The goal of this proposal is to help distinguish the Rogue class from just another fighter class and to enhance enjoyablity of Tome(net) while not losing game balance or playability.
The first thing I think of when I think of the concept of rogues in general are movies involving safecrackers, Jesse James, social manipulators, secret agents, super-villains, hackers, etc...
I would love to play something along these lines in Tome(net), conceptually based on obfuscation, misdirection, high jinks, and all the other tom-foolery that surrounds vagabonds, scoundrels and rogues in general.
It seems curious that the rogues would have a critical-hits ability. This skill and knowledge seems to be misplaced for Rogues and closer tied to the domain of Martial Arts than any general roguishness. The Martial Artist would clearly study critical-hit spots in order to do massive damage with his bare hands, and would likely use this same knowledge in the implementation of small weaponry to do extra damage to a foe. The rogue should not be a prime fighter class. Though martial prowess should not be prohibited to him, there is no justifiable reason that he should be doing more damage than other fighter classes. The rogue’s power comes from subtle manipulations of his target victims, whether they are physical, mental, or sociopolitical in nature, allowing him to strike when he is best prepared (and optimally when his target is not).
So, in order to fully distinguish the Rogue class as a non-fighter class while trying to maintain game balance and playability, I hereby propose the following:
1) Remove the Critical-Strikes skill from the game altogether and merge the Critical-Hits functions for use with small weapons into the Martial Arts skill, as Martial Artists are more likely to study pressure points, strike points, etc. This shouldn’t be too terrible a blow to game balance as a Martial Artist can only fight with a weapon or bare hands, never both at the same time.
2) Create a new illusionary effects (more magic!!!) school based in the concept of fooling other players and monsters into complying with your wishes and a new related Skill “Trickery” to spend skill points on (details below).
3) Enable and finish development of the steal from monsters code. (The comment in the source is a poor excuse for not having it. Just use a flag for each unique like you do to prevent repeat DROP_GOOD’s. Or limit successful thefts with a temporary integer for the monster for number of items stolen and only drop the items he should have left on his person upon death.)
4) Change the backstabbing skill to work with attacks against foes with the friendly flag toggled on. (This would work hand-in-hand with an effect or two in the proposed school detailed below.)
5) Finish the pet code (this is kind of optional, but would make the game *MUCH* more interesting).
6) Get rid of Divination and Conveyance schools for Rogues, as the Roguish effects are included in the new proposed school or can be cross-schooled easily with the new Trickery school.
That being said, now on with the fun stuff!
Any values are just suggestions and should be heavily considered and tweaked for game balance. Duration of effects should be based on the level of “Trickery” skill.
Some of these effects could safely be used with magical projection, allowing their benefits to be bestowed upon others (so that Rogues have some benefit to society and aren’t all hunted down and killed on sight).
I think it is appropriate to base the success of these new spells upon the Rogue’s CHR stat, much as INT and WIS determine various success rates in Istar and Priest spell schools.
The proposed “Trickery” skill magic school allows access to the following spells/effects:
Cross-school spells: (making them multi-school is safer than giving them the entire school I think).
Divination: Sense Hidden (Detecting traps and noticing things creeping in the shadows.)
Divination: Vision (Getting maps of a target is often essential to the planning of a good heist.)
Temporal: Magelock (Who better knows security systems then those who foil them, eh?)
Conveyance: Disarm (probably not needed if the Rogue has good Disarming skill, but here none the less)
Conveyance: Recall (Always leave yourself somewhere to run to. “Abort! Mission impossible!”)
Conveyance: Probability Travel (break into a bank or get out of out of jail free card!)
Meta: Project Spells (for disguising other criminals in your gang!)
New spells for “Trickery” school:
Copy Cat – Rogues are infamous for their fortes as spies, thieves, assassins, and frauds through misrepresentation and obfuscation of their true intentions. This effect would be the mainstay of roguish ability. It is a variant of the Mimic ability. There are major distinctions which make it something altogether different from Mimicry though. Foremost, the player does not gain any kind of mechanical bonus from shifting forms. This false representation as something he is not is completely an illusion. You don’t get extra attacks, spell casting bonuses, speed, huge HP or SP gains, or any other “stat” changes at all. You only appear different aesthetically (changing your character/color on the screen and your title and class descriptions where they appear in the interface). The potential for this effect’s uses are: 1) fooling other players into thinking you are not a Rogue, 2) fooling monsters into thinking you are not a player (see “Sly Tongue” below). The other distinction from Mimicry is that this effect is only active for a specific duration, forcing the character to shift back to his normal Rogue form after a number of game turns based upon his “Trickery” skill level. This duration can be shortened after the initial casting by effects perpetrated upon the Rogue, such as changes in his state of mind (confusion, sanity, hallucination, etc), or his physical state (receiving large amounts of damage, getting too hungry, etc), as these afflictions weaken his resolve and concentration, causing the illusion to falter.
Monster forms must be learned through contact with them (by minimum number of kills), and player class forms are learned through contact with other player classes (by minimum number of successful p.v.p. thefts from the class). Combined with a minimum level requirement in “Trickery” for forms (as in Mimicry), eventually all of the player and monster classes could (theoretically) be learned.
*projectable*
Street Value – This is a Rogue version of item identification for items in your inventory, basically the equivalent of a black market appraisal. It differs from the standard Identify in that as the spell level increases, the effects progressively get better. I think it should start at level 8 of “Trickery” (the same level as the ID spell in Divination).
Here’s a suggested breakdown of what I have in mind (these are Trickery levels, not spell levels):
Level 8 – one simple pseudo-id function call
Level 11 – two simple pseudo-id function calls
Level 14 – one better pseudo-id function call, one simple pseudo-id function call
Level 17 – one better pseudo-id function call, two simple pseudo-id function calls
Level 20 – two better pseudo-id function calls
Level 23 – one targeted Identify spell, one simple pseudo-id function call
Level 26 – one targeted Identify spell, two simple pseudo-id function calls
Level 29 – one targeted Identify spell, one better pseudo-id function call, one simple pseudo-id function call
Level 32 – one targeted Identify spell, one better pseudo-id function call, two simple pseudo-id function calls
Level 35 – one targeted Identify spell, two better pseudo-id function calls
Level 38 – one targeted *Identify* spell, one simple pseudo-id function call
Level 41 – one targeted *Identify* spell, one better pseudo-id function call
Level 44 – one targeted *Identify* spell, two better pseudo-id function calls
Level 47 – one targeted *Identify* spell, three better pseudo-id function calls
Level 50 – one targeted *Identify* spell, one Identify Everything scroll function call
Hide in Shadows – Stalking dark alleys and dimly lit halls for prey, Rogues are often found in the squalors of society. This effect would give a temporary boost to the Rogue’s Stealth level for a number of game turns based on his Trickery skill level, and at higher levels would grant temporary invisibility as well. *projectable*
Sheep’s Clothing – The Rogue’s ability to fool and manipulate others is highly dependant on his skill of social backstabbing. Appearing as a friend to your enemy is a great asset in the arts of love and war. This spell is where most of the power of the Rogue truly lies. This spell fools monsters into thinking you are one of them, and (at higher levels) other players into thinking you are his or her friend. In game mechanic terms this toggles the friendly flag for monsters for a specific duration, and at higher levels has the potential to make other players un-hostile you (provided the target doesn’t resist the effects).
The spell is a radius effect centered on the player which starts at radius 1 and gradually increases to include all hostiles which can see you by skill level 50.
Many factors should combine into the casting of this spell. Modifiers for success should include the Rogue’s CHR vs. the target’s WIS (or monster level + SMART flag bonus), the Rogue’s vs. the target’s unawareness (see p.v.p. stealing code for example), the players Trickery skill level, the current form of the Rogue (bonus for being the same form as target using Copy Cat), the ability of the monster to perceive and comprehend (mindless monsters should be immune), etc.
SMART monsters are particularly aware of social concerns and should have the discernment to perceive your larcenous attempt and inform other SMARTs about you (SMART implies the ability to communicate), thus when one SMART monster under the effect of Sheep’s Clothing has the effect broken for him, all other SMART monsters in the area (radius determined by monster level) also have the effect broken.
The effects of this spell should end (and friendlies revert back to their formally hostile selves) when one of two things happen:
1) the Rogue attacks a friendly (using Backstabbing bonus if applicable), breaking the effect for the monster and those around him. This is a radius effect which un-friendlies friendly monsters and hastes hostile monsters centered on the monster being attacked, The radius should be fairly large at low Trickery skill levels and gradually reduced to a radius of 0 at skill level 50.)
2) the duration of the effect ends.
Friendly monsters currently would do nothing in particular. When the pet code is implemented they would actually attack other hostiles, doing some of the dirty work for you, this is very Roguish in a social political light, turning one friend against another and fits very well with the theme. It may seem a bit extreme, but this could be done with hostile players as well, making them hostile each other randomly. (Imagine a posse surrounding a bank robber in a gorge in the wild west, all of them with their guns ablazing. Now imagine the silly thief in the middle bouncing about so they end up shooting each other!
)Sly Tongue – Rogues often get away with perpetrating frauds due to their sharp wit and fast tongue, preying on the empathies of others and convincing persons that what would do them harm would instead be beneficial. This spell can effect the unawareness of the target and can help in casting Sheep’s Clothing above. This spell should effect the abilities of it’s target, starting as a single target and working up through a ball effect to a radius centered on the Rogue. The effects are cumulative as the skill level increases:
1) Sleeping monsters wake up. As this is a linguistic effect, you have to be heard to use it.
2) At low levels it confuses monsters with normal chances to resist. “You seem more dissuading.” (as Confuse Monster).
3) At mid levels it scares monsters with normal chances to resist. “You seem more intimidating.” (as Scare Monster).
4) At high levels it temporarily boosts the Rogue’s CHR. “You seem more convincing.”
Having worked as a professional game designer I find the Angband system to be a completely whacked and kludged together hodge-podge of various other gaming systems, it reminds me of good old AD&D in a lot of ways. That being said, this is the best I could come up with within the current framework to make this class distinct from the rest. I hope it gets implemented as it should generate more intense player interactions and might actually stimulate some role-play. Thieves guild anyone?
-Potter
