Swordsman Archive

This applies mainly to the specialized melee fighters but I think it could be worked into the brawler profession, too. The examples I give are based around the TKA tree because that is what I have experience with. I think this idea is very feasible and would not unduly balance the game.

Maybe melee classes as, they progress, can get HAM or susbstat bonuses. Bonuses to substats would probably work better. Imagine if you would gaining in between 50-150 strength for every power technique skill box, the same bonuses to focus for meditation, and again with quickness for balance conditioning. I think this would be a great representation of progressing as a martial artist in that maneuvers would become easier to use (less expensive) as you master the techniques. This way we would not have necessarily higher HAM, but our special attacks would be more useful as we progress.

The HAM bonuses would be a lot harder to get past all the ranged users, I think. HAM bonuses would be very justifiable in that as martial artists we work out physically and thus would be in better shape than ranged users would. Since we're meant to be the tanks (people who take the most damage for the good of the group) I think we should get some extra health, action, and maybe even mind...though mind is harder to justify based on working out physically. Mind could be justified by the fact that martial artists require mental discipline to become proficient in their arts.

Anyway, just a quick idea I was wanting to get out there and test for support. I'm posting this on all the melee profession boards but I would like the main thread to be the one in the Brawler forum since this concerns all melee professions. Please, let me know what you all think.

Original thread is at:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=brawler&message.id=3310

To be honest, I doubt the devs will ever give you more HAM. It throws off the whole game from character creation forward. Far more likely would be additional toughness skills which mitigate incoming damage. Adding toughness, or some form of damage mitigation accomplishes the same thing as adding HAM in terms of your melee survivability, and it's already in the framework of the game. HAM bonuses would help for specials costs, but then again, so would alteration of weapon stats which is already something they could do if they wanted to also. Like I said, I seriously doubt there will ever be HAM bonuses.

Ivy
Master Heavy Swordsman
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