I won't respond to the whole thing, I'd started before and was three quotes deep before I ended up deleting the response on accident, so I'll just focus in.
In the interim it may seem punitive, sure, but I'd argue that the Disarmed Combat Effect is much better than the Stunned Combat Effect, because you actually have options (even if you don't see it as such).
Of course. I talked about how I liked stunned more than disarmed, despite how, factually, stunned is much worse for the player, aside from how stunned/prone gives immunity to being re-afflicted after you get hit by it. The presentation feels less painful to go through. S/P just moves past with little note, while disarmed flaunts itself in your face.
I'd argue that it would only be "weak enough [to not have] much of an impact" if there wasn't party diversity to bridge that gap. You have access to Bimbo set Azzy, Dancer set Cait and Base set Quin.
If you're playing as a Physical damaging PC, I'd argue that having inclusion for every damage type would make sense for a typical party composition (specifically because of how prevalent / powerful Resolve damage is in this game). That way even if your Physical damaging PC was Disarmed, they'd be able to synergize with your Resolve damaging Companion by using Tease attacks (assuming it's not an encounter with an NPC that's immune to Resolve damage), and actually feel as though the specific Tease attacks were actually resulting in something instead of just feeling "useless".
Why split up the party composition like that? If my third member is a tank, that's a benefit to the party. If the third member is a resolve damage dealer, then all the damage they do has absolutely no impact on what the rest of the party does unless the resolve damage dealer takes someone down, while doing hp damage (both physical and magical) allows all three to pile on their power and get things done faster.
I'd argue that it's not "practically nothing" though, because in the event that one was Stunned for 3 turns in a row (assuming RNG like that exists in the first place), one would take full damage over all 3 of those turns. However, if one was Disarmed instead for 3 turns and Defended for all 3 of those turns, they'd have taken reduced damage for the duration - definitely seems a bit better than being unable to take action (as when Stunned).
That's literally impossible in the game at present. The game makes you stun and prone immune for, I think, two turns, whenever you get hit by one of them, and they only last for one turn, as far as I can tell. The next turn after getting stunned/knocked prone is spent recovering, but the turn after will always allow you to take an action, as you can not be inflicted with either until after that turn.
Also, it's much more likely to be disarmed for three turns, considering that Master Whisper has access to Aim: Weapon, a ranged ability which inflicts Disarmed for 3 turns, while, again, I'm fairly certain stun can only last for one turn.
And whilst your first hand experiences with Defending might result in you thinking it's "useless", you have to admit that you'd take sufficiently less damage than if your PC was Stunned, yes?
Sufficiently less for what? If I have a competent healer and am not extremely overwhelmed such that I need to halve the damage or I will die, the end result would be the same: Either I wouldn't take damage and defending was useless, or I do take damage and the healer uses their next turn to heal my back up.
Your prior complaints could somewhat be negated with items such as the
Leananstone and the
Ley-crystal Grenade. Because even though the Ley-crystal Grenade is rather difficult to come by, it still does Health damage, and whilst Leananstone adds Cunning and Willpower to its damage, it also allows for one to deal Health damage (and is directly purchasable from the start of the game; from Ivris).
So in that regard, your PC would still be capable of dealing damage, even though it'd be a different damage type (Magical damage), at reduced damage, I'd imagine it'd be somewhat comparative to a "enemy desperation attack" in any case.
Yes. Ley-crystal grenades are really bad at, like, level 6, because cleave is severely outdamaging it, but if you're disarmed and use one it's still going to be a lot more damage than no damage. And the Leananstone does fit the role, honestly. Yeah, those two items do counter it, I suppose, even though the Leanan for a non-split type and non-thief weapon user will be pretty low, but still surprisingly nice for the situation. I'd still rather we be able to punch someone while disarmed, rather than chucking explosives, but it's something.
But I do disagree with your consistent assertions of Physical damaging PCs being "useless" when disarmed, as seen in the above - there are objectively other options, you just have to change the way you see them.
Probably, yeah? I never really consider consumables but they are an option while disarmed. Also, in regards to Tease, it may still be somewhat useful for a disarmed pc to use it. Especially considering my Thief, who was the super-strong physical damage dealer. Strong enough to straight up one-shot a Wraith-Touched Chimera, with no buffs from allies. That's largely due to the crit-focused build, and it just so happens that crits apply to teases as well. Also the Thief uses sexiness/temptation undergarments and uses the Royal Leathers, armor which itself gives 20 sexiness. And the end result of that is that she can semi-consistently put out 140 damage teases, despite being focused on dealing physical damage. That is, of course, a lot, but I generally don't use it except against the Slimes in the Valley.
