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If my code of conduct permitted me to emote, I would "/noise" in this thread.

Keep in mind that a bard is by definition a lyric poet. Bards of myth, legend and fantasy are typically thieves, artists and weak fighters with mild magical skill. This is the first thing I thought of when I read Mythology's "now THAT sound like a bard" comment. If we're going to step away from the traditional bard model, then there's a couple things I'd like to add to the suggested bardic system, and my key focus will be balance.

Bards will undoubtedly learn numerous songs in their existence, but the power of those songs and their effects would be calculated by a number of factors. First off, there are many songs that involve no instruments, of which we're all aware. Those songs would be the easiest to perform with the most weak effects, but could be enhanced with the addition of an instrument. Using instruments would potentially have a great impact on what you're trying to accomplish. There are literally only a handful of instruments that can be used one handed. The use of music while in combat is ridiculous, since it takes both hands to handle any instrument worth mentioning. Any musician will tell you that. That means that while in combat, you're either focusing on swinging your weapon of choice at your opponent and singing for a more weak effect, or you've put away said weapon to concentrate on using an instrument to generate a more powerful song but foregoing any attacks except the occasional kick when you're not running away or avoiding being hit.

My opinion of bards is that they're the "Jack of All Trades", but master of none. Where as I think their magical abilities used in songs would be no greater than a simple illusionist or charmer or enchanter, I understand the need to make the class worth taking by giving them powerful songs. The suggestion of vocalization is a good one, but it needs to be taken a step further with seperating vocal songs from instrumental songs, and finally songs with vocals and instruments. Like any other magical ability, these also need to be allowed the opportunity to be countered or cancelled. A silenced bard would find it difficult to sing a song of praise to give combat bonuses when he can't sing the necessary words of encouragement. A bard might also find it difficult to play an instrument while held or webbed, or having been bashed and "sent sprawling" due to the physical requirements of the song, which means a movement cost should be taken into consideration. Now with all that said, a bard should be given equal power to negate the suggested disadvantages. I'm in favor of giving bards more spell-like abilities rather than simple charms and enchantments to increase their power, but not without considerable drawbacks. If a bard is going to be able to dispel and entire group, he needs to remove his weapon and devote his actions to the completion of his song, reminding everyone you cannot swing a sword and play a tuba/guitar/flute with a single hand. I feel that would properly balance anything that would otherwise be considered too powerful.

That also leaves the possibility for Bard Only weapons, such as a bladed guitar (yes, it does exist) or attaching a blade or sharp edge of any other instrument for a makeshift dagger or sword/axe. Durability and any increase to the bard's musical ability would be taken into account. Don't forget bard only equipment, like a neck-supported harmonica stand for a completely hands free instrument but uses a neck slot.

This is all fine and dandy, but it seems everyone is forgetting that the races/classes/stats/etc weren't pulled directly from the D&D Players Handbook, or taken from whatever book/tv/movie series you're so fond of. While Sentience has kept true to most of the more commonly used traits and idiosyncrasies, keep in mind that just because it doesn't fit the profile you approve of doesn't make it wrong.

With that said: Ith has a wonderful point, being that races are gauged around humans. While Myth said every race has a racial advantage to humans, it is my belief that humans should be able to exploit every weakness just as easily. My argument behind this is: In every story, book, movie, universe, what-have-you with multiple races involved, 97% of them express humans as having the ability to overcome the odds and become if not the greatest, then one of the best in nearly every category. It is understood that humans have the greatest potential of all races, and though our greatest disadvantage is that we have no advantage, our ability to expolit weaknesses and vulerabilties makes us a force to be reckoned with.

I disagree with this entirely. Just because someone has an alt in POA and on in the dungeon doesn't mean they're spying. Even if that is they case and it was somehow banned, what's to stop churchies from relaying information for someone who wants to camp the Abyss? More so, what's to stop someone in general from doing the same? Even if people aren't greatly acquainted, they can still work together and acheive a common goal. What you suggest only hinders people from enjoying the game. Implementing bullshit timers for inappropriate reasons will begin the path toward becoming Materia Magica. Most of us left that game for similar reasons, and I can't imagine this game turning into something we all hated and banded together to protest.

I have to agree with Llauf on many things. The purpose of spell deflection is to form a protective barrier around the caster. Logically, when casting that specific spell on another person, it would fail because it originates from a foreign source. As soon as the spell gained any sort of power, it would begin deflecting itself resulting in an incomplete spell, where as casting it on yourself would originate from Within the confines the barrier and would not be subject to the deflection. However, I do think it should be both scribable and/or brewable. Those who did not go Illusionist should still benefit from those who are generous, or business savvy, enough to produce such items.

Images: I believe illusional images might in fact prove useful, but they should in No way be PK based. An illusion in the form of an image of yourself should be summoned and given a percentage of your hit points, but given no corporeal attacks or damage reduction (armor, ac, etc). This image would vanish with its hitpoints reach zero, and a player should also have a 20% chance of disbelief to recognize it as an illusion. The main purpose of this would be to confuse mobs and divert aggressive behavior, while still keeping an element of PK available. This illusion would also be modified to look like something you've studied (let's say 1-5 creatures that you can have "memorized" or "logged" and can create their illusion at will) but you would only be able to have one illusion at a time. If an illusion of yourself was used (which doesn't require memorization) it would interfere with any sort of tracking ability, be it aggressive mobs and/or pursuit.

One idea I did like was using an illusion to give a defensive bonus in combat by blurring your own image or creating duplicate images of yourself forcing your opponent to choose its target, making them miss 15% of their attacks. This spell would not last very long, and it could cost a moonstone to keep it balanced. Players would get the disbelief bonus against the illusions making it not effective in PK when they make their save. This should be the only added bonus the class gets regarding combat, considering illusions simply conjure figments.

Now, Illusions should Not be able to be made in the shape of players for the same reason Charm Person doesn't do anything to players, other than making them group with you. People aren't responsible enough not to abuse it. I'm not mentioning names, but you know who you are.

Wind of Confusion: Yeah, bullshit. The way it works now, the caster can disband the group they're fighting, but each group member is still in combat with said caster. The broken element is now at that point, everyone but the primary target of the caster gets a message similar to "kill-stealing is not permitted" when they attempt to cast offensive spells. What's the problem with that? A wonderful question. The problem is, you're not in violation of any PK rules and should not be restricted from contributing to a fight you're already in. I'm fine with it disbanding groups. Wind/calm is an excellent combo when you're trying to single something out, however: ONE player should Not emerge victorious against three fourth class characters unless those three are completely inept and are seriously lacking eye-hand coordination.

To any turd that would dare accuse me of whining, first off: Look up the definition, because you obviously don't know what the word means. Second, try 'tooting your own horn' when the cards aren't stacked in your favor. I guarantee your perspective will change when you're on the receiving end of something that isn't mis-balanced to benefit you. IMPORTANT I did not mention any names or give any examples, so don't assume I'm talking to or about you.

The purpose of a specific channel is to provide a means of communication for a topic or theme that is either inappropriate for a different channel, or can be misconstrued on a different channel. The OOC channel is more than sufficient for most non-game related subjects and has worked for years as such. While I've said the music channel and soon-to-be quote channel could be combined into one channel, they both have their own unique value and have been used frequently and appropriately in the past. I don't see a movie/tv/game or entertainment channel being used in place of OOC, and I can't realistically see another channel being implemented at this point anyway. Although I'm quite fond of discussing any of the above mentioned topics, there are already various places to talk about them. Let's not forget about Chat.

This is always a hard topic to discuss because everyone has their own impression of how an Elf is supposed to be, and each perspective would have the racial stats and abilities arranged differently. For example, I don't see Elves as a warrior race at all. That's not to say they lack the ability to fight, but in most universes/worlds/books Elves tend to be a peace loving race. That being said, they're always depicted as having excellent eye-sight and dexterity which of course makes them superb archers and can make them proficient with standard melee weapons. Also, Elves are typicall referred to as being a magical race but that doesn't mean they have any innate magical abilities. While some elves have been known to dabble in the arcane arts, there aren't as many wizards and sorcerers as there are clerics and bards or rangers. Now, in the interest of "improving" elves, I think a Bow Augmentation skill would be acceptable. If kept unique to elves, it would certainly give certain advantages in most situations. Each augmentation could be treated as a spell-like ability and practiced as such. For balancing issues, an augmented arrow shot might have a lowered accuracy. To improve it further, there could be a general augmented bow skill that would increase the duration of said augmentation And increase accuracy. This way, characters don't become too powerful too quickly. Adding ice, fire, acid, lightning and any number of other augmentations would definitely help exploit weaknesses and provide advantages in various situations. I have other opinions about Elves in general like them being more slender which would warrant a lower strength, but that's a topic for another board.

I guarantee it will be used, and people will enjoy it. I personally will use it at least once per session!

As I've responded many times whilst in game, the quotes channel would serve little more purpose than the ridiculous grats channel we have currently. The difference being, quotes would be something that has been used in the past, with a great deal more enthusiasm than grats, and appropriately at the same time. I can recap hundreds of quotes that were used in-game with that channel, which I still laugh about to this day. Practicality is the point I'm trying to argue.

It takes little more effort to type '. grats <person>' than to use the actual channel itself, whereas a quote is something that takes quite a bit more involvement. Furthermore, quoting while using ooc/gossip can easily be taken out of context. My proposition is to replace a redundant channel with something that has a more practical, and more fun use.</person>

I would like to formally suggest we do away with the "grats" channel completely and replace it with the much needed (and missed) in-game "quote" channel.

I'm not particularly interested in adding spell reagents. I've never seen a situation where reagents haven't become a pain in the ass. In every MUD I've played on reagents always end up congesting and filling up one's inventory to the point where a person has to compensate by acquiring various reagent bags for the sole reason of avoiding hitting the reagent shop every 20 minutes. If the weight of the reagents alone does not consume your last carrying capacity point, the weight of the bags will thus limiting whatever else you might've been able to carry otherwise. Now where I'm an advocate of people having to put effort into their endevours, I cannot condone a course of actiont that will lead to added and unecessary steps in order to accomplish a simple task.

Before I can answer yes or no, I would have to inquire as to how they would Not be a pain in the ass. Unless you needed to carry only one of each type of reagent until it expires, wouldn't adding multiple reagent types make it necessary to carry multiple of each type, getting back to my point of an over croweded inventory? To that, I have a solution. If we had several types of reagents but only needed one of each type (earth water fire etc), that single reagent could have a power rating or amount of "charges" to be used until it became too weak to use, or vanish completely. Using a system like that would alleviate the need for multiple reagents while still requiring the character to renew the source of their power.

Example: 1 rock = earth reagent with 10 charges or power rating of 10.

That one rock would provide enough power to cast 10 spells that require 1 earth reagent.

To add to the roleplaying aspect, there could be other sub-types of each reagent with other power ratings that would be more difficult to acquire, thus rewarding the people who put suffecient effort into their characters, while not punishing those without the time required to accomplish more time consuming tasks.

Example: 1 rock = 10 charges. 1 piece of bark = 15 charges. 1 leaf from the Tree of Life Giving (or something) = 25 charges.

Although I've probably exceeded the requested response already, I'll throw in one last suggestion using Angrothy's post for the base of the idea. Each reagent with a different power rating could enhance a spell and/or its effects. The ideology behind this is The spell is only as powerful as the reagents used to cast it. Giving the reagents charges and a power rating would create a combination for players to solve that would best suit their playing style when casting and using magic. This way, reagents would exist at a reasonable, affordable and obtainable place, while more powerful reagents would be available to those who wish to expand their playing experience. Options are always a good idea and usually give people a sense of freedom while playing. I'd be happy to elaborate further on anything said. Ask, and ye shall receive.

For a while now, I've had an idea for an arena type game that hasn't been done, at lest to my knowledge and Tic-Tac-Toe came to mind. Other MUDs have something like capture the flag, chess, battleship and other well known strategy based games. I would like to propose PK Tic-Tac-Toe. This would consist of a 3x3 square arena. The goal, of course, is to gain possession of three squares in a row either vertically, horizontally or diagonally for victory. To gain possession of a square, you would simply have to defeat your opponant in said square. I also thought that another command to capture a square would add another element to the game. It would be a timed command that takes approximately 10 seconds to do and upon completion puts the square under your control. Any commands used during the countdown such as casting, being attacked or initiating combat would interrupt the 10 second count and reset the timer, making whoever was trying to capture the square start over when they're finished. The middle square would be PK only, meaning they only way to gain possession is to kill the other player in that square. Although simplistic in nature, I believe PK Tic-Tac-Toe would be, if nothing else, amusing by giving people a game to play with at least two ways to win. Victory by defeating your opponant in combat, or victory by being faster, or just being overall more clever than whoever you're up against. There is, of course, room for improvement or modification but I thought I would suggest the most simple version of the game and see what people thought. Is anyone interested?