Shield Deflection feat and Orbs

gurth83

gurth83

Member
Maybe add orb interaction to this feat so active block with orb counts as Small Shield block for the purposes of elemental absorbtion from this feat.
Secondly make Orbs count as Shield for ENHANCEMENT/DESTINIES purposes (not for feats, so no shield mastery line etc). Eg having this feat and orb whoudl make this to work:
"Stand Against the Tide: You are immune to most forms of Knockdown while wearing a shield."
Thirdly add parmament purple,transparen buckler/small shield effect when picked feat and having orb equiped. Similar to active blocking triangle shield right now, but smaller and round.
Thanks.
 
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Arsont

Well-known member
I'd love to see some interaction between orbs and some shield effects. At a minimum I would like to see Shield Deflection apply. I'd even be down to have the Shield Mastery feats apply, but only as if the orb were treated as a small shield or buckler.

I don't know if orbs benefit from bashing enhancements or the Improved Shield Bash feat (Vanguard, Divine Crusader, etc.), but I think it would be cool if they did. It would just give a little bit extra oomph to some builds, especially hybrid builds like Vile Chemists or EKs. Since most orbs have bad damage and crit profiles it wouldn't be overpowered, but it'd let a few unique builds pop up-especially ones that want to try to mix Vanguard and SWF.
 
Urklore

Urklore

Well-known member
I have a vorpal orb in my inventory from many years ago. True story! I am never getting rid of it even though you cannot bash with an orb.
 
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Arsont

Well-known member
Urklore said:
I have a vorpal orb in my inventory from many years ago. True story! I am never getting rid of it even though you cannot bash with an orb.
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Well, you can bash with an orb, if you manually attack while shield blocking. I just don't know if the auto-bash effects work with orbs (Although they might, since at least one named orb has Shield Bashing on it). I'd hope they do, but I can't test that until later.
 
Urklore

Urklore

Well-known member
Well the orbs have no damage listed so when you orb bash I always assume it was just a visual effect. I never did test it as I thought I read when orbs first came out you could not bash with them.
 
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Arsont

Well-known member
Urklore said:
Well the orbs have no damage listed so when you orb bash I always assume it was just a visual effect. I never did test it as I thought I read when orbs first came out you could not bash with them.
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I don't recall if orbs were ever unable to bash period, but I do recall them having damage. Looking over a few on the wiki, they have the base damage but no enhancement bonus (So they show 1d4+0/1d6+0/etc.) I know you can manually bash with them, as I recall proccing the temp SP from Golden Orb of Death back when ToEE first came out (I still use this orb for leveling).
 
droid327

droid327

Well-known member
Orbs natively provide a bonus to Elemental Resistances when blocking

Orbs are not Shields, though, any more than Runearms are. They're mainly conduits for spellcasters to focus their magical energies...I dont see the logic in them providing significant defensive benefits just because you hold them up in front of you.

Especially when there's many mechanics in the game to allow spellcasters to use actual shields in their offhands...making Orbs into de facto Shields dilutes the utility of things like EK and ASF reduction
 
gurth83

gurth83

Member
A lot of misunderstood here. Maybe I will clarify some things. Orbs "always" (at least when I remeber, so I suppose from orb introduction) dealt dmg and it was pure force dmg. Same passive shield bash worked "always" with orbs from feat and vanguard enhancements.

droid327 said:
Orbs natively provide a bonus to Elemental Resistances when blocking
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..but its flat bonus and it's not enough for heroic tho. Percentage absorbtion is much better for big dmg numbers. In te other hand flat bonus to saves is nice.
droid327 said:
Orbs are not Shields, though, any more than Runearms are. They're mainly conduits for spellcasters to focus their magical energies...I dont see the logic in them providing significant defensive benefits just because you hold them up in front of you.
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As said orbs had passive bash from begining (worked with Improved Shield Bash feat) so they are mentoined to be some kind of shield too, and this force shield animation showing when bashing make that feel too.
droid327 said:
Especially when there's many mechanics in the game to allow spellcasters to use actual shields in their offhands...making Orbs into de facto Shields dilutes the utility of things like EK and ASF reduction
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This change will not make Orb like Shields especially in defense capabilities. Not even close. Shields have passive bonus to prr and mrr orbs not. Shields can be futher improved with Shield Mastery line, orbs not. Shields (heavy/tower) gives you passively something similar to improved evasion - spells with reflex save deal half dmg when you wield one of those, orbs not.

On top of that consider that I proposed feat and I consider feat requirement as a hardest sacrafice to get something. You got only 7 avalible feats when you count basic, heroic leveling only. So taking this feat is quite costly I would say, especlay if you copare it to 80 AP avalible.
In my opinion this proposal won't change much for Eldrich Knights. Heavy shields will be still better for them if build is not focused around evasion (heavy/tower shields block evasion). Other thing is that EK needs a bit refresh. I never understood how it was designed - give ability to use int or charisma to hit with shield, but not dmg. So let EK be albe to hit with shield but deal almost no dmg... Why? Who's idea it was? Designer, can you speak?
 
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Archaic

Well-known member
Orb artifacts that provide an elemental shield spell or other effects when blocking might be nice. Lots of room for imagination there.
 
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