I think giving healers malform is pretty dumb period.
If anything they should get a SHIELD. Not a powerful weapon.
And yes i understand it is based on ressurections. I just find it funny that this skill would give healers the mindset that they hope people die, could lead to some OOC abuse, and does not fit with the healer design.
Dibs on nukes.
I think giving healers malform is pretty dumb period.
If anything they should get a SHIELD. Not a powerful weapon.
It's not a malform really.
Your staff will rank when you resurrect people/kill undeads.
And what is the difference between those bonuses being on a weapon or on a shield?
In general goods are designed to have more defensive boosts than offensive ones (evils vise versa). So healers should get a defense boosts not an aggro one if any.
I still think this is not quite going into the right direction however. They'd need some new field of tasks to make them more interesting.
And what is the difference between those bonuses being on a weapon or on a shield?
The difference is why would a healer's WEAPON become strong for being a HEALER.
the difference would be the RP of the class. A healer would be worried about making a strong shield, I dont think they would care about a strong weapon.
shrug
You're right I guess.
Gameplay wise though, it's the same.
The difference is why would a healer's WEAPON become strong for being a HEALER.
the difference would be the RP of the class. A healer would be worried about making a strong shield, I dont think they would care about a strong weapon.
I think the difference between what I suggested and what f0xx suggested is that the item becomes less a weapon and more of a power focus.
If you were to give the healer some sort of benefit from resurrecting, other than mystic healing as it currently stands, I think people would be more inclined to play the class and serve in the role that it is supposed to fill - as opposed to abusing the class' power to grab a niche which it is NOT supposed to take.
As far as other tasks for healers... I actually tend to agree with making them neutral. Their respect for life should be unequivocal, and that includes evil (non-undead) characters. Just my $.02
If you were to give the healer some sort of benefit from resurrecting' date=' other than mystic healing as it currently stands, I think people would be more inclined to play the class and serve in the role that it is supposed to fill - as opposed to abusing the class' power to grab a niche which it is NOT supposed to take.[/quote']
That was the basic idea - if the staff seems wrong RP-wise, it could instead be an improvement to spirit shield.
As far as other tasks for healers... I actually tend to agree with making them neutral. Their respect for life should be unequivocal, and that includes evil (non-undead) characters. Just my $.02
What neutral god/religion cares about protecting all life simply for its own sake?
They'd need some new field of tasks to make them more interesting.
Well, the problem here is this: what new field of tasks is open to them? They can already join Herald and be reporters, Savant to be seekers of knowledge, Tribunal to be keepers of the peace, Knight to be wannabe-saviors of the world... as a class, their unique focuses have always been newbie-friendliness via crazy survivability (balanced by PK restrictions) and resurrections. Well, the latter has been nerfed to the point that few rarely would even bother looking for one (particularly mid-cabal warfare due to the calm effect, which is where a huge percentage of pdeaths tend to happen), and the former only services a very small group of players, and only for a short time as most newbs end up wanting a class that isn't so restricted.
Another way I can think of to make resurrections more desirable is to remove the calm effect from being resurrected - if it doesn't restore your life then I really don't understand what purpose it serves, as most people care very little for the fraction of a con point lost on each pdeath and being calmed for a good period of time when you'd rather just be resting up to fight again ASAP is hardly appealing.
Outside of that... like I said, what possible "new field of tasks" is open to them given their PK limitations and the intention of keeping them very survivable for newbie-friendliness? We can't make them much stronger PK-wise as they're already damned near impossible to kill (yes, my malform idea would make them stronger, but at least they'd have to earn it serving as a healer, and with the idea of losing points based on kills they'd have to keep earning it no matter what level it reaches or how often they kill the people who attack them). We can't make them weaker survival-wise, and therefore open them up to more aggressive paths of action, without losing the degree of newbie-friendliness that distinguishes them from good clerics (which really aren't that different).
Simply put... this is a class with limited options. It's designed that way. The only way to give it a lot of new options is to completely redesign the class, and I'm not sure that giving up our most newbie-friendly class is a good idea.
Make holy water do what it used to do: Curse evils who drink it, and heal goodies/bless them who drink it. Maybe do random +'s to goodies, and random bads to evils.
Of course, just like the help file says, the timer to bless holy water should be re-introduced. But I mean, right now, it's just a totally useless spell.
Make holy water do what it used to do: Curse evils who drink it, and heal goodies/bless them who drink it. Maybe do random +'s to goodies, and random bads to evils.
Of course, just like the help file says, the timer to bless holy water should be re-introduced. But I mean, right now, it's just a totally useless spell.
Agreed, though I don't think this is enough of a boost to really engage much extra interest in the class (I'm not at all convinced that a malform-like idea is either - I'd see that as more likely having the effect, if any, of enhancing longevity of healers that people would've made regardless... plus I came up with that idea while fairly high and was very surprised at the support it got 
).
I think there's an underlying problem here that, in a PK/RP game, where getting better at both is highly encouraged, a class that is designed as the most PK-limited class isn't going to hold the attention of players, even new ones, for terribly long. Healers don't really teach PK - in many ways I'd argue they don't do a great job of teaching survivability either, given the power difference between their curatives and protections versus those of even good clerics. They're a good shield for while you're getting the very basics of layout/equipment and learning the mud interface itself (and they're good for people who only really care to RP - but these people are then limited to only being good healers, which will get old) - they're not a good way to learn PK, and so once someone reaches the point of wanting the PK lessons, they pick something else... and there's little reason to go back.