Epic Shadowlord request

[Gustos]

I would appreciate a developer reviews the feat, Epic Shadowlord, code. I'm playing an Epic Shadowdancer, and became quite disappointed when discover selecting the feat, Epic Shadowlord, does nothing to upgrade the Shadow Avatar from Summon Shadow. Most, if not all, players agree the Epic Shadowlord is a worthless feat as currently coded, and better to select a different epic feat than it. Playing an Epic Shadowdancer, I've build my toon to summon an epic shadowlord and this ability is a main component of the build. I enjoy playing this toon, invested much time and books on him. Without the Epic Shadowlord feat, its difficult justifing the continuation of playing the toon as is. I believe a review of the feat, Epic Shadowlord, is warrantied and in my opinion, the feat needs to upgrade the shadow avatar.

In my opinion I might know what is the problem. Pasting from the Summons Guide:

Bonus levels are received by epic shadowdancers for Summon Shadow and the Create Undead ability.

Shadowdancers do not recieve the Create Undead ability. The Create Undead ability is a property of the Blackguard class. I'm saying this point is a bug, and should be review by a developer. The solution to my post could be as simply as changing the Create Undead ability to the Epic Shadowlord ability.

[Bargeld]

Wasn't this addressed in your previous post a week ago? IIRC the resolution was that the SD summons is essentially useless. I'm sure the devs are aware of this as they made it that way.

My understanding is that there is currently little, if none, ongoing development for NS4 at the moment, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a change.

[LinuxPup]

The way I see it, summons make little sense for a SD in NWN... it just doesn't fit the build type. A summon says "There's a SD here"... summons are awkward, clumsy, and very visually obvious. That said, perhaps we should give more incentive for investing more SD levels since the most only take 5 levels.

[Korr]

Give the summon hips ';)

[Bargeld]

In the original campaign, when you used the voice menu for 'go stealthy' it would instruct your summon to enter sneak mode. IIRC some summons also would automatically hide if the master did. That doesn't appear to happen on NS4, but I only use my SD summon to split incoming IGMs.

[Shadowalker]

Semi related.. ive noted that befrieded cats will go stealthy, if not already, when you tell them to attack.

[Gustos]

I'm following someone advice to post this message in NS4 Ideas and Suggestions so the issue gets address by a developer. This issue is an obvious bug in my opinion, simply read the summons guide on Shadowdancers. I pasted the questionable point in my above post.

What does Create Undead have to do with Summon Shadow. The Shadow Avatar is undead, Shadowdancers can't level as Blackguards, and the spell, Create Undead, creates an undead whereas the shadow gets summon. Its a bug, fix it.

If this issue of Epic Shadowlord doing nothing to upgrade the shadow than I would appreciate it gets posted because I looked and found nothing. I spent too much time on my epic shadowdancer, and used a few books on him, thinking Epic Shadowlord will do something. What’s the point of playing an Epic Shadowdancer, there’s little motivation. Simply invest in 5/10 levels in Shadowdancer and your toon is better served leveling in a different class.

[Cijah]

I understand the difficulty of designing and levelling builds and then to find out information is either incorrect or has changed making the build less than it would have been.

For example, Gustos you may assist us here , in the NS Changelog it says SDers at level 6 and then every two levels thereafter receive +1 Hide and +1 Move Silently. Is this the case. Has this "change" been implemented?

Feedback is key for the community. It's just such a shame someone has to be the guinea pig to find out.

Perhaps when the devs do return, or have a spare moment from NS5, they could take a look or have a DM provide some incentive to the player by perhaps providing some small compensation such as a book or two for their effort to play test a character which failed implementation given their outlay of hard-to-get items.

Just a thought.

[Lorkar]

Good for you! Show them that righteous indignation. That will make them really get to work and fix and build your toon for you.
It is a free server, volunteer staff etc. etc. Deal with the shortcomings, we all have in some degree or another.
Orrr, you can always play somewhere else.

[Gustos]

For example, Gustos you may assist us here , in the NS Changelog it says SDers at level 6 and then every two levels thereafter receive +1 Hide and +1 Move Silently. Is this the case. Has this "change" been implemented?

No problem. It appears the Hide/MS ability isn't implemented or bugged. I'm saying appears because the Hide/MS bonus doesn't appear in the character sheet and figuring it should. Clicking HiPS doesn't alter Hide/MS values. Quick example of naked toon indoors:

My toon level is 26 and have max ranks for hide/ms at 29. Dexterity modifier is +8 and have job master bonus of +4 to hide/ms. Hide/ms scores are 41 which is the case with my toon. Shadowdancer level is 14 so add +5 bonus to hide/ms, revised score is 46 which isn't the case in the character sheet as stated.

[Alkapwn]

yeah i've noticed that buggy bonus aswell. some levels i get it some i dont.
As far as summons goes SD's are have it pretty good as is and we don't need more hips'rs running around with +25 hs/ms and a kick'n summons ontop of that.

[Lorkar]

The SD bonus is implemented. It is not bugged. It shows up when you use the shadow evade ability.

[MLoki]

yeah i've noticed that buggy bonus aswell. some levels i get it some i dont.
As far as summons goes SD's are have it pretty good as is and we don't need more hips'rs running around with +25 hs/ms and a kick'n summons ontop of that.

Maybe not a kickin summons but it shouldn't get worse by taking an epic feat. At least add the Concealment back in so it can tank for a bit while you run and hide. As it stands once you take Epic Shadowlord your summons gets dropped much faster then the base summons.

[Gustos]

Thanks, that's really cool. The SD Hide/MS bonus appears in the character sheet when Shadow Evade activates.

I'm thinking similar. I don't want a monster shadow that can walk the planes by itself. Something like adding an absolute value to the same attributes spell focus and greater spell focus does. Maybe Epic Shadowlord adds the same value to the attributes as epic spell focus does.

[Lokey]

The SD bonus is implemented. It is not bugged. It shows up when you use the shadow evade ability.

It has two bugs at least