With the latest update, a new, improved, Stalwart Defender has been added to Sigil. This is effectively a new class, the old one stays as default and it's no longer selectable on level up. Those who want to switch to the new one will have to delevel.
List of changes
- Added Intimidate and Taunt to Class Skills
- Added Tower Shields to Armor Proficiencies
- Improved Uncanny Dodge moved to Level 8. This ability is now fixed (for all classes) and will properly grant Sneak Attack Immunity unless an enemy of 4 or more levels approaches you.
- Removed Trap Sense
- Defensive Stance moved to level 5, now has infinite uses and a 20 seconds cooldown. In addition to the old effects, it will also grant Knockdown Immunity. No longer grants bonus to strength and consititution. (Defensive Stance will no longer appear in the combat mode bar, you will have to drag it to your action bar like any normal active feat).
New Abilities:
- Invigorating Challenge (level 1)
This ability is an AoE taunt that will force enemy target within 20' of you who fail a Will Saving Throw (DC = 5 + Stalwart Defender's Taunt Skill) to attack you for at least 5 seconds. The ability has a 60 seconds cooldown. At level 3 the ability improves, also granting temporary HP equal to 10 + 2*CON modifier (of the stalwart defender) to allies within range. At level 9 the range doubles to 40'.
- Ultimate Bulwark (level 10)
This is a permanent aura that will reduce ALL damage taken by the Stalwart Defender and allies within 40' by a percentage equal to 10% + 1% per CON modifier (of the stalwart defender). Multiple stalwart defenders do NOT stack multiple bulwarks.
Stalwart Defender Changes
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*Ceremorph
- Posts: 1125
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Awesome work Clang. Want to add this to the Wiki?
:D
:D
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*Mr_Otyugh
- Posts: 2242
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
I hate you! XD Now I have to relevel my Stalwart Defender.... but the changes are very cool.
PS. If it wasn't clear, I don't really hate you. :P
PS. If it wasn't clear, I don't really hate you. :P
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*Clangeddin
- Posts: 109
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Ok, done. :PCeremorph,Mar 20 2016 wrote: Awesome work Clang. Want to add this to the Wiki?
:D
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*Bogus
- Posts: 27
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Does that work on PC's?Clangeddin,Mar 20 2016 wrote: - Invigorating Challenge (level 1)
This ability is an AoE taunt that will force enemy target within 20' of you who fail a Will Saving Throw (DC = 5 + Stalwart Defender's Taunt Skill)
This might be the first DC check in the history of nwn2 that even epic characters have a chance to fail.
Does the bulwark aura stack with 'shield other' (spell) or 'guarding the lord' (nwn9 skill)?
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*Clangeddin
- Posts: 109
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
To be honest, I don't know the exact answer to your question, because I didn't test those specifics, but I'll try anyway.Bogus,Mar 20 2016 wrote:Does that work on PC's?Clangeddin,Mar 20 2016 wrote: - Invigorating Challenge (level 1)
This ability is an AoE taunt that will force enemy target within 20' of you who fail a Will Saving Throw (DC = 5 + Stalwart Defender's Taunt Skill)
This might be the first DC check in the history of nwn2 that even epic characters have a chance to fail.
Does the bulwark aura stack with 'shield other' (spell) or 'guarding the lord' (nwn9 skill)?
1) Yes, it should work on PCs, but the forced attack is only for 5 seconds and the cooldown is 1 minute.
2) The answer to this is the same of "Do Rescue and Guarding the Lord stack?" if the answer is yes, then yes they'll stack, if no they won't stack. If they stack, it will probably be a multiplicative stack, not an additive one (I think, not sure).
The DC is high because otherwise the ability would useless.
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*MadPorthos
- Posts: 148
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
I think these changes are awesome, Clangeddin. I have a few questions, but they are not faults just thoughts and questions.
- Have you thought about Mobile Defense. This is PNP aspect of Dwarven Defender, applying to the defensive stance. When we were first talking about these changes I had been asking if there'd be some mobility to the defensive stance and this was the reason. I think at around 7th or 8th level, the dwarven defender got the ability to move his location slowly without breaking stance and it's advantages. In the pnp game it's very slow because in each case it's a 5foot step each round, which is about 25% normal speed. If this was implemented, you could actually create something like a slow moving Stalwart Defender shield formation, with multiple Stalwart Defenders or people staying in a Stalwart Defender's defensive range, moving as a "unit".
- How does Ultimate Bulwark interact with the functions and scripting of Guarding the Lord. I've a character who among other things is NWN level 5, Stalwart Defender 10 currently and I'm thinking of relevelling for the new design.
I'm wondering though what would happen when the NW9 might be "guarding" a particular target with Guarding the Lord... if I was Ultimate Bulwarking and my 20 constitution (+5) will mean all my allies recieve 15% less damage. Is the Ultimate Bulwark damage being blocked up front? At what point would the Guarding the Lord be calculating the damage shared and not shared? Would this effect for example take 3 damage off 20 points of damage done to my guarded target, so my target takes 17, then my guarding the lord takes over, halves the damage he takes for 8 or 9, then passes 5 damage to my NW9/Stalwart Defender? Could it rather be the other way around, where 10 damage is done to my guarded target, at which point 15% is knocked off by Bulwark, then I take the 6 I'd normally get, after 30% of the shared damage is knocked off, then applied to my NWN character? Or is Guarding the Lord going to prevent any interaction of Ultimate Bulwark?
- Have you thought about Mobile Defense. This is PNP aspect of Dwarven Defender, applying to the defensive stance. When we were first talking about these changes I had been asking if there'd be some mobility to the defensive stance and this was the reason. I think at around 7th or 8th level, the dwarven defender got the ability to move his location slowly without breaking stance and it's advantages. In the pnp game it's very slow because in each case it's a 5foot step each round, which is about 25% normal speed. If this was implemented, you could actually create something like a slow moving Stalwart Defender shield formation, with multiple Stalwart Defenders or people staying in a Stalwart Defender's defensive range, moving as a "unit".
- How does Ultimate Bulwark interact with the functions and scripting of Guarding the Lord. I've a character who among other things is NWN level 5, Stalwart Defender 10 currently and I'm thinking of relevelling for the new design.
I'm wondering though what would happen when the NW9 might be "guarding" a particular target with Guarding the Lord... if I was Ultimate Bulwarking and my 20 constitution (+5) will mean all my allies recieve 15% less damage. Is the Ultimate Bulwark damage being blocked up front? At what point would the Guarding the Lord be calculating the damage shared and not shared? Would this effect for example take 3 damage off 20 points of damage done to my guarded target, so my target takes 17, then my guarding the lord takes over, halves the damage he takes for 8 or 9, then passes 5 damage to my NW9/Stalwart Defender? Could it rather be the other way around, where 10 damage is done to my guarded target, at which point 15% is knocked off by Bulwark, then I take the 6 I'd normally get, after 30% of the shared damage is knocked off, then applied to my NWN character? Or is Guarding the Lord going to prevent any interaction of Ultimate Bulwark?
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*Clangeddin
- Posts: 109
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
About the stacking, here's what I tested.
I made a stalwart defender (Ronus) with 18 CON (so 14%), ultimate bulwark, guarding the lord and Rescue.
Then I picked one level of druid and the dinosaur feat to get an animal companion to be attacked (Eoch). Everything was applied to Eoch (Ultimte Bulwark, Guarding the Lord AND Rescue)
Here's the result:
Ronus damages Ronus: 4 (4 Physical) 1 of it was mitigated by damage sharing.
Troll damages Eoch: 8 (8 Physical) 6 of it was mitigated by damage sharing.
Ultimate Bulwark seems to reduce the damage taken by sharing from Guarding the Lord, however for the sake of the damage reduction on the protected target, they don't seem to stack, only the highest applies.
I made a stalwart defender (Ronus) with 18 CON (so 14%), ultimate bulwark, guarding the lord and Rescue.
Then I picked one level of druid and the dinosaur feat to get an animal companion to be attacked (Eoch). Everything was applied to Eoch (Ultimte Bulwark, Guarding the Lord AND Rescue)
Here's the result:
Ronus damages Ronus: 4 (4 Physical) 1 of it was mitigated by damage sharing.
Troll damages Eoch: 8 (8 Physical) 6 of it was mitigated by damage sharing.
Ultimate Bulwark seems to reduce the damage taken by sharing from Guarding the Lord, however for the sake of the damage reduction on the protected target, they don't seem to stack, only the highest applies.
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*Bogus
- Posts: 27
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
That is very good news. If you're guarding a lot of toons then the damage done to you quickly adds up. With Stalwart's high hp on top of that? Very good news.
As for the target defense, with those numbers it might just not be visible (ex. if they stacked multiplicatively for some reason).
In all honesty, with how strong GtL is, I don't think any further boost is needed anyway.
As for the target defense, with those numbers it might just not be visible (ex. if they stacked multiplicatively for some reason).
In all honesty, with how strong GtL is, I don't think any further boost is needed anyway.
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*Clangeddin
- Posts: 109
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
The cooldown on cancel only can certainly be done, but in that case, it would be raised to 30 seconds most likely (20 seconds was a compromise since it triggered both on activation and removal).
About the non-stacking, I disagree. First of all it may not be possible, but even if it was, I refuse to make it competitive against Improved Combat Expertise, this will go back to the old stalwart defenders who never used defensive stance and always used Improved Combat Expertise instead.
Massive AC? Sounds completely fine to me, that should be a Stalwart Defender's hometurf, we've seen them lag behind monks and druids for too long. :P
About the non-stacking, I disagree. First of all it may not be possible, but even if it was, I refuse to make it competitive against Improved Combat Expertise, this will go back to the old stalwart defenders who never used defensive stance and always used Improved Combat Expertise instead.
Massive AC? Sounds completely fine to me, that should be a Stalwart Defender's hometurf, we've seen them lag behind monks and druids for too long. :P