Artefact idea: Angelic Halo

Lyr

Like the Yggdrasian Splinter, this artefact would provide a bonus to the maximum amount of angel power one's guardian angel could hold. In fact, both staff energy and angel power is capped at 5000 at transcendent; the splinter allows you to hold up to 7500. Likewise, this artefact would give a 50% bonus to max angel power, bringing it up to 7500. And like the splinter, I think 500 cr is fair for this. I'd also like to DOFF using it!

I'm not entirely sure if baalzadeens work the same way, but maybe demonic horns or something for apostates that would do the same thing!

Daslin

They'll shoot that down so hard it won't even be funny. the whole halo on YOUR head instead of the angel's part.

(I love the idea of what it does, just not the implementation you're wanting.)

Lyr

Well, you can't even target emotes to the angel, and you wear artefacts ... maybe it increases your bond with the angel and allows you to give her more power or something. A necklace or something seems too boring. :P

Nizaris

I definitely do not see Niz wearing horns. Agreeing with Daslin so far. Mechanics sounds ... OK (not sure on whether or not it would be unbalancing in any way, since at least baalzadeen health is easier to gain than staff energy ... DOR DEMON FORTIFY and sip health), but the description sounds off.

I would just say that it ought to be like a Collar of Lupus: ATTACH <thing> TO BAALZADEEN/ANGEL.

Lyr

Gaining staff energy is the same (though it does need to be daytime) -- DOR EVOKE SUNLIGHT.

And yes, but again, you can't interact with your angel/baalzadeen with emotes, so I don't know that you could use items on it like a mount.

Nizaris

@Lyr: With the baalzadeen, at least, you can target and kill it.

Melodie

You can mess with baalzadeens, yes. Not angels. I think it got removed because of snugglers and sex alts.

Would like to be able to interact directly with my angel again, please.

As for the actual idea: I like it (well, the mechanics, not sure on the halo thing, tempting as it is), but I will not profess to knowing enough about combat to understand what the implications could be.

Tahquil

If I remember rightly, Baalzadeen and angels can be banished and recalled anew. groves can't be cheated in such a way.

Nemutaur

Can't you replenish your angel's power by sacrificing health or mana? No need to increase the max angel power if you can do that after each skirmish.

Sena

Tahquil said:

If I remember rightly, Baalzadeen and angels can be banished and recalled anew. groves can't be cheated in such a way.

Not sure about baalzadeens, but angel fade doesn't instantly refill power, it still takes quite a while to regen (40 power every 20 seconds while faded, if I remember right).

Nemutaur said:

Can't you replenish your angel's power by sacrificing health or mana? No need to increase the max angel power if you can do that after each skirmish.

Sunlight is even easier to replenish, and slower to run out. It's not unreasonable (with heavy usage) to run out of angel power well before the end of a raid/defence (or before you have time to spend about a minute refilling power).

Tanris

I don't particularly see issue with this, but I also don't think things like this are sensible anyway. For clarity:
Devotion, karma, essence. Good limitations on resources.
Sunlight, pacts, angel/baalz power. Why do we have these again? They add very little and are not limited resources, because the only "limiting" factor is the tedium of needing to take seconds out of conflict to restore them.
(I don't actually know if this is the case for sunlight, as I have consistently avoided finding out the specifics of the groves mechanics.)

Kyrra

Groves have a sunlight level and druids/sylvans have a personal sunlight level through their staves.

Sena

Tanris said:
(I don't actually know if this is the case for sunlight, as I have consistently avoided finding out the specifics of the groves mechanics.)

Without going into a lot of detail: Grove sunlight works somewhat like devotion (store a high amount, used relatively slowly except for some high-cost abilities, usually have to wait for passive regen), staff/personal sunlight works more like angel power (used up more quickly, can slowly recharge during the day (10% health and 4s eq to restore 250, essentially angel fortify that doesn't scale with health) or quickly recharge from your grove's energy).

Kyrra

I never noticed personal sunlight slowly recharging on my sylvan. Sunlight level in my staff always stayed the same unless I evoked sunlight to fill it up. And that really didn't take long.

Sena

Kyrra said:

I never noticed personal sunlight slowly recharging on my sylvan. Sunlight level in my staff always stayed the same unless I evoked sunlight to fill it up. And that really didn't take long.

By "slowly recharging" I meant that it takes a while to recharge it with evoke sunlight (80 seconds of eq to go from 0 to 5000).

Lyr

The reason that this artefact -- and indeed the Yggdrasian splinter -- would be useful is because with angel care, angel empathy, spiritwrack, trace and so on, you often run out (leaving you without an entire skillset) if you're sparring, in a big group fight and you live longer than a minute, or if you are in multiple shorter skirmishes without time to sit there and hit angel fortify over and over and over to replenish it. It doesn't take that long, but the purpose of the artefact is to give you more breathing room and flexibility. Also, unlike staves, if you run out of angel power, your angel goes away until it has 10-15-20% (I forgot) of its max power back from fade, which as @Sena said is ridiculously slow, leaving you without 90% of an entire skillset.

Skye

If I recall, angels and baalzadeens are quite distinct from each other despite similar skills.

The relationship between a priest and their angel is a bit more personal with the same angel essentially 'bonded' to one particular priest. This is reflected by how you're able to 'name' your angel and actually keep it.

On the flip side, Apostates have no such attachment to their Baalz (pun intended haw haw), everytime you banish and resummon, it's a different demon. I can't recall if the fresh demon comes fully charged or not though.

Trey

Regardless, please keep your halo and come up with something else. Achaean angels are not contemporary Judeo-Christian angels. Take a look at Synbios's drawing for a better idea.

Trey

It is also worth noting that your angel/baalzadeen is a powerful tool. It's meant to be limited so that you can't use it willy-nilly as your post would lead me to believe you do.

Lyr

@Trey which is why this is an artefact proposal? I don't know what you mean. At any rate, the halo was just an idea for what it could be called, there's no need for your tone.

Hayte

The fresh demon comes fully charged. And only at the cost of having 100% mana that promptly goes to 0% mana. Pretty sure I remember a forced summon followed by a cath right after back when it was forceable.

Daslin

As this post gets longer, I'm rather more on @Trey's side. (minus the willy-nilly) as I know if you're a combat priest... it could be helpful, but again, Not a damn halo, let along for yourself. it's dumb, and special snowflake-y

Synbios

Trey said:

Regardless, please keep your halo and come up with something else. Achaean angels are not contemporary Judeo-Christian angels. Take a look at Synbios's drawing for a better idea.

Which drawing are we talking here?

Cooper

Artefacts are supposed to be powerful. This would be more of a utility artefact than a 'I'm buying this and now lalala I can kill you ez', and I don't see why people have a problem with it (besides it being a halo. That could easily be changed).

Zeon

Halos aren't so bad. I hear the latest one was even better than the first.

Valeo

A coronet would tie into existing Angel RP. Perhaps a Celstian Coronet?

Lyr

Ooh, great idea @Valeo!

Cahin

Tanris said:

I don't particularly see issue with this, but I also don't think things like this are sensible anyway. For clarity:
Devotion, karma, essence. Good limitations on resources.
Sunlight, pacts, angel/baalz power. Why do we have these again? They add very little and are not limited resources, because the only "limiting" factor is the tedium of needing to take seconds out of conflict to restore them.
(I don't actually know if this is the case for sunlight, as I have consistently avoided finding out the specifics of the groves mechanics.)

I agree. Replace pacts with direct karma use.

Lyr

Please revisit!

Dunn

Two years later and the verdict still is: shot down faster than a balloon carrying a barrel of Jack Daniels over a college campus.

Lyr

It wasn't shot down, people just didn't like the halo, which is easily changeable!