07-09-2014, 12:31 PM
(07-09-2014, 10:58 AM)Skaix Wrote: After reading the Warmech archetype I noticed some issues with it. The archetype, to put it lightly, is quite broken. It is distressing how broken this archetype is. For those who heven't read the archetype, or haven't put the pieces of the broken puzzle together yet, let me break it down for you.
As a Warmech you get to stack the temporary hit points you get from your battle armor and your Shindroid force field. Giving the war mech a near impassable temporary hit point pool seeing as the Repair ability of engeineer can fix your battle armor and Force field. The Back Up Force Field Battery just makes the Warmech untouchable, and don't forget that when a shindroid has their Force Field activated they're immune to Crits. Which would also make them immune to percision damage as well. The Force Field also has a healing factor of 1/2 the Shinrdoids level, which can be doubled, at what seem to be massive negatives because of the Rapid Shield Repair ability.
Let's not forget the Strength and Dexterity bonuses a warmech gets while wearing the armor, Or the armor bonus the battle armor gives, or how the battle armor can get up to a +5 magical enhancement for free. Pardon my run on senctence and my coming language, but god damn! That shit is broken!
And all of that, excluding the Force Field, is from warmech. I haven't even got to how a Shindroid is just broke by istelf. Since a shindroid is a Construct it is immune to fort saves unless it affects objects, and all mind-affecting effects as well. This makes a Shindroid immune to a majority of the spells in FFd20. All elemental spells, besides AOE spells, are FORT saves. All status effects are Fort saves or mind-affecting. Like in pathfinder, This wouldn't be as bad if there were Touch or Ranged Touch spells to pick from. But seeing as how touch spells are few and far between in FFd20 this is a huge problem that needs to be fixed.
It's not that i want Warmech or Shindroid to stop being things, I just want some balancing done. They are both awesome ideas and it would make me sad if the iron Ironman got cut. I just really belive that they need to be taken back to the drawing board before this beautiful abomination ruins some unexpecting game.
Some ideas for balancing is to further limit the number of times a day that the Force Filed can be revived. Change the Fire I, Fire II, and Fire III spells, and all spells of its likeness, back to ranged touch attacks. Limit the Str and Dex bonus given to a Warmech for wearing his/her Battle Armor. Give some type of cost (doesn't have to be money) for the Armor enhancemnent. Warmech could possibly be a Shinra only Perstiege class like Soldier is. That would let every race be Ironman and not just Shindroids.
P.S. Lets not forget about overdrive adding to the Strength of the battle armor, and coincidentally adding to the engineer's strength bonus as well.
I see and understand your thought process on this. Lemme point out a few things..
The temporary hit points go away pretty easily. They are not affected by damage reduction or even elemental resistance if you had any.
While the Repair can fix the Shindroid's hit points, and can be used (eventually) to reboot the Force Fields, it can't repair the Force Field's temporary hit points.
I've looked into the immunity to critical hits matter, and nowhere that I can find that makes them immune to precision damage as well. Correct me if I'm wrong by linking me the information.
The strength, dexterity, and AC bonuses the Warmech gets is pretty negligible. At least, towards the higher levels. The magical bonuses? Also negligible. You have to wait til level 20 to even get a +5, while most players would get them around 10th level.
Concerning Shindroids, I am actually changing them to be affected by mind-affecting spells and effects. Immunity to Fort saves doesn't affect damage, just effects from those spells (unless, of course, it works on objects).