1. Are there any goals for improving paladin utility? If so, is it going to be more on the empath/cleric/moonie side of the house or the barbarian/thief side? Somewhere in between?

2. Can you share any more info around active armor? I'm really interested to see where this goes, and I'm mildly worried that it will turn into an expertise for armor move.

3. Any word on Smite's release, and will this eventually be extended into more actions like a judgement or condemn or curse? Or is Smite just going to be the verb (like backstab).

4. Any expectations for spell/arrow parrying? Is this approved waiting dev? No dev?

Truly sorry to hear about the family woes. Having just dealt with such myself, I'm painfully aware of the toll it takes. Our best wishes to you and yours.

Samsaren

>>I am sorry this happened at the cusp of a major release.

As someone super-into his own projects even during critical moments in life (was hospitalized for a week+ followed by a few weeks a not being allowed to work late last year, and it drove me up the wall), I fully understand this kind of mindset but also hope you focus on family and not have a system release weighing on your mind. Family stuff should always come before a smite release, in my eyes, and I appreciate the time you take to do what you can in the meantime.

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Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.

Paladins should be stronger in warding in my opinion. We have a very limited suite of wards.

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Don't forget to vote for dragonrealms:

http://www.topmudsites.com/vote-DragonRealms.html

Paladins have a physical damage barrier and a magic damage barrier, so the fundamentals are there.

I'd like to see some kind of stronger, ablative damage barrier. A thorns aura would also be really cool.

>>Personally speaking, I'd rather see more active/reactive options for Paladins, and offensive minded things over more defense. Forgetting the various philosophical arguments about offense vs defense, Dragonrealms is an Offense oriented game. Even contests are weighted in favor of the attacker, so give me more choices there rather then making me a somewhat thicker damage sponge.

While my philosophy for Paladins is to retain a heavy defensive style to them, I don't see a particular need to necessarily limit their offensive capacity to justify it. Paladins are one of the guilds that I can take a pound of flesh through other systems (Magic Tert and Soul requirements) as necessary to balance the entire package.

My guild design philosophy tends to be the set a certain hard-but-porous boundary on a guild's abilities or activities and then allow the guild to "cheat" it in specific, advanced ways. Absolution, Memory of Nature, Avtalia Array, unbound elemental oppositions, and Tangled Fate are all examples -- some of which more useful than others, granted -- of this mindset going into the game.

-Armifer
"Perinthia's astronomers are faced with a difficult choice. Either they must admit that all their calculations were wrong ... or else they must reveal that the order of the gods is reflected exactly in the city of monsters." - Italo Calvino

> I'd like to see some kind of stronger, ablative damage barrier. A thorns aura would also be really cool.

Here's my wish list for this "active armor" ability.

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1. It's available to everyone, just like armor. It would have natural formulas to determine the damage returned based on guild, armor type, hindrance, shields, etc...

2. The Aura/stance/spell/ability/whatever is an active ability you turn on or off, but then it's just on. Like the brawl command for empaths. Since it's open to everyone, it's not required to drain resources to use. It's a different method of being in combat, someone who is capable of dishing out a decent amount of damage. It has a very low RT to swap, maybe guildset placement. 1-3 seconds with spells to reduce this by 1s. That way you can stance dance. Wait for an attack, let hit, swap back, smash.

For example, let's say this was an extension to the stance verb. It would look like this:

> Stance counter
You brace yourself, preparing for an attack.

> Stance normal
You relax your muscles.

3. You can still do whatever you want... BUT, if you do anything that would normally cause an empath some degree of shock then you are penalized. It'll break the stance and penalize you.

For example, let's say you're in the counter stance:

> Attack Rat
As you watch the ground rising to meet your face, you realize that you were completely unprepared for such a maneuver.
[Stance is now normal, position & balance are tanked. You're now prone. Maybe you take some token wounds, get an RT, or are stunned.]

4. While the stance is active, when you're attacked, it proceeds like normal; however, the system records how much damage you mitigated (blocked, parried, or dodged - not absorbed). It then returns a portion of that damage back to the thing that attacked you.

> [Rat attacks, normal message, let's say 100% mitigation]
[position and other status message]
[If in counter stance, you get a new line]
You brace yourself, anticipating the attack. The [creature noun] slams against you, looking a little worse for wear after the experience. (worded to make this work for empaths without giving them shock)
[Rat takes damage as if they were hit with an attack of that score - all damage is impact or maybe impact + slicing].

This can kill your opponent.

5. The amount returned is heavily modified by current hindrance, armor stats, and conviction (where applicable). Tactics, brawling, strength, and reflex have a lesser impact.

One such formula could work like this: Damage returned = AOF * { Shield_Score + Armor_Type_Bonus + Armor_Skill_Bonus + Armor_Hindrance_Modifier + Guild_Bonus ) }

Attack to Counter:
- AOF = Score of the attack (only how much damage you successfully mitigated)

Shield_Score (1-10%) = ( Shield Impact + Shield Protection (max) ) / 420
- This is where you could improve beyond today with better shields.
- Greatly rewards bigger shields. Bigger the better. Even for armor secondaries.
- For example, the vardite pavise shield = 8.8% returned
- The firestained buckler (maze mt) would give you 2.8% returned.
- The diamond-hide shield would give you 3.5% returned.
- The best medium shield would give you 4.2% returned.

Armor_Type_Bonus (0-5%): Type value modified by coverage (see below)
- I think these numbers should be tweaked upwards, maybe just multiply it by a factor of 3 to encourage heavier armors, also maybe swap LP and Brig, again for the niche.
- Carves out a niche for Brig.
- Status bonus for your predominate type of armor. XP coverage %s can be used to determine how these mix.
- HP = 5, LP = 4, Brig = 3, chain =2, Leather = 1, no coverage = 0.
- 100% HP = 5.0, 100% brig = 3.0%, 100% leather = 1.0% returned.
- 25% LP + 25% brig + 30% leather + 20% chain = 2.45% returned.
- Wearing only a silk mask and no other armor = 0% due to rounding.

Armor_Skill_Bonus (0-10%): (Armor_Skill_Averaged)/ 17500
- Same as above, but it's own calculation. The higher your armor skill, the more damage you can return.
- Caps at 1750. Uses coverage to determine the score.
- Gives a niche to armor ranks beyond just protection.
- Uses raw ranks + buffs in the averaging.

Armor_Hindrance_Modifier (0-10%): 0.3/ [ min (3, total_armor_hindrance)]
- I like this thematically, but it could be dropped for simplicity.
- I think the more hindered you are, the less effective you are at using your armor.
- It also encourages a single set of armor if this is your goal.
- Extremely high hindrances could penalize rather than buff, but that would double dip the penalty. This is mitigated damage, so you have to be able to move to return anything.

Guild_Bonus (1-15%): Ceiling( 3[conviction] + [Scouting] + [Trading] + [Expertise]) / 35000)
- Terts start with 0. Secondaries start with 1% (due to rounding) when they join the guild.
- Rewards paladins with 3x efficiency based on conviction, up to a 15% bonus, gaining a new % every 120 ranks all the way to 1680 (skill keeps going up, but that's where the bonus caps)
- Rewards secondaries with 1x efficiency based on their guild skill, up to a 5% bonus, gaining a new % every 350 ranks all the way to 1750.
- Trading is kind of a stretch, but I see it as the ability to read people/creatures and know what they're thinking. It's a nice combat application, and it gives an "AOE" option for respectable damage to all the armor secondaries.
- Maybe add a mind-reading spell that makes this work, or enhances the bonus on humanoids. Likewise for rangers and animals.

I'm aware that there is quite a bit of double dipping going on here, but this is just off the cuff. It could definitely be simplified and refined. You could also play with the levers to fix the total percentages as needed.

6. For the formulas above, note that no armor results as a 0 for those calculations. It's considered a flub if you have no armor or shields on. It's a bad idea. Same penalties, but 0 protection.

7. A few examples of how this would play out:

Paladin: AKA tell the tank to dress like a tank.
- Full HP with 5 hindrance, using a Pavise shield, with 1750 in all skills = 44.8% returned damage = { .088 + .05 + .1 + .06 + .15 ) }
- Same as above, but with 500 in all armor skills = 37.6% damage returned = (.088+ .05 + .028 + .06 + .04)
- Same as above, but with 100 in all armor skills = 21.3% damage returned = (.088+ .05 + .005 + .06 + .01)

- In the lightest lumium clownsuit with 2 hindrance, using a diamond-hide small shield, with 1750 in all skills = 31.95% returned damage = { .035 + .0245 + .1 + .01 + .15 ) }
- Same as above, but with 500 in all armor skills = 13.75% returned damage = { .035 + .0245 + .028 + .01 + .04 ) }
- Same as above, but with 100 in all armor skills = 8.45% returned damage = { .035 + .0245 + .005 + .01 + .01 ) }

Ranger/Barbarian/Trader: AKA the sword + board / (DR's) dual-wielding archetypes (you don't really expect an archer/berserker to play tank)
- 100% Brig with 4 hindrance, using a the best medium shield, with 1750 in all skills = 29.7% returned damage = { .042 + .03 + .1 + .075 + .05 ) }
- Same as above, but with an armor skill buff (20%) = 31.7% returned damage = { .042 + .03 + .12 + .075 + .05 ) }
- Same as above, but with 500 in all armor skills = 18.0% damage returned = ( .042 + .03 + .028 + .06 + .02)
- Same as above, but with 100 in all armor skills = 14.7% damage returned = ( .042 + .03 + .005 + .06 + .01)

Bard: AKA The drunken tank (because you'd have to be drunk to do this, but let's go with it for an armor tert's example - cleric with YS + SOL + HYH could probably pull it off better)
- 100% Brig with 5 hindrance, using a the best diamond-hide shield, with 1750 in all skills = 24.5% returned damage = { .035 + .03 + .12 + .06 + 0 ) }
- Same as above, but with 500 in all armor skills + 20% ranks from YS = 15.7% damage returned = ( .035 + .034 + .028 + .06 + 0)

8. This ability does not give shock. The thing is hurting themselves on you. Empaths can use this for a new line of damage. It doesn't break itself. You can use non-damaging tactic moves while it's up.

9. Paladin protect still checks this ability. you can return damage to anything you protected as well as anything that attacked you directly.

10. This does not work on ranged weapons or spells. Maybe a paladin and/or ranger spell allowing them to rebound arrows. Maybe traders or barbarians get a magic rebound to reward their armor secondary/unique take on magic. If that happens, then I see it using the elemental protection and absorption for magic rebounds, rather than physical.

11. The damage reflected is considered to be DFA.

12. You could add a +raw damage modifier to this equation for spell hooks, such as buff that gave your armor golden spikes, maybe shield spikes (clerics/warrior mages), a cast mod for traders to add ridges to their regalia, or poison (reactant?) coating on your armor that disables your target if hit.

I like the active armor ideas, although I too am in the camp of moar offense [first]. I think my only reservation about active armor as it's been presented is it requires a full suit of the same armor. Since the armor skill set is so small, people (not only paladins) will continue to wear mix and match armor to train and swap to full suits when convenient (spars, invasions, etc.). That is, unless activating an armor ability would effect learning other armors generously such that it would be possible to continue to train all of them in a homogeneous suit. If not, I fear it may be subject to the "too niche" problem we also see in many other of our abilities.

I have faith in a positive outcome for all dev reinforce by all the cool stuff I've seen recently. Just wanted to voice a nagging concern, perhaps needlessly.