Mage Defense

[Ozaru]

is there a particular reason why some classes get their defense skills so late. for example invokers get parry at rank 19 and shield block a 36? With such a low pbase you are a slave to individuals putting you on their back.
Or thieves not having enhanced damage until rank 22? Granted with the right group and surge it doesn't make much of a difference, but for mages its brutal. Just curious what people thought about maybe lowering the shield block parry dodge defense for all classes to a much lower rank.

[Navizarian]

[divsky]

I think it's fine since, at low levels, AC is more important than defenses anyways. This starts to change at around the mid-twenties, which, coincidentally, is the same level that mages get their defences. Since mages can wear the same armor as a warrior, they get the armor spell at a low level, and then can use staves and wands for even lower AC, mages actually have an advantage when it comes to AC at low levels.

As for why classes get skills at different levels, it's done to make playing each class feel unique. Warriors and berserkers supposed to be physical powerhouses right from the beginning. Thieves make up for that by getting things like backstab, counterbalance and hide at low level instead of enhanced damage.

Granted the warrior-type classes have an advantage at lower levels. But honestly, getting up to level 20 isn't that difficult for any class. Especially with things like mercs and pets. I've solo-ranked an illithid up to level 20 before and it only took a day. Beyond that, things get pretty difficult for mages. But there's already an entire thread about that, and the solution is not to give mages parry at level 3.

[Erlwith]

It is a pretty uniform concept in every mmo and MUD. Classes that are extremely powerful at their height, generally are very weak when they start out.

A form of checks and balances, I guess, to keep everyone from getting an invoker/illus/necro to 50 overnight and spanking lonely warriors with low saves.

Really... could you imagine invokers with full defenses and black-tear at lvl 10 running around killing everyone in sight? (Edit: I can and I think it would be awesome!!!!)

[Olyn]

I'm not going to look it up, but I think there's a THAC0 (old school dnd gamers will know what I'm talking about) progression up until level 31 or 32. It's sort of a behind-the-scenes level-based hitroll applied against AC. After that, defenses completely overtake AC in importance.