Humanoid Pretenders are too expensive

[PvK]

Originally posted by PDF:
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BUT as they are now, their cost for their magical versatility is *seriously* excessive compared to the advantages you get from it : see the point cost comparison with other pretenders

Well you get some point savings, which can be put into 10-point new paths and added levels. I haven't tried to really analyze the balance of that, but it seems like at least you do get something different than you can get with a non-human pretender.

I assume you know that, and are saying that the points saved seem way too little compared to the practical advantages of non-humans. Particularly, for early-game expansion against strongish independents.

(and see how noone plays them in competitive MP except by "house rules").

Well, that is an exaggeration, but I suppose you meant it that way.

So let's keep them mostly as they are with their weak powers BUT make them cheap(er) : base cost 0-20, 2-3 paths-1 at start. And I really think Immortality would make them more popular, because the death penalty is really a killer on RBs, and in addition they get killed so easily..
Then they will be a resonable choice for a player wanting to have a cheap pretender/high scales.
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You "really think" all human pretenders should be immortal? I sure don't. Way too much immortality going around these days. Of course you're right that RB's suffer an awful lot by losing scales during death, but I'd much rather see that addressed in some way besides the immortality effect, which seems awfully powerful and gamey (for one thing, it promotes "suicidal (not really)" behaviour) which isn't really thematically appropriate except for the phoenix, and sort of for the others who already have it. Instead, I'd suggest changing the power loss on death to either not apply to some pretenders at all (these humans, for example), or perhaps better, to reduce powers by a fixed and random amount per death, rather than per path. That is, dying would cause the loss of one or two points of magic power, from random paths. Pretenders without any paths left might lose an experience level on death, instead. This way, rainbows wouldn't be so greatly penalized, focussed-path pretenders would tend to lose more in terms of creation points on death, and death would still be meaningful for humans.

Also, I think probably the points should be reviewed for balance issues, perhaps reducing some human costs, and increasing some non-human costs and/or path costs.

PvK