To state that again: This will be a heavy whine, so if you do not care for such posts, skip ahead to the flames and trolls immediately following this post.

Through a few test attacks on everyones favorite bandit, Narissa, I have discovered the following:

Autowake is not fast enough to wake up from mandrake before said bandit has used a quick balance to tie you up preventing most actions.

Breaking free from this bind takes ages. Close to 45 seconds the first time around, and 35 seconds the second time. During which you are unable to outp anything.

If that tactic doesn't work, the bandit can lay a binding trap, which isn't effected by direction, yank their target into the location and watch the trap nail them with ropes.

Breaking free from a binding trap took over 25 seconds.

I have been back a few days now, spoken to many people around and the general consensus on ALL sides (cept bandits ofcourse) is that mandrake is hugely powerful. I've even managed to kill super-runners like Koenen with mandrake only.

In the hands of a class that can turn this deep state of sleep into the target being bound hand and foot, needing to break free for the next half a minute during which the bandit can simply load up other poisons, mandrake is ridiculous for the rest of us.

Suggestions:

Lower the time of mandrake induced sleep. Not as far as it was before this upgrade, but a middleground?

Enhance autowake. For the massive mana drain it imposes, it should be a touch quicker. I mean, if I have the forsight to turn it on before engaging the bandit in combat and taking the mana drain that goes with it, it should protect against perma-sleep statuses a bit more effectively?

Atleast give it a chance of working before \"something brushes up against my leg\" and I am trussed up hog-tied off my horse wondering what happened to the fight

Make binding trap (and darts trap for that matter) a directional trap. You enter direction (not pushed, yanked, thrustkicked) and you hit it. As it stands, it can simply be set in a location and there is no way to avoid it other than avoiding combat against bandits.

Suggestions? Or comments? Even if (when) you decide to flame me, do try to keep it constructive and atleast try to see the issue at hand? K?

Pahn

Written by my hand on the 24th of Leaflost, in the year 1136.