With spirit scouting gone, the whole Ether Portal Knowledge and Spiritism line became borderline useless. In general portal mages nearly had no identity due to the lack of usability of portals.
Spirits in general are hard to counter, which is why spirit scouting got removed in the first place, but a way to affect players from the spirit world would make portal mages at least useful. Yet the way they affect players should not be too strong, so it isn't a must have to have a dead person with you who has no counterplay (spirit scouting), nor should it be too weak so that there is no point in using the spell to begin with (ether momentum)
Since the investment of 200 Action Points is rather high, I suggest to allow portal mages to keep some spirits after they die under some conditions, while giving them more spells which they can cast from the spirit realm to affect players.
Portal mages should be able to craft a special spirit box which comes with you to the ether if you die. So even if you die you can still affect the gameplay of your group or at least place a portal down to 'revive' yourself once.
After you died once with that box, the box vanishes on revive. So portal mages can only get one additional chance and are not constantly respawning nuances.
Furthermore Spiritism should get more spells.
1st Spell: Spirit tether (AOE Spell)
- Only be able to cast it in the Mortal Realm
- Allows you to see everyone your spirit is tethered to from the spiritworld
- Allows you to affect your tethered targets from the spirit world with some spells
- Only one spirit can be tethered to another player
- Can be unteathred by another spiritist in the mortal world (to generate counter play)
2st Spell: Severe Tether (single target)
- Removes the tethering of spirits on the target
3rd Spell: Spirit Shield
- Channel spell you cast from the spirit realm on a player you tethered to, when that player is hit you lose some spirit boxes and mana, but the player takes less damage
4th Spell: Spirit Weapon
- Channel Spell you cast from the spirit realm on a player you tethered to, when that player hit someone/thing with their weapon you lose some spirit boxes and mana, but the player does more damage with their melee hit
Right now that are all just rough ideas, but I think it would make portal mages much more useful and offer more tactical options to play with or against portal mages.
Spirits in general are hard to counter, which is why spirit scouting got removed in the first place, but a way to affect players from the spirit world would make portal mages at least useful. Yet the way they affect players should not be too strong, so it isn't a must have to have a dead person with you who has no counterplay (spirit scouting), nor should it be too weak so that there is no point in using the spell to begin with (ether momentum)
Since the investment of 200 Action Points is rather high, I suggest to allow portal mages to keep some spirits after they die under some conditions, while giving them more spells which they can cast from the spirit realm to affect players.
Portal mages should be able to craft a special spirit box which comes with you to the ether if you die. So even if you die you can still affect the gameplay of your group or at least place a portal down to 'revive' yourself once.
After you died once with that box, the box vanishes on revive. So portal mages can only get one additional chance and are not constantly respawning nuances.
Furthermore Spiritism should get more spells.
1st Spell: Spirit tether (AOE Spell)
- Only be able to cast it in the Mortal Realm
- Allows you to see everyone your spirit is tethered to from the spiritworld
- Allows you to affect your tethered targets from the spirit world with some spells
- Only one spirit can be tethered to another player
- Can be unteathred by another spiritist in the mortal world (to generate counter play)
2st Spell: Severe Tether (single target)
- Removes the tethering of spirits on the target
3rd Spell: Spirit Shield
- Channel spell you cast from the spirit realm on a player you tethered to, when that player is hit you lose some spirit boxes and mana, but the player takes less damage
4th Spell: Spirit Weapon
- Channel Spell you cast from the spirit realm on a player you tethered to, when that player hit someone/thing with their weapon you lose some spirit boxes and mana, but the player does more damage with their melee hit
Right now that are all just rough ideas, but I think it would make portal mages much more useful and offer more tactical options to play with or against portal mages.
