No ulterior motive, just curious.

I dislike demesne combat intensely, ironically both in its futility and its necessity. I find controlling the terrain is essential in village influence/large scale conflict, but the power of the demesne owner is mostly in summoning, and the constant breaking and redemesning I personally find very frustrating.

The potential of demesnes has been vastly downgraded recently with the inclusion of protection scrolls, so that basically they are no longer a means for the mage or druid to offer distance support, and summoning intruders into a large group becomes almost the sole benefit of a demesne.

This is only my opinion, however, and I'd like to see what others think, both those that use them, and those that fight against them.

I don't want to know if you think this ability or that is overpowered or not, I want to know if you think the concept and implementation of the Druid/Mage niche is both enjoyable and of benefit to combat in general.

I think they have their ups and downs. I don't like how it's SO easy for them to be broken. In the recent Paavik conflict, druids just ripped through our demesnes like tin foil. Not to mention mages have to have Realitycheck AND Chop, or at least Trans Illusions and Chop, whereas druids just need Realitycheck.

Do you mind if I make the poll less confusing to look at?

As long as you don't change the meaning of the options, go ahead.

Edit: I like the -thought- of demesnes, but I also find them meaningless. In Aetolia for instance, Groves were basically just as powerful (if not as ranged), but I enjoyed having a grove to defend.

Demesnes don't have the same meaning to them. Forest can be created instantly and destroyed just as quickly. They are entirely tactical, there is little RP value inherent.

Mage demesnes are better range support (protection's not as bad) but less easy to maintain (no trees.)

Not sure if I like them or not now since there's not as much combat.

I find them lackluster - unless you are transcendant in both your demesning skill and planar, you will find your demesne hits about as often as a tae'dae blademaster with a club.

Don't complain, Fae are even slower

Erm, I thought all demesne timers were constant on 10 seconds?

Only at trans.

Ouch.

Currently my biggest problem is the lack of a skill in environement that lets you remove an unmelded demense. Once a place is "claimed" its either tree,water or earth, it never goes back to normal. (seemingly)

It does, it's just real slow.

Aye, we've wanted something like that for a while.

Edit: And you spelled character wrong

Pshhh... thats what the "(seemingly)" ment!

Is the poll edit acceptable? Now it doens't take up 2 lines.

I hate hate hate demesnes. Demesnes cause mages/druids to be the #1 guard against invaders, because of watch. So the demesne user is often the one that gets the joy of sitting alone in an area for hours so we can keep track of who is coming and going, and raise alarm should it be needed. Demesnes are a pain to maintain, but disastrous if you do not. I also dislike how the demesne users end up playing the pivottable role in many battles, making us a big target, and heaping pressure upon us to not suck. When we lose a village, I've heard it being blamed on people not melding properly. So great, mages are scapegoats too. Not to mention the skills it requires to use a demesne to the full extent. High Aquamancy, high illusions, chop, reality check, perceive. Plus we need an axe and plenty of reserves, which last about 10 minutes because conglutinating empties your power out.

Hmm, I think I found a little pent up rage that I wasn't aware of. I feel better now too.

I really wouldn't mind if demesnes were hauled out...they're too critical for every situation and having to pre set up things is a huge pain...but I'll stay mage until having someone to demesne isn't so important

Vibes!

I think the main problem is the fact they can be destroyed and created to easily, i mean, sure it's just a mage, having the effects area wide has now made it less meld every kill people from inside safe territory. I think what we need to do is take creating meldable terrain, and removing enemy terrain, actually take time, like 5 seconds or so just to defoliate and remove the whole terrain and chop, and add in a skill in environment, decently highish which gives you the ability, to remove demesne terrain types, with the same time it would take to remove them as a mage/drood. Also we could make it so the higher you are in your melding specialization the faster you can remove and create the different types of terrain as your skill in manipulating the elements increases.

Actually Acrune, what you need to be a decent mage is Tritrans + Planar (conglut and speeds up demesne), resilience (if you want to be able to last two rounds once people start wailing on you, Chop (unless your a treehugger), Realitycheck as well as the skills everyone needs such as focus mind, elixlist, shieldparry (should be shield stun or trans combat) and the like.

I think the people I fight against can tell how I feel about demesnes by the rarity of their use by me.