Rules Update: Superior Traits

The New Dynamic of “Superior” Traits

With the re-writing of higher lists we are taking the opportunity to make a change in the difference between the Lower List skills and the Higher List skills. This difference is the “Superior” trait.  In general all new Offensive and Defensive skills on the higher lists will have the “Superior” trait.  Keep an eye on all new Higher List abilities to see whether they contain the Superior trait and assess how they function.

Superior attacks, can only be defended against by Superior defenses.  In practice what this will accomplish will be to bridge the gap between mid level and high level characters. It will also in general help to bring back a little bit of fear to the high level characters of the game. Overall they will need to be more aware of their position in battle, because any Superior attacks that target a 80th level character can only be blocked against by Superior defenses… the same number of Superior defenses that a 20th level character would have if they both maxed out.  

On top of this change, Higher Lists will also be broken up into paths that will force the players to make choices. Do you want to be a master warrior that focuses on offense or defense? This also in effect helps to make them more unique, so that not all master warriors are the same.

With this we will be more closely watching how monsters and encounters are sent out.  Random encounters should never have superior skills, unless very deliberately put out by staff for a purpose. Low levels should not have trolls break down their door and hit them with Superior attacks… however if low levels force themselves onto a high level mod, the error is theirs.  We are not promising any new formula, simply stating that we will adjust the way we send out NPCs to fit around this new game dynamic.

All in all we strongly believe this will be a very positive thing for the game environment and we hope that you will either immediately recognize the value of the change, or at the very least discover it and realize it for yourselves after a few months.

Since promotional skills are unique and usable once per event, will they be superior or remain lesser defenses?

Can Nocturne of Undisturbed Dreams negate a superior attack?  (I assume the answer to this is no).

Since promotional skills are unique and usable once per event, will they be superior or remain lesser defenses?

These will stay superior.

Can superior defenses also block non-superior attacks if needed?

Yes.

It is also worth mentioning that part of the plan is that tier 1 higher lists will be made much easier to learn. That is to say that their accessibility will be dramatically increased. No one should ever find themselves hopelessly stonewalled from learning them as the number of teachers for them will be far more abundant and diverse than they are currently.Tier one higher lists are the basics; master warrior,rouge,caster.

Since promotional skills are unique and usable once per event, will they be superior or remain lesser defenses?

These will stay superior.

Since the smith promo is not a skill but an item and you can't obviously make the skills the item possess have the superior trait, do our items stay as is or will a single superior trait be included with them in some form or another?

The unique ability would more than likely be considered a Superior skill.

The unique ability would more than likely be considered a Superior skill.

Ah, so in my case, I'm boned. Gotcha.

As promo skills are considered Superior, how is Holy Word handled when it is used to grant an attack which is not Superior?

Specifically, Holy Word - Blade of Victory

Holy word is not an attack or a defense. It is an augmentation. You huddle everyone together and still give out a dozen+ blade of victories. Blade of victory is non-superior.

Im going to ask everyone to please refrain from sending me requests to turn the non-superior versions of your skills in magical items, into superior versions. We can always consider the possibility in the future, and if we do we will let you know, but for now, having superior skills exist in items sevearly reduces the effectiveness of what we are trying to do.

The concept of bridging the gap between 20th level characters and 80th level characters is based on the idea that they more or less both have access to the same number of superior defenses when maxed out in thier higher lists. If we open the pandoras box of allowing superior abilities into magical items, be they artifacts or not, we then open the door, for an 80th level character to once again have a lot more superior defenses than the 20th levels.

Currently the only superior skills that might be in items (however rare) are "Resist". For now we will probably allow these to be grandfathered, but under no circumstances will we be creating new items with "Resist"or allowing them to be created. We will be removing any ritual that allows valance to be placed into items.

Dodges, Stoneskin, etc, don't need to be changed from what they are, precisely because those skills still exist as they are. The only difference is that we have created new superior attacks that can bypass them. To balance that we have created new superior defenses, to stop those superior attacks.

Let me assure you also that we will take it slow over the next few events, warming everyone into this new dynamic. There will not be a lot of NPC superior attacks flying around, I also do not believe that there is any "Team Evil" around still that will try to PvP with this new dynamic in mind, so don't stress out about that either.

Gypsy Death Curse specifies that only Resist Curse can defend against it.  Is GDC considered Superior, or is it a special case.

Its a special case because even Superior defenses don't block it.

Sean

Random question that I thought of the other day.  Are the dodge's that I get through the Exemplar ritual considered Superior cause they come from a Higher List or regular since they're just a dodge?

The dodge is just a dodge. 

Along the same lines as Mike's question, would Ritual of Chrono Step be superior or remain a lower-list Dodge?

Random question I just thought of.

Chrono step would likely be superior because all it does is a self castable defense.

Are you able to call intercept on a superior skill and take the attack for someone? On that note, can you combine intercept with a superior defense like Repel or Immaculate Defense, or would you have to use skills like Intercede?

You may use a normal intercept to take the effect of a superior attack. From that point you can as well use a superior defense to defend against it.

Ritual of Fear says it gives you two uses of fear, and one 'terror'. Are either or both of these skills going to be superior?

As of now there are no Superior mind effects, so no.

Sean

As of right now, higher list abilities, that give you groups of abilities are not intended to be superior. For instance if there is a higher list transformation skill or ritual that gives you a set of stats, it is likely that non of those stats will be superior.