Dynamic CR scaling on spawns questions

[Vartigy]

Yeh, some of the caster mobs are very tough now if you let them live long enough to shapeshift into a phantom spider. (Which happens more often than not)
Noticed it with shamans and uldoon trail casters. Once they are shifted, if solo, its an invis and run away, cos their conceal, AC and AB make it harder than some of the boss fights. And they are a regular mob.
Yep, feels like a penalty for low pop times.

But still love the idea of the dynamic CR.

[Laughingman]

Why? You get more XP per kill when you are alone and it is the exact system that D&D was built around. Not to mention that if you go to a CR 1 area, fighting CR3 spawns solo with a level 4 PC you are going to be getting ~50-60 XP per kill anyway, with how high XP is in the lower levels currently. If you go to a CR 4 or 5 area with a group you might get ~55-60 XP if you make the kill, but when others make the kill it will likely be more like 47-52, so my guess is the XP is roughly the same solo or in a group. In a group you are fighting spawns 1-3 CR higher, but there is an XP reduction for being in a group and a further reduction if you don't make the kill so the numbers are likely very similar.

Graveyard (CR 1.5): 7 - 18 xp per kill not 60 per kill

At level 4? Besides as dedude said dynamic scaling doesn't occur until 5 so difficulty is unchanged for your monk.

yes I checked it when I posted that and at level 4 the graveyard is between 7xp and 18xp definitely not 50-60.

All I know is I encounter boss mobs in the hilltop ruins and they are basically a wall. I cannot harm them. No I don't mean the kobold chief either but yellow names boss mobs who obliterate me if I don't run even after I pop a barkskin potion and what little healing I have. Thus so far my attempts to get higher XP from there have been, again, walled off by an unlucky spawn in a random room.

Suffice to say you do not get more XP from this system. You get less but it is probably more exciting in the later levels.

[NeOmega]

Graveyard (CR 1.5): 7 - 18 xp per kill not 60 per kill

In old system, I leveled up at the graveyard enough times to have memorized this (20 to 30 times):

level 1: get max 50 XP per kill
level 2: max 25
level 3: max 13
level 4: max 8

So if at level four you are getting 18 XP for some kills, then the new system is working.

(fall and winter are here.. ...lost my disks... ..so tempting to buy NWN2 again and re-fire this up).

[Steve]

There do exist Areas of appropriate difficulty for your level 4 monk between the Graveyard and the Hilltop Ruins, both literally and figuratively.

[NeOmega]

Plus if the CR scales up at Caps of four, doesn't that just mean that people that struggle with CR can simply go to a lower level area that scales up as appropriate? Doesn't sound like a huge loss.

yup. mathmagics, the xp rises too.

[Hendrak]

So, ive just tried the Balor with a FVS build....

It didnt go well....

He attacked me for 54 and 52 AB with his highest attack a round... (although he attacked me from behind for +2AB?)

I think he usually hit for 48 AB, so you were good with AC 67....which i dont reach, just 63 usually.

Seems the challenge system destroyed a lot of builds which were constructed to do special Epic boss monsters....

I probably cant do him anymore with my build or have to burn dozens of items....

That´s very disappointing....

Is this intended? It would change a lot for the building scene and a lot of toons will become useless for their designed aim.

[AC81]

This is great news IMO ...

[aaron22]

So, ive just tried the Balor with a FVS build....

It didnt go well....

He attacked me for 54 and 52 AB with his highest attack a round... (although he attacked me from behind for +2AB?)

I think he usually hit for 48 AB, so you were good with AC 67....which i dont reach, just 63 usually.

Seems the challenge system destroyed a lot of builds which were constructed to do special Epic boss monsters....

I probably cant do him anymore with my build or have to burn dozens of items....

That´s very disappointing....

Is this intended? It would change a lot for the building scene and a lot of toons will become useless for their designed aim.

This is great news IMO ...

agreed. last night me and another where counter attacked in the troll cave. it was total mayhem. we were about 1-2 levels above natural cr, but the counter came at a perfect time and perfect place (for the trolls). we were sandwiched in a tight hall and the caster went down it was total madness. cannot wait to do it again.

also. mini bosses have a size up enhancement and when it mini bossed a fell troll it was unreasonably large for inside a cave.

[Hendrak]

AC81 wrote:
This is great news IMO ...

Maybe you didnt understand my intention. Its quite disappointing if you build for a special challenge, like soloing Balor without ressources, and then you suddenly cant do it.

I still can use a wand of mirror image or something else if i like too.

BTW the build is not one OP EDM or something else. Just relies on FVS extra dmg spells... thats enough. A simple FVS lvl 30 with just STR 20 and some defensive feats.

There are still dozens builds to solo the balor, the dynamic system cant change that so far... Probably every lvl 30 cleric/FVS can do him with a wand of mirror images and ICE feat.

Intention was to get some loot with a build, as i always was unlucky in the past and still am at the present....

Its difficult to lvl a char to lvl 30. If it then fails its aim it hurts.

[Steve]

Can I get a HALLELUJAH!!!

[Blame The Rogue]

my concern has always been, that staff sees certain classes/builds soloing an area, an area that staff did not intend to be soloable, and raises server difficulty across the board to "counter" it, which affects the entire playerbase, rather than the builds in question

if the balor can be defeated by a balanced party of 4, this i'm in agreement with. but if it cant be defeated by a balanced party, that would concern me. and by balanced party, i've always felt an area's CR, an area meant for a party, should be measured vs the classic pnp party of 4. lvl 30 cleric, lvl 30 wizard, lvl 30 fighter, lvl 30 rogue. that includes the rogue being able to sneak, fighter being able to tank a boss with wards from the casters, casters being able to stay alive to ward, heal, cast offensive spells. that's my idea of balance, but everyone has their own opinion on what balanced truly means

[mrm3ntalist]

my concern has always been, that staff sees certain classes/builds soloing an area, an area that staff did not intend to be soloable, and raises server difficulty across the board to "counter" it, which affects the entire playerbase, rather than the builds in question

Not the case. There is no need to be concerned by this. You only need to look what characters the staff mostly play and you will understand the line of thinking.

[chad878262]

My opinion is that more end game bosses that require grouping up is a good thing. If level 30 only consists of solo AFK loot grinding the server while waiting on DM or Player RP events that's a pretty sad state. However, if level 30 still can consist of epic adventures with others to take down baddies (besides one white dragon) then it becomes more interesting. Note that with dynamic scaling you can still go to a CR25-28 area solo and go up against CR27-30 mobs and a strong boss, with loot scaling accordingly so if you just want to solo, or are in a time zone which doesn't allow the opportunity to group up with other level 30 PC's you still have an opportunity to fight end game mobs and bosses, in fact you have MORE area's where you can get end game loot chances.

This said, dedude has stated in the past it will continue to be monitored and end game area's might be removed from CR scaling. Personally I would prefer if they still scale, since max scaling is PC level. Thus you will never have an area scale to CR34, which honestly might be interesting. About a year ago I took 7 level 30 PC's to the White Dragon (first and only time I have ever fought the white dragon by the way), we took it down with I think 1 PC death. I can't help, but think back on that and what may have happened had it been subject to dynamic scaling to increase it's CR Rating. I can't imagine we would have suffered a total party wipe since we had at least 3 of the 7 were power builds and none were really gimps. However, maybe we would have lost half our number, perhaps there would have been the fear of failure. I can't see that as a bad thing. This is all academic of course because nothing will scale above CR30 on the server (for now...)

[Blame The Rogue]

i'm in total agreement about being level 30 and adventuring

there should be an adequate number of epic areas available, to party, or solo, for appropriate rewards

[Theodore01]

i'm in total agreement about being level 30 and adventuring

there should be an adequate number of epic areas available, to party, or solo, for appropriate rewards !!!!!