Coming Soon: Discussion Thread (2020)

[EasternCheesE]

Mimics are not present in all dungeons, and are designed to be fought as a party. Think of them as mini-bosses. Mimics do not drop loot, but instead increase the total number of chests in a dungeon. A Reflex save prevents you from being grappled by the Mimic, but this save can be very difficult for high-level Mimics. We will never put Mimics in all dungeons so that players who wish to avoid Mimics are able to. It's a risk/reward tradeoff, which requires player choice.

But, i used to loot mimics and got items in UD. In particular, Tar pits (cr 12 area).
As of mimics, i wonder if there is a way to add some check to find out chest is a mimic without touching it.

[Zanniej]

But, i used to loot mimics and got items in UD. In particular, Tar pits (cr 12 area).
As of mimics, i wonder if there is a way to add some check to find out chest is a mimic without touching it.

There is, it's a spot roll (or was it search? Oh well, you get the gist)!
I was with a party once, and someone in my party spotted it.... And I touched it anyway, ofcourse!

[gedweyignasia]

someone in my party spotted it.... And I touched it anyway, of course!

I very specifically made sure it'd only tell the person who spotted it because this seemed like a fun RP scenario where the rogue is like, "No, wait!!" while the rest of the party rushes to open the chest and sign their death sentence.

[Steve]

Is maybe the problem with balancing loot that some players loot 3 chests per week and some players loot 30 chests per day?

Is there a way to make diminishing returns? So your first 'special/boss' chest of the day has a high % chance of amazing loot, but subsequent ones have a lower and lower chance?

This is a very good point and I think may have been overlooked in the mimic tangent.

[Hoihe]

Mimics are not present in all dungeons, and are designed to be fought as a party. Think of them as mini-bosses. Mimics do not drop loot, but instead increase the total number of chests in a dungeon. A Reflex save prevents you from being grappled by the Mimic, but this save can be very difficult for high-level Mimics. We will never put Mimics in all dungeons so that players who wish to avoid Mimics are able to. It's a risk/reward tradeoff, which requires player choice.

If mimics are designed to be fought with a party, could they be made to ONLY spawn if so.eone is in a party, or to avoid abuse: if 2 players or more entered the map at once, party or not.

[EasternCheesE]

Mimics are not present in all dungeons, and are designed to be fought as a party. Think of them as mini-bosses. Mimics do not drop loot, but instead increase the total number of chests in a dungeon. A Reflex save prevents you from being grappled by the Mimic, but this save can be very difficult for high-level Mimics. We will never put Mimics in all dungeons so that players who wish to avoid Mimics are able to. It's a risk/reward tradeoff, which requires player choice.

If mimics are designed to be fought with a party, could they be made to ONLY spawn if so.eone is in a party, or to avoid abuse: if 2 players or more entered the map at once, party or not.

As i understand, chests and mimic spawns are determined by reset, not by players visiting area.

[Thaelis]

If mimics are designed to be fought with a party, could they be made to ONLY spawn if so.eone is in a party, or to avoid abuse: if 2 players or more entered the map at once, party or not.

I think by designed to be fought with a party they meant "designed to be nigh impossible for a solo character". So the fact you survived alone is kinda a badge of honor.

I guess it's probably to stop players doing a solo run through every area in the Sword Coast (which should be physically impossible seeing as Greypeaks are 400+ miles from Reaching Woods but hey who's measuring )

[Hoihe]

Mimics are not present in all dungeons, and are designed to be fought as a party. Think of them as mini-bosses. Mimics do not drop loot, but instead increase the total number of chests in a dungeon. A Reflex save prevents you from being grappled by the Mimic, but this save can be very difficult for high-level Mimics. We will never put Mimics in all dungeons so that players who wish to avoid Mimics are able to. It's a risk/reward tradeoff, which requires player choice.

If mimics are designed to be fought with a party, could they be made to ONLY spawn if so.eone is in a party, or to avoid abuse: if 2 players or more entered the map at once, party or not.

As i understand, chests and mimic spawns are determined by reset, not by players visiting area.

Could then instead make them highly sensitive to the "party scaling" mechanic? Spawn as normal with at least 2 clear weakness in terms of HP, AC, AB, DMG if it's a solo player trying to do something when there is nobody to RP with.
Spawn them as a yellow name if there's a party present and only keep 1 weakness.

As it is, right now it feels like they have no weaknesses. High AB, High AC, High damage and high health.

If mimics are designed to be fought with a party, could they be made to ONLY spawn if so.eone is in a party, or to avoid abuse: if 2 players or more entered the map at once, party or not.

I think by designed to be fought with a party they meant "designed to be nigh impossible for a solo character". So the fact you survived alone is kinda a badge of honor.

I guess it's probably to stop players doing a solo run through every area in the Sword Coast (which should be physically impossible seeing as Greypeaks are 400+ miles from Reaching Woods but hey who's measuring )

My issue with "the fact you survived" is that I've gone through numerous RCRs trying to get my specific vision to work. In fact, I've abandoned my original idea of curse/debuff magic with unbuffed melee, and went full melee with a few RP spells left over. Personally, other than having non-negative (or even positive) cha and wisdom, and a wizard dip - I consider my build to be a powerbuild that sacrificed RP and theming for viability (turns out, 52 AC is not enough. I need 65 duelling AC and that kind of realisations).

So yes, I can survive stuff and even solo content on the server if I don't care for how long it might take due to 3 attacks per round and low AB/dmg but high AC and stuff.

However, had I not changed my build and gave up on RP and theming? I wouldn't be able to. If I ran into a mimic and boosted myself to 55 AC with my old build, I'd have likely died due to too low AB when having 55 AC.

Essentially, we shouldn't force people to play powerbuilds if they can only really solo the server either due to preferences or time zone. A lot of times when I feel things are overtuned are when I realize "If my build wasn't going all-in on AC or had access to these spells, I'd have died", because I do not think people should make the sacrifices I had to make (completely abandon a genuine and existing lore-friendly fighting-concept for something cookiecutter that borderline abuses the engine (HiPS dodging spells and using Parry mode when I fail a will or fort save vs hold/paralysis)) to be able to play.



And people may say "not all areas have mimics. Go where there aren't mimics"

A) We do not have information on which areas do, which do not.
B) We do not have enough areas as is to go to. Especially with the level limiter in place. At the moment, I've got a grand choice of Serpent Hills and Reaching Woods for areas I can solo without taking too long due to needing to lower my DPS for survivability. If I avoided mimics, then I'd have reaching woods.
Durlag's CR is too low, the areas with appropriate CR are way harder than the advertised CR (Invisibile stalkers with very high AC, AB, displacement and breaching mobs spawning left and right; doppelgangers where shapeshift bug gives them AC/AB in in 50/30s range. Often 2-3 at the same time) and very few chests. Other areas cost more than projected profit due to traps and spellcasters.

[Steve]

Subject: Post here for Chest issues with loot/gold

...mimics...the optimal strategy is to run away. That's the only way....

I don't think we could be more clear on the design. You don't have to like it!!!

[Zanniej]

I don't think we want the entire server to be solo-able.
This is a party game. If you wish to solo, you'll have to accept that you can't go everywhere.

I think it is perfectly acceptable to have risks involved to soloing. If you can solo everything with the right build, then what is there left to conquer? What achievements can you achieve? Where's the fun in conquering an area as a group, if you have seen everything on your own already?

For me, making the server solo-able is absolutely not a goal. While I realise that some timezones make finding a group harder (I'm not in the most active timezone myself), I still would prefer to keep an air of mystery over some content, and some danger involved to adventuring (which in itself is a dangerous profession), than being able to handle the entire server if you plan correctly. It's not an adventure if you know exactly what to expect!

[Thaelis]

I don't think we want the entire server to be solo-able.
This is a party game. If you wish to solo, you'll have to accept that you can't go everywhere.

I think it is perfectly acceptable to have risks involved to soloing. If you can solo everything with the right build, then what is there left to conquer? What achievements can you achieve? Where's the fun in conquering an area as a group, if you have seen everything on your own already?

For me, making the server solo-able is absolutely not a goal. While I realise that some timezones make finding a group harder (I'm not in the most active timezone myself), I still would prefer to keep an air of mystery over some content, and some danger involved to adventuring (which in itself is a dangerous profession), than being able to handle the entire server if you plan correctly. It's not an adventure if you know exactly what to expect!

Totally agree.

Also I'm in AU timezone which is usually DEAD, but even I can find a group if I send enough annoying Tells and stand around at the FAI looking suitably forlorn "Please sir... *sniffle sniffle* I'm just a helpless Elf ranger... please take me with you"

[Hoihe]

"I have an hour until a pre-arranged RP meeting. I'll go do some looting on the way to pass the time, and record a video to show friend what BG is like."


Cue:


Then follow a Mohrg who proceeds to spam Balagharn's Iron Horn like it's infinite for at least an entire minute.

[EasternCheesE]

Okay, i will just put it here so you have your better time avoiding mimics.
If you bash a chest for 8 rounds and you still didn't break the lock - it's a mimic for 99% chance unless you damage lock for 3-5 dmg a round.

I myself found it out by bashing chest for 20 rounds in a row with 10-15 dmg a hit.

[yyj]

I have no idea what's going on in the loot on the Underdark but to give you an example:

Underdark: River Rift kobolds, give me around 30-40 exp, but the chests are giving decent loot.

Goblin Lake, I get around 40-45 exp and the loot in there is just 20-30 gold...

Character level is 10, but I noticed goblin lake stopped giving loot since level 8 (while the area was still giving like 48-51 exp)

It feels really bad, compared to the surface looting experience.

[EasternCheesE]

If you mean those 4 chests in goblin lake (not lower into it), i agree, those kept giving me ~40 gold for a pretty long time too while i still was in their CR margin to get 40-50 xp.