Dwarven defender -- defining their defender role

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Opustus
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Dwarven defender -- defining their defender role

Post by Opustus » Wed Aug 08, 2018 4:23 pm

I volunteer myself for testing and other work involved (my know-how of coding is nil). The suggestion can be adapted, if there are parts that should be salvaged. I also want to point out that I understand the DwD is a class constrained to a single race and if it is therefore lower priority.

I think that the main problem with the DwD is not that they would be inferior to other fighter-type builds in pure PvE/PvP power. Rather, it is that playing a DwD doesn't signal that one's character is, indeed, a Dwarven defender, this near-legendary awe-inspiring bastard of a wall whom the wee hairy children look up to and want to be when they grow up, whom the common folk rely upon in their time of need, whom the Dwarven holds revere as the toughest and steadfastest elite of warriors within the martial tradition. Beside damage reduction and sneak immunity, the class currently lacks distinguishing characteristics to make them the dwarven defenders that the lore makes them out to be.

While many seem to argue that the class should do with a blatant buff, I argue that the class should be given a feature to distinguish it from other warrior-type builds so it can stand out as a class of its own. Playing a Dwarven defender should feel prestigious and do away with the pretenders who claim to be dwarven defenders without the class levels as simple Fighter/WM builds and such.

Beef

The suggestions are aimed at one thing: to provide the DwDs a unique and interactive mechanic, which makes the DwD able to defend others more efficiently but also encourages them to team up with other DwDs. The challenge rating is meant to describe the general amount of work involved with making the change happen.

[Challenge rating 3-4 out of 5]
1. The -guard mechanic is a centrepiece of PvM. The Dwarven defender is able to -guard two characters. An epic Dwarven defender is able to -guard three characters.

Using the -guard command strengthens the Dwarven defender's resolve; the defence of others is the Dwarven defender's ultimate calling. The Dwarven defender is granted the following bonuses while actively* -guarding: +Will, +dodge AC, +Discipline, +Concentration. Guarding more than one character does not grant additional bonuses. The bonus increases by 1 every four DwD levels: level 1-4 +1, level 5-8 +2, level 9-12 +3, 13-16 +4, 17-20 +5.

Actively -guarding means that the -guarding Dwarven defender provokes an enemy to attack herself instead of the -guarded character. This functionality effectively disables the bonuses from PvP, as +5 AC might be quite powerful.

Design note: This pushes the role of the DwD in PvM towards that of a tank. The bonus to will is mostly for an RP touch (although not useless), whereas the bonuses to AC, Discipline, and Concentration actually enable the DwD to -guard others more effectively. The Concentration bonus is useful for battle clerics and spellswords.

Actively -guarding means that the -guarding Dwarven defender provokes an enemy to attack herself instead of the -guarded character. This functionality effectively disables the bonuses from PvP, as +5 AC might be quite powerful.

[Challenge rating 3-4 out of 5]
2. Dwarven defenders have undergone rigorous training. To deploy their most refined techniques, the Dwarven defenders require coordination with other Dwarven defenders on the field of battle.

For every friendly Dwarven defender within 20 feet (or 6 metres), the Dwarven defender is granted +AB, damage and reflex up to the maximum of 2 bonus.

Design note: This is a blatant buff, but it encourages the Dwarven defenders to seek each other and act together, hopefully leading to more Dwarven defender RP. The bonuses are capped for obvious reasons. The buff is given to AB and damage, because these are the departments Dwarven defenders currently lack in; however, even this is limited to only 2. It makes the class a worthwhile investment for other builds, such as Dwarven defender Rogues, Clerics, and so on. This broadens the DwD build palette from that of a simple damage reduction build, which I think is something the players tend to enjoy.

[Challenge rating 1-2 out of 5]
3. The epic Dwarven defender is a fearless warrior and the picture of health. At level 11, the Dwarven defender gains the feats Aura of Courage and Perfect Health.

Design note: This is a thematic buff. I am unsure if the Aura of Courage actually protects from Arelith fear, such as the Barbarian, PDK, and dragon fear aura; as such, it would be rather powerful. Perfect Health, on the other hand, is an immunity from Assassin poisons, which I'd imagine can be useful in the job of a defender.

[Challenge rating 1-2 out of 5]
4. The Dwarven defender is a master of withstanding punishment. As many Dwarven defenders become hardened to physical damage, so do they harden themselves to elemental damage.

At levels 3, 5, 7 and 9, the Dwarven defender gains resist energy to fire, cold, electricity and acid, respectively. At levels 13, 15, 17 and 19, the Dwarven defender gains the epic energy resists for the same elements.

Design note: This is mainly a buff to PvE, as most offensive spells used in PvP target either saves or are magical damage. Energy resists stack with other sources of elemental DR, but not with itself; the epic resist effectively replaces the regular one. This brings the mechanic of shrugging off damage a wee bit further without being intrinsically problematic (more of this later). Out of the resist damage types, the fire and acid are the most powerful ones, granting more defence against Acid sheath and Fire shield; a level 19 DwD could effectively have 20/- and 50% immunity to acid damage with full Chitin gear.

Problems with pushing damage immunity

I really enjoy the theme of Dwarven defenders being able to shrug off injury. However, the buffing of damage immunity through levels is a precarious path to tread balancewise, because of three reasons. 1) It restrains DwD builds to damage reduction. 2) It's an easily overpowered mechanic that scales out of control. 3) It encourages the problematic tactic of elemental shielding for damage.

A character with 40 damage per hit and 100 criticals would currently hit a fully dedicated DwD for: [basic attack vs. 10% immune and 21 DR] 40 damage - 4 damage - 21 damage = 15 damage. With 10% more immune, you can see how it becomes untenable: 40 damage - 8 damage - 21 damage = 11 damage. With critical hit, it looks even more dire: 100 - 10 - 21 = 69 damage OR 100 - 20 - 21 = 59 damage. The buffing of the DR mechanic encourages the problematic tactic of using damage shields, which is difficult to balance. If the shielder can deal more damage than is dealt to her simply by means of the elemental shields, it becomes the more powerful mechanic and leads to a war of attrition with elemental shields galore. Currently, the DR21 build is effectively immune to sneak attackers, which is already quite scary and there isn't a long way to immunity from builds with a slightly higher damage output than that.

I believe the damage reduction should be kept in check, working more as a secondary trait of a build rather than the primary. The functionality of fighter-type characters should be based on a game of AC/AB/damage with DR as a sidenote. EDIT: Although here it is worthwhile to point out that the barbarian currently does as good a job soaking up damage as DwD (given they invest the EDRIII) due to their +10% physical damage immunity, while still remaining as healthy as DwD and more offensive than DwD.

Another idea for "fixing" the class

1. Give DwD Fighter bonus progression and meld it with Fighter levels. Essentially, the regular Rogue4/Fighter8/DwD18 would be given a +6 AC, +2 damage and AB, +2 soft DEX and STR buff, making it competitive with or potentially stronger than builds like Brycer and Fighter/WM. Builds with DwD5 for full BAB and sneak immunity would be granted +1 AC. Most other builds would get +2 AC and +1 soft DEX and STR (e.g. Fighter6/DwD5/Rogue19). Design-wise, this is rather boring and doesn't really separate the DwD from other types of melee builds. Further, I don't consider the "inferior power level" of DwD its biggest issue and this fix would not resolve it.

2. Buffing Defensive stance. From what little I know, the Defensive stance is a horribly clunky thing to design a class around. There are currently better alternatives in Expertise and Improved expertise, which many have opted for. For builds without the room for the two feats, Defensive stance is an adequate substitute. I have no clue how one would go about this in terms of coding.
Characters: all poor babies suffering from neglect

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