Shattered Kingdoms

Stance change being knocked prone should be changed as many people have put forth. However I think an extra set of skills to change peoples stance should be looked at. This might actually knock bash off the be all and end all first move every time. Something like a skill called "Pressure" performing this skill forces the defender of your attacks to change stance to a more defensive one. It could even be paired some abilities with an ability to make blitzkrieg almost a useful skill by being able to change every attackers stance back to neutral or into defensive. For example Pressure blitzkrieg or pressure kick or pressure backstab. The skill could add lag time to the used skill or not depending on balance it could also have a limited skill selection meaning pressure bash pressure trip are not a thing. With the reverse to pressure being taunt. This could is balanced right create a situation where people see the need to chance stance mid combat again taking bash down a peg in priority.

On other things brought up in the thread
Messing with word of recall is dangerous. Recalling costing XP was the cause a significant reduction in player numbers. I really think you need to consider very closely the effects of any chance to this spell and what players will do to get around it.

If for example the spell failed like you have put forth most people will just start making double word of recall vials. Or simply spam quaff two at once (or use scripts). This doesnt solve the problem in inherent in word of recall and fights. My main dislike of this is player time cost high.

I have had a few thoughts on it but they come with their own draw backs. If Word of recall had a delay of say 3 combat rounds (equal to being bashed) in which you could still do things but the spell is being processed. It would make some interesting situations.
You could quaff a word of recall then run low on PE so it can not take effect. You could quaff a word of recall and still get killed before it kicks in. You could quaff a word of recall win the fight and be forced to recall anyway. When you quaff a word of recall potion your foe has a chance to be quick about getting to your stones and continuing the fight. You could recall and still be bashed/tripped and have lag at your stones. A shift to disarm after they quaff a word of recall to try to strip their weapon before they flee is a viable tactic.

The most likely outcome of a chance like this means that if you are surprise attacked the first action is to quaff a word of recall. This is a downside but lets be honest most people do this anyway. It is rare for first strike in combat not to have the upper hand and in the instances where this is not the case chances are unless you are a vet you are going to not see it and quaff a word of recall potion anyway.

Other downsides I see is it pushes people towards massive slow weapons which they already tend to use for the stopping dodge. A possible solution would be to change weapons so that every weapon swing PE drain is not equal. Swinging and Epee 4 times might be slightly more trying than swinging a poleaxe twice but not by much. This would take a lot of work in balancing weapons we already have a two variable system speed vs damage, accuracy rarely makes the cut as previously stated Accuracy buffs are very plentiful. PE drain may make the difference between people picking between a massive weapon and a non massive similar weapon. It would also make the dynamic of working out the "best" weapon more dependent on the build of the charter. High PE changes what weapon is best for you.

On other points mentioned an alteration to petrification could be to add a 3 state of part success. Dropping the out right kill chance significantly, to add in a part success that causes the slow spell. Slowed foes are more at risk at failing petrification as two slow success would = petrified. This would enable shaman/hellions(wand/scroll users) to work together with a sorceror for better chance of success also haste to be more useful mid combat.

Necromancers need more work than just finger of death. I think one of the first buffs necromancers should get is something like a skill "knowing death". Due to a necromancers knowledge of death they are able to return via the oracle at a reduced cost possibly free (based on skill level and possibly extra random roll). Reincarnate also takes a reduced toll on a necromancer. This means capturing a necromancer has a much higher value than killing them. This does increase the risk of suicide bomber necromancers however ill prepared necromancers are still at a higher risk of getting captured rather than killed. Once the costs of playing a necromancer (being constantly hunted by light aura, not just people you make mad) are slightly offset by this it brings necromancer up on the desire to play which should then show more strengths and weaknesses in their game play. Finger of death could be brought into line with petrification success rate with it actually working on magical resistant races on pure success.

Recall costing xp was bad for the fact that it would take half a level at champion. This was back when it took about 100 hours to hit master status and then maybe another 150 to hit GM. Word of recall was not affected by this change. I remember because I played a paladin at the time. The change had no affect on my character.

I'm suggesting this because there have been a lot of players that just roll up in a city and hit the word of recall button anytime someone shows up. It's not going to eat chunks out of your levels so I don't see much of a problem with it.

I agree that tweaks to word of recall could make PK a lot more interesting, I just am not sure your idea is an actual solution because as I said people will just start making more word of recall potions to solve the problem. You still need to keep your foe bashed or tripped so they cant quaff the potion PvP dynamic is the same as always. Only with the extra suck on players time to make more word of recall vials or play risky at their choice.

I am not sure my idea is a solution either but it change the mechanic and could make for some harrowing escapes from PvP and PvE, landing epic kills after they have quaffed their word of recall potion. The change in the mechanic makes it so that you can not circumvent it via prep, while at the same time it tries to keep in the risk your own idea is trying to develop. The time may need to be tweaked but I think it is a significant change which could shake up the always safe defenders way out is no longer an instant escape. However my assessment could be completely wrong it could be stupidly frustrating, feel free to pick apart my idea constructively . I think it would need to be a change that was open to testing then assessment and possibly removal.

An extra idea for tweaking might be the strength of the spell word of recall reduces the time a little. That could change the dynamics of WoR potions a lot.
This would be part of a change to combat along with stance alterations and possibly tweaks to how PE drain in combat works.

changing recall won't fix anything, and it would likely just result in even less pk than currently happens. even when the who list is 25+ there's usually only a handful of characters that are in a tribunal. that's important cuz those are the people that are basically flagging themselves for pk. people will be even more hesistant to leave the safety of whatever sandy beach, secluded noble home, or remote island they do their mudsexx0ring to go engage in pk.

no reason to remove accuracy bonus on bless, just don't let it stack with specialize, rally, berserk, or any other sources of accuracy - no reason to punish scouts, hellions, etc. cuz of mercs/barbs

After playing numerous hellions, and a scout. And then a mercenary I can guarantee that they'll never compete with the melee skills of a merc/barb in a straight fight. In fact, a lot of the time I felt invincible as a mercenary. I felt incredibly vulnerable as a hellion.

it's not about them competing with mercs and barbs, but that taking away accuracy from bless has more of an impact on classes like hellion, scout, etc. cuz they don't have self buffs or skills that give them access to accuracy like mercs and barbs do.

better to just make it so that accuracy from bless doesn't stack with things like rally, berserk, etc.