Okay I'm gonna say some stuff that I think will level the playing field for Melle, but also help Mages.
No MAGE should be able to block with a two handed weapon or shield. I do not care that is not what a mage or PRIEST should be able to do. Mages should be using a staff to parry, and thats all, with the option to use a SHIELD badly or have a staff and a shield and not be able to defend with it at all. Parry should be all that a mage gets. Thats it, thats all. That being said. There should be way more ONE HANDED STAFFS WITH SERIOUS -hit -dam +hp +mana weapons available. No real mage is gonna have a dagger ever. Sorry. As for these clerics with Ancient sceptres? What priest is gonna walk around with a hammer and shield smashing people? Seriously. This is not a mage. This is warrior shit. Clerics do not need shield block, and this weapon is so OP............
Lets get more one handed staffs and make wands and staves more viable so that mages who get only parry have a staff and can actually choose between a shield for AC, or a wand for damage make sense. Eliminate 2 handed and shield block for all mages. Theyre not warriors. No mage should be blocking with a shield or 2 handed weapon.
The only problem with this line of thought is that you should then be applying that across the board. Meaning, no warrior should be defending against spells so well as any mage should be able to. They're melee. They don't know about spells. Magic resist races? Eh, switch it out then and give a melee resistant race with a vuln: Meaning all melee accept their vuln is nerfed against them.
I also tend to think about classes like Zoichan.
I do agree the ancient sceptre is OP, but so apparently does the staff as they talked about no more avg. 31 weapons outside of cabal or class.
Mages and comuners are two distinctively different categories, the latter inherently both more defensive (more defensive spells than most mages, shield block, and two-handed), and also more durable (access to healing, cure poison, cure disease, etc).
I am not sure how you think taking shield block and two-handed away from clerics are going to help mages. As far as I know, there's already a non-rare one-handed staff, so... the other suggestion seems sort of moot. Everyone can have a one-handed staff already?
I don't even know where to start disagreeing with this lol. So ill start where I starts.
Clerics and maces. Maces and hammers are the preferred weapons of clerics in almost all fantasy. I cant think of any fantasy rooted in d&d where the priests dont use mostly maces.
Daggers, in almost all fantasy pure mages always have a backup dagger stashed away, it's literally recommended in most tabletop rpg newbie guides.
There are no mages that get shield block or two handed. You are blurring the line between caster and communer. Clerics are melee characters, or they would have a larger offensive spell selection, and would not get enhanced damage.
Taking away mage defenses doesn't level any playing fields at all. And blanket nerfing mages in the wake of arguably one of the strongest clerics ever in the game is a terrible idea.
I don't think you are putting any boundaries between mage and communer. They are not the same regardless of them using some magic. Clerics, regardless of your opinion of them, are very much melee characters.
What is the functional difference between a one handed mace and a one handed staff?
Im all for changing things up or fixing things that don't make sense. I just don't think much of this makes sense. I think mages should get access to more weapons. Learning to swing an axe isn't difficult. If my cleric wants to use a halberd, why not?
I don't even know how bad you gotta get beat to think all casters should have 1 defense and only use staffs tho. That's wild
Nobody got beat. I just think of Shamans/Clerics and Healers as Priests. I've never seen a priest hold a shield ever and know how to use it like a warrior. Also I'd like to see more 1 handed staffs for mages so wands and staves can be used.
Now Dks pallys these are Hybrids, but casters and communers I consider to be mages.
Priest =/= cleric. Literally every variation of fantasy clerics prefer maces, and hammers. Barring rare D&D instances where the priest uses their gods favored weapons. If you google cleric the first 10-15 pictures are all wielding hammers/maces.
Izzzzy: I think your perception of what a cleric is just is vastly different from the standard trope. They are defensive, medium armour, mace-swinging warrior-priests, not robe-clad wizards.
Mages don't get to use weapons anymore. They've been reduced to books and cutlery. Furthermore, all priests can only PK against races who are the equivalent of 15 years or younger in human terms and they must be of the same gender.