Brickdoctor

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I think I might have become a mini-Flipz for a time there. Sorry for the really long post on why Black Knights aren't the greatest choice. (Yes, that was all in the Hall and in-character. Docken cares about and knows about that sort of thing in-universe. )

"You may have good intentions, but that doesn't change the fact that your actions are unnecessarily dark. "Clerics are prone to taking a lot of Damage, and they rely on the tanks to take hits for them. Black Knights can't reliably do that. Anything a Cleric-Black Knight team can do, a Cleric-Mystic Knight or Cleric-Berserker team can probably do better. And any team with a healer, tank, and dedicated Damage-dealer could do even better than that. Really, if you consider that the sacrificed Health is just added straight to the Damage dealt, and consider that enemies usually have much higher HP than heroes, you'd need a good elemental modifier or other multiplier for it to be worth the sacrifice, something that the Mystic Knights I've mentioned are already going to have anyways. "As for consumables, any class can use them, so they aren't an advantage for the Black Knight. And the afore-mentioned Berserkers can Encourage the party without consumables. Plus you have to pay for all those consumables, and Black Knights have no Gold-gaining ability. A Black Knight will probably never make enough Gold to come even close to the level of buffs a Raider has. "I'll break it down, by the abilities of a Black Knight: Flee - Any Rogue class can do it. Alternatives: Assassin, Raider, Sorcerer, Witch. "Intimidation - Diplomacy will usually work just fine, but there is another Advanced Class with Intimidation if you have to have it. Alternatives: Berserker, Mystic Knight, Paladin, Warden. "AoE Darkness-elemental Shield - Evokers can do this with a Summon Burst after having had the benefit of the summon, Mystic Knights can do this with the possibility of a much, much more powerful multiplier, Sages can do it and heal the entire party at the same time. In all three cases, the class is not limited to one element like the Black Knight is. Plus there're Assassins who have an AoE that gains Gold and assassinates, Raiders have an AoE attack that also gains Gold, Sorcerers have an AoE Stunning and Gold-gaining ability, and Witches have an AoE hexing ability. "Damage dealing - The Black Knight is not really a big Damage-dealer. Battle Mages, Berserkers, Hunters, Mystic Knights, and Raiders will usually have better multipliers for their attacks, and there're the Assassins who can instantly kill in addition to the Evokers and Sages that can get good multipliers through elemental attacks while summoning spirits or healing, respectively. "Tanking - Even though the Black Knight has a shield, he's not a reliable tank. Berserkers and Mystic Knights can use shields and won't Hide or Dodge, and then there are the Paladins and Wardens who are significantly better at tanking because of their Shield skills which protect the entire party from attacks. "Special Dodge - Even if this is a pro and not a con, almost every Cleric class can do it better. Special Guard has the same chance of success as Special Dodge, but the attack doesn't get redirected to another hero. Alternatives: Druid, Paladin, Sage, Shaman. Plus Witches who have the Special Mirror. "So for any of the specialized roles, there's another class that's better than the Black Knight and that class is probably one of the 'staple classes' that does well in teams and parties like to have with them. In addition to not being the best at any specialization, Black Knights can't heal or use Scrolls or a ranged attack, so they're not capable of being 'jack of all trades, master of none' heroes."

"No problem. Bartholomew Docken, at your service. Sorcerer, you say?"Well firstly a Sorcerer isn't a true big Damage dealer at first, so much like the Mage he needs to have a good assortment of gems so he can get the most out of each strike. But where a Sorcerer can really help is in the effects he can deal. Sorcerers have an Area of Effect Shield that Stuns every enemy, which is hugely helpful, especially in saving another hero from taking a Free Hit or enabling a party to fearlessly target a particularly dangerous enemy. Sorcerers also inflict the Confused effect with their fourth skill, which isn't as powerful since Confused still has a 50% chance of not affecting the inflicted enemy, but it's a very respectable fourth skill. And while a Sorcerer is not initially a big Damage dealer, he does deal Damage with his fifth skill - albeit while taking Damage himself - which gives him a greater chance of Damaging the enemy whenever he attacks. Plus a Sorcerer can gain a good amount of Gold. "A Sorcerer is already a useful class to start with, although perhaps not one of the 'staple classes' that everyone wants in their party. For Rogues, the issue is that there are two other options, Raider and Assassin, which are pretty much always wanted in a party, one being a big Damage-dealer and the other being able to instantly kill an enemy and both usually being buffed by many consumables. For Mages, all the other Advanced Class choices are decent, and Sages will find a spot in many parties, being healers. "So, I think Sorcerer is more of a platform on which to build a good set of abilities through items you acquire. The right choice of gems in addition to weapons and artifacts that deal or protect from other effects will separate the great Sorcerers from the regular ones. Sorcerers have a little more versatility than some other classes that, being 'staple classes' fall into more specialized roles. I know a hero, one Arthur Justus Regulus VII, who went with Sorcerer and is much more knowledgeable than I when it comes to optimizing a class with the right equipment. His use of Scrolls has turned Sorcerer into a real powerhouse of an offensive support class."

"And that's where the flaw is. Any hero could do decently when paired with a very strong tank and a healer. It's the team that has to carry the Black Knight to make up for his shortcomings, and the Black Knight doesn't bring any unique abilities to the party. A party with a tank and a Cleric is looking for a big Damage dealer: Hunter, Berserker, Mystic Knight, Battle Mage, Raider. A Black Knight is not a big Damage dealer under most circumstances, is not a reliable tank, cannot heal, and provides no buffs.""Do note that of the five big Damage dealers I mentioned, three are Rogue or Knight Advanced Classes, so there's always a better alternative to Black Knight in that regard."

Hey, Donny and Violetta's fate is better than that of any Brickdoctorean NPC. They actually got to come back for another quest. All my villains die in the boss fights.

That might have been Ulric's or Baba's plan, but I'm sure it wasn't Donny's or Violetta's plan.

I would think so; enemies don't remove the Stunned effect until they either get to deal a Free Hit or a hero targets them and rolls Damage or Special Damage.

"But you have to know when is the right time to dodge. When there's another hero near you that would take the hit instead, that's not the right time to dodge. And if your intent was to deal Damage instead of soaking up hits, you could have chosen Mystic Knight or Berserker, both of which are more suited to dealing a lot of Damage than Black Knights are."

Oh, that's right, Smelling Salts were introduced by... WBD, right? I forgot that Hastened wasn't one of the original effects. It seems so basic and standard a buff now.

Right, but I was wondering if the "next Round" part of the wording was originally part of the description of Stunned or not. Because if it was, then I would treat this case as a regular Stun and attribute the wording of the Special to a copying of the original wording of the effect (In which case it would be removed by Nurture), not as a case of the QM who created the Special trying to add a sort of mechanical gimmick.

Was that wording originally in the Stunned effect's description? It doesn't make sense for the 'next Round' part to be in there since Sandy says it was always intended to only affect the very next action even if that action was in the same Round. Did the 'next Round' part get added later by QMs?

Or you can be a tank, because then when Essences are dropped, you're usually entrusted with them.

"Anger in control can be good, yes. 'In control' being the key phrase there. I imagine that many of us get angry during a battle, and anger itself is not necessarily a bad thing. But no one else exhibits such hatred that they generate a Darkness-elemental attack. That is nothing but pure malice. And in cases like Intimidation, the anger is not even necessary; Diplomacy will often work just as well."And again, the main point here is how Black Knights through Hiding and Dodging can betray their fellow heroes. Don't tell me that that's skill; that's not an acceptable excuse. A hero is told to attack a certain enemy at a certain time because he is the one best qualified to possibly take the hit. Hiding and Dodging, allowing another to take the strike targeted at you: that is not skill, but betraying your party."

"As I have said before, I do not find all killing to be evil. Just because the choice is explainable does not mean that it is justifiable, excusable, or acceptable. No matter what the hero's past is like, he still has a choice to pick a different class."

It looks like they're increasing free users' space while increasing the pricing for the various paid options. Great for free users who are EB members, since we don't upload too many large pictures anyways. (flickr says my 191 pictures take up less than 0.0078% of my available free space.) I'm not sure I really like the new UI; it's covered in large images and predictably takes longer to load. But since if I go back to using it, it'd be pretty much only as an image host and not to participate in any groups (Taking the role Photobucket plays for me now.), I have no complaints.

"To be fair, Master Pretzel, while I didn't specifically say that Black Knights were evil, I did say that they attempted to use evil to fight evil. With Intimidation, betrayal through Hiding and Dodging, and unleashing so much malice and malevolence that they create a Darkness-elemental attack without the use of Ether, they use evil acts in order to accomplish their goals. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."

From a story perspective, if you want genies/jinns in this game to be used only three times, you could make the infinite-use ones stay around forever, but each player only gets three uses before they have to give the lamp to another player.

He recognizes that Special Mirror is typically a good thing, and that the reason it harmed the party was because of the enemy's Special. Therefore Atramor and Special Mirror are not evil; the Chaos Beast (I think it was.) was evil in that case. (Both mechanically and because it was the enemy.) I don't think Docken would have been that surprised in that case actually. The player had a special ability; the enemy had a Special that took advantage of it. Docken's kind of used to enemies that for some reason seem built to Knock him Out. And he knows all this because he's the "walking void-of-a-fourth-wall".

Also anyone QMing Docken, they're evil too.

Ah, okay. Good, Docken doesn't have to dislike the person who gets it because of the mechanical consequences, then.

"I agree with you there, but I was unable to convince Master Guffington to come back. It was Master Holla demonstrating his skill with his newly-acquired Dancing Shoes that convinced Master Guffington that he hadn't seen everything yet. I must admit that I am not sure if he still maintains that view."

Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen...

I like that description of Docken.

"Master Guffington serves no house. From what little I found out about him during my last quest for him, it appears that he is wealthy beyond belief, having done so much already that he was bored with the world and willing to remain in a sort of 'dream dimension' where he could experience that which he'd never experienced before."