TOPIC: Important Notes

Jeff Martin wrote:

Ho-Yi Fung wrote: Clarification request: is the bonus to-hit of +WIS or +INT for mage/mystic staffs instead of +DEX, or in addition to +DEX? I've been assuming it's a replacement effect, but I'm seeing comments from other players evaluating them as an additional bonus.

The Staffs equip as two-hand Ranged weapons and they do not use DEX modifiers to figure to hit bonuses.

Don't know if this was mentioned. Bardsong currently improves to hit and damage for melee and ranged. It also adds to all other damage bonuses, including spells. Will bardsong impact the mage staff at all? I'm trying to understand why I would use this over a normal physical ranged weapon.

Jeff Martin wrote:

Ho-Yi Fung wrote: Clarification request: is the bonus to-hit of +WIS or +INT for mage/mystic staffs instead of +DEX, or in addition to +DEX? I've been assuming it's a replacement effect, but I'm seeing comments from other players evaluating them as an additional bonus.

The Staffs equip as two-hand Ranged weapons and they do not use DEX modifiers to figure to hit bonuses.

Oh, so these are all really bad.
I mean, instead of boosting DEX for our to-hit and also getting some AC and reflex save, this item wants you to boost INT for to-hit, and you also get...uh...nothing.

One Hope's it to have something to build towards. To you know create a reason for int boosting caster tokens to be printed. Gotta start some where. If dex is used then the staffs are instantly more useful but int remains near useless and every int token is going to be challenged with "that will let mage staffs double dip".

I dont have a horse in this, but imo making int useful, maybe even for spell books as well next year, feels more wizardish in the long term.

kurtreznor wrote:

Jeff Martin wrote:

Ho-Yi Fung wrote: Clarification request: is the bonus to-hit of +WIS or +INT for mage/mystic staffs instead of +DEX, or in addition to +DEX? I've been assuming it's a replacement effect, but I'm seeing comments from other players evaluating them as an additional bonus.

The Staffs equip as two-hand Ranged weapons and they do not use DEX modifiers to figure to hit bonuses.

Oh, so these are all really bad.
I mean, instead of boosting DEX for our to-hit and also getting some AC and reflex save, this item wants you to boost INT for to-hit, and you also get...uh...nothing.

Maybe focus could be added if it turns out to be terrible. But I think anything that helps you hit at range works as long as it’s not dex based

I posted this in the UR thread but reposting here:

In all honesty I say get rid of the Staff's. Wizards just got a cool Neck item and if spell books are coming stick with that. Plus we already have Wands. Which in my mind are close to Staff's in concept. So nix the Staff's and create a cool UR Wand and maybe a Relic Wand. Then develop the Spell books for next year and tie them to intelligence somehow. And then Tome's for Clerics.

Wayne Rhodes wrote:

kurtreznor wrote:

Jeff Martin wrote:

Ho-Yi Fung wrote: Clarification request: is the bonus to-hit of +WIS or +INT for mage/mystic staffs instead of +DEX, or in addition to +DEX? I've been assuming it's a replacement effect, but I'm seeing comments from other players evaluating them as an additional bonus.

The Staffs equip as two-hand Ranged weapons and they do not use DEX modifiers to figure to hit bonuses.

Oh, so these are all really bad.
I mean, instead of boosting DEX for our to-hit and also getting some AC and reflex save, this item wants you to boost INT for to-hit, and you also get...uh...nothing.

Maybe focus could be added if it turns out to be terrible. But I think anything that helps you hit at range works as long as it’s not dex based

I've kind of felt like focus should just be the effect of raising int the same way melee hit damage is the result of raising strength for years.

So +2 int = +1 focus = +1 staff hit/spell damage/healing. And by the same token an existing focus item raises your int. Something like that would let casters build in the same way as melee stacks str or ranged stacks dex.

They would also still feel like glass cannons since they have low HP, Spend HP as a resource, and have low AC.

To my knowledge the only knock on token change would be the now mostly obsolete hat of int becoming a defacto hat of focus.

It would also instantly make no dex mage staffs viable by letting their existing already equipped and supported focus bonus apply to hit.

The only thing that would make it better beyond that would be as has been suggested letting the staffs also gain focus damage, but that could honestly be a later UR mage staff equivalent to a mighty bow style weapon too.

Jeff Martin wrote:

Ho-Yi Fung wrote: Clarification request: is the bonus to-hit of +WIS or +INT for mage/mystic staffs instead of +DEX, or in addition to +DEX? I've been assuming it's a replacement effect, but I'm seeing comments from other players evaluating them as an additional bonus.

The Staffs equip as two-hand Ranged weapons and they do not use DEX modifiers to figure to hit bonuses.

Please reconsider this ruling, as it would render the Staffs useless for any difficulty above Normal.

A Wizard already has incentive and opportunity to equip some DEX for the sake of slide spells -- let's suppose maybe 20 DEX for a Lv5 Wizard with a Starhide Robe. That +5 to hit combined with Bardsong (and possibly Prayer) gives a very good chance to hit static AC 15 for a slide spell, but a lousy chance to hit a NM monster with AC 25-30.

If the Staff gets INT (because this particular token says so) and DEX (because all ranged slides get DEX), that's +11 to hit before adding buffs, which is slightly low but not totally out of the ballpark for NM, and you can make build choices to boost it a bit more if desired without wrecking your spell focus. Result: good fallback option for Wizards running low on spells.

If the Staff gets INT instead of DEX, then our Lv5 Wizard with Starhide robe only has +6 to hit on the staff vs +5 with any other ranged weapon, making the staff no better than a +1 Sling. And if you don't have a Starhide Robe (but do have other means to equip DEX), it's worse than a common Sling.

Can old 2022 Development Threads with out of date image links be locked to push people to the newest info once ihe new threads have been pinned? I think this would help keep the Players focused on the latest data.

Rob F wrote: I posted this in the UR thread but reposting here:

In all honesty I say get rid of the Staff's. Wizards just got a cool Neck item and if spell books are coming stick with that. Plus we already have Wands. Which in my mind are close to Staff's in concept. So nix the Staff's and create a cool UR Wand and maybe a Relic Wand. Then develop the Spell books for next year and tie them to intelligence somehow. And then Tome's for Clerics.

+1

The Mage Staff is an INCREDIBLY easy fix. Let it use Spell Damage as it's damage numbers and it's a viable "out of spells" item. Give it back the +2 so it is on par with other weapons and add INT/WIS to spellcaster focused items such as Healing items and "of Focus" items

Arcanist Kolixela wrote: The Mage Staff is an INCREDIBLY easy fix. Let it use Spell Damage as it's damage numbers and it's a viable "out of spells" item. Give it back the +2 so it is on par with other weapons and add INT/WIS to spellcaster focused items such as Healing items and "of Focus" items

I am all for the staffs being the “out of spells option with maybe commons and UC with a damage wheel of only 1s rare at 2s and ur at 3s plus spell damage, really you could do a percentage of spell damage too since it could be marked on the player card. Then just have different abilities to make them special. I would just make it where dex and int add to hit until enough int items are added then take it to only int/wis.

The staff is a cool idea that I like in theory, but as it stands right now I'm going to stick with my normal ranked weapon as a wizard backup. That way I'll only miss by a lot rather than a lot a lot.

This could change if int becomes more important in the future, but I'm not going to drop stuff from my build just to add intelligence if all that does is increase my to hit on a backup weapon.