Magic and stealth : V

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:22 pm

I hope to goodness they allow magic to crit while sneaking. While stealth kills are juicy and exactly my cup of tea, i really want to be able to surprise lighting bolt people and have it crit. I love nightblade characters in rpgs, it's just too bad they svck horribly in ES games.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:02 pm

Well, in the case of weapons, when you catch a NPC off guard, you are supposed to aim for a vital part. The spells used untill now do fire, cold, lightning or life stealing damage, engulfing all the victims body. It didn't make sense to have the same beneficts for being able to aim carefully. Should they add solid proyectile spells this time, a spell sneak attack would make sense though.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:42 pm

Well, in the case of weapons, when you catch a NPC off guard, you are supposed to aim for a vital part. The spells used untill now do fire, cold, lightning or life stealing damage, engulfing all the victims body. It didn't make sense to have the same beneficts for being able to aim carefully. Should they add solid proyectile spells this time, a spell sneak attack would make sense though.

Plus, spells were already the most powerful option in oblivion. Even with a crit, you'd still have to load in tons of arrows. Magic was always able to kill too quick.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 8:40 am

Poison spell should be in and it should crit.

But, seeing how there are magic rune traps and physical traps (you setup) haven't been talked about, stealth/mages have even footing with the pure stealth class regardless.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:16 pm

I hope to goodness they allow magic to crit while sneaking. While stealth kills are juicy and exactly my cup of tea, i really want to be able to surprise lighting bolt people and have it crit. I love nightblade characters in rpgs, it's just too bad they svck horribly in ES games.

Well Nightblade character not supposed depend on destruction magic much

Nightblades use their magic abilities as an aid to subterfuge. The Nightblade is often like a thief with the capability to use magic.
1.5x intelligence in spell points, leather armor only, no shield except buckler. Gains up to 8 HP per level.
Starting Spells: Bouyancy, Chameleon

Nightblade
Nightblades are spellcasters who use their magics to enhance mobility, concealment, and stealthy close combat. They have a sinister reputation, since many nightblades are thieves, enforcers, assassins, or covert agents.
Specialization: Magic
Attributes: Willpower, Speed
Starting Spells: Shield (Shield 5pts for 30sec on self) Water Walking (Water Walking for 60sec on self) Fire Bite (Fire Damage 15-30pts on touch)
Chameleon (Chameleon 10% for 30sec on self) Sanctuary (Sanctuary 10pts for 30sec on self) Detect Creature (Detect Animal 50-150ft for 5sec on self)

Nightblade
Spell and shadow are their friends. By darkness they move with haste, casting magic to benefit their circumstances.

Alteration and Illusion and Mysticism their chose, but thats is mean nothing now since Skyrim will have no classes and no mysticism school.
I think runes thats work like magical traps will suit better then thunder sparks of lighting or fiery flame balls for sneaky character, left such noisy and spectacular magic for spellswords and battle mages instead.
But some things like
Stealthy Absorbs and Drains v1
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28292
Can be done if Absorb and Drain will return to Alteration

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:48 pm

I would like to see crits with Magic. Not necessarily sneak crits, just crits in general. Showing a scaled damage output depending on magical talent etc.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:15 pm

Yeah, I agree. When I played as a mage in Oblivion I really missed the sneak criticals.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 7:36 pm

A times 1,5 multiplier would be cool, more than that and then even bows become useless, again.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 8:49 pm

Runecarving actually sounds really interesting. In many MMO's Assassins get a type of magical rune carving that allows them to do many things. Silence, Stun, Detonate, Poison. I doubt we will see anything like this i just hope that we can build interesting nightblade-esque characters.

» Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:53 pm

I think only touch spells should get a crit. Since bethesda is thinking of giving the dagger a 10x crit for sneak attacks they could do something similar with touch spells (maybe scale it down to 4x-5x or it would be too strong).