Rework could be the best one yet. This is my wishlist of what I think would make it perfect.

[Cheggf]

This rework is a ton of fun, looking to be the best one yet. I think with just a few changes it could be nearly perfect. Feel free to comment your own wishlists down below in case I forgot anything.

- Allow servants to cross rivers to ferry you items. They can already walk on water, they just prefer not to on the other side of rivers and get stuck in place.

- Remove the servants' fear of shadows.

- Make servants less single-minded. If you place them near multiple resources (e.g. a clump of trees and a single piece of grass) and walk away they'll do one thing (e.g. pick a single grass) then do nothing and wait around for you to come back and let them hand you their one item. If you don't come back fast enough since you weren't expecting them to be done so fast, they will get bored and die, needing to be resummoned.

- Give him a cool new summoning animation, possibly faster than Wickerbottom's. I'm imagining he holds the book in front of him flat with one hand, then puts his other hand on top of or into the book before pulling up with shadow effects being pulled out of the book. With the current implementation where subsequent immediate casts are faster he could keep the book held in front of him and keep pulling more out.

- If possible, sync the shadow inventory between shards.

- If possible, fix the graphics with the minions. You can see strange outlines of his facial features.

- Have Maxwell know T1 magic by default like a parallel to Wickerbottom. I think it would be a fun lore perk, but not very powerful.

- Give him some more downside(s). I think downsides are just as fun as upsides (if not more fun), and Maxwell always struck me as someone who was supposed to be a bit harder. Wickerbottom's rework brought one of the most balanced downsides in the game with her spawning shadows when reading at low sanity, and with how Maxwell is now so good at literally everything except moving and hammering it would make sense for him to get something.

- Make me able to look at general discussions again. Ever since the forums came back online I get this error whenever I try to view general discussions while logged in

I'll edit this post if I think of anything else. Thanks for reading.

Addendum:

- Maybe increase the range servants will run to deliver you items. I'm not imagining them running across the entire map but you have to be nearly right next to them right now.

- Make the prison spell cost 30 sanity. I think the spell is worth at least 50 sanity, but Maxwell is likely to have less sanity than Wickerbottom because he fragments his mind so I feel a cost of 30 is better. It also would differentiate it even more from the snare, making the snare something you either use before combat or because it's cheaper, and the prison something you use in the middle of combat at a higher cost.

- Allow crafting using items inside the hat.

- Make Maxwell stop talking so much. He talks so much with the change where changing equipment makes him speak. 

[Kappachinos296]

I think new spells would be great.

Maybe his new downside could be related to insanity. For example, when Maxwell is insane shadow creatures spawn more frequent with a new type of shadow creature as well.

[Pig Princess]

2 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Make me able to look at general discussions again. Ever since the forums came back online I get this error whenever I try to view general discussions while logged in

Are you trying to view forums from mobile phone? I had the same problem, which apparently was related to view setting of the forums. I went to other forum section and changed it back to originally selected option and it helped. Definitely annoying though.

On a side note, mobile version doesn't have an option to select previous pages in search and one can't delete quote/spoiler once these elements are added to the future reply; also mobile version doesn't have an option to choose size of text and make it crossed out, so please fix, Klei.

[LeafyFly]

I think all staves should be in "Tier 1".

[Dragonboooorn]

Refresh his deafult look to be in line with portraits and other media

[Cheggf]

7 minutes ago, Dragonboooorn said:

Refresh his deafult look to be in line with portraits and other media

Maybe that's going to be the skin released in the update.

[Wenhelxing]

The only slight disagreement that I have right now is his downsides. His biggest down side is his low health, and I think that is enough. Sure, wearing armor could negate some of it, but it still requires you ti roam around in full log suit plus football helm. Besides that, yes. The rest of the list is what we need

[Copyafriend]

4 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Make me able to look at general discussions again. Ever since the forums came back online I get this error whenever I try to view general discussions while logged in

No, this would make cheggf too powerful and unbalance the game, in my opinion cheggf being able to open the general discussions is clearly an intended feature of the forums and if we let him in, he’d become too powerful, which just wouldn’t be fun

[Cheggf]

37 minutes ago, Wenhelxing said:

The only slight disagreement that I have right now is his downsides. His biggest down side is his low health, and I think that is enough. Sure, wearing armor could negate some of it, but it still requires you ti roam around in full log suit plus football helm. Besides that, yes. The rest of the list is what we need

Armor doesn't stack in DST. Wearing either a football helmet or a log suit will give Maxwell 375 EHP (more than enough to be able to heal in most situations) while better armors will give him 750 or even 1,500 EHP. Combine that with the Duelists, traps, and walls, and his downside is very manageable.

I don't think the additional downside(s) would have to necessarily be ever present like Warly, they could come from overuse of his power like Wickerbottom.

[Wenhelxing]

 

31 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

Armor doesn't stack in DST. Wearing either a football helmet or a log suit will give Maxwell 375 EHP (more than enough to be able to heal in most situations) while better armors will give him 750 or even 1,500 EHP. Combine that with the Duelists, traps, and walls, and his downside is very manageable.

I don't think the additional downside(s) would have to necessarily be ever present like Warly, they could come from overuse of his power like Wickerbottom.

In my personal opinion, his health should be the only thing holding him back, but I digress.

[Hornete]

8 hours ago, Cheggf said:

- Give him some more downside(s). I think downsides are just as fun as upsides (if not more fun), and Maxwell always struck me as someone who was supposed to be a bit harder. Wickerbottom's rework brought one of the most balanced downsides in the game with her spawning shadows when reading at low sanity, and with how Maxwell is now so good at literally everything except moving and hammering it would make sense for him to get something.

I don't know how well it'd work in practice, but some downside relating to lunar magic/enlightenment could be cool with it being a complete contrast to shadow magic, and I feel Enlightenment is a big enough part of the game that it'd be substantial throughout (Lunar island, grotto, moonstorm, etc). As for what the specifics of said downside could be, no idea, I just think the general concept is neat.

[Cheggf]

2 minutes ago, Hornete said:

I don't know how well it'd work in practice, but some downside relating to lunar magic/enlightenment could be cool with it being a complete contrast to shadow magic, and I feel Enlightenment is a big enough part of the game that it'd be substantial throughout (Lunar island, grotto, moonstorm, etc). As for what the specifics of said downside could be, no idea, I just think the general concept is neat.

That's a fun idea. He seems to be relatively versed in all magic, but with a focus on shadow magic. Combine that with his previous status as long-standing king on the nightmare throne and it makes sense that the lunar faction would have a particular disdain for him.

[ADM]

6 minutes ago, Hornete said:

I don't know how well it'd work in practice, but some downside relating to lunar magic/enlightenment could be cool with it being a complete contrast to shadow magic, and I feel Enlightenment is a big enough part of the game that it'd be substantial throughout (Lunar island, grotto, moonstorm, etc). As for what the specifics of said downside could be, no idea, I just think the general concept is neat.

I was thinking about an interaction of this sort yesterday, specifically to have his sanity daperness inverted while enlighted. That would probably be just one part of it since it could both useful and a downside, just liked the sound of it but I’m no expert of lore fittingness of such a thing, it’s why I didn’t suggest much in this rework.

[Dr. Safety]

26 minutes ago, Hornete said:

I don't know how well it'd work in practice, but some downside relating to lunar magic/enlightenment could be cool with it being a complete contrast to shadow magic, and I feel Enlightenment is a big enough part of the game that it'd be substantial throughout (Lunar island, grotto, moonstorm, etc). As for what the specifics of said downside could be, no idea, I just think the general concept is neat.

Isn't his sanity kind of a downside for lunar stuff? Like, it's good for dealing with shadows, bad for dealing with the moon. Increasing his sanity gain when experiencing enlightenment might work, but if it's not enough of a downside to be noticeable now, I doubt increasing it would do anything

[Mr_Vol]

A downside could be that he Chops, Mines and hammers 10% less like how Wes is with his 20%.

Might be a fun idea to have tiers of items like the duelist have but for the servants aswell. Like if you have a glass tool in hand they chop and mine faster or if you have the Pick-axe in hand they last the whole day or follow you around. The gardeners hat etc.

You could make it so not very useful items are very useful in Maxwell's hands.

[Hornete]

1 hour ago, Dr. Safety said:

Isn't his sanity kind of a downside for lunar stuff?

I mean, sure but as you said later in your same message, it's nothing noticable or crazy.

[Cheggf]

1 hour ago, Mr_Vol said:

A downside could be that he Chops, Mines and hammers 10% less like how Wes is with his 20%.

Might be a fun idea to have tiers of items like the duelist have but for the servants aswell. Like if you have a glass tool in hand they chop and mine faster or if you have the Pick-axe in hand they last the whole day or follow you around. The gardeners hat etc.

You could make it so not very useful items are very useful in Maxwell's hands.

While it would be funny for both the Carters to have an upside that's pretending to be a downside, I was imagining something real. Shadows spawn more frequently while insane, overusing the Codex Umbra inflicts the AFW stun, maybe even making unique and more powerful shadows and\or gestalts spawn near applicable Maxwells. Something along the lines of one of those, or something entirely new that I haven't thought of.

If he's going to be stealing anyone's downside I think Wickerbottom's reading immediately spawning shadows would be the most fitting.

[Gi-Go]

No more downsides please. I used to main wikerbottom but now I won't even touch her due to this downside she got. I think I've killed more shadows as her since rework, than I did in the last 5 years or so. I am so sick of fighting them. I'm so sick of cooking banana juices. The books are not even worth it. 

[Mysterious box]

42 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

While it would be funny for both the Carters to have an upside that's pretending to be a downside, I was imagining something real. Shadows spawn more frequently while insane, overusing the Codex Umbra inflicts the AFW stun, maybe even making unique and more powerful shadows and\or gestalts spawn near applicable Maxwells. Something along the lines of one of those, or something entirely new that I haven't thought of.

If he's going to be stealing anyone's downside I think Wickerbottom's reading immediately spawning shadows would be the most fitting.

I think it would be fitting if gesalts and greaters were always hostile to him regardless of enlightenment or equipment since he's tainted by shadow power.

[Pig Princess]

21 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

I think it would be fitting if gesalts and greaters were always hostile to him regardless of enlightenment or equipment since he's tainted by shadow power.

But I can think of 2 scenarios at least:

1. Maxwell spams spells and stays at 0 enlightenment, which makes regular gestalts despawn, which eliminates this downside and in the end it would be more of an annoyance rather than actual challenge.

2. Maxwell can't do literally anything and is always attacked period, which makes fighting Celestial Champion with minions near impossible because there would be no way to weave long uncancellable casting animation into the fight. He would have to fight like Wilson, and right now I like how diverse this fight is as Maxwell.

I like theme of it, and even initially "liked" the idea, but when thought about it more, realized that it's going to cut content and diversity for Maxwell, so I'm sorry for confuse.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

On 11/9/2022 at 8:59 PM, Cheggf said:

overusing the Codex Umbra inflicts the AFW stun

that would be cool

[mr. brj]

On 11/9/2022 at 9:36 AM, Cheggf said:

Give him some more downside(s).

Does duelists running after gekkos like maniacs count as a downside? If so we already have a rather cool but also an annoying one.

[Kronoshifter]

Double down on servants being less single-minded and let them deposit items straight into the shadow container. Also let them keep the area they're in loaded so they can do work while you aren't there. 

[BB Marioni]

On 11/9/2022 at 9:36 AM, Cheggf said:

This rework is a ton of fun, looking to be the best one yet. I think with just a few changes it could be nearly perfect. Feel free to comment your own wishlists down below in case I forgot anything.

- Allow servants to cross rivers to ferry you items. They can already walk on water, they just prefer not to on the other side of rivers and get stuck in place.

- Remove the servants' fear of shadows.

- Make servants less single-minded. If you place them near multiple resources (e.g. a clump of trees and a single piece of grass) and walk away they'll do one thing (e.g. pick a single grass) then do nothing and wait around for you to come back and let them hand you their one item.

- Give him a cool new summoning animation, possibly faster than Wickerbottom's. I'm imagining he holds the book in front of him flat with one hand, then puts his other hand on top of or into the book before pulling up with shadow effects being pulled out of the book. With the current implementation where subsequent immediate casts are faster he could keep the book held in front of him and keep pulling more out.

- If possible, sync the shadow inventory between shards.

- If possible, fix the graphics with the minions. You can see strange outlines of his facial features.

- Have Maxwell know T1 magic by default like a parallel to Wickerbottom. I think it would be a fun lore perk, but not very powerful.

- Give him some more downside(s). I think downsides are just as fun as upsides (if not more fun), and Maxwell always struck me as someone who was supposed to be a bit harder. Wickerbottom's rework brought one of the most balanced downsides in the game with her spawning shadows when reading at low sanity, and with how Maxwell is now so good at literally everything except moving and hammering it would make sense for him to get something.

- Make me able to look at general discussions again. Ever since the forums came back online I get this error whenever I try to view general discussions while logged in

I'll edit this post if I think of anything else. Thanks for reading.

Addendum:

- Maybe increase the range servants will run to deliver you items. I'm not imagining them running across the entire map but you have to be nearly right next to them right now.

- Make the prison spell cost 30 sanity. I think the spell is worth at least 50 sanity, but Maxwell is likely to have less sanity than Wickerbottom because he fragments his mind so I feel a cost of 30 is better. It also would differentiate it even more from the snare, making the snare something you either use before combat or because it's cheaper, and the prison something you use in the middle of combat at a higher cost.

- Allow crafting using items inside the hat.

- Make Maxwell stop talking so much. He talks so much with the change where changing equipment makes him speak. 

most important update here would be you seeing general discussion forums
I definitely agree with removing fear of shadows. The rest I don't mind if those are implemented or not. I don't see any that would make him too OP.