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Uberuce
 
PostPosted: Fri, Oct 04 2019, 18:05 PM 

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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Location: Near the bar.

So, the item description says it 'endows the wearer with the reflexes of a wary predator' but it has -2 Reflex on it. I am confuse.


 
      
Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Fri, Oct 04 2019, 18:47 PM 

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Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Location: The downeaster "Alexa"

Thematically it may be confusing, but from a balance standpoint, you're getting a chance to completely ignore any Reflex-based spell on a successful roll. So, to mitigate it, you're a little less likely to make that roll in the first place. From an IC perspective? It's still making you incredibly more reflexive than you would be otherwise. Compared to as you are without it, you wouldn't be able to completely jump out of the way of a Fireball. On your own and at your best, you'd still only get halfway out of it.

If I had to cook up a reasoning(Amia is full of back-reasonings at this point)... It's like hide armor, correct? Maybe it's giving you the reflexes of whatever "wary predator" it was skinned from. But it's like the armor has a mind of its own, and those magic reflexes are a bit slow to start up now that it's removed from the animal. There's a bit of input lag. You go to jump when you see the Lightning Bolt coming your way, but there's a 0.1 sec delay before you do some sort of cat-like somersault to safety.

But yeah, it's there for balance from what I imagine. Maybe the thematics of it aren't the best, but it could be explained in a number of ways if you try. Whether the Reflex penalty is needed is more of a balance discussion than it is a matter of IC explanation, really.

Edit: In looking up what sort of animal it might have come from, the only mention of that name I found was this this... Please tell me that Kumakawa armor is made by skinning ballet dancers.

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Raua
 
PostPosted: Fri, Oct 04 2019, 20:29 PM 

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Joined: 09 Jul 2014
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It was changed several years ago from free Improved Evasion to Regular Evasion and a reflex penalty for balance reasons. Same for The Epic Ring loot as well.

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Jes
 
PostPosted: Sat, Oct 05 2019, 1:31 AM 

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DM

Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Location: Camriiole

Yeah, it's on all items that give Evasion, for balance purposes.

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serbiris
 
PostPosted: Sat, Oct 05 2019, 4:47 AM 

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Joined: 14 Sep 2010
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I assumed this thread was about the misleading description which hadn't been updated since the balance change.

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Uberuce
 
PostPosted: Sat, Oct 05 2019, 6:51 AM 

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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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Yep, it's the silliness; I'm all too aware of the tweak from Improved Evasion to Evasion and -2 Reflex since so many of my chunky STR dudes wore Kumakawa to make the Spire less of an annoying drain on HP, but even more so because Ruce has an Improved Evasion ring.

The nonsensical description was touched on in my now-Archived request for an upgrade to Kumakawa where it was pointed out that it's daft to have an entirely nimble DEXy feat be on the same armour as a -2 Reflex penalty. If you didn't know about Kumakawa you'd think it was a problem with my request, but the problem is with the item itself.


 
      
Jes
 
PostPosted: Sat, Oct 05 2019, 15:16 PM 

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Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Location: Camriiole

Maybe it doesn't make sense IC, but it was done for balance reasons. It's not the only instance of mechanics being weird for OOC balance considerations.

The description can be adjusted easily enough. I'll do it when I can finish my current round of updates.

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