Exploration Balance
-
I went out exploring today.
2 frost giants, 1 polar bear, a rotting digging giant, 3 ancient mummies, 6 mummy, 9 giant scorpions, 2 Stag Beetles, 1 Dire Tiger, 1 Harpy Dun Thrower.
These netted me about 2k XP at level 6, and cost 3 Discipline Gems (~333 each), 1 Clarity, 5 Shields, 1 Barkskin, 1 Level 12 Barkskin, 1 Stoneskin, 1 Speed.
We obtained 1 rather good wizard helm, a painting (163gp), several socket-able items (1 socket and 2 socket, obtainable at Merchant's Guild or Temons) and a pair of Least Ioun Stones that was nothing to brag about. We found about 40 gp.
Risk Vs Reward is far far far out of balance.
-
Make friends with a cleric or a wizard then all those buffs would of been for free.
-
Having an optimal party is not the point of the discussion. For the record, I had a wizard buffer and a rogue in party.
Please keep the discussion towards Risk vs Rewards
-
Sounds like you also had a DM sprucing things up for you as you won't find several of these things without a DM around.
Also, this doesn't actually sound like a discussion. It sounds like a complaint.
A discussion would explore the value of entertainment vs risk and vs reward. It would consider the value of the items you casually gloss over (like how much would that wizard helm have cost–I bet it cost more than few hundred gold) and did your rogue help you find a way around the giant and the scorpions or did you just rush mindlessly through every encounter you had? 2k XP is also a ton of experience. I'd say the entire thing sounds like a VERY good pay out.
A suggestion may expand on what a better reward would be, it would point out what areas you were in so a DM could fix the issue.
Any of those approaches would be much more helpful.
-
It was good fun. We initially ventured out to find a Yew tree, ended up in the high up in the Mountains where we had no other way than fight the monsters since there were no paths around them. The rubble piles contain only child toys, would be nice if they would spawn some potions, coin, etc.
Then ventured on to explore the Stonelands where again we ran into spawns in corridors between the cliffs so no way to avoid them either. These spawns werent too difficult though but for the Manticore we had to use Blurr to survive.
The last was then the tomb with the usual fun spawns that honestly could be trimmed down a bit since some of them appear out of thin air on the way out (like 3 half fiend warriors together with 3 stag beetles). Also the traps in the room where the mummys spawn are impossible to remove even for a lvl 8 rogue with maxed out skill. Those with fear inducing mummys and their damage immunities have become a death trap when +1 enchantment items are difficult to obtain. The chests in the tomb spawn some neat Netherese stuff but with the exception of the helmet, it was rather useless to us. Adding some coin, potions to those chests would greatly help to balance out things.
-
That's a lot more helpful thorkm.
-
Honestly? Travelling around the server has NEVER been more profitable. As a ranger, often travelling with druids, I earn far more EXP and gold roaming than any scripted quest gives me. Sure, loot isnt good, but the gold and potions and such?
To me, it sounds like A, you didnt have a druid or ranger with you to help handle animals / track, B, didnt work as a team, C, is only looking at net gain.
These days, I script and do DM quests to earn gold to explore, rather than explore to earn gold and such.
-
A - no, none was online when we embarked. So this is entirely -your- fault ;-)
B - hell we worked as a team, otherwise we would all be dead
C - Net gain, surely not since we have not taken all overhead cost, time, risk, wear, depreciation of assets, etc. into accountAnd in a very private thorkm - Olouth communication with a big fat wide grin - "Smartass!"
-
Yeah, sorry… That was a bit smart assery. But, ill try to explain:
My former characters in V5 have been VERY un nature based (despite deity). This meant that I felt it difficult to roam. To be honest, I got to lvl 9 without ever going past the entrance to the Hullack Forest. (Not joking).But I have also experienced how relatively easy it is to travel the server, with nature oriented characters, be it a medium lvl druid or ranger at your side. Personally, I LOVE this change, as it means for the first time in 11 years, those two classes get to shine outside the citadel.
I think that is what I was trying to say.
-
It was good fun.
- kewl
appear out of thin air on the way out (like 3 half fiend warriors together with 3 stag beetles).
I swear I fixed this spawn like five times…. lol. it -is- indeed silly. No way to avoid the fight, you just come out of a grate and are mobbed instantly, and its the way -out- so you can't choose to engage or not either.
Also the traps in the room where the mummys spawn are impossible to remove even for a lvl 8 rogue with maxed out skill.
I'm not sure if these were put in as impossible to remove traps on purpose…. but I wouldn't see why they should have been.
The rubble piles contain only child toys, would be nice if they would spawn some potions, coin, etc.
- Well that's just called bad luck, those chests contain more than childs toys. afraid it certainly -would- be unbalanced if you only got amazing items from every chest, and in order to make it so you don't, there have to be less good/thematic items (the toys have a small bit of server history on them) and those have to spawn sometimes, and randomisation is the only real way to do this, so you don't go adventuring once, and find everything that's awesome right away.
become a death trap when +1 enchantment items are difficult to obtain.
- There's at least one plus one item in the chests you were unlucky enough to only get toys from! also, they are a lot less rare now, you can actually craft them, and there are some really powerful (vs undead) items to be made as well. Also, there are magic weapon consumables.
The chests in the tomb spawn some neat Netherese stuff but with the exception of the helmet, it was rather useless to us.
- Well yeah, again, not every item you find will always be perfect for your character.
Adding some coin, potions to those chests would greatly help to balance out things.
Yeah, I think there should probly be more potion drops in places like this for definate.
It was good fun.
- kewl
We can look at some of this stuff now, so thanks for that.
Exploration is always going to turn out to not gain you a profit in terms of gold (and even XP, if you die) sometimes due to the nature of it being randomised. And the higher 'profit' likelyhood there is to it, the more these areas become solo gold/xp farms, which kind of suck a bit.
-
and as a fyi on what happened with these Netherese items - they ended up in the charity chest since the gems (flawed I believe) didn't go nicely with them ;-)
-
There is a way of solving this.
2 frost giants, 1 polar bear, a rotting digging giant, 3 ancient mummies, 6 mummy, 9 giant scorpions, 2 Stag Beetles, 1 Dire Tiger, 1 Harpy Dun Thrower.
Frost Giants. They might carry totems of some sort that are valuable to collectors. 150 gp at a merchant.
Polar Bear. Their pelts are valuable, but their teeth are greatly prized for make jewellery. 100gp at a merchant
Rotting Giant. A Plot Giant, he has been digging and digging. Wow. He's dug up alot. Totally random loot and gold.
Ancient Mummies. Older than the average mummy. They have been buried with items that Time Forgot. Random old-themed loot
Giant Scorpions. Their shells are greatly prized for their light weight and durability. They are used by many druids and rangers due to their noiselessness and protection. AC5 armor, -50% weight, +1 vs slashing, +1 vs piercing, 10% bludgeoning vulnerability
Stag Beetles. Powerful, large. They're great strength comes from the glands embedded in their sternum, which, when imbibed, gives the daring drinker great strength. Glands of level 8 Bull's Strength
Dire Tiger. Rare hunters. Their pelt is highly prized by collectors. 250gp at a merchantHonorary Mention:
CMB. The Predator of the Wilds. Fearsome. For some reason regularly found deep in the Underdark. Only worth….was it 50 gp? -
Dire tigers and CMBs already drop things for crafting. Polar bears will once I get round to making the ice themed leather works. But yes, we do have such things planned.
-
appear out of thin air on the way out (like 3 half fiend warriors together with 3 stag beetles).
I swear I fixed this spawn like five times…. lol. it -is- indeed silly. No way to avoid the fight, you just come out of a grate and are mobbed instantly, and its the way -out- so you can't choose to engage or not either.
It was good fun.
- kewl
We can look at some of this stuff now, so thanks for that.
Exploration is always going to turn out to not gain you a profit in terms of gold (and even XP, if you die) sometimes due to the nature of it being randomised. And the higher 'profit' likelyhood there is to it, the more these areas become solo gold/xp farms, which kind of suck a bit.
About the "in thin air" thing.. the trapped room with the mummies.. we made it all the way through that room before the mummies all spawned behind us. All spawns other than the Harpy Dung thrower, and 2 stag beetles appeared behind us as we were exiting.
And I have to agree, that trapped mummy room is death, and I die enough that really it is not that huge of a deal if there is something to offset it. I will point out that I died stepping on one of those traps being chased by a mummy and when I respawned it was directly on top of the apparently auto resetting trap that did enough subdual to auto black me out.. oh, and that trap that blacked me out never even flickered away, it stayed set even under my unconscious body. Yay for the traps only doing subdual if you spawn on them.. boo for never ending auto set traps with zero delay.
-
While being exiled I have been doing a lot of solo or two people exploration as I haven't had people responding to me. Twice now I've faced extremely tough spawns. One being Frost Giants, Bugbear Champs and misc Bugbears and undead. The other being two Goblin Chieftains with a massive mob of Elite/shaman goblins. Both times now the strongest of those spawns(Frost Giants and the Goblin Chieftains). If mobs out there are very strong they should have something to drop besides a Goblin ear.