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Well, so as not to knock the bottom out the PC market, it'd be best if they sold stuff that PCs got through a lot of but didn't usually make. Alchemical ingredients have been good for this, and oil always sells. I think a possible solution would be healing potions at high but not ridiculous prices (say 60 for CSW) or affordable and useful ammo. Healing tends to be an issue as unless there's a mercenary-minded priest it tends to be people spamming Quest X that have far more than anyone else. Ammo is definitely a problem as it's a total crapshoot whether you can find any, since the only ways I've seen to craft bolts or arrows are a PrC or non-obvious powerful alchemy.

Scatter about stuff that everyone uses but mark it up enough that PCs are favourable as opposed to required, and we might have a proper NPC economy.

Nice idea, but I think step one would be to make maps useful. Right now they're far too heavy and buggy to be any use. I tried selling maps back in the Underdark days but it never caught on.

No, but you can reduce or inflate the price at which a shop sells everything. Therefore the solution is to set the shopkeeper to sell everything at a 95% discount, and only stock improved throwing weapons.

You can do that with the Sellsword background. +1d6 sneak attack at L8.  The point is that there's no perk specifically for archers, but there are plenty that are designed to support other niche builds like fencers etc. Duelist or Sellsword both complement a bow well, but they don't fit the concept so well. Ranged damage can be reasonable enough with a Mighty 1-2 bow, some +1 arrows and Divine Favour potions for a nonspecialist. Poisoned Arrows are a handy trick too if you have Use Poison loot or perks. My melee PCs always carry a longbow and some Grace pots in case they get blocked off in tight corridors. The problem is that you can buy buffs to melee damage easily but there's no economy for special ammo so it's all about random drops. +1 damage ammo isn't too hard to get but you can't rely on always having some.

Sneak Attack is definitely not the answer, as it means all combat takes place at point blank range. What's needed is a buff or ability that lets characters do well with bows at long range, other than Bard Song. The Marksman buff would be like a weaker version of Bard L3 Song that also let you cut through DR.

Nuke:
The easy solution to the price change is to re-institute a something like  the Arrowhead. It only sells throwing weapons marked Plot, and the Merchant's sale price is dialed down so he sells everything at 2gp.

Scruffy:
it's worth noting that you can cast Magic Weapon on Darts and Throwing Axes to give them a +1 Enhancement Bonus. It's the only reliable way for a ranged character to pierce DR, and so worth knowing about. I did this when I played a Slinger.

VP:
If you are a slinger and want STR bonuses to crush something, all you do is use a Wand of Magic Weapon on a stack of Darts or whip out some powerful questloot ones. You have the same AB as with a Wep Focused Sling and you cut past X/+1 DR. Mighty isn't a PVP gamebreaker as you can already do better. It is a PVE boost for non sneak-attackers and rewards not minmaxing 10 STR 20 DEX.

Craftable Bullets only really work if you have access to a garden of a specific herb, so they're not practical unless we get a merchant who sells that herb. Drops aren't reliable and due to the silly auto-reload mechanics of NWN you can burn them out fast.

One other thing I'd bring up is that the class perks that give DR are especially powerful against archers because their damage is lower anyway.Something worth considering both for PVP and for mobs with ranged weapons with regards to available ammo.

The thing about Monks is they are already very strong on EfU without any class specific bonuses. They have good defences vs everything, and EfU's high supplies level means that they can get past their lower AB, easily gain +4 Armor AC and so on. They don't need anything that increases their power level or chance to make some minmaxed nightmare. It would just lead to power creep. Everyone doesn't need 2/+4 DR or CHA bonuses, or it stops being special.

However, I would argue that with the possibility to script custom class bonuses comes an opportunity to fix the glaring Monk bug in NWN. Monks are supposed to be able to Flurry with with any Monk weapon, not just Kamas. There's very little point in a Monk using any weapon except Daggers for Heal or Stealth bonuses.

I think it would seriously benefit the server if Monks could have bonuses that let them work with other weapons.

Monk:
L1: Bonus Feat: Rapid Shot.
L6: +1 Attack Per Round when wielding a Staff, Sling or Shuriken.
L8: Replaced with +1 AB while wielding any of the given weapons.

This would let Monks effectively have Flurry of Blows with monk ranged weapons and to use a quarterstaff effectively, by leveling out the AB progression to be about the same as for fists and kamas. It would make them no more powerful with their best available weapon (fists) but it would open up flavourful options as only being a bit weaker, not a dead end.

[Bane of the Perverse]

Right now, 'Barb classic' is really good because all the bonuses are nonmagical unremovable buffs that stack with everything else. I'd argue that they're probably a little too strong if a PC can stack up some DI loot an CHA buffs, and this might be a time to reconsider them. Assuming then that alternate barb lines have have the same penalties for low CHA but different rage and level bonuses:

Bane of the Perverse (may not be Faithless)
"You bear a deep and unrelenting hatred for those things that are neither of one world or the other. Creatures more animal than man, beasts touched by the Realms of Madness, or the undying minions of corruption. Someone up there clearly agrees it's a worthy cause"
L1: +1 Mind Saves
L5: Favoured Enemy: Shapechanger, Undead
L8: Favoured Enemy: Fey, Outsider, Aberration.
Rage grants the following bonuses to equipped weapon:

• 1/2 CHA bonus in AB vs Shapechanger, Fey, Outsider, Undead, Aberration.
• +1/4 of CHA Bonus in Divine Damage vs Shapechanger, Fey, Outsider, Undead, Aberration.

Elemental Fury
"Your emotions tap some latent power of the elements within you, or maybe the favour of an elemental patron. Regardless, when you give in to your rage, you become a literal force of nature."
L1: Summon theme overrode to chosen element, 5% immunity to chosen element.
L5: 10% immunity to chosen element, 5% weakness to opposed element
L8: 20% immunity to chosen element, 10% weakness to opposed element.

Rage grants:

• +1/4 CHA bonus AB
• +1/4 CHA damage of chosen element.
• +5 DR against chosen element
• +1 AB vs Elemental
• Elemental visual effect on wielded weapon
• 30% weakness to opposed element.

Champion of Freedom (Chaotic Good only)
"There's those that face evil with a pure heart and an unbending will to uphold the law.  That's not for me, son. Where there's laws, there's craven scum like Banites that hide under them. Men don't need shackles, they need a conscience."
L1: +1/2 CHA bonus to all saves, Detect Evil, Fear Immunity.
L5: Cure Serious Wounds (5) 1/day
L8: Bless Weapon 1/day
When raging, gain the following:

• +1/2 CHA Modifier Divine Damage vs Evil
• +1/2 CHA Modifier AB vs Evil
• Immunity to mind spells from casters of Evil Alignment.

Restrictions
Must obey the following code:
A Champion of Freedom must be of chaotic good alignment and loses all class abilities if he ever willingly commits an evil act.  Additionally, a champion of freedom's code requires that he respect  individual liberty, help those in need (provided they do not use the  help for lawful or evil ends), and punish those who threaten or curtail  personal liberty.

This is basically the Paladin of Freedom variant, but rather than divine spells and Smiting they get a rage with similar effects. I'd love to see it in to really show that Good doesn't have to equal lawful or honourable.


[edit] added this one:

Frenzy
"You don't strike that much harder in a rage, but damn, you're fast."
L1: +1 Reflex
L5: Improved Initiative
L8: +1 Reflex
 
Rage grants:
+1 Attack per round
-5 AB
-5 Damage
+1 AB and damage per point of CHA bonus

I like the idea of this one, but I'm worried about it getting ridiculous with damage buffs.

[Storm Domain]

Lenthis:
I never said druids or  clerics cannot do direct damage. I said they are typically worse at it as they get equivalent spells 1-2 levels later than mages. A "Blow shit up Cleric" is doable, but without using crazy powerful domains like Ooze it's like trying to melee on a wizard. Possible, cool, but inefficient. Searing Light for example is a L3 spell that does about as much damage as a L1 Magic Missile to anything except undead. It's pretty funny with Sun Domain and Empower though.

KillerB:
You've rather dragged this thread off-topic yourself by quoting my entire post in every reply along with a couple of likes complaining that I said anything. I never said that "melee weapons" were the only tradeoff of arcane casters. I'm saying that with EfU's limited rest timer and heavy reliance on consumables, a druid's or cleric's melee and unbuffed defence power (BAB, AC, D8 hit die, strong Fort saves, animal form) becomes a lot more of a factor. A wiz or sorc trades stamina for a few big booms or good defense buffs. A divine caster out of spells during a quest or event can still fight on using potions, domain abilities, lizard form and so on. They can also go and 2-man quests by being the tank. You're new here so I'd really suggest you take a look at the Domains List. The really big deal with Call Lightning is...

Storm Domain
5/- Electric DR, L2: Gust of Wind, L3: Call Lightning, L5: Ice Storm

If Call Lightning becomes good everywhere, that becomes absolutely ridiculous.

I agree that EfU:M's often bizarre weather system where two close zones have different weather patterns does make Call Lightning a bit of a niche and ironically better when it's cast off an item, as you can just fire it when you want it rather than wasting a L3 slot. I like TNVW's idea, but I worry that it'd be a huge PVP advantage for ganking PCs outside quests. Set up storm, they can't make a campfire, you Call Lightning and wipe them out at a convenient location. it would however not be useful unless the area was safe to spend 3 minutes being sitting ducks. I have this feeling that weather changing may be implemented already as a DM-given reward, I'm sure Mort's mentioned it somewhere. Perhaps it could be done by requiring a rare consumable that works like Charged Powder, so you can't just set it up whenever you fancy.

It has everything to do with clerics and druids being able to attack things. Generally divine spells are about disabling an opponent or buffing. They aren't usually very good at direct damage. The trade-off is Druids and Clerics can actually fight. Wizards and sorcs can be very good at direct damage spells, but their skill at weapons sucks. Which is why for example Ice Storm is L5 for Divine casters, L4 for Arcane. Default Call Lightning breaks those rules, which is why it's so powerful.

Currently it works really well in the rain and outside, and not at all  without it. With our current weather system you have no control over when you can use it. To allow it to work really well anywhere would bring it back  to the NWN version, which was a bit of a piss-take when you created a thunderstorm indoors. The exact damage numbers are unimportant, DMs don't cut and paste off suggestions when they can take a bit of time tweaking it to fit.

The point is that a progression from "cool for the effect but essentially useless" indoors for services to moderately useful outdoors, to relatively powerful in the rain seems a better progression. 1d6/level any time, anywhere puts it up there again with the L4 spell Flame Strike.

Erm, Wizard/Sorc is one of the worst class combinations you can do IMO, since all you get are a lot of low Caster Level L2-3 spells. I don't think it's a good idea to have a sorc background to make a sorcerer a better scholar than a Wizard that's built for study, since "learning magic" is their thing. The current backgrounds are good precisely because they take the idea of a sorcerer away from "like a Wizard, but can't choose as many spells".

RwG, Damien: The difference is that it's far easier to fail to get Bloodmage than say Weapon Master. You can apply in advance for WM and know you at least have a chance before making the PC. For Bloodmage you have to be some way towards it IC before apping. This has led to a lot of characters who took Great Fort instead of a more appropriate feat. It's not a bad feat by any means, but it's led to a number of PCs that are restricted in Feat choices to allow for something they'll never get. Rather than the difficult end of the scale that is Weapon Master, compare it to Pale Master, RDD, Arcane Archer or Dwarven Defender that have relatively low restrictions on the PC since the concept would likely have the requirements anyway.

Paha_poika: As I said, I could play a 10 CON elf sorc and have 4 FORT at level 7 with Great Fortitude. Or I could run an 18 CON Gold Dwarven sorc and have 6 FORT without Great Fortitude. Your saves are more dependent on level, Spellcraft, racial bonuses and loot. I don't know what's in the ritual but if it involves needing physical toughness, well put a FORT roll in there and let players choose how to boost their saves.

There's plenty of ways to fail at Bloodmage even with a successful app. Removing the requirement means failed PCs aren't tied down in the builds they use. Other than PP, nobody's come up with a positive reason to include class requirements other than "NWN classes have them", only excuses for them now they're there. Heck, I'd go so far as to suggest that if it were possible Assassin should be allowed to have 8 Bluff instead of 8 H/MS.

tl;dr:
You can't know in advance if you have a chance at Bloodmage, so people take Great Fort hoping they'll get it. More than any other class, people fail early at getting Bloodmage. Therefore, if there has to be a requirement, a Skill one (Spellcraft?) makes more sense as you can take it at any levelup. Why have a requirement anyway, when you can challenge the PC with Fortitude saves and let the player decide how their concept gets a good score. Build, loot, buffs.

[Call Lightning]

In the default, it's equivalent to Fireball etc on two classes that also have good melee power and decent hit points. That seems to be a fantastic boost to classes that already are very strong in EfU by letting a Cleric play at being an Evoker without the drawbacks of low AC, HP and AB. I think RwG has the right idea, but it should be at a lower scale. Storm Domain is already ridiculous with having a mass KD spell at one level lower than mages get it, so you don't have to choose between Gust of Wind or "Fireball Style Spell".

Call Lightning
Indoors: 1d3 damage per 2 levels, for flavour purposes.
Outdoors: 1d6 damage per 2 levels.
Outdoors and raining: 1d6*1.5 damage per 2 levels.

That way it's close to Fireball effectiveness in the Rain but a real Evoker's still better. Without rain it's useful but not brilliant, much like how Hammer of the Gods and Flame Strike stack up against arcane offensive spells.

Lightning Bolt and Fireball work anywhere because offensive magic is the only method of attack that a Wizard or Sorcerer is good at.  On the other hand, Druids and Clerics have melee combat buffs and good HP.

It's not necessarily a feat and it's usually something that is generally taken by the preceding class anyway. Pale Master is just 3 Arcane Caster Levels for example. Plus, Bloodmage isn't a class you level in and there's a long and dangerous IC path to learn it. Mechanical requirements are there for NWN mechanics. Bloodmage and Ruby don't need them, only RP ones. Ruby doesn't actually have any. With Bloodmage, you need to find a way to even learn the class exists IC. That seems restriction enough.

You can't app Bloodmage until your PC has gone some way IC to finding it. This means that there's plenty of PCs that have taken Great Fort but have no chance of earning Bloodmage, either by poor application or inability to locate the Ritual. They didn't need it to RP being hard as nails or for their build, just for the PrC. Another feat would have suited better. On the other hand Bloodmage is so potentially good that you want the chance to apply if you find out how IC. This isn't about making a rare and potentially powerful class any stronger. It's about not having players waste a feat in a vague hope of a class they likely won't get.

Amazing. There's even some clear paths to PRCs there. Now why can't my internet work so I can log in and play this? :(

Aethereal, I've had enough conversations with Alchemy, Herbalism and Crafting rookies to know that a significant number of players don't even know how to use the playertool on themself to get that menu up, or what skills go into Alchemy or Herbalism. A Mistlocke Manual or Forum article people could see easily is better than expecting them to poke around in old threads. The more people who understand how to start doing alchemy, the more chances for concepts like that Guild. There's absolutely no reason not to make the basic OOC info as accessible as possible. To do otherwise is analogous to trying to learn to PVP in EFU without having access to the Neverwinter Nights manual.

I do believe that the acquisition of the ingredients and resources  necessary to be a successful alchemist should be more difficult than,  "let's go see what kind of berries the kid in the Market Hall has  today".

It's more complicated than that. 1-5gp items are a great way of learning the system, but to make the really amazing stuff tends to require 'theme' reagents that are harder to acquire, or some serious time investment or luck. Having cheap items that you can make basic things from means that players experiment logically and try and work out how to build up slowly more powerful reagents. They also mean your discoveries are repeatable without having to restrict yourself to common monster drops which can be hellishly annoying if you don't have collectors in the level range to acquire them. That's far more interesting that needing to gamble with expensive stuff from the start. It costs a lot even using berries, because you try so many possible recipes.