( FIXED ) Can't Finish The Forgotten Below

[Balkoth]

So, first of all, I think this may be my new favorite zone in terms of aesthetics. However, I seem to get stuck around 60% of the way through, after I cross a bridge to the final "land" segment. There's a dead end with two chests. I also found stairs down to an area transition...but that transition doesn't work. I even managed to find some illusionary rocks and walk along the edge of the platform in case it was a riddle or something...but no dice.

Can post screenshots if needed.

[Balkoth]

Also, I specifically went and put 20 Spell Resistance on an item prior to this and I am a reasonably high reflex character (not as high as a dex rogue/ranger/etc but not as low as a cleric/fighter/barbarian/etc) with Evasion. This meant that I was able to resist like half of the Fireballs thrown at me and save versus another 75% for no damage. So I could somewhat laugh at the 5+ spellcasters chaining Fireball at me (though I had to kill them before they started spamming Acid Arrow/Magic Missile).

But something like a Fighter/Barbarian/Paladin would probably be in trouble -- especially at the appropriate level (I was level 18 at the time, which I believe is like half a dozen levels too high).

[tarashon]

Well basically the forgotten below and any other area in accordance with a quest for permanent statboosts was/is designed fr Groups, being it the intire area or the given boss encounter. Obviously higher level characters can solo much more which Again is just fine due to the lack of players.

No matter what we do some classes will ahve troubles in some encounters and there is nothing reasnoble to do about it at this time. And in all honesty if I were to build a server anew I would likely try to make it even more so diverse but....

/tara

[Balkoth]

No matter what we do some classes will ahve troubles in some encounters and there is nothing reasnoble to do about it at this time. And in all honesty if I were to build a server anew I would likely try to make it even more so diverse but....

Er...what does that have to do with what I said, though? My point is that, even in a group, the "front line melee" (or at least the paladins/rangers/fighters/barbarians) would get shredded by the Fireballs (while the casters/ranged in back are laughing at them). I suppose having a Cleric specifically give them Spell Resistance (the spell) would help but that's not only requiring a Cleric for every group that does it but requiring the Cleric buff with a specific spell.

And thoughts on not being able to find a way to physically being able to get past roughly the halfway point? Like I said, nothing to do with difficulty.

[tarashon]

Hi again

As for the building the last part of the area Will be fixe.

As for the fireballs i think we have severel options...

before i mentor Them However the Thing remain thats the charging melet Will always get the hammer so to speak and thats just how nwn work. What to do about it ? In realitet the front melet is only surposed to survive due to buffs and heals from the group sine if the were not nede the melet can solo everything him or her self...

so back to options. ..

One is deciding and fixing the force to adresse seere isues.

Another is making the varians mage elementalresist spells targetable. Allready the ranger have the speciale spells of flameshield useable on others also for 50 perception fire and cold resist.

One is less dame and Even more hp and regen . this option Means a redesign of All mobs and Will not happening at this time.

All in All Though... The higer level the higer ned for groups and if only one melet taks the heat witout prober buffs it ballancewise proberly should Mean det sine Else the groups is not neded. ..

Tara

[tarashon]

The zone is finished and you can move all the way to the temple now - that will Await for future adventures...

/tara

[Balkoth]

In realitet the front melet is only surposed to survive due to buffs and heals from the group sine if the were not nede the melet can solo everything him or her self...

Well, buffs and heals are two entirely different things. You could have an environment where the melee needs buffs to survive at all, an environment where the only available healing is from other characters, or an environment with both. Or, to rephrase, it is entirely possible to stop the melee from soloing content simply by limiting his access to one or both of the above.

In this case we're talking about enemy spellcasters spamming Fireballs -- which is pure damage. Let's look at various buff spells divided into defending against physical attacks, effects, and spell damage:

Physical
Mage Armor
(Mass) Haste
Improved Invisibility
Shield of Faith
Magic Vestment
Bard Song
Barkskin

So that's quite a few bonuses that a group can give a melee to help them survive.

Effects
Protection from Alignment
(Lesser) Mind Blank
Protection From Spells (sort of)
Clarity
Negative Energy Protection
Death Ward
Freedom of Movement
Spell Resistance

Lot of effect protection there, ranging from mind spells to ability/level drain to death magic to Freedom.

Spell Damage
Spell Resistance
Protection From Spells (sort of)

...that's not exactly very much there.

And the healing spells? Ranging from the Cure Wounds line to (Mass) Heal to Protection From Elements? Those all require the caster to be in melee range of the melee character...and thus ALSO eating the Fireballs to the face.

All in All Though... The higer level the higer ned for groups and if only one melet taks the heat witout prober buffs it ballancewise proberly should Mean det sine Else the groups is not neded. ..

*shrug* As you can see above, the "proper buffs" in this case literally means "Spell Resistance" which requires both a Cleric/Druid AND that the Cleric/Druid uses that specific level 5 spell. There aren't really any other relevant buffs to prevent spell damage.

In general, I think part of the problem is the server sets up the expectation that melee need super high AC, should almost never be hit, and should have enough regen to compensate for being hit. This tends to make things, especially versus spellcasters, very binary -- either you get wrecked nearly instantly or you're fine.

Imagine for a moment that every character got a potion with 5 free Heals per day (and less/no regen), mobs hit for less, and mobs had more AB. What would that mean? Well, suddenly melee types are going to see their health actually drop constantly (but not get hit for 15% of their max HP when those swings do connect) AND those melee are limited by their Heal uses -- which means both that they have a need to rest and that a pack of mobs can require a group because otherwise the melee won't be able to kill the mobs in time before he runs out of healing.

I mean, hell, I have a multiplayer testing module (that I made 5-6 years ago while working on stuff for a PW) set up where *everyone* gets 10 full Heals per day (as an instant feat too). But good luck soloing any of the group bosses in there! Ain't gonna happen (minor exceptions may exist for mages/clerics for the first boss or two in the two three man dungeons due to bursting with Epic Spells). Can show some stuff in there that you might find interesting at some point.