Lotus Scourge

Please make this a viable selectable? I've tested this in the past and never noticed a very big difference. This was perhaps the most disappointing selectable I had ever tried. I've even been flat out told by an imm that its best not to even choose it. This was years ago. And as far as I know the skill hasn't changed?

I don't really remember what this was like in the past but I've always envisioned the poison damage being alot greater, the duration being greater, the difficulty in curing this being greater. I would love to see this give ninjas the ability to envenom there weapons with this as well and have a chance to inject/slice it into there opponents skin during melee combat. What if these ninjas can also envenom there arrows with it? And shoot these poisonous arrows from a longer range at the cost of greater lag? What about those blowdarts ninjas are known for? How about envenoming your decoy with it? It can have multiple affects as its derived from multiple poisons AND toxins. It can paralyze after a length. Cause a loss of concentration, inflect stat reductions. It can be a fun skill where the ninja can craft various poisons and need to prepare them prior to combat. They can gather them from various herbs and liquids around the lands to be able to inflict either damage poisons or maledictive toxins. From the description it sounds like it can be a match for the plague skill itself. This selectable has so much potential that I would love to see. I've been patiently waiting for years and praying to the ninja God  

LOTUS SCOURGE
Syntax: automatic

  The secrets of creating the most powerful poisons and toxins
have all been used in creating this **deadly **substance.  The user
possesing this knowledge is capable of **crafting **poisons so potent
that legends tell that a close cousin of this formula was the very
poison used to rob King Cormac of his life by servants of Conclave.

Powerful. As of now, its not really powerful.

Deadly. Can this even kill a faerie?

Crafting. Theirs no crafting, gathering or customization aspect for this lore of ninja.

We've been discussing exactly lotus scourge with a friend of mine a couple of days ago.

It really is a very disappointing ninjitsu, especially considering all of your opponents have already poisoned themselves anyway, but to be honest, everything other than falcon eye simply pales in comparison.

We've been discussing exactly lotus scourge with a friend of mine a couple of days ago.

It really is a very disappointing ninjitsu, especially considering all of your opponents have already poisoned themselves anyway, but to be honest, everything other than falcon eye simply pales in comparison.

Lotus Scourge wasn't made to override that weak poison brew years ago?

I don't think so.

All the ninjas selections are terrible except falcon eye and doublesheath.

I've always liked Shadow arts.

It was great back in 1.0

Relatively useless compared to the other two options these days.

Lol, those dual lacerated through sanc was awesome. And, they never seemed to miss.

Fighting a ninja meant:

Af

You are affected by the following:

Bunch of stuff which combined=-15str, 10 dex, etc.

I thought that was one of the coolest skills in the game.

Back when hunting undead warriors in S'handor, and using the marmalade orb/ebony Kris combo, were in.

#FLhipster

Lol, those dual lacerated through sanc was awesome. And, they never seemed to miss.

Fighting a ninja meant:

Af

You are affected by the following:

Bunch of stuff which combined=-15str, 10 dex, etc.

They couldn't miss. It was a guaranteed hit if I remember correctly.

Also, let's be honest. It's more like -3 int, -2 wis, -1 con.

Lol, well I was meaning on top of nerve, caltrop, and poison.

Kaylia on Lotus Scourge:

Lotus scourge? Never found a use for it at all even after a lot of experimentation. Actually, it hurt me quite a bit because many times, ninja don't want their opponents poisoned, and so many people are immune/resistant to poison anyways. Normal poison is more than enough. Doublesheath is much, much better in more cases I think. If lotus scourge could plague or something, now that might be interesting.

Since many kinds of venom paralyze in real life, I think it would be something fitting and useful for lotus scourge ninja.

Regarding poison in general:

Problem: When someone quaffs a brew, this not only stops strangle/blackjack, but it also stops the other rogue staple: poison. When affected by poison, you cannot be poisoned again. This means you can effectively negate the entire lotus scourge path and high-level poison by drinking brews---which you will do when fighting rogues anyways. Solution: My suggestion is that a poison that is much below another poison’s level can be overridden by a much stronger poison (say 10 levels above). When you quaff that brew, you get (for example) a level 5 poison. Soon after, a thief comes in and throws some envenomed daggers and lands a poison, so your level 5 poison changes to level 50. When the thief throws another dagger a few ticks later, the original poison stays, because it is not more than 10 levels below (no poison stacking!). We might even consider giving a bonus to land the poison when you are already infected with one, just to give this tactical choice when fighting rogues in melee: I can either poison myself and stop strangle/blackjack and risk getting seriously poisoned or I can risk strangle/blackjack and resist poison normally.

Lotus Scourge used to stack and it was incredibly nasty.  Lotus Scourge Ninjas were the best mob destroyers and attrition artists in the game.  L-A and I had a considerable talk about it a few years ago, about what it was (ever seen poison DEMOLISH and OBLITERATE at the rate poison hits?) and what it became (injures, at best and no stack, can't negate or add to another poison already in effect).  It is definitely not what the help file describes (can we have this hit harder on Corimaks as per the help file?  I'm joking!).  

My suggestion for it is some form of debilitation effect (dysentery style), an ability to poison common drinking areas (water fountains, magical springs, etc..), and a damage uptick similar to plague.

Considering poison hits you ~8 times per tick, and "hit" takes away 10 damage per round, that's a total of 80 damage per tick, quite an increase compared to 10-20. Real problem is the poison from brews.

alcohol is a poison. Why not make poison addictive in some way, not 600 hrs like herbs, but addictive none the less. You drink a brew to avoid the thief.

You are now addicted to poisons.

affect

Poison addiction: 60 hrs.

Drinking the brew causes x damage at y times per tick.

Not drinking a brew causes withdrawal damage of z damage per tick. Where z=(x+52)+z [tick 1]{dam=10+52+0 (30)} T2=60 T3=90 T4=120 better drink a brew!

edit: this is ofcourse related to self induced poison only.

Lotus scourge did indeed used to 'stack' (and in 1.0 I did get it up to *** DEMO *** on mobs).  However, you'd get...about five *** DEMO *** then MANGLEs and so on - on mobs.  I never got it to more than a maul on a person (much less stacking in PK) - and that was hard work with all the throwing and other commands I had to give up in combat.

For lotus scourge ninja's (only) to punish brew eaters, simply give the player no roll vs poison once poison is present and the ability to stack the poison.  That means if you eat a brew, its 100% chance when facing a lotus scourge re-poisoning that the damage has a chance to increases.  With no poison present, the usual saving role occurs.  Eat a brew, and you'll be taking mauls from poison in short order.  Don't eat a brew and have saves to resist poison and you are open to getting strangled.  Also, make the damage degrade over time ie you won't take mauls forever unless the ninja keeps poisoning you.

Even with all of this - players can still cure at a temple.  If they want to sit in a one exit room and have four rounds of wondering 'am I going to get strangled'....

L-A

PS - oh yes, I think lotus scourge already ups the time for poison on each hit?  If not, that can be put back in.  No waiting out poison when its > 24 hours