Make dispel wands uncraftable or change the way they function

[Pandip]

There was a fairly extensive discussion of the economy and the state of the server's PvP "meta" this morning. One of the major threads of conversation was about the accessibility of dispel wands and the effect they have on classes: They make casters feel less special and the prospect of playing a pure fighter or barbarian untenable because they don't get access to the wands. A lesser dispel wand costs ~1200 for 25 charges, a single disruptor can cost up to 300 gold.

The two major solutions were to either increase the cost of dispel wands dramatically or remove them entirely.  Another popular suggestion was to change the way dispel wands strip buffs -- a cap on spells stripped based on caster level.

I dislike the idea of increasing the cost, as this makes the gap between the weak and the strong even more steep and encourages the current economic oddity of sitting below level 6 for an extended period of time to hoard gold, which is probably in itself another server issue for another topic.

[Stranger]

Unpopular opinion. Dispel doesn't need to fixed. It is working as untended and it is the longstanding cornerstone of strategic PvP.  Crippling the ability to purge buffs like clarity and insulation grievously weakens spellcasters, making a potion-swilling slugger basically unstoppable.

Do you have any idea how strong a full-buffed fighter is? I've seen numerous assassinations stopped dead in their tracks by a single well-timed dispel. And countless others  where no one could dispel and everyone was crushed.

If you want to radically change the way antimagic works, you need to rebuild NWN from the ground up.

[Arslefjun]

It can sure be annoying to get dispelled. I get that.
But considering how bloated the setting is with potions I don't think its a bad thing tbh.

[Pandip]

To clarify, the argument isn't that dispelling is by nature bad in NWN. We're in complete agreement that it's a facet of the gameplay. The issue lies with the fact that the accessibility and power of dispel wands puts a strong emphasis on needing access to these wands to compete in PvP. These wands cannot be used by pure fighters or barbarians, who have almost no alternatives. Furthermore, dispel wands are just as powerful in the hands of a ranger or multi-classes bard as they are in the hands of a level 9 sorcerer. 

[cmenden]

I can understand the desire to make wands less mandatory to level the playing field, but I'd probably suggest making more non-restricted Lesser Dispel trinkets in the module

- Making Dispel Wands more expensive widens the gap between hyper efficient quest masters and concepts that are by necessity less wealthy and well-connected
- Adjustments that make the spells work less efficiently for low level casters will push those players toward having to grind up levels before they will participate in pvp conflict

So my suggestion would be for a few more items that anyone can use with a few charges of Lesser Dispel!

[Cruzel]

Cmenden's point is important.

Making things even and fair, is the most important thing.  Making them expensive just means people who can quest hyper efficiently and have mastered the gold and supply game will have an even BIGGER advantage over people who do not. 

The biggest issue brought up in discord is that people who multiclass for dispel wands, are ultimately much stronger than a pure class, and  the weakest dispel is capable of taking ALL your buffs on a really unlucky roll if you're the target.

Dispel is strong. It should be strong, in the hands of casters. In the hands of multiclasses and trinkets? Meh.  Easiest way to accomplish this is make  LESSER DISPEL only capable of stripping like 1d2 buffs max per CL.    High level casters will still be able to potentially strip all someone's buffs when casting, but a lesser dispel wand (cl3?)  can take at most 3 +1-3  spells.  Which is still a lot, but much more reasonable than taking out say... 15-20 potions with one shot.

We could also explore the option of  dispel resistance, as some form of lesser SR for pure fighters and barbs.  If a pure non-wand class eats a dispel and fails the roll to dispel an effect, make them roll d100 to avoid dispel FOR THAT EFFECT,  and set the DC at like 60 vs wands, 80 vs actual casts, 90 vs GSF abjurers?

[Arslefjun]

I don't agree that this is a problem that creates PvP imbalance.
Its always been like this and, sure sometimes "wand users" rock out hard, non-wand users have always been very successful in this area.

[VanillaPudding]

I think a class that can hit well over 20 AB easily and drink a clarity potion to be effectively unstoppable is doing just fine. As for your pure fighters, you have a ton of bonus feats to invest in saves and whatnot to also be very resilient against magic while maintaining higher HP / AB than the multiclasses. There are cool perks and other stuff as well that you can use while all of these multiclasses using wands cannot. You can't get everything for free!

[LoveLess]

It sucks getting dispelled. That's just the way things go though and it is really the only defense some people have.

In most situations, it could be a build problem, rather than a dispel problem.