Fixing Class Powers

[SinsI]

By the time a character reaches level 50, where are only 2 things for the character left to do:
1) finish cleaning up D50 and close the gate
2) defeat Andor.

As such every single level 50 class power MUST help to fullfill one of these goals.
As such:

Classes where the class powers are basically fine, IMHO:
Archer, Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Chaos Knight, Duelist

Barbarian: 800 energy for melee attacks when fighting as True Berserker.
Taking off most of your armor on D50, really?!

Problems with your suggested fix - they don't really help the characters with their goals:
Druid:

Level 50. Druids are completely immune to background corruption.

Backround corruption on D50 is not the main source of corruption. Rather, it is negligible.

Fighter:

Level 50. Fights will counterattack against any enemy attack that is blocked by their shield. Counterattacks do 50% of normal damage, but cost no energy.

Forces to actually use a shield, gives nothing for dual-wielders.

Priest:

Level 50: All items placed on an altar from a Favoured (ie. "Your god favours you" or better peity status) deity will be blessed.

Altars rarely spawn on D50... And you usually have enough water anyway. So the ability is moot.

Thief:

Level 50: Thieves will now attempt to pickpocket free with every attack.

You don't really worry about loot by D50. (Unless it gives lots of SoCRS and PoCC, or wands of wishing).

Weaponsmith

Level 50. Can smith artifact-level equipment of appropriate metals (with low success rates).

Background corruption, monster generation and lack of forges don't really allow any form of productive smithing on D50.

Wizard

Level 50. Gain +10 Ma.

What for? You can health-cast on D50 without any penalty...

[Blank4u47]

Sinsi, I don't disagree with any of your points except the lvl 50 barbarian power, it's pretty awesome and stacks very well with their other class powers (mighty/tremendous strike, +str, +10 dmg while true berserk.)
now assuming you have grand mastery in a weapon, your energy cost will be 480 per attack with each attack doing huge damage. Since nothing on d50 uses missles, you can just use guerrila tactics and never get hit. Kinda cheesy like playing a duelist.

[JellySlayer]

By the time a character reaches level 50, where are only 2 things for the character left to do:
1) finish cleaning up D50 and close the gate
2) defeat Andor.

As such every single level 50 class power MUST help to fullfill one of these goals.
As such:


Barbarian: 800 energy for melee attacks when fighting as True Berserker.
Taking off most of your armor on D50, really?!

I've won with a true berserking barbarian before. It's not as insane as it sounds. You can usually end up with ~60 DV/30 PV from the equipment you have available, and if you have a decent weapon, you can mow through the enemies at D:50 surprisingly efficiently. Andor I think penetrates armor now anyway, so true berserk is not wholly useless even for that battle as long as you can cover your intrinsics.

Druid:

Backround corruption on D50 is not the main source of corruption. Rather, it is negligible.

It's huge in Chaos plane and many other high-level areas. It's not negligible on D:50--probably worth 2-3 corruptions if you clear the whole place with melee or missiles. This is particularly the case if you've played slowly and have increased corruption due to day 90+ modifiers.

Fighter:

Forces to actually use a shield, gives nothing for dual-wielders.

That's fine. Fighters are supposed to be tanks, so it makes sense that they'd prefer a shield (most players use shields anyway).

Priest:

Altars rarely spawn on D50... And you usually have enough water anyway. So the ability is moot.

You don't normally have enough water to bless your entire inventory, no.

Thief:

You don't really worry about loot by D50. (Unless it gives lots of SoCRS and PoCC, or wands of wishing).

Thieves level 32 power ensures that this will be the case.

Weaponsmith

Background corruption, monster generation and lack of forges don't really allow any form of productive smithing on D50.

Well, yeah, you do your smithing elsewhere.

Wizard

What for? You can health-cast on D50 without any penalty...

Ma has a variety of other effects beyond simply how much PP you have (admittedly, not as many as I had thought).

Generally, though, I disagree that every power must necessarily help with D:50 and/or Andor. Level 50 powers should represent the capstone of achievement for the character's desired profession.

[blunk]

I agree with Sinsi in that of all my characters that reached lvl 50 all got it at d50 (maybe my dwarf merchant got 50 before D50 but most likely not) so abilities not usable there would've been useless.
None of my wins were ultra, however, is there that much extra exp for Ultra before D50?

Without slow monster and/or moloch wishes you're in for some serious grind to get lvl 50 before D50.

[JellySlayer]

I agree with Sinsi in that of all my characters that reached lvl 50 all got it at d50 (maybe my dwarf merchant got 50 before D50 but most likely not) so abilities not usable there would've been useless.
None of my wins were ultra, however, is there that much extra exp for Ultra before D50?

Without slow monster and/or moloch wishes you're in for some serious grind to get lvl 50 before D50.

In 1.1.1, any non-troll with normal range speed would hit level 50 well before D:50 in an ultra attempt. Since the adjustments to the leveling curve, getting to level 50 even on an ultra requires too much effort. But this is probably a reason to change the distribution of XP more than anything else.

[gdo]

Absolutely. The XP distribution needs to be looked at- it's quite punishingly low at the moment, and has been for quite some time. The prospect of having to get level 45 (which surely requires a bit of grinding) makes Ultras really unappealing at the moment.

[Carter]

Absolutely. The XP distribution needs to be looked at- it's quite punishingly low at the moment, and has been for quite some time. The prospect of having to get level 45 (which surely requires a bit of grinding) makes Ultras really unappealing at the moment.

agree 100% and should be adjusted. You shouldn't need to excessive scum the dragon caves to get level 50.

[Blasphemous]

By the time a character reaches level 50, where are only 2 things for the character left to do:
1) finish cleaning up D50 and close the gate
2) defeat Andor.

As such every single level 50 class power MUST help to fullfill one of these goals.

Wrong. MOST of my chars reach lvl 50 well before D50.
Do not generalize like this, it's very misleading and inaccurate.

Actually, I'd be hard pressed to remember a character in recent memory that did not reach lvl 50 when entering D50.
Particularly, my archmages, mindcrafters, assassins and weaponsmiths will reach lvl 50 before diving past the casino.

That said, all of Jelly's suggestions remain perfectly viable for me.
I play this way specifically to have all class powers available and use them as I want.

You average the players' experience by assuming the only goal is to get to D50 asap and close the gate. Again, this is faulty logic.
For some, that is indeed the case, but not for everybody and I would dare argue that it is true perhaps for half of the active playerbase, maybe less.

The journey beats the destination and I will often get bored with a character before closing the gate, since the real fun was everything between char generation and D50.
As such, you cannot tailor class powers and their usefulness to one group of players, overlooking everything else.

You have used very strong words in capital letters or bold, such as MUST or every single so allow me to do the same.
You are WRONG on every account in your post.

Since nothing on d50 uses missles, you can just use guerrila tactics and never get hit.

Tell that to those two balors that summoned quickling queens for me one time.
Still, that was a 70 Ma wizard with 4k spell knowledge of acid ball...

[Blank4u47]

Tell that to those two balors that summoned quickling queens for me one time.
Still, that was a 70 Ma wizard with 4k spell knowledge of acid ball...

Lol, true that could happen! I only ever seem to get kobolds summoned from balors though. I think I remember getting karmic dragons one time though.

Although I really wish tb properly fixed the lvl 50 power for barbarians, I'm waiting to finish my game until the dual wield is applied correctly, I have my ME barb just sitting there on d:50 waiting...

[SinsI]

Wrong. MOST of my chars reach lvl 50 well before D50.
Do not generalize like this, it's very misleading and inaccurate.

I can and I will generalize this - you just have to look through YAVPs to find that more than 90% of characters don't even reach lvl50, and if they do reach it, their total XP is still barely above what is required for it. The game rules should be so that the majority of players can enjoy them, and not toss them away as "situational bonuses that give nothing". Of course you can play ADOM in the sandbox fashion, without caring about the stated end goals - but such game play style should not be the driving factor of the game design.

Actually, I'd be hard pressed to remember a character in recent memory that did not reach lvl 50 when entering D50.
Particularly, my archmages, mindcrafters, assassins and weaponsmiths will reach lvl 50 before diving past the casino.

I don't see how it is possible without some extremely scummy techniques like farming Eternal Guardian and si-trained shopkeepers or very deep ID-diving - there's just not enough XP sources available in the upper game levels unless you're playing something like cup-born gnome healer...