Posted by The First Apostle on September 22, 2000 at 10:37:46:

In Reply to: To Kah and Harlequin posted by Imbrogno(VIP) on September 22, 2000 at 09:39:05:

> I don't see the Arbiter item as a weakness so much, since they have their item probably more than any other cabal(over the course of a year). Entropy hardly ever takes it, that leaves the odd time when ragers or Empire or whoever decides they need to test the Arbs to see how long before they retaliate.

> However, I can see the powers being toned down somewhat.

> I'd say leave vigilance as is, except that when you leave the city the detect hidden falls. I can't think of a roleplaying reason why stepping outside the city would suddenly make you unable to see the invisible, but as far as the hidden goes one could assume that arbiters know the cities so well that they can see when things aren't normal(like when somebody is hiding in an alley) but they can't necessarily do so outside of the city where the surroundings are a little less familiar.

I'm not sure your rp reason for why an arbiter might be able to see hidden in
the cities would be different from when he left the protected area. The ability
to see hidden isn't necessarily based on "knowing the surrounding area". It's
an ability to discern someone sitting in the shadows. I don't see how you'd loose
this ability when you leave a city. I'd say alter it. The detect hidden portion
of vigiliance let's you know that someone is hidden, and you must be in the same
room for it to work.

> I'd say you'd have to reduce, but not strip manacles as a power. I would consent to their duration being lessened somewhat, maybe by half. Or, you could leave the duration as is, but make it so that half-way through you get a saving roll that may or may not successfully break them off. I think they should prevent magical escape(teleport/word/etc), but not prevent spellcasting. Kinda like an uber-curse that can't be cancelled.

I like the idea of a saving throw that allows you to break the manacles. Honestly,
I'm not sure this needs to be weakened. At the higher ranks, manacles really only
harms necromancers,invokers and arcane muters. Last time I checked, warriors were still able to
use their skills, and priests their supplications. Now, what would be the rp justification
for allowing manacles to curse?

> Not allowing arbiters to take special guards out of the city is silly. Then all a criminal would have to do is leave and arbiters are rendered useless. If you're going to do that you have to 1) Up cityguards dramatically 2) Make gate guards like centurions for criminals(ie you have to kill them to walk by them, but you can flee in the direction that you came). This change to gate guards a) keeps criminals from fleeing the city easily and b) keeps criminals from re-entering the city easily. If this change were made to gate guards I could also see removing manacles, except that doing so would give mages and communers another unfair advantage over the fighting classes for no exp penalty.

I don't know what to say about special guards really. They aren't much at hero ranks.
Normally, they get taken out rather easily.

Having played an arbiter, I don't think their powers are over the top considering the
restrictions. I'd like to see if anyone has any ideas for newer arbiter powers.

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