1. Removing class alignment restrictions
Suggestion to remove this to allow a entirely new range of builds.
My response:
This has been bought up several times before with from what I can tell a 50-50 split in terms of positives vs negatives and people for vs people against. While it opens up a whole new load of possible builds, some maybe over powered. Also there is the whole thing around smiting.
I think the best answer to the smiting issue is to allow the alignment shifting to occur only in this way;
Possible Options: (usable as many times as a player chooses)
lawful to neutral
neutral to lawful
neutral to chaotic
chaotic to neutral
neutral to good (regardless of lawful, neutral, or chaotic)
neutral to evil (regardless of lawful, neutral, or chaotic)
Impossible Options:
evil to neutral (of any sub alignment)
good to neutral (of any sub alignment)
good to evil (of any sub alignment)
evil to good (of any sub alignment)
This way players can have expanded build options without avoiding a smite. They do however have the option of becoming good or evil to obtain those classes that require the alignment shift and then become vulnerable to smite, after which they cannot leave the good or evil alignment which they've become.
Examples:
Harper/Assassin is possible and the player is open to smite.
Champion of Torment^^/Blackguard is possible and the player is open to smite.
Palemaster/Paladin is possible and the player is open to smite.
PM/Pally is not really at much of an advantage this way as he couldn't shift back to neutral once going good so his low BAB classes would severely hinder is AB and attack schedule, pallys aren't that tough here in lieu of the other classes changed mechanics either, and I think should be looked at further to keep them up to par. How about for paladins only, the divine shield feat grants shield AC bonus instead of dodge which stacks with their highest shield AC, thus avoiding the +20 dodge AC cap which only takes 8 ability modifier to hit if a toon has 40 tumble and haste.
There was a decision a number of years ago by the DMs/Devs to tone the server down in terms of items and some NPC abilities as well as do a complete vault wipe to effectively 'start again'. Also back then it was possible to collect CE where by you could hand them into a DM and get custom items made (to an extent). It was decided that the new item set should consist of +4 weapons and +5 AC items as the norm, and +5 weapons and +6 AC or more would come from bosses or high level NPC drops. Also keen would not just be added to every weapon but be seen as a bonus, instead of the norm. So I guess this is a hard one to answer as it is the first steps back towards the old mod in terms of items. What do other people think?
If that type of forge is out of the question perhaps you'd consider +4 enhancement or ac being the maximum a toon could add to an item for say 8 million gold, which would still be good for some items I.E. the mords onhit dagger, or short guy syndrome boots. Or a modest +2 ability score and leave it restricted to only a handful of items, say belt or cloak for 2 million gold. Or a bonus spell slot for 1 million gold per spell (1-9 million) level restricted only to helm with a maximum of 2 being available to add. Or restricted to shield only a maximum of 1 5/- damage resistance of any of the basic elemental (excluding magical/divine/pos/neg) types for 5 million. Or restricted to gloves only a +5 skill bonus to any skill for 5 million. Those may be more feasible additions without imbalancing how the mod is already designed. I'm not sure how laborious of a project that would be but it would be something people would make use of.
Some other ways to make use of the excess of Gold:
Another option would be to provide tickets to use at the ticket system that takes you to less remote places based on faction for a nominal fee, say 300k to 500k a Gondor toon could buy a ticket to Edoras or Dale. Or a Mordor toon could buy a ticket to Helm's Deep, or Dol Guldur. Which would make some traveling a bit easier or aid someone in jumping in on an opposing faction performing a Raid and give more PVP opportunity.
Or for say 1-3 million with some restrictions, a toon could port back to their last death corpse, upon which they are completely debuffed.
Or give the infamous 20 million gold port book 10-20x uses before it goes poof, or reduce the price to 1-2 million for the 1 port.
Expanding the items available in the Elite Armory Vendors would also be good.
The main idea there is to give people something to spend their gold on, once a player is lvl 21 or so aside the few meek items that they might use in the Elite Armories the need for their gold is null and void aside buying healing kits and potions and raise dead or restoration scrolls.
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