Body Ratio Adjustment

I'm honestly not going to worry about a giant influx of ogre fighters because of the new rules. If they do, then so be it. Min-Maxing is always a possibility, and it is dependent on the player and how they want to play. I'm confident that there are going to be many elven fighters in game, even if the body racial ratio is appalling.

Slay actually doesn't have a damage cap anymore. Its a straight death effect.

The only "go directly to crit" skills that have damage caps are the lower list ones (Death Poison, Harvest Your Soul, and Grant Death)

A human warrior with 90 build in body should have about 150 body.
An elven warrior with 90 build in body should have about 123 body.

So it is less, but not as drastic as the language people are using to describe it.

I am convinced there will not be an influx of ogres... the limitations on professions and the x2 from the very common magic is a downer for most people.

Being an elf who lost 25% of their body, I can firmly say... WHO CARES!
I played this game for 7 years with only 2 body. It felt great to be terrified by anyone who could swing a weapon.
You get to lie there on the ground and watch the combat from a front row seat. I wouldn't recommend this if you are a drow at night however.

I don't really see this as an opportunity to power game. If anything I think the new system is a detriment to power gamers. I also firmly do not believe that it will end all RP. Will there be power gamers? OF course. Name me one game where there isn't a power gamer and I will finally have found that unicorn I have been looking for. When I make a character, I have a concept in mind. I think about look, personality, backstory, and then I think about what races and jobs fit the concept. I don't even begin to look at numbers until I have all those factors set. Then I make my character. I don't think about what is going to make me the most powerful at endgame, I just make a person and then provide them with stats and abilities.

There seems to be this mindset where people walk up and feel obligated to tell you what you should take, what list you should get next. I have people constantly telling me I should get x spell, more hp or dp, some random skill or my favorite: I should take a melee weapon so I can be more versatile. Someone always seems to think that I seem to be fairly oblivious about how to make the most powerfully efficient character ever. Sometimes it's fun not to be the most efficient. Sometimes it's fun to rely on others and remember that it is a team effort and not a solo enterprise. If I don't have a lot of body, I have friends who can pick me up. If I am not the greatest at melee, I have friends who can step in front of me, people that can block while I shoot or someone who can keep an eye on my back. Relying on other players and working as a team accomplishes so much more than trying to be the master of everything. And when it all boils down to it, actual skill is far more useful than stats any day of the week.

These rules have just been implemented. It is hard to say how it will go down until actual gameplay. I am looking forward to seeing how this works out. As someone who has helped write LARPs and a tabletop, rules tend to get tweaked and overhauled after seeing them in play. Things may change and evolve to help with game balance. ALl we can really do is sit back and relax as things get implemented.

And one last tiny thing. I am not putting down the Power Gamer mentality. I am not one, but I sure have mastered the art of Min-Maxing.

I can't really say that the new system has hurt my body total (it actually increased it), but I don't think that dulls my opinion any.

Sure, Ogres might have a huge body ratio. They also require body paint, fangs, and other facial prosthetics. They ALSO get treated like dirt by a great deal of other races. They ALSO ALSO take double damage from magic, so that 1.2 ratio of theirs? Make it an effective 0.6 against anyone with a +0 Magic sword. The only racial popularity change I might see this bringing out, is that Barbarians could outshine their Kormyrian cousins as the default choice for newer players who want to be Human, or for people wishing to play a Dragoon.

Races have their ups and downs to them. Lower body ratios usually come at the benefit of superior racial abilities and class-choices, and a good deal of the beefier 1.1+ races require extensive makeup to play and have limited or no options available to them for casting (with the exception of Jaxuarians, but they're a capped race with an extremely low population in the game).

It's a shame you got hit so badly though Diane, I do think that Selendrians should be slightly more robust than their magic-focused cousins, maybe with a .9 ratio instead, but I don't know if that would really help your predicament either, I feel as though bumping the ratio up .1 won't give you that huge of a gain.

Also, in the case of kill-skills being too good now, you underestimate how good status effects are. Slay will kill someone outright, sure, but severing or breaking their primary fighting limb will generally do the job just as easily. A Stun is just as potent as any kill skill. A 1 minute Daze from a caster pretty much ensures you're going to go down unless they run out of points. There's a great many interesting and exciting ways to kill someone, you just gotta choose what does it best for you.

No system can be perfect. If it's better for most people, I think it's fair for the change to be considered an improvement.

I love the new system! yes I too have been affected by the change, but I think its whats best for the game... and I think people are forgetting that all changes are for the best of the game and its players, As I stated before this was a long time coming. But with change some will have problems with it, and some will embrace it fully. Stop looking at the Numbers and see the truth of the future of the game.

I for one am happy with this change. Yeah it did help me with body slightly but that's nothing. For once i feel as though Psions will be usefull and not over looked along with mages who do not have the fire sphere. Yeah the body drop to some races are hard but then again thats what makes getting into your characters mind that much more. As for Min/Maxing well you can do that in almost any RPG or Larp if you know the rules well enough. For the longest time I only had 5 body and that was because when I started a lot of creatures would swing for 4 damage. Even with the 5 body I never had much fear, but now with the changes going on I have a feeling ill be more likely not to travel alone. Besides having fear is the best as it makes you make decisions quicker and jump into what the character would do. We need to give this a try.

If you find an MMO or table top that has equal body between all races let me know, I have yet to find one.