Alright so continuing in the vain of the newcomers experience, I want to talk about being a Cleric on the server. I am at present ungeared. Just putting all cards on the table, I have a few items of course. But I’m far from having a good combo of gear for the server… as any new level 5 should be.
This article is also going to touch on several aspects of the established design of the server. Its also going to address the gap between “faithful adaptation” and video game Pathfinder.
I’m a long time NWNs player. I bought the game in 2002. So while your perfectly justified in the position that I don’t know the server well enough yet, I do wish to state I have been doing this a little while now. I mostly play Clerics because I am of the opinion that Clerics and their gods bring a very important religious element to a server. Though generally despised by many in the last few years, religion is a powerful source of motivation, roleplay, conflict, and narrative that when properly used can enrich a setting both in books, and in games like this one.
Clarity about Clerics
Mechanically the purpose of the Cleric class in NWNs is to be a support class for a party. The Cleric is a parties safety net. They provide healing for when you take too much damage, and they have the ability to remove various conditions you might become inflicted with. Finally a Cleric is a force multiplayer. However on this server none of these functions work.
Clerical Healing
Because of the Low AC on this server, the amount of damage a party presently takes in each battle completely exhaust all a clerics healing after the first encounter. One fight and all your healing spells would be needed to restore the party so it would be back to HQ to rest. However we have an abundance of healing on this server in the form of powerful potions which will generally restore a level 5 to near full health. The potions are cheap...ish? I use a lot I don’t want to say cheap. But the point is the Cleric is not needed for healing because of the abundance of healing potions.
Incidentally “healing” and “HP” are the two BIGGEST factors for server difficulty. Lower access to healing turns an adventure run into a war of attrition. Each hit even if minor wares you down, saps the parties resources a little more. And the dungeon crawl becomes a marathon of resource management. At least… in my opinion this is how it should be. Some servers like Arelith negate this with an abundance of healing items. Or the worse balance breaking item of all… +1 Regeneration. Which completely negates all attrition mechanics.
Clerical Wonder Cures
The second thing that is not working on this server are what I call Clerical Cures. By “cure” I mean all the Clerics restoration abilities. Now this is not quite as bad as the healing issue, but its an issue because Heals and Cures are competing for the same spell slots. This quickly becomes aggravated by the over abundance of “condition” effect that monsters inflict on players. I’m mostly talking Kobold’s because I have not seen the other yet.
Kobolds inflict the follow. Poison which leads to debuffs. Blindness which is uber powerful because you cannot even see or target anyone when you are blind. And energy drain which is strength damage. Once blinded your 100% helpless. And every time we have encountered a mage we seem to get hit with these, We get poisoned etc… the Cleric is ready for all these occurrences. But only once or twice. After that they are out of spells and your down to potions. With each encounter in the writ hitting you with all of these… the Cleric is good for maybe two fights at best before they are turned into nothing more than a second rate fighter.
Clerical Support
Clerics are not fighters, their combat abilities are only second rate. But Clerics are the best support class in the game! And they are ready to turn a good party into a GREAT Party! Except it seems on this server…
Normally they have prayers, and dooms to buff and debuff friends and enemies. But all of that is dependent upon those buffs staying on the party. A buff that does not last long is useless. At present all such buffs are 1 minuets a level. Now I’ve been told this is how it works in pathfinder Pen and Paper. But at this point I need to make a very very important point.
This is NOT Pen and Paper, this is a video game. A quick example of what I mean. If you and I were playing Pen and Paper and doing the Kobold Writ. We would not finish it in a single 5-6 hour game session. We would have an hour long Roleplay getting to the sewers, and then the fights would start. Each fight following in turn order would take 1 to 1.5 hours each. Each player taking their turn, choosing their action. Moving on the battle map. The DM moving the kobolds casting spells etc… Players not paying attention. Getting up for the bathroom etc…
Which means in 5-6 hours we would likely get through three fights at most.
Now.. in that same 5-6 hours online using the computer to do all that burdensome math for us, we could do 20-30 of these combat! Back to back encounter after encounter as long as the players can stay focused. But here comes the problem. Pen and Paper was not created for that many fights. The daily spell allowance is assuming your going to have 2-3 major encounters and then rest. Not 20 encounters between rests. There are just not enough spells.
What this means is that the Cleric does not actually function on most servers in their primary role as a healer and curer of conditions. They just don’t have enough spells to do that! Instead the Cleric mostly works on most servers as the buffer. Why? Because buff spell spells last the longest. A level two darkness spell will plunge an area into 50% concealment which is bad for the bad guys if you also have ultra vision. But that only works once.
But Bulls strength, Cats Grace, or Bears Endurance will last 20-30 minutes or longer on most servers! In terms of usefulness your talking getting bonuses for multiple combats instead of just a single battle. So those level 2 spell slots are far better used with Animal spells than something like Darkness spells.
Except not on this server… With the duration of those spells being 1 minuet per character level, a 5th level cleric can boost your strength for 5 minuets. That enough for one fight if there is any RP afterwards. And this is a roleplaying crowd I think. Players react to battles! (Great job people seriously!)
This article is also going to touch on several aspects of the established design of the server. Its also going to address the gap between “faithful adaptation” and video game Pathfinder.
I’m a long time NWNs player. I bought the game in 2002. So while your perfectly justified in the position that I don’t know the server well enough yet, I do wish to state I have been doing this a little while now. I mostly play Clerics because I am of the opinion that Clerics and their gods bring a very important religious element to a server. Though generally despised by many in the last few years, religion is a powerful source of motivation, roleplay, conflict, and narrative that when properly used can enrich a setting both in books, and in games like this one.
Clarity about Clerics
Mechanically the purpose of the Cleric class in NWNs is to be a support class for a party. The Cleric is a parties safety net. They provide healing for when you take too much damage, and they have the ability to remove various conditions you might become inflicted with. Finally a Cleric is a force multiplayer. However on this server none of these functions work.
Clerical Healing
Because of the Low AC on this server, the amount of damage a party presently takes in each battle completely exhaust all a clerics healing after the first encounter. One fight and all your healing spells would be needed to restore the party so it would be back to HQ to rest. However we have an abundance of healing on this server in the form of powerful potions which will generally restore a level 5 to near full health. The potions are cheap...ish? I use a lot I don’t want to say cheap. But the point is the Cleric is not needed for healing because of the abundance of healing potions.
Incidentally “healing” and “HP” are the two BIGGEST factors for server difficulty. Lower access to healing turns an adventure run into a war of attrition. Each hit even if minor wares you down, saps the parties resources a little more. And the dungeon crawl becomes a marathon of resource management. At least… in my opinion this is how it should be. Some servers like Arelith negate this with an abundance of healing items. Or the worse balance breaking item of all… +1 Regeneration. Which completely negates all attrition mechanics.
Clerical Wonder Cures
The second thing that is not working on this server are what I call Clerical Cures. By “cure” I mean all the Clerics restoration abilities. Now this is not quite as bad as the healing issue, but its an issue because Heals and Cures are competing for the same spell slots. This quickly becomes aggravated by the over abundance of “condition” effect that monsters inflict on players. I’m mostly talking Kobold’s because I have not seen the other yet.
Kobolds inflict the follow. Poison which leads to debuffs. Blindness which is uber powerful because you cannot even see or target anyone when you are blind. And energy drain which is strength damage. Once blinded your 100% helpless. And every time we have encountered a mage we seem to get hit with these, We get poisoned etc… the Cleric is ready for all these occurrences. But only once or twice. After that they are out of spells and your down to potions. With each encounter in the writ hitting you with all of these… the Cleric is good for maybe two fights at best before they are turned into nothing more than a second rate fighter.
Clerical Support
Clerics are not fighters, their combat abilities are only second rate. But Clerics are the best support class in the game! And they are ready to turn a good party into a GREAT Party! Except it seems on this server…
Normally they have prayers, and dooms to buff and debuff friends and enemies. But all of that is dependent upon those buffs staying on the party. A buff that does not last long is useless. At present all such buffs are 1 minuets a level. Now I’ve been told this is how it works in pathfinder Pen and Paper. But at this point I need to make a very very important point.
This is NOT Pen and Paper, this is a video game. A quick example of what I mean. If you and I were playing Pen and Paper and doing the Kobold Writ. We would not finish it in a single 5-6 hour game session. We would have an hour long Roleplay getting to the sewers, and then the fights would start. Each fight following in turn order would take 1 to 1.5 hours each. Each player taking their turn, choosing their action. Moving on the battle map. The DM moving the kobolds casting spells etc… Players not paying attention. Getting up for the bathroom etc…
Which means in 5-6 hours we would likely get through three fights at most.
Now.. in that same 5-6 hours online using the computer to do all that burdensome math for us, we could do 20-30 of these combat! Back to back encounter after encounter as long as the players can stay focused. But here comes the problem. Pen and Paper was not created for that many fights. The daily spell allowance is assuming your going to have 2-3 major encounters and then rest. Not 20 encounters between rests. There are just not enough spells.
What this means is that the Cleric does not actually function on most servers in their primary role as a healer and curer of conditions. They just don’t have enough spells to do that! Instead the Cleric mostly works on most servers as the buffer. Why? Because buff spell spells last the longest. A level two darkness spell will plunge an area into 50% concealment which is bad for the bad guys if you also have ultra vision. But that only works once.
But Bulls strength, Cats Grace, or Bears Endurance will last 20-30 minutes or longer on most servers! In terms of usefulness your talking getting bonuses for multiple combats instead of just a single battle. So those level 2 spell slots are far better used with Animal spells than something like Darkness spells.
Except not on this server… With the duration of those spells being 1 minuet per character level, a 5th level cleric can boost your strength for 5 minuets. That enough for one fight if there is any RP afterwards. And this is a roleplaying crowd I think. Players react to battles! (Great job people seriously!)
