.

[khan]

I have to admit, I'm impressed. I've managed to get the odd character up to the early 40's in level, but your guys stats make mine look puny. I presume they must have come from your items?

Which brings me to my next question, (and here I'm begging), how/where did you find such good items (I don't think I've ever seen a single Blue Steel item, Battle Cloak or Celestial Harp.

[Variaz]

I actually hadn't noticed the blue steel items... I'm a little surprised myself. Where did you get them?

Very powerful character. In fact, I'm a little worried about those high numbers at level 44... I find it a little too high. It's not just you either, the two other characters that beat Avemorsh, one(kipar's) was doing up to 1.7 billion ranged damages per shots, while random had 80 million hp.

Nothing wrong with numbers getting that high... at level 100. But at level 40, it's high. But I'm probably going to open another thread somewhere about this, as it's starting to become a concern to me.

[hairybolox]

I'm sure a number of members [i'm one] who had mentioned negative damages from weapons before which I assumed was down to buffer over run & with the new level items to current level scrolls it's not too hard getting massive hp & damage numbers quite early in the game Assuming you can get the cash to buy them which the "Twist Items" spell provides when set to special.....

[Gando]

RE: Celestial Harps etc they are normal drops past level 50. Bluesteel and the like are not. They are the result of Twisted Items spells and a lot of very dangerous dungeon delving. I found that twisting items wasn't getting me the materials I wanted (lots of adamantite and occasional titanium but not enough of the right ones) so I cast twisted dungeons instead and very carefully and with much maximizing of my run away techniques managed to collect (along with a lot of deaths, a set of blue steel items.) The stats are mainly from the items but also from the combination of abilities and Soul Binding which accumulates fast with the highest depth monsters.

[Gando]

Mar 2, 2010 11:15:11 GMT -5 Variaz said:

I actually hadn't noticed the blue steel items... I'm a little surprised myself. Where did you get them?

Very powerful character. In fact, I'm a little worried about those high numbers at level 44... I find it a little too high. It's not just you either, the two other characters that beat Avemorsh, one(kipar's) was doing up to 1.7 billion ranged damages per shots, while random had 80 million hp.

Nothing wrong with numbers getting that high... at level 100. But at level 40, it's high. But I'm probably going to open another thread somewhere about this, as it's starting to become a concern to me.

The problem with the numbers at that level is they become meaningless. As I said in my explanation of the character: He looks strong on paper but is really a wimp in contrast to the monsters he encounters. Particularly the way overpowered bosses and elites. As someone else was talking about you get a lot of feast and famine with the numbers. Sometimes you can just waltz through a level without a scratch and others you get beaten so quickly you have to blink to be sure it happened. All in all leveling this character was not fun and while the quests were insanely challenging, preparing for them was not, just extremely tedious and frustrating. An interesting note, while my last character was deleted after failing to beat Balcia #3, that turned out to be the easiest version on this character with #s 2 and 4 being the most difficult. The ultimate version had me playing for over an hour before I finally managed to beat her (after dying a few billion deaths...yes hyperbole...no not really a billion...but lots.) The deaths listed are only the ones I didn't scum save to avoid repeated long journeys. (Not a fan of federal express type trips.) Anyway yes the game needs some rebalancing. However you will notice this character is the combination of a lot of time and effort over 8 classes (many to 10th class level).

Several things I think are immediately important to change:
1) the twisted spells. Make them more interesting and less powerful and way less dangerous.

2) Balance the higher level monsters.

3) figure out the correct ratio of hp/ac (defense stats) to skills/tohit (offense stats). I am a bit sick and tired of taking 100s of millions of damage when normally my characters don't even get into the millions of hp. Also when 6mil+ AC is worthless you have to ask yourself "What is the point?". When I was growing up AC was a measure between -10 and 10 with 10 being the most naked,easiest to hit and -10 being the hardest most insane to hit. I refer to AD&D rules. My preference is somewhere between. Armor should defend you better than no armor. It shouldn't make you impossible to hit. In the same sense if you are wearing fullplate armor you should be pretty hard to HARM. There is so much material out there to borrow for what makes a balanced game system I don't even know where to point you. I just think this is a critical point in this game. The game works in the beginning but quickly loses balance as you progress in levels which happen in spurts and then take forever unless you take insane risks to gain experience. All of this needs to be examined and decided upon.

As you once pointed out each class/race can't balance perfectly nor is that desirable. Perfect balance is not fun any more than stack overflows and infinite numbers are. Particularly when those infinite numbers really just boil down to "did it touch me? Oh...dead else ...I win."

[Variaz]

Good post, Gando, and I feel many of your concerns, hence the other thread I started in the suggestions forums.

I agree that AC needs an overhaul, and be not about a chance to hit, but damages mitigation. There's no way a Defender in full plate should take the same damages as a mage in a robe.

Numbers do become pointless because of extra lives. Extra lives becomes an easy fix to some of the balance problems, but it's not a fun fix. Extra lives should only be present on powerful and rare enemies, not on the average imp. But even that is not perfect, since it becomes a matter of who gets the most blows. The most powerful character in the game right now would be a dual wielder who dual wield a pair of red daggers with 100+ Misfortune... (extra blows are another thing that needs some rebalance)

This character is a good example of the problems with the numbers. The fact that numbers can get that big at that level is a problem. The fact that they don't actually help all that much is also a problem.