You mentioned Bloodthirst not being a problem, why?
I searched for an Aura of Murder nerf because today i tested out a few builds with it and the results were insane. I equipped the Diadem of Arcane Synergy, the bow that lowers crit threshold by 1, Bloodthirst in main hand and Sword of Undermountain King off hand (so form the get go you crit on 17/18/19/20). Arcane Synergy adds +4/+5 damage to each attack, which is doubled by vulnerability. Advantage on each hit is easy enough to get from items, so now we have 36% chance to crit on each weapon swing, bonkers!
1. 8 Oathbreaker 1 Fighter (for two weapon fighting) 3 thief (2 BA) - 18 str 18 cha -> without consuming any resources, it deals about 150 dmg per turn, , more if using smites. With oathbreaker you get, to each attack, +4/+5 from Arcane Synergy and Aura of Hate which is then doubled.... so you get (+4 STR + 8 CHA ) x 2 = 24 flat damage bonus on each attack. This can be increased with damage rider items and by boosting stats, and you get 4 attacks .... lawd have mercy
2. 5 Gloomstalker 7 Thief - 20 str 18 wis -> Let's just say i'm able to consistently kill the Oathbreaker Knight (on honour mode) with this build in the first turn. On average, it deals about 240-260 damage, without consuming any resources. Sneak attack gets doubled by the easy to proc crits, and then doubled again by vulnerability. Very reliably you can get sneak attacks that add 80-ish piercing damage.
Larian completely stopped caring about balance in act 3 lol...
Oh don't get me wrong, Bloodthirst is still very strong simply due to how strong Vulnerability is. I just don't consider it as big of a problem as Aura of Murder because: 1. You need to attack an enemy with it while it's in your main hand, which means using your action. If you have Extra Attack, you can only apply this to a maximum of two enemies per turn. Of course with extra actions from being Hastened, Terazul, etc. then you get more attacks, but those effects kinda break the game's balance themselves anyway. 2. You need to actually hit the enemy, so there's a chance you won't even apply the Vulnerability. 3. The Vulnerability is only applied after you get, so your initial attack with Bloodthirst doesn't benefit from it. 4. Not strictly balance-related, but Bloodthirst can only be obtained even later than Bhaalist Armour, and unless you're metagaming to rush for it, is usually one of the last pieces of equipment obtained in the game.
Compare that to Aura of Murder, which automatically applied the Vulnerability in an AoE instead. I just didn't want to give Bloodthirst the same nerfed Aura of Murder effect from this mod, which I feel would nerf it too much.
Does that mean Bloodthirst doesn't deserve nerfs? No, I think it can definitely still be exploited to produce ridiculous damage, as from your examples. Just haven't thought of an appropriate change/haven't gotten around to it yet. If you have any suggestions or ideas, then I'd be happy to hear them.
Yeah i agree with you, it takes a bit more effort to create a build that can consistently abuse it, but it's really not that difficult to do. As for nerfs, giving them the same nerf as Aura of Murder seems ok i guess. And yeah, once you get to act 3 ... there are so many items and builds that let you go god mode it might not really matter that much. Maybe i'm being nitpicky here
Hey, nice nerf! This will no longer encourage long-range shooting, which is more in line with the role of an assassin. But if I use a feat that does not have disadvantages when using close-range shooting, can it be triggered when using close-range shooting? It should be very interesting if this can be adapted, but I don’t know if it will be troublesome.
Hi, thank you for the suggestion! That should technically be possible but would require a rework of my current implementation, and the solution would be slightly janky. It'd be possible to check for if you have a specific passive (e.g. the Crossbow Expert feat) to allow closed-ranged shooting to trigger the Aura of Murder effect, but I wouldn't be able to check for the actual Boost itself. This means that any other sources (i.e. other mods) that remove disadvantage on close-ranged bow attacks wouldn't work.
Additionally, one intended side effect that I had behind this rework was nerfing archer builds. Archers are already some of the strongest builds in the game, so I would prefer to keep the effect only working for melee weapon attacks. I appreciate your feedback, but at this time, I won't implement it unless I see a lot of demand for it.
Thanks for your consideration! I also understand that archers are too powerful in the game, and I like this change. I hope it will be one of the motivations for me to play melee rogues.
11 comments
I searched for an Aura of Murder nerf because today i tested out a few builds with it and the results were insane. I equipped the Diadem of Arcane Synergy, the bow that lowers crit threshold by 1, Bloodthirst in main hand and Sword of Undermountain King off hand (so form the get go you crit on 17/18/19/20). Arcane Synergy adds +4/+5 damage to each attack, which is doubled by vulnerability. Advantage on each hit is easy enough to get from items, so now we have 36% chance to crit on each weapon swing, bonkers!
1. 8 Oathbreaker 1 Fighter (for two weapon fighting) 3 thief (2 BA) - 18 str 18 cha -> without consuming any resources, it deals about 150 dmg per turn, , more if using smites. With oathbreaker you get, to each attack, +4/+5 from Arcane Synergy and Aura of Hate which is then doubled.... so you get (+4 STR + 8 CHA ) x 2 = 24 flat damage bonus on each attack. This can be increased with damage rider items and by boosting stats, and you get 4 attacks .... lawd have mercy
2. 5 Gloomstalker 7 Thief - 20 str 18 wis -> Let's just say i'm able to consistently kill the Oathbreaker Knight (on honour mode) with this build in the first turn. On average, it deals about 240-260 damage, without consuming any resources. Sneak attack gets doubled by the easy to proc crits, and then doubled again by vulnerability. Very reliably you can get sneak attacks that add 80-ish piercing damage.
Larian completely stopped caring about balance in act 3 lol...
1. You need to attack an enemy with it while it's in your main hand, which means using your action. If you have Extra Attack, you can only apply this to a maximum of two enemies per turn. Of course with extra actions from being Hastened, Terazul, etc. then you get more attacks, but those effects kinda break the game's balance themselves anyway.
2. You need to actually hit the enemy, so there's a chance you won't even apply the Vulnerability.
3. The Vulnerability is only applied after you get, so your initial attack with Bloodthirst doesn't benefit from it.
4. Not strictly balance-related, but Bloodthirst can only be obtained even later than Bhaalist Armour, and unless you're metagaming to rush for it, is usually one of the last pieces of equipment obtained in the game.
Compare that to Aura of Murder, which automatically applied the Vulnerability in an AoE instead. I just didn't want to give Bloodthirst the same nerfed Aura of Murder effect from this mod, which I feel would nerf it too much.
Does that mean Bloodthirst doesn't deserve nerfs? No, I think it can definitely still be exploited to produce ridiculous damage, as from your examples. Just haven't thought of an appropriate change/haven't gotten around to it yet. If you have any suggestions or ideas, then I'd be happy to hear them.
But if I use a feat that does not have disadvantages when using close-range shooting, can it be triggered when using close-range shooting? It should be very interesting if this can be adapted, but I don’t know if it will be troublesome.
Additionally, one intended side effect that I had behind this rework was nerfing archer builds. Archers are already some of the strongest builds in the game, so I would prefer to keep the effect only working for melee weapon attacks. I appreciate your feedback, but at this time, I won't implement it unless I see a lot of demand for it.
I'll wait til the typo is fixed to download lol. Great stuff!