User talk:Diablerie

Notes on Game Balance

One of the issues I ran into while working on the Claws + Monk Gear mod was game balance. Powerful weapons are cool, but making something too powerful, too early in the game just isn't fun.

Fortunately (in a sense), hand-to-hand combat was already underpowered in Oblivion. Adding on-strike damage to gauntlets and claw weapons would bring it up to par with weapon combat. Then, to avoid having the player "lose" a slot, I could add additional properties to the item.

My rule of thumb is not to make items more powerful than anything that already exists in the game. Trancendent Sigil Stones are useful guidelines for this. For example, the best sigils can do 25 points of elemental damage, increase stats by 12, give 35% elemental resistance, or 20 points of shield.

Gauntlets use the hand slot, so doing damage and adding a "replacement" gauntlet ability would make it a fair item. Claws use the ring slot, and it's possible to equip two, so claws should only do half damage. I intentionally made on-strike claws and gauntlets not equippable at the same time.

Price works as a balancing factor only at low levels, where money is limited. By the time the player reaches level 15+, he can buy pretty much anything in the game. I think the best way to make items specifically for a higher level character is to make a level-limited quest.

-- Diablerie 11:25, 10 June 2006 (EDT)

Discussion

Comments are welcome! Please don't edit the table below, though. -- Diablerie 11:25, 10 June 2006 (EDT)

Claws + Monk Gear Item Plan

Item	Item Type	How to Get	Abilities	Critical	Notes
Stonefist Bracers	bracers	merchant	Health damage 3; Block 6
Bracers of the Sun	bracers	merchant	Fire damage 10; Light 30; Resist fire 15
Elemental Bands	bracers	hidden merchant	Fire, Frost, Shock damage 5; Hand to hand 10
Fists of Flame	leather gauntlets	merchant	Fire damage 5
Hands of Oblivion	daedric gauntlets	hidden merchant	Fire damage 15; Strength 10
Touch of Rime	fur gauntlets	merchant	Frost damage 5
Frostbite	blades gauntlets	merchant	Frost damage 10; Damage speed 5
Arctic Grip	glass gauntlets	hidden merchant	Frost damage 15; Frost shield 10		Boost frost shield?
Gloves of Lightning	steel gauntlets	merchant	Shock damage 5
Stormtouch	orcish gauntlets	merchant	Shock damage 10; Fortify speed 8
Thunderfist	elvish gauntlets	hidden merchant	Shock damage 15; Weakness to shock 50 (on strike)
Fist of the Brawler	knuckles?	merchant	Health damage 2; Hand to hand 4	Damage strength 5	weak set
Fist of Might	knuckles?	merchant	Health damage 2; Strength 4		"
Claw of the Bear	claws?	merchant	Frost damage 5; Strength 5; Resist frost 20	?	medium-powered set
Claw of the Tiger	claws?	merchant	Fire damage 5; Agility 5; Resist fire 20		"
Silent Death	katar?	hidden merchant? quest?	Poison damage 8; Shield 16; Sneak 10; Light, Heavy armor -100	Fire damage 10	strong set (unarmored)
Swift Retribution	katar?	hidden merchant? quest?	Poison damage 8; Shield 16; Athletics 10; Light, Heavy armor -100		"
?	folding katar?	quest	? damage 11; ?	Paralysis 2 secs	ultimate set; paralysis too powerful?
?	folding katar?	quest	? damage 11; ?		"
Blade of Final Rest	claws?	guild merchant	Health damage 8; ?	?	Dark Brotherhood set
Blade of Pestilence	claws?	guild merchant	Poison damage 5; Weakness to poison 50 (on strike)		"
Hand of Justice	knuckles?	guild merchant	Frost damage 8; ?	Restore health 25 (on self)	Fighters Guild set
Hand of Valor	knuckles?	guild merchant	Shock damage 8; ?		"
Bound Claws	daedric claws?	guild merchant (spell)	Fire damage 6; Damage intelligence 5; Damage wisdom 5	Restore magicka 25 (on self)	Mages Guild set (summonable)
Bound Claws	daedric claws?	guild merchant (spell)	Fire damage 6; Damage magicka 10		"
Blade of the Deceiver	punchblade?	guild merchant	?	Demoralize ?	Thieves Guild set
Blade of the Infiltrator	punchblade?	guild merchant	?		"

Mod Planning/Discussion

General questions:

Should there be a set of claws for each guild, or just some of them?

Create new quests or tie in to existing quests?

What kind of set bonuses for the claws?

One possibility is to have some sort of "critical strike" ability for claws. If matching claws are equipped, have a chance of doing extra damage on each hit. -- Diablerie 08:56, 11 June 2006 (EDT)

I think crit strike chance for a matching set of claws is a great idea, if it can be done it's definatley the way to go. It would differentiate the claws from the gauntlets. I'd also say that the stronger claws should be better than the gauntlets, since they are the main focus of the mod, i mean the gauntlets can be any gauntlets , but the claws and katars are what is percieved to do extra damage. Also no damage gauntlets and claws at the same time. -- Cryo

To limit the level at witch you can get them i'd say place them on fixed level bosses , so even if a level 5 gets the quest, there is no way he can defeat the level 40 boss using the Blades of Final Rest for example.

Also have longer quests to get the whole set, for example you find out about a powerfull set of claws, and have to search someone out who knows their location and find each claw separatley in some dungeon or on some boss.

Another way to recieve quests is from books, like have a rare book that forifies h2h by 1 and tells you about the possible location of a certain pair of claws. -- Cryo

I found an excellent place to have a hidden merchant and/or a quest giver. There's an "isolated house" in the southwest of Cyrodiil. On the world map, it's just north of the "st" in "The West Weald". The house just has some unimportant bandits in it, and they can be replaced with one or more NPCs. -- Diablerie 16:23, 12 June 2006 (EDT)

The DB and fighters guild claws are ok, i'd say add in some special Punchblades for the thieves guild that fortify sneak as well as do damage, but no claws for the mages guild though (or maybe a strong summonable set) -- Cryo

Summonable claws! Awesome idea! Making a spell that "fakes" a bound item should be doable. It would be helpful if you could make a set of claws with a daedric texture, preferably ones that attach from the back of the hand. -- Diablerie 16:23, 12 June 2006 (EDT)

Yeah ok i'll make a set of daedric claws, i already stared working on the katar model today , and on the ultimate claw set, i was thinking of dragon claws, seeing as how dragons are the most powerfull creatures in nirn (or whatever the world is called) plus it would look cool having dragon claws as weapons, now i just have to settle on a design -- Cryo

I'll write more as i get ideas, this is shaping up great so far -- Cryo