Poison Making + Fletching/Smithing crossover

[Haenir]

Step 1 : add darts/blowgun/needles/(insert other throwing type weapons) to Fletching/Smithing
Step 2 : use rogue poisons to coat these weapons, similar to arrow varnish

This would shift rogue poisons from a buff slot to a weapon proc.
This would open up more possibility of a thrown weapon playstyle for rogues -- i.e. on a fight where a mob is moving around and melee/backstab is jerky, shooting a bunch of poisoned needles at the mob is an option.

Any thoughts? I'll be sketching this out here in later posts.

 

[Grinkles]

I'd like to see the Throwing skill get more exposure in any way. Thinking about it makes me wish that the Live developers back in the late 90s had thought to implement sling weapons for casters and healers, especially Clerics. They took so much inspiration from AD&D on archetypes and class/race restrictions, yet ranged attacks for non-melee toons never seemed to be much of a consideration for them. Of course, if the SoD staff were feeling adventurous (and had the freetime), I imagine they could bump up the Throwing cap on casters and find a way to give the Throwing skill to priests (who, for whatever reason, were never given it on Live), then implement a sling and stone system....

 

[Ludovician]

I always wished that throwing was a more viable option for rogues.

Giving up backstab, double attacks, dual wielding and the overall speed of attacks really is giving up a lot of DPS, probably more than you'd give up missing an attack or two on a moving mob (moving mobs are such a huge pain though).

I'm gonna lurk and see what you come up with and hopefully there's a staff response. Throwing is a forgotten skill and I think I've only ever regularly used it on one fight (Enthann). That's pretty sad.

 

[Grinkles]

Giving up backstab

In reality, there's no reason an assassin couldn't strike a victim square in the back with a throwing dagger. If the staff really felt like mixing things up, maybe Backstab could even somehow be worked into autofire, as long as there were some way to limit it to daggers/knives/pointy things as opposed to sticks and stones. I suppose that might subvert the traditional Rogue role though, unless certain balances were put in.

 

[taosanterior]

If I'm not mistaken one of the rogue AA's allows them to assassinate mobs with throwing weapons from behind, so a backstab-ish function could also make sense

 

[Haenir]

Poison Effects
Poisons from darts should be cumulative, each dart that takes effect adds a poison counter, with effect strength determined by the number of counters up to a cap based on the tier of poison. E.g. a tier 0 slow poison would cause 1% slow per level and cap at 5%, but a tier 3 poison would cause 2% slow per level and cap at 40%.

This system would also mean that as counters wear off the strength of the effect diminishes, forcing rogues to make a strategic choice about using dps/utility from poisons versus melee dps.

The basic effect of poisons can be classified into three main types, with associated sub-types:

1. Direct Damage -- With sustained use these should give the quickest/highest dps (after all you are using a poison specifically tailored to affect your enemy). Bane damage can't be resisted?
   • Bane poisons
   • Mana poisons
2. Damage Over Time -- These are less overall dps than direct poisons, but there is potential to strategically use these along with melee.
   • Poison based (venom/acid inside needles)
   • Disease based (excrement/filth inside needles)
   • Fire based (hot stuff inside needles)
   • Cold based (cold stuff inside needles)
3. Debuff -- These need to be long enough lasting and/or powerful enough to justify dropping rogue dps -- perhaps these are built into the DoT effects?
   • Slow/Snare
   • Defensive (AC/AGI/STA)
   • Offensive (ATK/STR/DEX)
   • Other effects?

Item Progression (weapons use throwing skill)
There are 5 tiers, progression adds range, reduces delay, increases potential effect strength, and increases crafting difficulty (e.g. the most powerful poisons are in a glass capsule that is inside a forged needle). Damage potential is based on the needle effects rather than the base damage of the item. Ideally recipes on things like needles would make sense from a tradeskill sales point of view (i.e. 1 warpmetal ingot can produces a batch of 100+ needles). Poisons are applied, like varnishes, so that the ratio of poison vials to needles is something like 1:100+.

• Tier 1 (for levels 1-19)

Vendor Purchased Ittems:

Crude Blowgun
Hollow Needles
Weak Poisons
Bandolier - equivalent of quiver, but for needles​

Player Crafted Items:

Simple Blowgun - (fletching)
Hollow Iron Needles - (blacksmithing/pottery)
Bandolier (tailoring) - equivalent of quiver, but for needles​

• Tier 2 (for levels 20-39)

Player Crafted Items:

Blowgun - (fletching)
Hollow Silver Needles - (blacksmithing/pottery)
Simple Poison (make poison)
​

NPC Crafted Items:

Various Blowguns --- primarily for range slot stats
Kelethin Rogue Guild --- add blowgun quest to the end of the Frilakh Scale Armor questline​

• Tier 3 (for levels 40-59)

Player Crafted Items:

Fine Blowgun - (fletching)
Hollow Mithril Needles - (blacksmithing/pottery)
Advanced Poisons (make poison)
​

NPC Crafted Items:

Various Blowguns --- primarily for range slot stats
Thurgadin Blowgun --- replace the Thurgadin quest trap kit with a blowgun​

• Tier 4 (for levels 60-65)

Player Crafted Items:

Elegant Blowgun - (fletching)
Hollow Warpmetal Needles - (blacksmithing/pottery)
Master Poisons (make poison)
​

NPC Crafted Items:

Various Blowguns --- primarily for range slot stats, but also additional proc available​

• Tier 5 (65+)

Player Crafted Items

Hollow Yclistinite Needles - (blacksmithing/pottery)
Planar Poisons (make poison) 250+ skill, unique effects, rare component drops
Ikisith Poisons (make poison) 250+ skill, usual effects, strongest version, must be quest flagged/etc​

NPC Crafted Items:

Raid Level Blowguns --- primarily for range slot stats, but also additional proc available​