Could it be possible to implement a shopkeeper in the game that would sell extensively crafted items or maybe even make them for your characters? I think that one of the greatest things about ToEE is the ability to craft you some really sweet items and gear. While we already have many wondrous items, rings, wands etc. for sale we really don't have the same options for weapons and armour. What I'm really asking is that would it be possible to have shops which sell ridiculously expensive but well crafted items? Or better yet, have a few competent spellcasters-for-hire to do dialog-driven crafting for the player?
A little game balance warning here: While this sounds wonderful, one of the things keeping characters from having too many highly crafted items is the experience and construction costs for said items. Mostly the experience costs (oh and the Feats it uses up, too). Making them easily "buyable" could drastically tip game balance in the favor of the player, making it TOO easy. A good effort has been made to "reign in" the rampant XP available in the game, but an even more readily available commodity (especially with that wonderful Chest around) is money. Who hasn't finished a game with more money than they knew what to do with? Heck about 1/4 of the way through the game you start pulling ahead drastically. Putting a shop (especially early in the game) could be tantamount to letting the player virtually "buy" a victory. My two coppers worth. m
Burne's scrolls are a good example. He's 8th level but has level 9/5th level scrolls. Cone of cold is one. Sell the explaner chest, buy scrolls and blast Lareth and Co. There's alot of good armor and weapons in the game and way too much money and loot. I still think Lareth should have a AC4 shield and +1 Ring. He'd be a much tougher fight. Elmo and Fruella can hit AC24 so it's not an undoable fight.
Damn - the plan was to just shoehorn a high-level merchant/crafter willy-nilly into the Hommlet chapter and to hell with balance! If there are high-level merchant/crafters added, they won't appear until late. A merchant already exists in Verbo v7 (just how high level gear he has remains to be seen, but he's an arms/armor guy from WotGS), and a guy who may craft in later releases will be accessible there too.
Perhaps I should have focused more on the praise for reduction in XP in the game, and pushed forth the idea for a little more lowering of the abundant loot and money available?
Well one way to use up more of the party's money may be to up prices in Nulb and/or Verbobanc. This does not answer all those with concerns, but may be of some help. I like the idea of a crafter in Verbobanc for those that decide to play a group with no casters, but I can live without one as well.
Would be nice if the "Crafter" made unique items rather than standard issue stuff from Craft MA&A. Kind of a la BG2. Not sure if that's doable though. And then reign in the amount of gold/XP or increase crafting costs so that parties don't run around with ridiculous equips.
What sort of unique stuff? There are basically two 'hired crafter' options: they join the party and craft normally (as limited by their feats, class, etc.), or they basically act like a merchant. #2 would be more comprehensive but also much more work - you'd have to add every possible crafted item as a unique proto because they wouldn't really craft it, they'd just deliver it. But as near as I can tell, #1 would limit their crafting ability because no single NPC can craft everything. Regardless, there will be no designated crafter yet in v7. Money is a dicey issue. No one wants to have treasure taken away, so removing money and treasure from looting would be unpopular. We've tried to limit treasure from the get-go with the NC, but even so you can't eliminate everything or there will be no rewards for completing stuff. The easier option is to create more expenses - buy the castle, get taxed, etc. But you have to be careful with that too because it can quickly get hokey (charge a million gold for the castle, etc.).
