Shadowdancer Rework

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Richørd
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Shadowdancer Rework

Post by Richørd » Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:01 pm

I would suggest making it so that the Shadowdancer class requires a token and rework the class while doing so.

Why?

My main reasons :
1. There are currently (and feel free to correct me on this) a large number of Shadowdancers on the server and it just feels like there are more and more coming. This could be brushed off as relatively normal when one considers the large amount of human PCs and Arelith being located near the Sword Coast. The human subgroup of the Tethyrians live in that area. A group that is known for having a natural affinity to the plane of Shadows due to their ancestry, therefore being a steady source for Shadowdancers.
2. This is tied to 1. The large number of Shadowdancers made it rather "normal" for people to be able to hide in plain sight, having a shadowy copy of themselves following them and sneaking around. I myself can only remember a handful of times where another PC acted with anything else than a casual shrug (or nothing at all) when my toon manifested his own shadow as a copy of himself next to him. Of course every player decides for themselves how their toon would react to something like that, especially when considering the previously mentioned location of Arelith and it's connection to the Sword Coast. But I believe this can be traced back to the overpopulation of Shadowdancers on Arelith.
3. I don't want any player who reads this to feel like this is aimed at them. There are many PCs I could name here to serve as examples, so I don't want anyone to feel like I am handpicking them out of a pile.
I also do not intend to come off like some snobby "elite RPer" or some crap like that.
But I have the distinct feeling of most Shadowdancers on Arelith not having any sort of real explanation or backstory to how and why they became that class.
Do I think that a player needs to RP a reason and a motivation for why they pick up the Fighter class? Not necessarily, no.
But a prestige class, one with such peculiar skills as the Shadowdancer, should be RPed on a server with a heavy focus on roleplay. That is, at least as far as I am aware, a given. Else we would not need to hide the RDD behind a reward.

Of course it would inrease the workload on the team of Arelith with more people storming the gates, demanding tokens for their SDs and I'm aware of that. This would of course vary depending on how difficult it'd be to access the SD token.
The currently existing large population of Shadowdancers is tied to the nature of the class and how they currently work on Arelith.
Again, I'd like to point something out. I do not intend to make the current design of the Shadowdancer look and sound worse than it is. It is a fun class, so much so that I am going to stick with my current toon, 17 levels into the class, for a long time. But it is fun for some wrong reasons.

To quote the Forgotten Realms Wiki article about Shadowdancers :
"Shadowdancers drew upon the power of the shadows to become a bit like a "super rogue" in that their ability to hide was very potent. As a shadowdancer became more experienced, they could command the shadows to do their bidding."
This perfectly describes what I'd like the Shadowdancer to be from a gameplay perspective.

Currently the class is being picked up mainly for four reasons :
1. To use the "Summon Shadow" companion as a PvE tanking tool.
2. The "Hide in Plain Sight" feat.
3. Access to Shadowdancer-restricted items. (Shadow Choker , Penumbral Vestment)
4. Lastly the RP oportunities this class opens by controlling the Shadow and using the -a command for example.

Out of these four only one and a half reasons are related to the SD being a "super rogue" that utilizes the shadows. One is the "HiPS" feat and the other half are the RP oportunities.

Having a extra-durable summon to guard you in PvE is not something that I see a "super sneak" doing.
This reminds me more of a ranger's animal companion.
And the SD-restricted items are nice but besides providing superb stats they bring nothing a SD would really need. Shadowshield on the Penumbral Vestment is a nice buff to have handily available, but that is more tied to the Shadowshield being a generally good ward and not because it provides something that's specifically usefull to a SD. So dipping five levels into the Shadowdancer class is something I see as being a standard to pick up the HiPS and the ability to carry those neat items.


So these are my suggested gameplay changes for a potential Shadowdancer rework. They will put a heavy focus on making the SD more of a dodgy class that excels at sneaking instead of the PvE-Tank / Solo-Class it currently is. Reward the SD for struggling with the class through it's now weaker early levels and sticking with it to it's epic levels where the Epic Shadowlord feat awaits.

-Make the "super rogue" less noisy : The SD specific feats should not have the SD chant a spell as he uses them. The main offenders to this are "Summon Shadow" and "Shadow Evade".

-Sneaking : The SD should profit from the increased sneaking speed the Rogue class recieved in it's relatively recent changes. The CL of the SD and Rogue would be combined to measure what threshhold of the movespeedbonus your character unlocks.

-Shadow Haze : Set it to a cooldown system instead the current Use-per-Rest mechanic.

-Summon Shadow : Remove the -guard function from the Shadow. Make it less of a tankbeast. Reduce it's HP pool while retaining the concealment %, DR and the HP/round regeneration. The Shadow keeps it's current classification and level progression. Damage and visuals remain unchanged pre-Epic Shadowlord.

-Shadow Evade : Cooldown starting once the Shadow Evade runs out instead of the current Use-per-Rest mechanic. Increase the concealment it gives. Remove the damage reduction pre-Epic Shadowlord. Remove the AC at early SD levels, Dodge-AC is provided as before once the SD reaches classlevel 11 or higher. Shadow Evade provides a bonus to Move Silently and Hide. (A flat bonus, not affected by the cap, scaling with the SD CL).

-Epic Shadowlord : A big one, spliting it's bonuses up into subsections.
-They look all the same! : The Shadow(s) , as they do now , copy the soundset, description and visuals of the SD. This should also include the visual glow effects of weapon essences (not buffs, only essences). If possible it should also copy the cloak of the SD (I assume this has just been an issue with the game itself, not an active design decision).
-Summon Shadow : The Shadow copies the stats of the SD that summons it, as it currently does. It also copies the Move Silently / Hide skill and AttackBonus of the SD. Overall the Shadow should , as mentioned before, have the same concealment % and HP/round regeneration but be more threatened by spells due to the lower HP pool.
-Hide in Plain Sight : Upon activating it in combat the SD summons a second, temporary Shadow on his spot. This temporary Shadow copies the HP pool, concealment %, DR, HP/round regeneration of the "main Shadow" and it also copies the appearance, soundset and description of the SD. This Shadow is set to attack the nearest enemy upon being summoned and serves as a temporary, aditional distraction. It lasts for only a few rounds (I'm thinking about 2 to 3 rounds) and deals no damage.
-Shadow Evade : Add the DR it has now, it becomes a toggle-effect.

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Irongron
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Re: Shadowdancer Rework

Post by Irongron » Thu Dec 06, 2018 2:26 pm

Suggestions like this really are a ton of work, and almost always require a lot of changes from the original suggestion.

Your suggestions are a good reference point should a rework of the class be on the horizon, and so I hope it gets refered to should that day come.

Still, Shadowdancer is not currently on any to-do list.

Rejected.

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