Qodex WIzardry New eNhancements (~Qwinn)

[hoverdog]

The Wizardry 8 thread and the discussion about possible changes therein inspired me to think about doing something to balance this beautiful game.

Wizardry 8 scene has already released several mods; however, nearly all of them were too complex for their own good. Rather than fix all the little things and make the vanilla game better and deeper, the modders opted for pumping up the difficulty and breaking the game even more (Dodd) or introducing whole new storylines and almost-total modifications, which turned out... poor, to say the least. The only one that focuses on really important things is Christian Coder's Mod, and it's nice, bu really low-key and has a few arguable features (buffing valks? really?)

QWINN is all about the basic game. It's a small-scope project, at least for now. I don't really have any modding experience, but Cosmic Forge seems easy enough to use for this kind of changes. Still, any help will be apprieciated, especially from guys who know wiz8 inside and out.

I've distilled an improvement wishlist from the posts in that thread:

• Class balance - a couple tweaks to make picking a party even harder than it is now

1. toning down valkyries, currently they are the best class along with high-end bishops, with their OP cheat death, good fighting skills and always useful divine spellcasting. Cheating death, powerful as it is, should stay, as it gives a lot of flavour. What I'd do is restricting their magic to higher levels and/or cutting their HPs.
2. lords, on the other hand, are one of the weakest professions. Draq's idea to make them immune to curses (free swapping of cursed weapons, for example) is a really good one, but I don't know if it's possible to do at all.
3. gadgeteers could get some gadgets earlier on, just like bards do.
4. ninjas are such a chore to maintain. They can't use even the most basic clothes (shitty if you want to change class), their weapon selection is almost as restricted, their strongest power, thrown criticals, is offset by utter lack of any such weapons in-game, and on top of that they have the biggest XP requirement of them all. Experience should go down to normal hybrid level, item setting changed (we'll get to that) at the cost of alchemy spellbook, which they rarely, if ever, use.

• Equipment

1. tweaking drop rates, so that more high-end but not OP stuff is guaranteed or at least very likely to drop - especially class-restricted items (after ZbojLamignat)
2. weapon balance: axes are piss-poor, and should be buffed. Bloodlust is a top-tier sword you can get very early - either nerf it or change its location.
3. restrictions: ninjas should have access to most light-weight weapons, clothes and robes.
4. (extended goal) adding a shitload new items with new sprites (some semi-decent photoshop user needed)

• Spells

1. status ailments and instadeath (later) are all that matters, I'd look to buff direct damage ones
2. tweaking monsters' resistances in a way that would still make sense but eliminate grading of realms (after DraQ)
3. (extended goal) adding new spells

• Combat Encounters

1. toning down on random fights (arnika road, I'm looking at you), adding some guaranteed, predesigned ones
2. buffing up some enemies (like the rapax) and most bosses

• Adventure

1. (extended goal) Completing the clearly unfinished quests like the bank heist or the prisoner interrogation. (after ZbojLamignat)
2. (very extended goal) creating real dungeons to crawl into

DISCUSS!

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Weapons with spells can be recharged with Mana Stones.

Class Balance:
Valk does not need to be toned down. At all. She's a top tier class and doesn't need rebalancing.
Rather, her abilities show just how weak Lord really is. Lord needs to be buffed a little I think. That's pretty much it tho.
How Lord needs to be buffed is a whole nother question: slight increase in healing rate, ability to remove a cursed item (uncurse spell) the way priest and bishop do are both plausible options. The Lord is steeped in religion like a Priest or a Bishop. Valk is not. Doesn't mean they get less access to spells or Lords get more, but rather it just means that Lords have a holy ability or two that Valks do not.

Gadgeteers- Add in the Demon doll into the Rapax playroom. Gadgeteer starts with two rolls of duct tape. Can use ALL modern weapons (blunderbuss and crossbows included). Add the High Voltage transformer to a hangar in Arnika's space port, or put it somewhere else high tech such as in Lower Marten's Bluff somewhere. Upgrade the Lightning Rod to fire a higher level Energy Blast at first. Give it an upgrade option and then let it use the Lightning Spell. The upgrade should be somewhere higher level to be found, such as in the same cave as Anselm or near the circle of Rune stones. Not sure what type of upgrade it should be, perhaps a set of platinum electrodes (not the normal ones you can buy, a special 1 set in the world type of electrodes made of platinum). The Magic Mirror charges are infinite, that way it doesn't run out and you don't have to sell it and buy it back to recharge it. Searchlight can be found much earlier on (finding the parts at Mt. Gigas and wherever else is too late for it to be useful. PTorch should be found outside the house near the monastery where the teleporter is. Like a discarded flash light essentially. Magnifying glass is in Arnika, in one of the houses, perhaps with one that has a ton of books. Watchdog Alarm found in several places in Arnika: Electric eye in the HLL. Loudspeaker in the Prison in Arnika.

Ninjas- I got nothing on them. Some very small armor changes (clothes only), a few dagger and sword options, and increase the number of throwing stars in game.

Equipment:
Drop rates should be changed, I agree. For instance, some of the higher end swords: Estoc De Olivia- I've only ever seen one, dropped from a Rapax patrol. Vorpal Sword- Never seen one drop.
Weapon Balance- Quite a few actually. I'll go in alphabetical order.
Axes-
Axe of Many Runes- Increase drop %. For a cursed weapon that does -1 HP, it's actually shitty. To hit is -8, Initiative is -14. The weapon damage is acceptable, but it provides no bonus of any kind. Increase the to-hit to +2, and the Initiative to +1. Add in Hex as a bonus ability. Done.
Battle Axe- Damage increased to 4-12 from 2-8. Primary and Secondary weapon slots.
Bearded War Axe- Initiative increased from +1 to +2, it already is primary and secondary. Damage increased from 1-6 to 2-10.
Beastslayer- Bonus to Hit +3, Initiative 0, Damage from 3-17 to 6-17. Primary and Secondary weapons.
Bipennis- Damage changed from 7-21 to 10-24. Price increased.
Blades of Aesir- Increase drop %. To-Hit- +4, Initiative +2. Damage 15-35. Attack Range Extended. Iceball spell level is same, but it is always fully charged when it's found.
Cleaver- Primary and Secondary weapon.
Crusader's 2H +1 Axe- Set location in the underground tomb, on one of the crypts. Damage 10-29. To-Hit +2, initiative -2. Strength +10, Divine damage buff resistance. Has the Guardian Angel spell (Level 6, 16 charges).
Hand Axe- Primary and Secondary Weapons.
Hatchet- Primary and Secondary Weapons, Initiative- 0.
Plague Axe- Keep at set locations. Ferro no longer sells. To Hit - +4. Initiative +2. Damage 5-15. Primary and Secondary weapons. Can be used by Lord. Kill 1%.
The Ripper- Initiative -3. Extended Attack Range. Damage 15-27. Speed +10, Axe skill +5. KO 10%.
Woodsman Axe- To Hit +2. Damage 8-17. Can be used by Fighter, Ranger, Lord and Valk. Vitality +5.
New Axes
Enchanted Battle Axe- To hit increased by +1, Initiative increased by +1. Damage increased to 4-14. Primary and Secondary.
Enchanted Bearded War Axe- To Hit +1, Init. +2, Primary and Secondary. Damage 3-11.
Enchanted Bipennis- To Hit +2, Initiative at -2. Damage 10-26.
The Butcher- Cursed weapon that uses the cleaver base. Similar to the Bloodlust. Set location soemwhere, perhaps the graveyard or a place of violence. To Hit -0, Initiative +4. Additional Attack +1. Fighter only. Cursed. Strength +5, Kill 5%. Damage is 8-19. Primary and Secondary weapon. All races.

Bows-
Elven Bow- Make it at a set location.
Siege Arbalest- Set location
New Bows-
Stinger- Double Damage to insects.
Enchanted Short Bow
Double Shot H. Crossbow
Triple Shot H. Crossbow
Dagger
Sai- Greater % drop from places that make sense.
Not sure about what else.
Obsidian Dagger- Set location (one of the jail cells in the rift). Fast, decent damage. Firestorm spell. Speed +10.
Maces-
All 1 handed maces should be primary and secondary weapons. In addition, all should have a minimum 5% KO chance if they don't already.
Exceptions are lashes, whips, chains, and the Vampire Chain.
Anointed Flail- To Hit +1, Initiative 0, Damage 4-11.
Chieftain's Scepter- Damage 9-17. Quest reward from Chief Gary for clearing out the rats. KO 12%, Male only, Kill 1%.
Diamond Eyes- To hit +4, Damage 10-24. Paralyze 20%, KO 8%, Kill 2%. Divine spell resistance increase. All races. Piety +10.
Disruptor Mace- To Hit +3, Initiative +1, Damage 5-12, All races.
Enchanted Mace- To Hit +1, Initiative +1. Damage 4-10. KO 10%
Flail- who cares?
Maiden Head- Initiative +3. Damage 7-18.
Stun Mace- Damage 3-10, KO 20%, Drain Stamina 30%
The Mauler- To Hit +3, Initiative +2, Damage 15-30, Power Attack +10, Crush power level 6, Set Location somewhere
Vulcan Hammer- Damage 12-25. KO 15%, Kill 1%.
Ziska Star- To hit +2, Initiative +1, Damage 8-15, Strength +5, Mace and Flail +10, Insane 20%, KO 12%, Kill 1%, 2x Damage undead. All races. Set drop serenity chest. Spell- Sane Mind, 6, 18.
New Maces-
The King's Scepter- Set drop- Rapax King. Required Strength 50. Male only. To Hit +5, Initiative +3, KO 20%, Kill 5%. Close Combat +15, Strength +5. Damage 16-32.
Enchanted Flail
Slag Club- Set Drop- Lava Lord. 2 Handed weapon. Required Strength 65. To Hit +2, Initiative +1, KO 30%. Strength +15. Fire Resistance. Damage 15-36
Wooden Club- Not sure what bonus. Perhaps ranger only type.
Supercharged Mace- Upgraded Stun Mace- Damage is 8-20. Real power is 100% Drain Stamina, Paralyze 15%, KO 20%, and Kill 5%. Either a set location (preferable) or created by a gadgeteer combining an item of some sort with a stun mace.

Swords- All Rapiers can be secondary weapons.
Bloodlust- No change. At ALL fucking great sword man!
Blade Cuisinart- Set chest at Rapax King. Secondary Weapon.
Cutlass- Secondary Weapon
Cutlass of the Damned- To Hit +2, Initiative +1, Damage 3-11, Secondary weapon.
Fang- To Hit +3, Initiative +3, damage is good, strength bonus is good. Grant an additional status damage to enemy. Paralyze 10%. Swords +10.
Instakiller- Never made it to the regular game. Put it in somewhere at a set location (Bayjin maybe where the faeries are always at on the mountain top) It's a faerie weapon. Damage 8-20. Kill 10%, Dexterity +5. Paralyze 15%. Has some sort of psionic magic attack.
Rapax Mageblade- Change to Obsidian Blade. Same stats, has some nasty fire spells. Can be used by all races, and equipped by standard groups.
Short Sword- Secondary weapon.
Vorpal Blade- Damage 15-27, 1-handed. Kill 10%. All races, standard groups. Additional attack. Strength +10, Sword +10.
New Swords-
Scimitar- Initiative +2, Damage is longsword damage. yadayada.
Enchanted Scimitar- Initiative +4, To Hit +1, Damage is Enchanted Longsword or Broadsword.
Enchanted Rapier-
Enchanted Walriblade-
Enchanted Claymore
Enchanted Flamberge
Enchanted Cutlass
Enchanted Short Sword
Enchanted No-Dachi
Enchanted Zweihander
Cursed Short Sword
Cursed Scimitar
Cursed Rapier
Cursed Flamberge
Modern Weapons
Blunderbuss- Damage range needs to be grouped tighter.
Frontier Phaser- Set drop (maybe in Savant's tower) or Set Location
Mystery Ray- Same. Set location in Bayjin crashed ship or set chest in Bayjin.
Rocket Launcher- The rockets do much better damage, making the weapon better overall. Something a bit stronger.
Polearms
Mindblast Rod- Access should be given or it is a quest reward.
Faust Halberd- Set location, maybe in the Rapax Temple somewhere?
Raven's Bill- Same.

Combat Encounters- DONT YOU FUCKING DARE TONE DOWN ARNIKA ROAD!

 

[Shadenuat]

Flail- who cares?

They should be long-range maces or have some other properties. A weapon of destruction which, the faster you wave it around, the more stuff ends up dead (bonus attack with lower chance to hit?).
How about two-handed maces, by the way? Hammers and heavy clubs.

 

[Gragt]

I don't know Wiz8 much, but I'm usually more in favour of buffing weaker elements to put them on par with the more powerful ones, rather than nerfing the powerful ones.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I don't know Wiz8 much, but I'm usually more in favour of buffing weaker elements to put them on par with the more powerful ones, rather than nerfing the powerful ones.

Thank you. Do not nerf Valk! Just buff out the Lord a little bit.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Also,

Polearms-
Maenad's Lance- Edit that bad mother fucker back in. Fucking insane awesome polearm.
Faust Halberd- A drop from Al-Sedexus maybe?

Also, we definitely need two handed hammers for weapons.

 

[Grunker]

Yes! This mod sounds nice. Will comment when I get the time, but for now, just a shoulder-pad!

 

[DraQ]

Weapons with spells can be recharged with Mana Stones.

Class Balance:
Valk does not need to be toned down. At all. She's a top tier class and doesn't need rebalancing.

Well, she's not a top tier. Maybe giving valk some extra stat requirements and buffing XP requirement to Elite levels would a solution here - you know, to actually put her in top tier.

Valk could also use some extra skill to focus on - compared to any other hybrid, nevermind elites, Valks are awfully focused.

ability to remove a cursed item (uncurse spell)

Nah. Not like Bishop or spell.

-First, we don't need the same special ability cloned across multiple classes.

-Second, Bishop's free uncurse has always been rather lame due to merely duping a spell - one Bishop can simply learn too.

-Third, to fully benefit from their resistance to adverse effects of the direst of curses, Lord would need something better, especially given how lords are the hybrids that get fucked the most by cursed gear thanks to divinity school sucking offensively.

I'm not versed in Wiz8's inner workings, but I imagine it would be possible to set Lord to behave as if under influence of Bishop's uncurse all the time.

The Lord is steeped in religion like a Priest or a Bishop. Valk is not.

Well, I'd consider character based off gods' private dead hero delivery service pretty high on holy scale. It gives me an idea, though - if we bump Valk up into elite tier with all consequences (more XP and stat requirements, more skills to focus on), why not give her psionics in addition to divinity? Should link both the seer themes of the psionics in Wiz8 (rank names, some spells), and future-changing abilities of Norse Valkyries (picking who lives and who dies in battle) pretty nicely, and since insanity was viewed as divine by the Norse, it would work at least as well as psi-monk.
-----------------------------------------------------

Gadgeteers- Add in the Demon doll into the Rapax playroom. Gadgeteer starts with two rolls of duct tape. Can use ALL modern weapons (blunderbuss and crossbows included). Add the High Voltage transformer to a hangar in Arnika's space port, or put it somewhere else high tech such as in Lower Marten's Bluff somewhere.

Yes!

Upgrade the Lightning Rod to fire a higher level Energy Blast at first. Give it an upgrade option and then let it use the Lightning Spell.

Yes!!

The upgrade should be somewhere higher level to be found, such as in the same cave as Anselm or near the circle of Rune stones. Not sure what type of upgrade it should be, perhaps a set of platinum electrodes (not the normal ones you can buy, a special 1 set in the world type of electrodes made of platinum).

Maybe using the same High Voltage Transformer as that resurrect gizmo? It's time to choose bitches.

The Magic Mirror charges are infinite, that way it doesn't run out and you don't have to sell it and buy it back to recharge it.

Doesn't it just turn back into chrome plate once out of juice?

Actually, I have a neat idea - how about using Magic Polish to convert tarnished and regular longswords into gleaming ones as well?

PTorch should be found outside the house near the monastery where the teleporter is. Like a discarded flash light essentially.

Good enough.

Some ideas I have:

laser pointer + voltage amplifier = laser dazzler (blinding flash, bitches);
magnifying glass + large prism = spectroscope (identify);
forcefield generator + lightning rod = induction furnace (armormelt).
zip gun (weapon) + electrodes = tazer (paralyze)

Maybe some non-gadget recipes as well:

A way to turn multiple muskets into heavy, ammo consuming, stamina devouring gatling type weapon;
Scanner + Beanie = sensor gear - bestows monk's effectiveness while blinded on anyone, but shitty headgear otherwise.
Plate (lower and upper) + Tinker's Carryall Braces = exoskeleton (gadgeteer exclusive plate, as good as normal plate but with +str and maybe some modest stamina regen)

Equipment:
Drop rates should be changed, I agree. For instance, some of the higher end swords: Estoc De Olivia- I've only ever seen one, dropped from a Rapax patrol. Vorpal Sword- Never seen one drop.

Sure. There is no point to having mediocre weapons drop only from high level mobs/containers and availability is a valid way to nerf or boost something. Also, there should be at least one guaranteed valid progression path for any weapon type (including high and mid-end weapons).

Oh, add some worthwhile male-only gear to balance vakyries and +stamina pendants.

Axe of Many Runes (...) Increase the to-hit to +2, and the Initiative to +1.

Nah. Massive penalties seem to be part of this weapon's flavour (whatever it might be), so just triple the damage output or something to balance it.

Add in Hex as a bonus ability.

Good enough. Or maybe a wide array of possible status effects (like high level omnigun) - its *many* runes, no?

Battle Axe- Damage increased to 4-12 from 2-8. Primary and Secondary weapon slots.

Would vastly outclass its sword counterpart, so no, at least not without penalties.

Woodsman Axe- To Hit +2. Damage 8-17. Can be used by Fighter, Ranger, Lord and Valk. Vitality +5.

Good enough.

Also, what's with the extended range? We have polearms for that.

New Axes

How about Executioner's axe? 2H, large damage, but nothing special, large kill%, possibly cursed?

Double Shot H. Crossbow
Triple Shot H. Crossbow

That'd be pretty OP. How about repeating crossbow? shitty stats and no damage bonus, but huge initiative boost or whatever gives the largest, not fixed boost to # of attacks?

Sai- Greater % drop from places that make sense.

First and foremost much more %kill.

All 1 handed maces should be primary and secondary weapons. In addition, all should have a minimum 5% KO chance if they don't already.
Exceptions are lashes, whips, chains, and the Vampire Chain.

Yes, but I don't see why chains should be excluded - they should K.O. too, though maybe a bit less.

Supercharged Mace- Upgraded Stun Mace- Damage is 8-20. Real power is 100% Drain Stamina, Paralyze 15%, KO 20%, and Kill 5%. Either a set location (preferable) or created by a gadgeteer combining an item of some sort with a stun mace.

Bloodlust- No change. At ALL fucking great sword man!

Actually, it's pretty OP, but I wouldn't move or nerf it. Instead I'd give it some -HP and -Stamina maluses. Would make it slightly more problematic for Rogue, Bard or Samurai to wield while still outclassing most stuff until endgame.

Blade Cuisinart- Set chest at Rapax King. Secondary Weapon.
Cutlass- Secondary Weapon
Cutlass of the Damned- To Hit +2, Initiative +1, Damage 3-11, Secondary weapon.

Yes!!!

Also, buff the fuck out of Saint Bastard (to endgame level), flavour it up and make it Lord exclusive. Make it drop later too.

Scimitar- Initiative +2, Damage is longsword damage. yadayada.

Nah, would need new GFX and might make andhaira happy.

Enchanted Rapier

We have Diamond Eppe already. I'd give it some special effect to make it stand out more, though.

Demonsting sword & bow - increase fucking damage multiplier VS demons. When has anyone met demons early in game anyway? They are supposed to be anti Al-Sedexus weapons, so make them weapons of choice for that encounter.

Blunderbuss- Damage range needs to be grouped tighter.

Nah. Part of the charm.

Rocket Launcher- The rockets do much better damage, making the weapon better overall. Something a bit stronger.

Yes. Also, add some resources that would allow skilled gadgeteer to make some Davy Crockets for RL - AoE effect being nuclear blast, obviously.

Faust Halberd- Set location, maybe in the Rapax Temple somewhere?
Raven's Bill- Same.

Dat.

Also, some 1h spears (wielding rules as whips - no offhand, shield allowed - except for removing damage multiplier restrictions).


Finally, Spells:
lvl1 direct damage should come with useful status chances (hex for wound, slow for frost, blind for acid splash) - energy blast can have more damage instead.

Nuclear Blast should have blind side effect.

Draining Cloud is shit, needs boost.

Maybe some status chance to Acid Cloud, even if it'd only be some irritation?

Oh, possibly K.O. chance on Crush and Whipping rocks.


P.S.
Hmmm... Maybe Recruitable Rattkin alchemist?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well, Scimitar's graphics are already in the game actually.
Just never was put in.

And I totally forgot about the Saint Bastard. Lord only, and very buffed out would be badass.

Swords
Saint Bastard- To Hit +3, Initiative +2, Damage 12-24, Primary Weapon, Piety +10, Sword +10, KO 8%, Kill 2%, Lifesteal Spell (level 6, 18 uses), Set location should be in the cathedral behind the sorceress or in the tomb. MP +1, Sta +1.

 

[DraQ]

Well, Scimitar's graphics are already in the game actually.
Just never was put in.

And I totally forgot about the Saint Bastard. Lord only, and very buffed out would be badass.

Swords
Saint Bastard- To Hit +3, Initiative +2, Damage 12-24, Primary Weapon, Piety +10, Sword +10, KO 8%, Kill 2%, Lifesteal Spell (level 6, 18 uses), Set location should be in the cathedral behind the sorceress or in the tomb. MP +1, Sta +1.

Still less damage output than Bloodlust. I'd like it to be Lord's equivalent of Muramasa in terms of power, and remember that Lords don't come with Critical Strike skill.

Oh, one more idea, was supposed to go with sensor gear and enhancing flavour of existing weapons:

Buff Zatoichi Bo (yeah, I know it's already powerful), but make it blind the wielder (not cursed, though). Monk would still shine with it but other weeaboos would have to find some way to work around such malus. Would fit the theme in most excellent manner too.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well shit, I ain't doing the stats of the weapon, increase it man!

Let us know what you think is best!

 

[I_am_Ian]

I'd rather not see any weapon stats changed. I feel the main focus of this mod should be:

1. Increase drop rates of certain items
2. Decrease or eliminate high end weapons, armor and accessories at vendors
3. Make high end weapons, armor and accessories unique with set locations or 100% guarantee drops
4. Increase ammunition bundles to 100

The game is easy enough without making weapons and armor more effective. Just make high end stuff unique so your whole party isn't equipped with Cloaks of Many Colors and Amulets of Healing. Common items like plate mail and enchanted weapons can be duplicated but there should only be one Golden Breastplate, Diamond Eyes or The Mauler in the entire game.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

It's not making weapons and armor more effective. You can take away about 80% of what I wrote, but the core is this: some swords and axes are secondary, more axes, and maces are secondary as well.

 

[hoverdog]

I'd rather not see any weapon stats changed. I feel the main focus of this mod should be:

1. Increase drop rates of certain items
2. Decrease or eliminate high end weapons, armor and accessories at vendors
3. Make high end weapons, armor and accessories unique with set locations or 100% guarantee drops
4. Increase ammunition bundles to 100

The game is easy enough without making weapons and armor more effective. Just make high end stuff unique so your whole party isn't equipped with Cloaks of Many Colors and Amulets of Healing. Common items like plate mail and enchanted weapons can be duplicated but there should only be one Golden Breastplate, Diamond Eyes or The Mauler in the entire game.

Axes absolutely need buffing. Right now nobody uses them.

 

[Grunker]

Also, wasn't the point of this mod to not do like every other Wizmod and make the game harder causing even more grind and less game? The OP's vision is good.

 

[DraQ]

One crucial alteration that should be made - tweaking potion and bomb values so that you generally won't obtain valuable item by combining two cheap ones. Also change some recipes (first and foremost Pandemonium Powder) to ones demanding more powerful ingredients. For PP one of the components should be Devil Dust IMO.

Well shit, I ain't doing the stats of the weapon, increase it man!

Let us know what you think is best!

Well, Muramasa is +4 To Hit, +5 Init, 7 - 28 weapon with 15% kill, designed to be wielded by character with developed critical strike, lot of speed and occassional lightning strike.

If Saint Bastard is to be comparable, class-exclusive weapon it needs some more oomph, especially given that lord has no critical strike, no lightning strike and is likely to be slower.

Maybe give it some interesting status effects in addition to buffing ini, to hit and damage?

Interesting candidates would be:
-turncoat - allows you to "convert" enemies, unexploited by other weapons
-blind - holy light
-fear - fear of God

Small %kill and %K.O might also work in addition to previously mentioned ones, so would AC bonus.

I think that heal all or banish charges would work better than lifesteal.

Also, Ivory blade could use some small buff - nothing drastic, just better status effect - 1% K.O. is kind of meh.
Maybe wider usability too.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Ivory Blade could have a greater initiative and some low-level permanent haste spell.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I don't know if weapons have a Turncoat percentage. Insanity yes, but I don't know about Turncoat.
Blind would be a good weapon.
Fear? Not so much.
Better off being paralyze. Fear, and they run away.
You ever try to catch an enemy that just spent all his actions running? Fucking sucks.
Beyond that, paralyze because it makes evil weak and unable to move in the glory of good, or some such bullshit.
Magic and Stamina regeneration are good because the Lord already has HP regeneration.
A + of some sort to armor class as well would be good.
Give it a maxed out lightning spell, 24 casts available, and you're golden pony boy.
Daemon sword ought to have some sort of bonus.

 

[DraQ]

I don't know if weapons have a Turncoat percentage. Insanity yes, but I don't know about Turncoat.

I'm assuming people at sir-Tech were being good little programmers and allowed for adding any collection of statuses present in game to a weapon rather than hardcoding them case-by-case.

Blind would be a good weapon.
Fear? Not so much.
Better off being paralyze. Fear, and they run away.
You ever try to catch an enemy that just spent all his actions running? Fucking sucks.

1. Enemy runs far more when blinded then while afraid. I suppose it has to do with AI programming - enemy determines that it has shit chance of doing anything useful so relative weights of other actions drop leaving fleeing as preferred one.

2. There is already metric fuckload of paralyzing weapons in Wiz8, the very same Lord will likely be wielding Diamond Eyes in his second hand.

Give it a maxed out lightning spell, 24 casts available, and you're golden pony boy.

Excaliber.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Yeah, ok, what then?
Paralyze- no good. Ok, so what status ailment?

 

[DraQ]

Yeah, ok, what then?
Paralyze- no good. Ok, so what status ailment?

Conversion Turncoat?

 

[I_am_Ian]

I agree there needs to be a wider variety of secondary weapons.

High level axes are actually quite powerful I just thought the problem was their rarity. Nobody uses them because there is very little chance of them actually dropping. If Blades of Aesir or The Ripper were guaranteed finds I would be much more inclined to training my fighter to use axes. Perhaps adjusting the initiative of some axes to make them more desirable would work. Or introducing mid level axes like an enchanted bipennis or battle axe to round out things.

 

[I_am_Ian]

Yeah, ok, what then?
Paralyze- no good. Ok, so what status ailment?

Conversion Turncoat?

I took the liberty of downloading the Cosmic Forge editor and it does not allow the turncoat status affect to be applied to weapons. Pity too, that's a great idea for a holy sword.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Insanity then.

 

[I_am_Ian]

Insanity is great.

Another option is to have the sword able to cast the spell Turncoat. The base stats for Saint Bastard are weak (-1 Init, +2 to hit, 8-16 damage, K.O. 5%) so perhaps a 25% chance of Insanity and the ability to cast turncoat at a high level would be enough to compensate.