New Class Idea: Plague Bearer

[HousePet]

Gnaw is my suggestion for the rats.
Sure its more disease, but it fits really well.

[The Revanchist]

It would have made my first disease-death much more bearable... I think it is also a thematic match. Both of which are good/great.

As for Blighted Summoning affecting the Plague Rats... What if they were given a decent bonus to all blight damage, and disease chance, instead of a definite/activable ability?

EDIT: Giving the rats (and you?) Swallow, or a variant thereof, would be a very interesting idea. Perhaps they/you get a bonus for swallowing enemies with diseases, as well?

[Doctornull]

Just as a data point, my Vector (in the Nullpack addon) has two talents which summon demons: an early (level 12) talent which summons a small pack of Wretchlings, and a later (level 22) talent which summons a single Quasit.

The Wretchlings have a very short duration, so I have Blighted Summoning grant them Virulent Diseases. You can get a LOT of diseases on a target that way, but their crowd-targeting isn't brilliant, and they don't usually have the lifespan to use it more than once.

The Quasit comes and goes. When present, he will Rush your foes, and extend your field of view into the room where he's Rushed (so he's a good corner-spotter and decoy). Blighted Summoning grants him the Epidemic talent, and he can stick around to use it twice, but that's a full-round action so it's usually only used when his Rush talent is cooling down.

So far, these don't seem imbalanced.

[overgoat]

Gnaw is my suggestion for the rats.
Sure its more disease, but it fits really well.

After looking at the options I think you are right, Gnaw does make the most thematic sense. I think in most cases the rats will act as exploding speed bumps and will die before landing an attack, but when they do hit it would be much more useful.

Do you think giving them a TL 5 Gnaw would be too powerful? It would be pretty cool to get some ghouls, but it would probably need to be play tested to see how often they actually hit.

[Sirrocco]

Note that if you give the rats gnaw on prodigy selection, you make any other form of "Plague bearer gets access to ghoul rot" a lot less awesome - and if you have it generally available from an apotheosis quest, it'll make the prodigy a lot less appealing, too. On the flip side, if you're not going to enable it in some other fashion through some form of apotheosis quest, I am all for having it show up here - it's not like a prodigy is an unreasonable place to have something that cool.

[overgoat]

Note that if you give the rats gnaw on prodigy selection, you make any other form of "Plague bearer gets access to ghoul rot" a lot less awesome - and if you have it generally available from an apotheosis quest, it'll make the prodigy a lot less appealing, too. On the flip side, if you're not going to enable it in some other fashion through some form of apotheosis quest, I am all for having it show up here - it's not like a prodigy is an unreasonable place to have something that cool.

I agree I would much rather see this come from an apotheosis quest, but if the class didn't get an apotheosis quest (following a much bigger 'if' of this class getting implemented in the first place!), then I think this would be a great fit. If it there is an apotheosis quest, then I agree it would be better to have something else in Blighted Summoning.

[overgoat]

I think this class idea has been fine tuned to a pretty good 95% solution. Thank you very much for all the recommendations and feedback everyone!

I guess now is when I send out the general plea to the Add-On makers to see if anyone has time/ability to make a Plague Bearer Add-On? Unless of course DG has a big empty spot in his schedule and needs something else to squeeze into 1.1.12 or .13

[mrrstark]

This class idea is awesome. I read it as it is now, and I wish I could play it now. Love how well you integrated the theme into the mechanics and what sounds like a really fun way to play.

Especially bringing a damage-over-time focus'd class to the game. So many of the core casters seem to me to be glass cannons.

[Sirrocco]

Side thing - would make sense to make blighted summoning give gnaw for right now, then change it if and when the class does get an apotheosis quest.