Does anyone else absolutely /HATE/ HLA's and wish there was a mod to remove them from the game?
Ballad
Member Posts: 205
As per topic. I'm currently at that particular point in the game where my party has breached the original level cap and consequently gained access to High Level Abilities. Now, every time I level up, I feel like I'm forced to enter a cheat code against my will. A couple of levels from now my characters will have become so powerful that I might just as well CTRL+Y everything and save myself the time.
Sure, there are some neat, well thought out HLA's, such as the extra spell slots, Alchemy, Scribe Scrolls and even Use Any Item. These abilities have a lot of utilitarian value and are powerful in their own right, but not game breakingly so. But then there is stuff like Greater Whirlwind, Critical Strike, Assassination and Time and Spike Trap. And let's not even get started on the level 10 wizard spells - ESPECIALLY "Summon Planetar/Dark Planetar."
Or actually, scratch that and let me rant some about Planetars. These creatures are obscenely, gamebreakingly overpowered. I'm running SCS and I'm not sure if that makes them even cheesier, but whenever either party in a fight summons one, the fight is basically over for the other side. A lot of times, the Planetar is actually more powerful than the wizard summoning it. When confronting the Twisted Rune in Chapter 6, I managed to take out Shangalar and co quite easily but still lost the fight due to the Fallen Planetar the old bag of bones summoned before snuffing it. Globe of Blades, PfMW, Improved Haste, instacast Heals and godlike combat abilities all in one summoning spell? Whoever came up with that and thought it fit well with the rest of the game? Honestly, when I discovered it is also immune to death spell contrary to being a summoned creature, I wasn't even that surprised anymore.
Overall, the worst part about Planetars and other HLA's is that they make most other spells and abilities seem second rate in comparison. Why bother casting improved Haste when you can just slam Greater Whirlwind all day long? Why bother using a spellcasting strategy other than Time Stop -> Improved Alacrity when it's all you need to win 9 fights out of 10? And, why, oh why would I bother summoning any other creature again once I have access to Planetars? It is almost as if some Bioware developer looked at the wonderfully complex, intricately balanced system of spells and abilities that was SoA and thought, that's too many spells, let's have like, 9.
/rant end
Sure, there are some neat, well thought out HLA's, such as the extra spell slots, Alchemy, Scribe Scrolls and even Use Any Item. These abilities have a lot of utilitarian value and are powerful in their own right, but not game breakingly so. But then there is stuff like Greater Whirlwind, Critical Strike, Assassination and Time and Spike Trap. And let's not even get started on the level 10 wizard spells - ESPECIALLY "Summon Planetar/Dark Planetar."
Or actually, scratch that and let me rant some about Planetars. These creatures are obscenely, gamebreakingly overpowered. I'm running SCS and I'm not sure if that makes them even cheesier, but whenever either party in a fight summons one, the fight is basically over for the other side. A lot of times, the Planetar is actually more powerful than the wizard summoning it. When confronting the Twisted Rune in Chapter 6, I managed to take out Shangalar and co quite easily but still lost the fight due to the Fallen Planetar the old bag of bones summoned before snuffing it. Globe of Blades, PfMW, Improved Haste, instacast Heals and godlike combat abilities all in one summoning spell? Whoever came up with that and thought it fit well with the rest of the game? Honestly, when I discovered it is also immune to death spell contrary to being a summoned creature, I wasn't even that surprised anymore.
Overall, the worst part about Planetars and other HLA's is that they make most other spells and abilities seem second rate in comparison. Why bother casting improved Haste when you can just slam Greater Whirlwind all day long? Why bother using a spellcasting strategy other than Time Stop -> Improved Alacrity when it's all you need to win 9 fights out of 10? And, why, oh why would I bother summoning any other creature again once I have access to Planetars? It is almost as if some Bioware developer looked at the wonderfully complex, intricately balanced system of spells and abilities that was SoA and thought, that's too many spells, let's have like, 9.
/rant end
4
Comments
I editted my own game reduced planetar's spells and resistances and stats to match with pnp counterparts, and reduced the duration of summoning to 10 rounds, just like an elemental prince. Much more balanced.
OT: Yeah, a lot of the HLAs are overpowered. But, with the new HLA tool that @subtledoctor created, one can now make more balanced HLAs. In fact, iirc, @Grammarsalad and crew are modifying Cleric HLAs in Faiths and Powers, to make those more balanced.
To reiterate my point, I don't think HLA's make the game balanced in or against your favor. What they do is water down the game's combat system, making it much less interesting. Whereas previously you would use a wide number of spells/strategies, with HLA's you only end up using a couple. And you pretty much have to since your enemies do the same. It all becomes a question of who gets the nuke off first. It really doesn't make for thrilling combat if you ask me, but hey, to each their own.
http://www.lomion.de/cmm/aasiplan.php
They are supposed to be immune to lightning and cold, don't remember if the vanilla one has those. But only %50 resistant to fire. In the game they are immune to fire so I dropped their resistance to fire to 50c Which is a huge nerf. Interestingly, they are supposed to require +4 to hit, and have immunity to imprisonment:I did not implement those (and can't even implement easily)
Note that some of your opponents will still have HLAs, though, especially in ToB.
Planetars aren't quite strong enough to solo SoA if you have SCS installed, though they come close. They're not tough enough to take on dragons, and Mind Flayers and Beholders can both paralyze them until their duration runs out. Certain enemies will also gladly Imprison them.
These days, enemy Planetars are much easier to deal with, since EE's Enchanted Weapon can let Darts of Stunning or Kuo-toa Bolts strike as +3 weapons and therefore stun-lock Planetars. Teleport Field and kiting are also very effective, since Planetars have no ranged weapons. They'll still hassle you with Fire Storms, Chaos, and Symbol spells, but at least they won't be able to dispel your buffs or land a vorpal strike with their melee attack.
A. I don't disagree that they're overpowered
and
B. They aren't directly relevant to the quality of the demon spells.
Neither is anything else you mentioned about other alternatives, so I'd appreciate if you got off the soapbox. There may be a need to replace the Planetar, but I'd rather it be something that you can use without effectively getting kill-stealed.
I find the unbalanced weapon style system more crippling than the unbalanced HLAs.
Once you reach a certain level you get a perk. You don't get to choose what it is. As you level up you don't pick "OK this level I'm going to pick to increase my backstab multiplier". Feats in D&D 3 are cool and are built into the deal but this is 2e. I prefer 3E but this is 2E and that means you don't pick your powers aside from whatever you want to put in your spellbook.
Like a level 20 fighter could get power attack and a level 20 thief could get use any item. 5 levels later another power should be unlocked. Something like that.
Compare a thief to a wizard and tell me that UAI is overpowered. Or a thief to a cleric or fighter or etc..etc.. yes it's good but again it's not like it suddenly makes thief way better than other classes.