I'm still in the creation screen for this class, but I'm looking at the purge skill, and it stacks up to 5x, but it also has a 3 turn cd, which means it'll probably never get to 5 stacks. That battle will need to be hella long. Now, I'm just reading these as I see them, so I could be wrong on something. Apologies if I am. Just thought I'd bring it up. You have another skill that stacks, but is a 1 turn cd. That'll more than likely get used over the other one. Regardless, I'm very eager to trry this class. Thanks

@TreSPassR Hey, the Purge skill isn’t another status effect like Inflict Agony - it works with it! Purge cleanses all Agony stacks and deals additional damage based on how many Agony stacks you purged. Does that make sense? Perhaps I could make the tooltip better!

Hi Odin! I'm loving the class so much, very interesting and fresh to play. Would it be possible to make the spells scale off of Strength? I like the idea of a spectre knight applying agony in the form of whichever spell before engaging in melee combat!

There's quite a bit of AP leftover with Mordant to swing your weapon after inflict agony. More of a personal request, that others might enjoy. ^o^ Thank you very much for the mod otherwise!

Oh, also I meant it as an additional side-mod that alters it. The vampire mod for example, instead of changing the core mod itself.

Originally posted by Ovy:

Hi Odin! I'm loving the class so much, very interesting and fresh to play. Would it be possible to make the spells scale off of Strength? I like the idea of a spectre knight applying agony in the form of whichever spell before engaging in melee combat!

There's quite a bit of AP leftover with Mordant to swing your weapon after inflict agony. More of a personal request, that others might enjoy. ^o^ Thank you very much for the mod otherwise!

Originally posted by Ovy:

Oh, also I meant it as an additional side-mod that alters it. The vampire mod for example, instead of changing the core mod itself.

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! I'm always open for giving players more options with builds so I'll see what I can do :) Unfortunately, I've got a butt-load of exams coming up, so I'm not entirely sure of timescale. Thanks for the suggestion!

Originally posted by Odinblade:

Originally posted by Ovy:

Hi Odin! I'm loving the class so much, very interesting and fresh to play. Would it be possible to make the spells scale off of Strength? I like the idea of a spectre knight applying agony in the form of whichever spell before engaging in melee combat!

There's quite a bit of AP leftover with Mordant to swing your weapon after inflict agony. More of a personal request, that others might enjoy. ^o^ Thank you very much for the mod otherwise!

Originally posted by Ovy:

Oh, also I meant it as an additional side-mod that alters it. The vampire mod for example, instead of changing the core mod itself.

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! I'm always open for giving players more options with builds so I'll see what I can do :) Unfortunately, I've got a butt-load of exams coming up, so I'm not entirely sure of timescale. Thanks for the suggestion!

Of course, best of luck in your exams! Make sure you actually study, some people procrastinate till the last minute. *Coughs innocently* Take your time though, and your welcome. ^^

Originally posted by Odinblade:

Originally posted by Ovy:

Hi Odin! I'm loving the class so much, very interesting and fresh to play. Would it be possible to make the spells scale off of Strength? I like the idea of a spectre knight applying agony in the form of whichever spell before engaging in melee combat!

There's quite a bit of AP leftover with Mordant to swing your weapon after inflict agony. More of a personal request, that others might enjoy. ^o^ Thank you very much for the mod otherwise!

Originally posted by Ovy:

Oh, also I meant it as an additional side-mod that alters it. The vampire mod for example, instead of changing the core mod itself.

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! I'm always open for giving players more options with builds so I'll see what I can do :) Unfortunately, I've got a butt-load of exams coming up, so I'm not entirely sure of timescale. Thanks for the suggestion!

Well that was quicker than expected but I’ve managed to make both Finesse and Strength scaling overrides for this mod! Please check the main page of this mod for the links! :)

Originally posted by Odinblade:

Originally posted by Odinblade:

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! I'm always open for giving players more options with builds so I'll see what I can do :) Unfortunately, I've got a butt-load of exams coming up, so I'm not entirely sure of timescale. Thanks for the suggestion!

Well that was quicker than expected but I’ve managed to make both Finesse and Strength scaling overrides for this mod! Please check the main page of this mod for the links! :)

I love you! Thank you!

Hey, really liking the mod, the skills are very well-designed. I'm thinking that the damage output is a tad low though? I'm playing a Lone Wolf playthrough, using the One Man Army mod, so all of my stats are boosted, attribute and combat points doubled. I'm lvl 4, with 23 Int and 8 Warfare. My Inflict Agony spell only does 19-21 physical damage on hit, and the dot portion of the damage seems unaffected by point investment, which I find a tad odd. I'm guessing that because it's piercing damage, you didn't want to make it OP by scaling the damage too high, but as is, with piercing not scaling with point investment, the dot is very weak. To compare damage output, with my current lvl and stats, Mosquito bite does 34-37 phys on hit, and it's an AoE. Infect does 41-45, is also an AoE, and sets Diseased status. In comparison, my hardest hitting Spectre spell is Essence Bolt, which only does 26-28 phys on hit. It seems to me that, playing as a physical damage mage, it would be faster and far more effective to burn an enemy mobs armour using regular Necro spells, than to wait a full 5 turns to get my 5x Agony stacks, which kind of defeats the purpose of using a new, unique class with new, unique skills.

Sorry if i sound like I am coming down on your mod. I DO really like it, I just feel like the numbers need to be tweaked in order for the class to truly be effective.

Edit: Ok, so it seems like the Pierce dot IS affected by point investment, but at a very low rate of return. I think that the spells would be more effective if you raised the phys damage portion a bit, so as to burn enemy armour down faster, or if you left the phys damage as is, but slightly raised the piercing dot damage. Just my 2 cents.

@Whiskeyjoel Hey there, I'm pleased you like the design of the class and I want to thank you for taking the time to write this out and voicing your concerns with regards to the damage of these spells.

Firstly, let's talk about the Agony debuff. Similar to the Bleeding debuff, the piercing damage scales purely on character level, and is a limitation of the divinity engine that it can't be changed to scale off of an attribute - fun fact: my first iteration of the Spectre skills were purely Piercing damage, but I scrapped it as it felt as if attribute points did nothing for the class, eliminating all forms of build paths. Anyway, the damage is intended to be low at 1 stack, but very potent at 5 stacks. This is due to various reasons, mainly the design of a slow-burn type playstyle which I wanted to introduce, but also because I wanted all of the damage spells to increment the stacks. It's also worth highlighting that Agony applies through Physical and Magic Armor.

Secondly, let's talk about the damage output of the spells. It is important to note here that Agony deals damage upon applying as well as at the start of each turn. This means that all of the spells which apply Agony actually do both Physical AND Piercing damage simultaneously. Due to this, the raw Physical damage on these skills is slightly lower than those of the default Necromancy tree. The class is not designed to burst Physical armor to damage Vitality or apply forms of Hard CC, such as Knockdown, but rather deal Vitality damage whilst still being a useful ally in a normal team composition. Like you highlighted, the Physical damage on Essence Bolt is lower (26-28), but you have not taken the Piercing damage from applying Agony into account, so the damage output is roughly the same if not slightly lower due to being able to hit Vitality directly. Would it be beneficial if I made this clearer in the tooltip of each skill?

Finally, you mentioned "wait a full 5 turns to get my 5x Agony stacks" - this shouldn't be the case as most of your skills apply Agony, you should be able to apply at least 2 stacks each turn without boosting AP with skills like Unholy Ritual or Adrenaline. Also, I don't think Mosquito Swarm and Infect are AoE like you mentioned, but are single target, hence why they have high damage in comparison to other spells in the game.

Personally, I feel this class is balanced, especially in a 4-member team. However, I appreciate your concerns relating to Lone Wolf, and I may explore looking at ways to better that playstyle's experience.

Apologies for the essay, and please don't hesitate to write back if anything is unclear.

@Odinblade: Hey, thx for replying. I know the spells do the upfront phys and pierce at the same time, I was trying to get at the fact that since the dot damage is low, until you burn the mobs armour away, damage output is limited. Sorry if that was confusing. Honestly, I think my issues are mostly down to playstyle: I'm doing a solo Lone Wolf campaign, and while I'm doing ok, I can tell that the Spectre isn't really designed with that in mind. Which is fine. I think they would be really effective in a group, possibly with another party member with Spectre skills to quickly stack Agony. I also am going to try the Finesse override, I think the Spectre skills could pair nicely with some Scoundrel or Huntsman skills.

I did have a few questions about some of the skills though. Deathchill does physical damage in a cone, applies a stack of Agony, then tries to apply Chilled, but the Chill debuff is resisted by magic armour, whereas all the Spectre damage is physical. Would you consider changing Chilled to another debuff type, like the slow effect from Oil, or possibly Cripple? Basically something that would mesh with the all-physical nature of the class. The other skill I wanted to ask about was the debuff that lowers pierce resistance...sorry I can't think of the name right now. The spell functionality is fine, but why such a short range on it? With the strength or finesse overrides, getting up close to cast it wouldn't be an issue, but as a squishie mage-type, I feel like the only times I'm in range to cast it are when melee mobs are wailing on me.

Anyway, I'm just being nitpicky because I do really like the mod (if that makes sense). I've found that after burning away an enemy mob's armour, casting Shackle of Pain on the mob basically makes the AI freak the ♥♥♥♥ out and do anything to avoid killing the shackled mob, which allows you to throw up more Agony stacks. It's fun :D

PS: Infect is definitely an AoE, and a very nasty, heavy hitting one. Mosquito Swarm I believe used to be single target (that's what I remember from when the game first came out anyway) but now it's an AoE as well.

@Whiskeyjoel Hey again.

I'm thinking of releasing a small patch either end of this week or early next week with some small QoL changes, including:

• Bonechill applies Chill purely out of flavour, and makes it so that you can have some interaction with Magic dealers in your team. However, I understand that 9 times out of 10 you don't apply it, so I'm probably going to change to a different status, perhaps create a new one.
  
• Looking at tweaking the range of skills - improving the range of some but decreasing the effectiveness or decreasing the range of some but increasing the effectiveness.
  
• Buffing Rite of the Lich as it seems pretty meh for a Divine-tier spell.
  
• Potentially introducing a couple of new Divine-tier spells.

Yeah I know what you mean about Shackles of Pain - the AI completely freaks out and it's hilarious xD

Thanks again my friend!

@Odinblade While on the subject of physical dmg with magic effects, the Terrify effect is also blocked by Magical Armor, no?

@Whiskeyjoel Infect and Mosquito Swarm are single target, though the Disease effect from Infect can spread to nearby targets (including yourself, unless you have physical armor).
Maybe you are using a mod? I use Necromancy Rebalanced from Nexus, which turns Infect and Mosquito swarm into AoE spells.

Originally posted by Jii_oo:

@Odinblade While on the subject of physical dmg with magic effects, the Terrify effect is also blocked by Magical Armor, no?

That's correct - Terrify's saving throw is Magic Armor. I'm keeping it there for flavour (who wouldn't be terrified of a spooky Spectre?! ) and as a nice-to-have synergy with mages.

I've just released an update patch with some nice QoL changes as well as two brand new skills. Enjoy!

Oooooo nice!