The Power of Negative STR! (in General)

Cookie Monster decapitated -**Captain Butt-Kicker**- [190]

That's with negative 9k STR! Boooo. It was just enough to draw me by killing off my enchanter when my mage died of his own AMF backlash.

...which means the odds of it happening twice are decently low, since it'd have to hit exactly on the round in which my mage died of AMF backlash....but still, I really didn't think my enchanter was in any trouble against an opponent with a fair amount of negative STR.

Guess that's what I get when I assume, eh? =)

Lorni tapped Prophecies with Carsomyr [92]

Yes a negative strength is outstanding.

This with over a 30M NW MH.

Holy crap!

Obviously this calls for a nerfing!

lm[edit: B]o :(

This is as it should be in my opinion...

No mater how much damage your weapon can deal, it should be totally useless if you can't even lift it up. Which is the case with negative ST.

It should be the same with negative DX. You shouldn't be able to hit anything with any weapon if you're to clumsy to even hold it. Right now though, that is not the case. :(

It does take a lot of xp to get EC to a decent level. Remember it is only 1/2 its trained level in effectiveness. Also, the only item that can boost it is a corn.

While strength can be boosted by a number of items. Notably a TOA. However for non TOA tanks, the TSA can boost your strength by 35% easy for a relatively low NW. Add in a HOE and TG's and you can get over 60% boost pretty easy, if you decide to use these items.

and as far as hitting with negative DX, it makes sense. There is a magical enchantment on the weapons to make them more accurate, guiding them to their target, meaning they don't necessarily even have to be handled ;)

The way I see it, if you don't have enough DX even load a bolt or string an arrow on your weapon, it shouldn't even fire.

Or... if you are too clumsy to unstrap the clip holding the sword to your belt or your back, you shouldn't be able to hit anything with it.

That is how I see it. If you have any chance of even holding a weapon in your hands, which in my opinion requires a DX of at least 1, then it makes sense that an enchanted weapon would do all the work for you. However, a DX of 0 or less should mean that a carrot has more chance of picking up your weapon than you do.

Again, that is just my personal opinion.

"However, a DX of 0 or less should mean that a carrot has more chance of picking up your weapon than you do."

Anti-Tank Blender, anybody? :D

Negative DX really doesn't have very much effect against TOA tanks, or just ones with big weapons. You have to combine it with DBs or Evasion, then it takes out a good two or three hits from the opponent's reduced ST.

Dictionary.com makes a good case for the way DX works now, saying that Dexterity means "skill and/or quickness, especially with the hands".

Anybody can wield a sword. Maybe not so well, but anybody can, given enough strength, even if the sword only moves at 0.5 feet/second. However, having no dexterousness means you won't do very well. With the sword guiding your attack, it wouldn't be very hard to miss, though, unless the enemy EVADES your attack at the last moment. ;) It all fits perfectly!

I agree with you, Tyriel, if you don't have the strength to lift the weapon, how can you do damage with it?

Then again, if you can't lift your arms or gesture, I guess you can't cast magic spells either, so I guess once the EDs ad EOs are off and everyone is -ve, it's going to be stalemate city. :)

Silent Act of Will (Nostalgic old school AD&D reference ftw!). No Verbal, Material or Somatic components! :P

There are ethreal _chains_ holding the tanks down, and they can still lift a weapon, load it with a ammo (for ranged) and *hit* someone with it?

Ridiculous :P

But I understand it's a balance issue.. I'd much rather have EC as it is now rather than have negative str/dex completely nullify a tank but have EC costing more to train up.

I agree with the previous post. I doesn't mater how strong you are. If your arms are completely paralyzed by magical chains, you shouldn't be able to wield a weapon.

And for the record, I haven't played a mage yet. I am a tank lover. I am just trying to be logical.

As for EC preventing mages from casting spells... an easy explanation for that is that some spells only require words. That is why most mages have a DX of 20 or less right now. They don't need their hands, just their mouths and their brains.

If mages don't need their hands, then thinking logically they don't need gloves either.

Jon, stop production of all AGs now!!!


;)

Hey, that's true ! No hands - no arms - chop 'em off !
That way mages get automatic dodge bonus in combat because they're a smaller, harder to hit target !

Sheesh! What witty replies. Let me expand on your ingenious line of thinking... Jon should also get rid of the CoI because mages definitely don't use their backs to cast spells. What was he thinking!

To quote a recent commercial campaign...

"BRILLIANT!"

OB uses his back to cast spells. ;)