Preview 2 Dark Gifts

[Torc]

Today we're taking a look at a new set of feats planned for release with the Lamordia Expansion Pack: Dark Gift Feats.

How can I get Dark Gift Feats?

• Currently anyone can take a Dark Gift as a trainable feat. This is set up this way for ease of testing, and is temporary for this preview.
• The eventual plan is the Dhampir Dark Bargainer Iconic gets a Racial Feat Slot to take a Dark Bargain feat for free. (In fact, they must take one, but that is not in this build)
• Dark Gift Feats are all ML1.
• A character may only have one Dark Gift feat. (but that limitation is not in this build)
• Fred will function with Dark Gifts though once their implemented on the Dark Bargainer correctly you will only be able to swap out a Dark Gift for another.

What ARE Dark Gift Feats?

• Dark Gift Feats represent a bargain you've made with the Dark Powers. They're based on the Dark Gifts in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.
• They are intentionally stronger or more flexible than many standard feats.
• However, being a pact with the Dark Powers, each of them comes with a significant, relatively unavoidable, and never-negateable drawback.
  • It is very intentional that the drawbacks are harsh. While the details at this stage of design are somewhat flexible, we will not make a Dark Gift feat where the penalty can be easily avoided, easily negated/removed, or is non-applicable for the kinds of builds the feat would benefit. You are meant to contend with the penalty.
• That said, the balance we are looking for is having the power be strong enough and the drawback be significant enough where each feat CAN be worth taking, but isn't ALWAYS worth taking. The risk should be considerable and the payoff if you do take it significant.
• We'd like to end up with a list where most builds have at least one feat that could be applicable that build.
• To reiterate: These are meant to be risky, and are not intended to be for new players or those not looking to deal with this level of risk/reward.
• With all that said, let's take a look at our current planned list of Dark Gift Feats!
  
  
• Echoing Soul
  • Your soul is fractured, shifted, or connected to another in some way. Perhaps your past or future is affecting your present soul, or perhaps some other entity is inextricably linked with you. In any case, it manifests in knowledge and fears that aren't your own.
  • +3 to all Skills plus an additional 1 for every 2 Character Levels you have
  • +1 to all Saving Throws, plus an additional 1 for every 3 Character Levels you have
  • When you get hit with Melee or Ranged attacks, there is a very small chance your Echoing Soul will cause you to become Afraid, Blinded, or Immobilized for six seconds with no save. Immunities to these conditions do not apply to this effect.
• Living Shadow
  • Your Shadow extends your reach, acting out your dark impulses.
  • Your basic Melee attacks have extended range, hitting further in front of you.
  • Whenever you land a Critical Hit, there is a small chance your shadow exerts its will, causing your damage to be reduced by 15% for 6 seconds. This can only occur once every 30 seconds.
    • This is the same extension effect that Shadowdancer grants, and does not stack with that skill.
• Mist Walker
  • You have learned how to navigate the Mists with time and a little luck.
  • You gain Misty Step: As Abundant Step, but you disappear. +5 Reflex Save and 20% stacking incorporeality while Stepping. (Shares a cooldown with other abundant steps). 15 second cooldown.
  • When you use this Misty Step, there is a chance the Mists catch up with you and you gain Exhaustion for 6 seconds (-50% penalty to movement speed, -6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity, and cannot tumble). This exhaustion cannot be warded or removed by effects that remove Exhaustion.
• Touch of Death
  • Your every touch is pain, but you can use that to deliver death to enemies.
  • +3 Negative Spell Power per Character Level
  • +3 Negative Healing Amplification per Character Level
  • -5 Positive Spell Power per Character Level
  • -5 Positive Healing Amplification per Character Level
• Form of Pain
  • Your body is cursed to be prone to all manner of damage, but with the ability to withstand it.
  • When you take damage your body changes and you gain the Form of Pain effect which grants +2 PRR/MRR but also reduces movement speed and increases spell costs by 1% as the pain distracts you. This can stack 10 times, with one stack being removed every 5 seconds.
• Webtouched Wretch
  • You've become entwined with a great cosmic web, which occasionally becomes coterminous with reality.
  • Your offensive spells, mele and ranged attacks attacks occasionally cause strange spectral webs coat your enemies either slowing them or entangling them for up to six seconds with no save.
  • This does not work on bosses , raid bosses or oozes but will work on incorporable or fiery creatures which are normally immune to web include monsters or champs protected by freedom of movement.
  • When you get hit with Melee or Ranged attacks, there is a small chance the webs turn on you, applying a weakened slow effect which lasts 6 seconds but can stack 3 times. Spells/Immunities like Freedom of Movement do not prevent this.
• Minion of the Eldritch
  • Your soul has touched something beyond the planes, and a connection has formed there.
  • Activate: You gain +5 Spell Power per Character Level, and +1% Spell Critical Damage for every 2 Character Levels you have for 12 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.
  • When you use this ability, there is a chance the Eldritch Being you reach out to will grow tired of your petitions and decide to punish you instead. This chance increases each time you use this ability between rests.
    • Punishment: Activate: You lose 3 Spell Power per Character Level, and 1% Spell Critical Damage for every 2 Character Levels you have for 30 seconds.

 

[Elminster]

None of these are really attractive especially in terms of expending a feat slot to acquire.

None of these are anywhere near what would be considered "powerful" and can be usurped or bettered by an item or weapon.

None of these are worth the annoyance of the downside effects.

 

[Argavyon]

None of these are really attractive especially in terms of expending a feat slot to acquire.

None of these are anywhere near what would be considered "powerful" and can be usurped or bettered by an item or weapon.

None of these are definitely not worth the annoyance of the downside effects.

I'd argue Touch of Death is worth it, simply because you can ignore positive stuff. But yeah.
They're thematically cool, but mechanically unattractive.

 

[Christhemiss]

• Echoing Soul
  • Your soul is fractured, shifted, or connected to another in some way. Perhaps your past or future is affecting your present soul, or perhaps some other entity is inextricably linked with you. In any case, it manifests in knowledge and fears that aren't your own.
  • +3 to all Skills plus an additional 1 for every 2 Character Levels you have
  • +1 to all Saving Throws, plus an additional 1 for every 3 Character Levels you have
  • When you get hit with Melee or Ranged attacks, there is a very small chance your Echoing Soul will cause you to become Afraid, Blinded, or Immobilized for six seconds with no save. Immunities to these conditions do not apply to this effect.

little weak, but also the downside is mild. i like this one

• Living Shadow
  • Your Shadow extends your reach, acting out your dark impulses.
  • Your basic Melee attacks have extended range, hitting further in front of you.
  • Whenever you land a Critical Hit, there is a small chance your shadow exerts its will, causing your damage to be reduced by 15% for 6 seconds. This can only occur once every 30 seconds.
    • This is the same extension effect that Shadowdancer grants, and does not stack with that skill.

@The Blonde get in here with your SD melee range bug report

• Mist Walker
  • You have learned how to navigate the Mists with time and a little luck.
  • You gain Misty Step: As Abundant Step, but you disappear. +5 Reflex Save and 20% stacking incorporeality while Stepping. (Shares a cooldown with other abundant steps). 12 second cooldown.
  • When you use this Misty Step, there is a chance the Mists catch up with you and you gain Exhaustion for 6 seconds (-50% penalty to movement speed, -6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity, and cannot tumble). This exhaustion cannot be warded or removed by effects that remove Exhaustion.

give evasion for 3 seconds after using the misty step so you can dash through traps

• Touch of Death
  • Your every touch is pain, but you can use that to deliver death to enemies.
  • +3 Negative Spell Power per Character Level
  • +3 Negative Healing Amplification per Character Level
  • -5 Positive Spell Power per Character Level
  • -5 Positive Healing Amplification per Character Level

id rather see it 5 neg amp -3 pos amp as -170 pos amp in current endgame healing environment would make you impossible to heal with normal healers. alternatively, half current positive amp regardless what it is and keep the sp reduction (assuming you are in undead form)

• Form of Pain
  • Your body is cursed to be prone to all manner of damage, but with the ability to withstand it.
  • When you take damage your body changes and you gain the Form of Pain effect which grants +2 PRR/MRR but also reduces movement speed and increases spell costs by 1% as the pain distracts you. This can stack 10 times, with one stack being removed every 5 seconds.

add 1% barb damage reduction and 1% elemental absorb to this and its worth it. 20 prr/mrr is not

• Webtouched Wretch
  • You've become entwined with a great cosmic web, which occasionally becomes coterminous with reality.
  • Your offensive spells, mele and ranged attacks attacks occasionally cause strange spectral webs coat your enemies either slowing them or entangling them for up to six seconds with no save.
  • This does not work on bosses , raid bosses or oozes but will work on incorporable or fiery creatures which are normally immune to web include monsters or champs protected by freedom of movement.
  • When you get hit with Melee or Ranged attacks, there is a small chance the webs turn on you, applying a weakened slow effect which lasts 6 seconds but can stack 3 times. Spells/Immunities like Freedom of Movement do not prevent this.

weakened slow? how much? and whats the chance to grab enemies? these numbers could make or break this choice

• Minion of the Eldritch
  • Your soul has touched something beyond the planes, and a connection has formed there.
  • Activate: You gain +5 Spell Power per Character Level, and +1% Spell Critical Damage for every 2 Character Levels you have for 12 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.
  • When you use this ability, there is a chance the Eldritch Being you reach out to will grow tired of your petitions and decide to punish you instead. This chance increases each time you use this ability between rests.
    • Punishment: Activate: You lose 3 Spell Power per Character Level, and 1% Spell Critical Damage for every 2 Character Levels you have for 30 seconds.

12 second uptime with 2 minute cooldown basically makes this a much worse wellspring of power (30 seconds 1.5 min cd before DI upgrade), meaning the downside will not make a 12 second buff worth it. the positive buff would have to be minimum as strong as wellspring of power in terms of uptime to make the penalty worth it. id like to see a 2 minute cooldown with 1 minute uptime or 45 second uptime 1.5 minute cooldown. the positive buff uptime should be more than the 30 second penalty (or reduce the penalty). TLDR: reduce cooldown, increase uptime of buff, decrease uptime of debuff

 

[Catholicon]

What problem is this trying to solve?

 

[ACJ97F]

Entirely skippable. This is Diet Gift at best, even Strahd would Picard facepalm a 6-second debuff as a significant penalty. Not really sure
what SSG's trying to accomplish by creating problems. Quit writing "idea" memos at 4:59PM on Friday, these are worse than the last feats.

 

[LurkingVeteran]

I like the idea but I think it's a mistake to make an ability that improves X (e.g. survivability) by a small amount, and then sometimes (RNG) it drastically reduces the capability of X by a lot. This just adds RNG and accomplishes little except frustration on average.

Instead make abilities that trade X for Y. This makes them useful for some builds. For example Touch of Death is great for solo undead builds at the cost of group healing. Living Shadow is potentially useful for mobile combat at the cost of static combat. Form of Pain is the other way around (although slows are rarely worth 20 PRR)

However, nobody would bother to press a button for a +10% chance to avoid damage, if it comes with a 10% chance of certain death. You want abilities that are predictable, otherwise the game is just RNG.

• Mist Walker is like this. Weak defensive ability with a death trap. Make it have some other downside that is either predictable like a permanent debuff to con, or give it a temporary RNG incorp miss chance (even better - defense for offense) or whatever.
• Minion of Eldritch suffers from the same thing, X for X and just makes DPS more random.
• Web Touched is the same, you would pick it to avoid being hit, but if you get hit once you will get hit more (and with lag everyone gets hit sometimes). Maybe it's useful in group situations as a CC build, if those were still relevant. In practice you are just going to get murdered when you get aggro from red named (who can't get slowed either).

Echoing Soul is just a hard no. Small passive benefit for a risk of RNG dying. This would be a useful weapon proc effect, on the monsters.

 

[mikarddo]

Interesting idea but none of these are what I would consider strong wrt the positive buff. I see very little reason to spend a feat slot.

 

[Elminster]

Since I don't want to be all negative, some constructive feedback instead:

• Vistani Imprimatur
  • You are owed favor by Madame Eva and you may call upon her help in your time of dire need.
  • Activate: Madame Eva will direct the mists to create a copy of yourself that will last 30 seconds. When your 9 mirror images attack it will always hit but only 1 point of damage will by done, however, each attack will have +%1,000,000 Hate. Each copy only has 1 hit point and will disappear when damaged. Cooldown: 2 minutes.
  • When you use this ability, there is a chance the Mists you reach out to will yearn for your soul to return to Ravenloft once again and envelopes you. A very small chance that the mists transport you to the beginning of a quest or raid (yes could even lock you out of a end chest in certain circumstances).

 

[Kyrr]

little weak, but also the downside is mild. i like this one

@The Blonde get in here with your SD melee range bug report

give evasion for 3 seconds after using the misty step so you can dash through traps

id rather see it 5 neg amp -3 pos amp as -170 pos amp in current endgame healing environment would make you impossible to heal with normal healers. alternatively, half current positive amp regardless what it is and keep the sp reduction (assuming you are in undead form)

add 1% barb damage reduction and 1% elemental absorb to this and its worth it. 20 prr/mrr is not

weakened slow? how much? and whats the chance to grab enemies? these numbers could make or break this choice

12 second uptime with 2 minute cooldown basically makes this a much worse wellspring of power (30 seconds 1.5 min cd before DI upgrade), meaning the downside will not make a 12 second buff worth it. the positive buff would have to be minimum as strong as wellspring of power in terms of uptime to make the penalty worth it. id like to see a 2 minute cooldown with 1 minute uptime or 45 second uptime 1.5 minute cooldown. the positive buff uptime should be more than the 30 second penalty (or reduce the penalty). TLDR: reduce cooldown, increase uptime of buff, decrease uptime of debuff

I like how you suggested very op additions to certain feats like Form Of Pain
+1% barb dr and +1% elemental absorb would break that feat and be an instant take for tanks.

 

[Lotoc]

Touch of Death is a bit absurd, -170 positive amp in exchange for 102 negative spellpower and 102 neg amp is too much downside relative to the benefit, especially considering builds that would want this are undead and already reduce incoming positive energy healing by 50% before amp is applied.
170 positive amp is close to how much you get when actually aiming for it and basically making you unhealable with positive, I'd suggest just making the numbers equal but also the biggest issue is negative healing is not supported in epic destinies at all.

 

[Anurakh]

I'm not a fan of powerful effects that have negative effects; I've never liked these kinds of feats and numbers, neither in PnP nor in video games. Patience already seemed like a bad enough addition to me.

I'm always in favor of more options and I love seeing new feats, but this doesn't excite me personally. I hope it does for others.

 

[Belnavar]

I will almost always ignore trade-off feats, as the bonus simply isn't worth the penalty.

-Bel

 

[LurkingVeteran]

Touch of Death is a bit absurd, -170 positive amp in exchange for 102 negative spellpower and 102 neg amp is too much downside relative to the benefit, especially considering builds that would want this are undead and already reduce incoming positive energy healing by 50% before amp is applied.
170 positive amp is close to how much you get when actually aiming for it and basically making you unhealable with positive, I'd suggest just making the numbers equal but also the biggest issue is negative healing is not supported in epic destinies at all.

It could be useful for self-healing soloers. It's similar but less drastic than the WF feat that makes you immune to healing.

It depends how negative heal amp works, but I assume -100 is the same as 50% healing and -150 is maybe 38%ish? In that case you could still be partially healed by the bigger heals from competent healer even with the base 50% penalty (19%? in total). It's not something healers would love in R10 group play, but it probably enables self healing in a few skull higher than before.

That said, maybe the penalty should be the same as the bonus, or both slightly smaller?

 

[Anurakh]

It could be useful for self-healing soloers. It's similar but less drastic than the WF feat that makes you immune to healing.

It depends how negative heal amp works, but I assume -100 is the same as 50% healing and -150 is maybe 38%ish? In that case you could still be decently healed by the bigger heals from competent healer even with the base 50% penalty (19%? in total).

Healers are always unhappy when they encounter a character with disastrous healing amplification. This feat really isn't a good idea if you want to play in a group.

 

[droid327]

• Echoing Soul
  • Your soul is fractured, shifted, or connected to another in some way. Perhaps your past or future is affecting your present soul, or perhaps some other entity is inextricably linked with you. In any case, it manifests in knowledge and fears that aren't your own.
  • +3 to all Skills plus an additional 1 for every 2 Character Levels you have
  • +1 to all Saving Throws, plus an additional 1 for every 3 Character Levels you have
  • When you get hit with Melee or Ranged attacks, there is a very small chance your Echoing Soul will cause you to become Afraid, Blinded, or Immobilized for six seconds with no save. Immunities to these conditions do not apply to this effect.

Dont think skills and saves are important enough to deal with the occasional CC. 6 secs of CC is often easily enough to kill you, and its more likely to happen when you have more mobs swarming you, when its also more dangerous.

Toss in +1 to Tactics plus 1 for 3 char levels and I think it'll be a more interesting tradeoff for Dlords, Monks, etc.

• Living Shadow
  • Your Shadow extends your reach, acting out your dark impulses.
  • Your basic Melee attacks have extended range, hitting further in front of you.
  • Whenever you land a Critical Hit, there is a small chance your shadow exerts its will, causing your damage to be reduced by 15% for 6 seconds. This can only occur once every 30 seconds.
    • This is the same extension effect that Shadowdancer grants, and does not stack with that skill.

Why only autoattacks? Special attacks are where you'd really want the extended reach, especially AOEs like Whirlwind. Basic attacks are a smaller and smaller percent of your total DPS rotation as you get higher level, decreasing the value of this feat

• Mist Walker
  • You have learned how to navigate the Mists with time and a little luck.
  • You gain Misty Step: As Abundant Step, but you disappear. +5 Reflex Save and 20% stacking incorporeality while Stepping. (Shares a cooldown with other abundant steps). 12 second cooldown.
  • When you use this Misty Step, there is a chance the Mists catch up with you and you gain Exhaustion for 6 seconds (-50% penalty to movement speed, -6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity, and cannot tumble). This exhaustion cannot be warded or removed by effects that remove Exhaustion.

Reasonable enough. This is entirely out of combat QOL. It hinges entirely on what "a chance" of Exhaustion is, and whether that will be statistically more than the time you save Misty Stepping between fights.

Though, with a downside of -50% move for 6 secs, and an upside of a few meters every 12 secs...the chance would have to be very low to just break even, let alone provide a net benefit. Maybe add +20% Action Boost to move speed for 6 secs after Misty Stepping, to add some weight to the "benefit" side

• Touch of Death
  • Your every touch is pain, but you can use that to deliver death to enemies.
  • +3 Negative Spell Power per Character Level
  • +3 Negative Healing Amplification per Character Level
  • -5 Positive Spell Power per Character Level
  • -5 Positive Healing Amplification per Character Level

I dont see the downside with this for any solo character running in Shroud form, especially a PM or DA with solid Neg healing. It reduces your hireling heals, yes, but I dont use hireling heals as a PM so that's not an issue. +102 Neg power and Neg amp at cap is a huuuuge bonus for Shroud builds, which includes Abyss lock.

• Form of Pain
  • Your body is cursed to be prone to all manner of damage, but with the ability to withstand it.
  • When you take damage your body changes and you gain the Form of Pain effect which grants +2 PRR/MRR but also reduces movement speed and increases spell costs by 1% as the pain distracts you. This can stack 10 times, with one stack being removed every 5 seconds.

Drawback is too great for the benefit. Even tanks need mobility more than they need 20 PRR MRR. Switch it to -1% attack speed and ability cooldown, and it becomes a bit more of a balanced tradeoff for tanks or tanky builds. "But what about casters, they dont scale on attack speed and use fewer abilities than martials"...yes, but casters also have to deal with MRR cap, so they're likely only getting +20 PRR out of the feat at a certain point.

• Webtouched Wretch
  • You've become entwined with a great cosmic web, which occasionally becomes coterminous with reality.
  • Your offensive spells, mele and ranged attacks attacks occasionally cause strange spectral webs coat your enemies either slowing them or entangling them for up to six seconds with no save.
  • This does not work on bosses , raid bosses or oozes but will work on incorporable or fiery creatures which are normally immune to web include monsters or champs protected by freedom of movement.
  • When you get hit with Melee or Ranged attacks, there is a small chance the webs turn on you, applying a weakened slow effect which lasts 6 seconds but can stack 3 times. Spells/Immunities like Freedom of Movement do not prevent this.

Interesting, obviously useful for kiting while Eldritch Blasting. Comes down entirely to the % chance for both.

Think it would be good if it followed a similar mechanic to Pin, too - if they're moving, they're Slowed. If they're stationary, they're Entangled. It'd be annoying if you were trying to kite mobs with Cone and one of them got Entangled and fell back separate from the pack, and then you had to circle back afterwards and kill it individually. Likewise annoying if you're face tanking a mob and it only gets Slowed, when its not moving anyway.

I'm assuming you'll never get Entangled from this either, because then my above comment applies here too, about no-save CC often being death in situations where its likely to proc

• Minion of the Eldritch
  • Your soul has touched something beyond the planes, and a connection has formed there.
  • Activate: You gain +5 Spell Power per Character Level, and +1% Spell Critical Damage for every 2 Character Levels you have for 12 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.
  • When you use this ability, there is a chance the Eldritch Being you reach out to will grow tired of your petitions and decide to punish you instead. This chance increases each time you use this ability between rests.
    • Punishment: Activate: You lose 3 Spell Power per Character Level, and 1% Spell Critical Damage for every 2 Character Levels you have for 30 seconds.

Interesting. Again, comes down to %. Should be on a 30s timer though, to make it more of a temptation to use it more often. Anything more than 60 secs pushes it into the "save it for bosses" zone. 30s is the "use it on Reapers" zone

Definitely is the most enticing benefit for Blaster Locks of all the Dark Gifts

 

[LurkingVeteran]

Healers are always unhappy when they encounter a character with disastrous healing amplification. This feat really isn't a good idea if you want to play in a group.

Which might be fine, not everyone does?

If DDO should exclude solo vs. group play build trade-offs to encourage more grouping is a different but valid discussion.

 

[Solarpower]

Entirely skippable.

Nope. The point is they are not skippable.

 

[droid327]

It depends how negative heal amp works, but I assume -100 is the same as 50% healing and -150 is maybe 38%ish?

-100 Pos Amp would be -100% healing power, aka 0. +100 takes you from 100% to 200%, -100 takes you from 100% to 0%. Its all linear AFAIK. Even PRR/MRR go linear at negative values.

Hopefully more than -100% doesnt make you start taking damage from friendly Positive spells lol

 

[Br4d]

There should probably be a purely cosmetic Dark Gift that has no effect on play at all. It sounds like this will be a must-take at character creation and in that case there should probably be an opt-out.