Suggestions to balance a high magic server using PRC

[Legacy_omen_shepperd]

               I wanted to ask the community for their tips, opinions,
advice, and suggestions for balancing a high magic world. I do not want to nerf
anything per say, as I would rather alter things so they balance better. One example
is I plan to set true seeing so it does not see people hiding automatically. It
would instead set a spot bonus. I am using the PRC and CEP both current versions.  I wanted to leave all classes and prestige
classes intact from the PRC if possible. I do plan to use a number of the
switches in the PRC to set things to my likening. If anyone could please offer
any advice, it would be greatly welcomed.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par omen_shepperd, 22 mai 2011 - 06:10 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_kalbaern]

               A "spam timer" on HiPs as well as spells like IGM (and the lesser version), Timestop and possibly some of the Bigby's spells can usually help.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Aleron]

               Wow. That's some project.

Off hand the first thing that comes to mind are fighters and rangers. The regular classes become almost completely superfulous since the PRC adds better versions that completely overshadow both. The "Ultimate Ranger" is the 3.5 version essentially and all around better. As for fighter, you'll probably never see one take more than 6 levels (epic specialization) due to certain other classes being immensely more powerful (the ones from the Book of Nine Swords come to mind.

Unless these classes get something big, they pretty much get left behind immediately. Speaking as a builder who is adapting the latest PRC for our world too lol.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_omen_shepperd]

               Thank you both for the suggestions so far. I planned to add a number of fighting powers and abilities that act like spells. You will need to do different quests to gain the powers and such but I think the system I found and will be using adds a number of these for the fighting classes.  
I want to allow enchantment on weapons up to +20 and I wanted to limit the AC bonus that could either be enchanted onto or found in loot to somewhere around +10 to+15 so as to try and give fighters a chance to hit those classes that grant AC bonus from another attribute than dex.
I also wanted to limit immunities, I am not allowing immune to critical or sneak attack on any item. I was debating with myself if I should allow the other miscellaneous immunities to be found in the loot. As far as immunities to the different damages go I would allow all but divine and magic to be found.
I am open to any other suggestions anyone else can think of. '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Aleron]

               That is one way to do it. Just to warn you that it won't be much help though if everyone can get those +20 sort of weapons and such. Something you might consider is adding tumble as a class skill to the base fighter and ranger class. It would help make up for some of the AC they lose out on. Possibly spot and listen so they can potentially notice that rogue about to gouge out their backside.

Another idea is making them worth taking over 20. Say for every 3 levels over 20 the fighter gains an extra point of AC or attack or damage with all weapons. Maybe an extra ability point in str or dex or con.

The only other thing that came to mind is the maze spell. It's a no save spell that can keep someone occupied from one round to up to 10 minutes. Wouldn't be something a PC would enjoy being hit with (10 minutes possibly waiting...). The only way out is a DC 20 intelligence check. For our server we are adding a will save and reducing the max duration. For you guys, you might want to leave it with no save but change it to a max of 2 minutes or something. Worth thinking over at least.

Oh! And something possibly abusable is the exalted/corrupt spells. Each time you cast one your alignment shifts 10 towards good (exalted)/evil (corrupt). Noticed this in my testing. You may want to remove that.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shadooow]

               Want my advice? forget about pvp balance, as long as your server is not a pvp arena it has no sense. Otherwise you will probably have to disable some classes in some point as we do. I had PRC server too, and after some time we had to disable almost all races and many classes.

The ECL penalty on races is no big deal so we had to disable them all. Cos when we disabled rakshasas, players switched to pixies, then to ogres, then to minotaurs....

We had to disable Lichs and Baelnors cos the server was full of then (baelnors were favored after we disabled lich) and many classes due to bugs - Shifter (pnp) and all Psionic as their power totally ruined playing (like total dispell that dispells properties on all items or invisibility that dont goes away after attack).

And now you are probably using the newer version of PRC that has much more classes so there will be even more imba classes/feats/spells.

All I can say is that after one year we run the mod with PRC, in the end we decided that we will make our own lite PRC that will include only stuff we like. Cos even if you disable everything you dont like, those workarounds/issues will still remain etc...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TSMDude]

               

omen_shepperd wrote...

  I wanted to leave all classes and prestige
classes intact from the PRC if possible.

Then balance will not be possible as even the PRC states that some of these classes are unbalancing. It is not possible to balance it without nerfing and tweaking and is one of those things that is best taken with a grain of salt.

 Bob the Powergamer will find a way to beat the system sooner or later as Bob likes to slash Sally the Role Player. It is in Bob's nature to do this. Do not yell at Bob but just know Bob will figure out a way to kill Sally sooner or later.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_omen_shepperd]

               Maybe I should rephrase this; I want to include all the classes and prestige classes. If I need to make adjustments to ensure things can be balanced, I would rather make a necessary adjustment to a class rather than remove it. I do see your point TSMDude, I wanted to include a PVP arena for players to duel and whatnot, but as for PVP elsewhere, I planned to turn it off in all but a couple of areas meant for battling.
The PVP aspect is third in my book, as I would rather build a world with a story first and work on player character storyline development for my server. It will be in social due to subject material and at a Later point a couple of haks i plan to add. I really enjoy telling the story aspect of gaming so my focuses are elsewhere.