Palace guardian - tweak suggestion

[gotesu]

Hello!

Wanted to propose a tweak that I think will make a (IMO) very useless weapon into something a bit more useful and closer thematically to what (I think) it was supposed to be.

The Palace Guardian halberd sold at the exotic wares merchant at FAI is currently attributed as follows:

+2 bludgeoning, +4 EB, +4 taunt/parry/search

While it's description is pretty broken (One line that is obviously cut in the middle), I would guess it's supposed to be some kind of weapon for Palace guards (hence the name), so I was thinking maybe a more detection oriented skill bonuses might be better instead, something like:

+4 spot/listen/survival (for tracking intruders) or even heal (for taking care of those under his protection etc) - something along these lines.

In general, available epic halberds for purchase are really subpar compared to ... almost any other weapon, the other option for a halberd user is the glaive of the butcherer which is available in the BG market, whose properties are:

+4 EB, +1d4 bludgeoning, + 4 ac against magical beasts

And as much as displacer beasts are the true menace of BG, the added ac bonus is pretty much useless. Even the monetary value of both available halberds are around 80k for the glaive of the butcherer and 25k for the Palace Guardian (for comparison, other weapon types can easily range around the 200-400k range).

What do you think?

Thanks,
gotesu

[Theodore01]

you are totally right, more epic halberds are needed!

epic cold iron, alchemical silver, vamp and acid/fire weapons are missing for many other weapon types also.

[KOPOJIbPAKOB]

Here is the full description if you're interested!

The merciless civil war has thrown city of Yûlash into a whirlwind of chaos and massacre. All hope was lost when the Palace guardians, once trusted defenders of peace, have directed their halberds against the people they've sworn to protect.

Marauders never sleep in such dirty times, and spoils of war from Yûlash continue making a lot of unclean money. The treacherous guardians are mighty, but not immortal, and their unbreakable halberds are considered the most valuable prize.

It's missing due to some glitch, perhaps even the usage of "û" letter, though I'm not sure. It's definitely possible to fix.
upd: Rhifox did it while I was typing!

About the balance, it's more tricky. There's a certain tendency in the staff I'd call powercreep'o'phobia. It leads to many staffers, who take part in balance discussion, pushing for nerfs with no end even if it's no longer necessary. While it's very helpful in the beginning of the approval process, it turns into an issue later, creating a draining environment where it's problematic to finish any project. As a result, many new items from that collection were nerfed, while nearly half became loot-table exclusive (clearly more than planned).

Mechanically useful skill bonuses (such as Spot, Listen, Hide, MS and so on) were meeting especially hard resistance, where +2 was like the maximum possible bonus you could add. I personally don't see any harm in +4 spot, but in the current server reality I won't even try to put this suggestion on the table, as I've been there before and it was exhausting.

That said, at the time I forgot Butcher's Glaive existed, or it just slipped out of my radar. A different damage type would've been nice.

Disclaimer: I don't speak on behalf of the staff, but rather on behalf of my person who happened to design these items back then.

[Rhifox]

The û was indeed the source of the description problem and has been fixed now for the next update.

[gotesu]

Thank you both for the reply, explanation and description fix!

Well, as it is now the purchasable epic halberds are significantly inferior to other more common weapon types (and maybe that's part of the reason they're more common). Even doing a copy-paste of properties from an existing epic purchasable 2h weapon would be nice without changing the balance - just adding more options for uncommon weapon types. Though I would still like the unique flavor for a detection halberd as I'd think a Palace Guardian should be. But Im just throwing ideas.

Thank you folks for all the great work!