sirxdaemon

I prefer the monk and like using meditate but did not know about that combo. Will have to try it out next time.

Personally, I think balancing the potential is future-proofing because sooner or later, exploits will be adopted. But in reality, oftentimes a wait and see approach is used when there's a lack of current data to indicate an issue.

Yeah, I forgot about that. I just remember there were some pertinent parts and quoted it.

Dev comments in their plan for this year has relevant points that I'll quote here.

Halls Quest

While I don’t want to make the game overly long, a bit more gameplay at the tail end of the game is sorely needed to give players a bit more time with finished builds and time to make use of armor abilities. I have a few ideas for interesting quests that could test an endgame character.

Alt Paths?

Another common request is to have more dungeon floors, but just adding more risks making the game too long. An alt path could offer new environments and enemies without making the game directly longer. This would be a huge time commitment though, so I’d only really consider it when ShatteredPD is otherwise finished.

Endless Mode

Some form of endless mode is a very common request. This partly ties in to the last region of the game being the shortest, but also there’s just a desire for players to see how far they can get with strong character builds. I have a few loose ideas for how endless might work, but want to focus on other things like new quests first.

Toxic gas feels out of place. Corrosive gas has a DOT and Cleanse will remove. It seems like toxic gas doesn't get dealt by Cleanse for technical/programming reasons rather than thematically. Toxic gas could become a DOT and be inline with corrosive gas. Poison is a DOT so I think toxic gas being a 1 turn DOT wouldn't be a stretch. Now that I think about it, toxic gas is like the only one without a status effect.

Ah, I see.

In that case, maybe having that part as a separate sentence and saying hits from allies, wands, and artifacts can benefit/take advantage of the spell may make it less confusing.

Cleanse removes the the aflame effect and that deals direct damage. But I guess that has a personal status while the gas doesn't have one for Cleanse to nullify. Purity potions kinda muddy things since that will negate poison gas and I expected Cleanse could too since in some ways Cleanse is superior.

Regarding Radiance, maybe I didn't explain it well. The mobs that were hit were not technically visible to my character due to the darkness of the level. On level 22, your vision is reduced by 1 due to level darkness. When I used Radiance, the mobs were within my normal vision if there wasn't any darkness but my character couldn't actually see or target them before Radiance.

I agree that instant cast abilities are versatile and quite helpful particularly in a pinch. I guess my stance is a matter of spartan efficiency; with the challenges and win rate I prefer. Lay on Hands isn't bad, I just prefer using Bless+2 and am too cheap to spend points on LoH.

I forgot about the insta-cast part, which is useful, but I'm still not convinced it's a worthwhile investment. Bless also heals your allies and costs the same—only at +3 does Lay on Hands give a bit more than Bless+2.

Haven't tried Cleanse but I'll take it over Aura of Protection next time. I wanted to try it out since it's paladin specific but currently Cleanse seems like a better investment.

I agree that there's not only good defensive talents, but also offensive ones that help the cleric with survivability in the early stages of the game. It's really the higher number of options to deal with various situations that make it stand out in comparison to other classes.

I prefer the getting the Geomancer since it can clear out the mine for me and save some time(hunger) having to mine, as well as find some of the rooms.

Once I spot it, I'll engage it right away. Clearing any mobs in the immediate vicinity first of course. If gnolls turn up during the fight, I'll take them out before reengaging. The geomancer's attack has a range so I'll lure any guards out of sight so the fight is easier.

But I don't bother clearing any rocks during the entire fight. Even with a sapper nearby. Typically, you can dodge either of his attacks, as well as the sapper's. Sometimes that's not the case. But I'll charge in and take the unlucky hits even without a backup, like chains or the hourglass. I play with 5 challenges and usually I'm not pressed for resources that I can spend the time to clear out rocks during the fight, but maybe taking a hit or two from the geomancer is an acceptable alternative. I think with more experience, you'll find the geomancer ain't so bad.

Be wary of standing by pitfall traps since the rock throw attacks can activate it.

I won't go down the dungeon if my armor is lacking. If I have mail+2 or better than I'm good to go. Maybe leather+3.

I think an additional increase to the number of traps could be a buff to the trinket. Now whether that change makes sense, even I'm not so sure on. But when I commented on the number of traps, I wanted to speak on that which I felt was the main advantage to the trinket, as well as its weak point, in my opinion.

The trapped floors in earlier regions seem to have less traps than later regions. Maybe that's inaccurate and the later regions are simply bigger and the percentage remains. It seemed more sparse and later, denser.

This is one of the easier trinkets to level so I had it at +3 by the sewers. The floors that followed should've all had traps, aside from boss levels, if memory serves.