New Class Idea: Chromaticist

[The Revanchist]

Either way, I'll definitely try to remove that red bar. It's had it too good for too long...

I'll be designing the next trees to with regards to the changes listed above. They were, I think, very sound ideas.

[The Revanchist]

I'll, as promised, be adding some more trees to this, flesh it out more... All the stuff I should have probably had done already.

Chroma/Offense - I'll need a better title for this, but it works for now. Sort of.

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Chromatic Bolt
Magic 12
Level 0
Activated
Sends out an orb of color at the target enemy, dealing damage based on your highest saturation.
The orb becomes a wave of radius something at Talent Level 3.

Chromatic Glob
Magic 20
Level 4
Activated
Shoots a ball of a small radius at a tile. The area is saturated with your highest saturation for x turns. Duration, range and size increase with talent level.

Chromatic Blink
Magic 28
Level 8
Activated
You project energy behind you, saturating the ground and pushing you forward. If you hit an enemy, attack with weapon for ~120 to 150% damage.
If Ichor is known, you can instead appear instantly at the target location, and will still hit 1 nearby enemy.
Range increases with Talent Level.

Chromatic Discharge
Magic 36
Level 12
Sustained
Project a number of bolts of chroma at nearby enemies. Uses your highest saturation.
Number of bolts and range increase with Talent Level.

I'll admit, I couldn't think of a name for that last one.

Other than the names being... Iffy... That is the (current) primary offensive tree. Changes can be made, many more trees will be added, and this is all, more or less, a "for fun" class that I'll have the pleasure of coding.

[Sirrocco]

What exactly does "saturated with your highest saturation" mean?

[The Revanchist]

What exactly does "saturated with your highest saturation" mean?

I can, in hindsight, see how that might be confusing.
Think of the attack "saturating" the ground as similar to Mucus from an Oozemancer. It applies an effect to the ground, which will cause effects I haven't outlined here.

[malboro_urchin]

I am personally in love with this idea; it's very evocative of Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series of novels.

@Sirocco, I personally don't understand how this is 'kitsch' or 'meta'. Color is a part of the universe to anyone with the appropriate type of sight, just as, if one has the proper attunement, one can alter the natural equilibrium, or channel mana to alter his or her environment. I've always viewed Maj'Eyal as a haven for a most diverse range of power sources to coexist (though not necessarily peacefully by any means!). In my opinion, the chromaticist fits in with the rest of the world of Maj'Eyal just fine.

[The Revanchist]

A third category tree, for those interested.


Chroma/Light Bending - this is aimed as a bit of a "utility" tree.

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Distort Light
Magic 12
Available: Level 0
Distort the light around the target, temporarily cloaking you or stunning your enemy.
Duration scales with Talent Level and Spellpower.

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Shape Light
Magic 20
Available: Level 4
Sustained
Shape the chroma in an area into a physical barrier. Decreases chroma regen while active. At Talent Level 4, you are able to see through the barrier.
Durability scales with Spellpower and Mindpower.

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Chromatic Weapon
Magic 28
Availabe: Level 8
Sustained
Channel your chroma into a staff. Requires 2 free hands. At talent level 2, when you deactivate the sustain, you can launch your weapon at a target. At talent level 5, the weapon becomes two short-staffs. (Thoughts: is this possible without reaving combat? Is it too exploitable?)
Damage scales with spellpower. Accuracy scales with mindpower.
Adopting Ichor significantly reduces the sustain cost.

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Chromatic Armor
Magic 36
Available: Level 12
Sustained
Manipulating the chromatic energy around you, you shield yourself from incoming damage. A percentage of damage is diverted to your highest saturation.
Percent diverted scales with talent level.
Adopting Ichor causes a (smaller) percentage of damage to instead be lost.

Those code labels are distracting. I may go back to lists.

[malboro_urchin]

I'm a bit iffy regarding the Chromatic Weapon skill, given that there may be actual staves formed of matter that I'd rather use. If this comes up, either you're stuck with your chromatic staff that lacks the properties of that nifty randart (I think that's the term) staff you just found, or you wasted class talent points. I think the additional functionality found with launching your Chromatic staff does help to overcome this issue somewhat, but keep in mind that we're constantly finding new gear to wear. Also, what happens after throwing it? Are we left barehanded? Is our previously equipped weapon unequipped? If the chromatic staff appears in our off set, do we have to waste turns switching back and forth between our main and off sets?

Edit: What's the point of having two short staves versus one longstaff?

Somewhat related: do you have a rationale for why the class uses both spellpower and mindpower (Mag & Wil)?

[The Revanchist]

@malboro urchin: I'll have to read those. They sound pretty cool. Also, I think it was more the specifics of the idea that were "meta" or "kitsch". Things like "why is it able to use color of all things to deal damage?" Which is understandable. Magenta has never gotten me killed, after all.

I figured two shortstaves would give you a) two projectiles, and b) a net increase in damage. I didn't actually intend for the skill to be preferable to a decent artifact staff. This ability is more of an "in case you don't get one. That last point is just if youthink it's worth the investment. If it becomes an issue, I could rework it, or move it to the Level 12 spot. Then buff it to make it worth that.

If possible, after launching the staff, you would switch hands automatically, where I would advise having a weapon stored. Perhaps that artifact staff you want, but that can't kill this particularly resistant enemy?
EDIT/INSERT: The ability may simply require you to have an open off hand. And switch you instantly. But switching back ought to cancel the sustain, I think.

It uses Magic to channel chroma, same as any mage and their mana. Willpower is of secondary interest for mages to increase their mana pool, and for a Chromaturg to either marginally improve their pool(s) or to focus their power better. I haven't decided if that is unbalancing, though, so it's... Iffy.

[Sirrocco]

You're probably better having it be an "augment staff" power, rather than a "create staff" power - or perhaps a bit of both. That way, it provides you with a backup staff in case you didn't get a good one, but isn't wasted if you *did* get a good one.

The fact that Staff Bolt is available to anyone with the cash, generics, and access to angolwen cuts into the value of the "launch your staff" attack a bit

and yeah. If you wanted to make it some sort of renegade/radical splinter of the celestials who was workign with light magics and had found that they could split light into colors and do wacky weird things with the individual colors, that could potentially be pretty cool - but a class that's seriously built around that idea isn't going to be dealign fire damage because the color is red, or ice because the color is blue. The idea of swapping your blood out for the stuff also becomes weird enough that it would, at least, require a *lot* of handwaving. The current explanation seems to be "We're doing stuff with colors. Paint is color-themed. Paint is thicker than water. I bet it would be cool to have our blood turn into sort of a magic paint." That's fine for a relatively silly class, but kind of lacking for a serious submission.

Also, you'd probably want to have some sort of clash with the celestial/Light tree, and possibly the hymns, as their approach to Light and the Celestial approach to Light seem like they'd be a bit on the dissonant side. I'm not sure what the clash effects should *be*, mind, but the vim/equilibrium thing shows that it's at least possible.

[malboro_urchin]

It uses Magic to channel chroma, same as any mage and their mana. Willpower is of secondary interest for mages to increase their mana pool, and for a Chromaturg to either marginally improve their pool(s) or to focus their power better. I haven't decided if that is unbalancing, though, so it's... Iffy.

Thanks for your responses, I found them most insightful. I wholeheartedly recommend the Lightbringer series; they're well-written, and made for very enjoyable reads.

I asked about the spellpower/mindpower bit because I recall that at least one of your skills noted that it scaled with both spell and mindpower. I know that Archmages benefit from both Mag & Wil, the stats, but I believe that all of their skills scale with Spellpower alone. That's why your skills scaling with Spell & Mindpower stood out to me, is all.

[The Revanchist]

You're probably better having it be an "augment staff" power, rather than a "create staff" power - or perhaps a bit of both. That way, it provides you with a backup staff in case you didn't get a good one, but isn't wasted if you *did* get a good one.

That would be good. I figure that's for the best, actually. Having an all or nothing seems, invariably, to equate to nothing.

The fact that Staff Bolt is available to anyone with the cash, generics, and access to angolwen cuts into the value of the "launch your staff" attack a bit

Especially since this class isn't antimagic, so it is allowed. Having a less preferable base ability is... Not smart.

If you wanted to make it some sort of renegade/radical splinter of the celestials who was working with light magics and had found that they could split light into colors and do wacky weird things with the individual colors, that could potentially be pretty cool - but a class that's seriously built around that idea isn't going to be dealing fire damage because the color is red, or ice because the color is blue. The idea of swapping your blood out for the stuff also becomes weird enough that it would, at least, require a *lot* of handwaving. The current explanation seems to be "We're doing stuff with colors. Paint is color-themed. Paint is thicker than water. I bet it would be cool to have our blood turn into sort of a magic paint." That's fine for a relatively silly class, but kind of lacking for a serious submission.

A pseudo-celestial might work. It'd make at least as much sense as a light-based Angolwen mage.
I agree as well that a... better... explanation is desirable. Maybe I'll do a lore-binge. See what there is to see.

Also, you'd probably want to have some sort of clash with the celestial/Light tree, and possibly the hymns, as their approach to Light and the Celestial approach to Light seem like they'd be a bit on the dissonant side. I'm not sure what the clash effects should *be*, mind, but the vim/equilibrium thing shows that it's at least possible.

I've heard of Equilibrium/Vim clashing, but never actually witnessed it. And I couldn't find any reference in the forum beyond "it happens." I'd be all for them being a bit... distant from their original power family, especially if the idea ends up staying on the silly side despite our efforts. Because then it could be called silly in-universe.

I asked about the spellpower/mindpower bit because I recall that at least one of your skills noted that it scaled with both spell and mindpower. I know that Archmages benefit from both Mag & Wil, the stats, but I believe that all of their skills scale with Spellpower alone. That's why your skills scaling with Spell & Mindpower stood out to me, is all.

That was intentional, and I may add more +mindpower scaling. Or remove it entirely. Balance will probably rule this decision, ultimately.

I'm glad to see there's such interest in this. I can't wait to have a working trial up and running.

EDIT: I just tried that Vim/Equilibrium. Nasty. After ~5 corrupted attacks, I had around 400 equilibrium. That would get useless fast.

[Sirrocco]

I really like the idea of having the chromaticists being generally irreverent and non-serious people - and having the standard celestial types find them infuriating because they're so disrespectful to the Light.Other ideas...

- If you're willing to get away from the "use any damage type" thing a bit, I think you could do some interesting stuff with having them map, essentially, to humors (or the Maj'Eyal equivalent). You could have interesting effects kick in if they got to be too high or too low in any one pool as compared to the others (possibly skill-dependent, possibly with another skill or two to make that particular exchange friendlier). (something like - getting too high in one color improves your global speed, at the cost of your magic power and resists. Getting comparatively low in it does the opposite. Not necessarily those, but that sort of thing.) You could then turn around and have that justify slapping debuff effects on basically every attack they have - tying into that whole "irreverent and disrespectful" bit. You then make them heavy into the saturation field effects, and suddenly you have an overall strategy for the class - micromanage your passives/sustain effects to a degree, but mostly drop damaging zones and then hit the enemies with effects that will keep them in the zones for the duration (with the associated secondary strategy of a damage over time focus, plus debuffs to help keep the enemy from hurting you too badly while you wait for enough ticks to pass).

You still go with the "almost any spell can be cast in any color" schtick - give the player three instant-use sustain powers with relatively short cooldowns (either freebies or as the first three skills in a tree). Each establishes a single color as the dominant color - spells are cast from that pool, and have secondary effects based on that color. Each unsustains if you run out of saturation of that type. When you don't have one of these sustained, it selects your highest current pool, choosing one at random if they're all the same.

not saying you have to go this route, or even that you should - but it's an interesting place to go.

[The Revanchist]

The revamped edition, taking into account your inputs.

• Chromatic Weapon
  Magic 28
  Availabe: Level 8
  Sustained
  Augment your staff with chroma, if equipped. At talent level 3, ending the sustain lets you fire a bolt of chromatic energy.
  If you have two free hands, you instead channel chroma into the shape of a staff. This requires two free hands. At talent level 2, when you deactivate the sustain, you can launch your weapon at a target. At talent level 4, the weapon becomes two short-staffs.
  Damage and Accuracy scale with Spellpower. Critical chance scales with Mindpower.
  Adopting Ichor significantly reduces the sustain cost.
  At talent level 5, both abilities gain the ability "Chromatic Surge", and launching your weapon is equivalent to launching a Chromatic Glob.

Mindpower now provides a crit-chance bonus. Not essential, but youight have a high willpower score, so mindpower buffing is icing on the cake at that point.
I split it into two abilities that will share the same "talent". One buffs your staff, if you have one that is better than the one offered, and the other gives you a not-as-powerful-as-an-artifact-of-equal-level staff.
Level 5 brings what I'm hoping are useful bonuses. If not, let me know. I had intended it to be well worth 5 talent points, because otherwise why bother.

I'll reply shortly. I have been Ninja'd.

[The Revanchist]

I really like the idea of having the chromaticists being generally irreverent and non-serious people - and having the standard celestial types find them infuriating because they're so disrespectful to the Light.Other ideas...

Me too. The Celestials don't bother to understand, and miss out on an interesting concept because of it.

If you're willing to get away from the "use any damage type" thing a bit, I think you could do some interesting stuff with having them map, essentially, to humors (or the Maj'Eyal equivalent). You could have interesting effects kick in if they got to be too high or too low in any one pool as compared to the others (possibly skill-dependent, possibly with another skill or two to make that particular exchange friendlier). (something like - getting too high in one color improves your global speed, at the cost of your magic power and resists. Getting comparatively low in it does the opposite. Not necessarily those, but that sort of thing.) You could then turn around and have that justify slapping debuff effects on basically every attack they have - tying into that whole "irreverent and disrespectful" bit. You then make them heavy into the saturation field effects, and suddenly you have an overall strategy for the class - micromanage your passives/sustain effects to a degree, but mostly drop damaging zones and then hit the enemies with effects that will keep them in the zones for the duration (with the associated secondary strategy of a damage over time focus, plus debuffs to help keep the enemy from hurting you too badly while you wait for enough ticks to pass).

That's a much better idea than the initially proposed "meet every threat with whatever happens to kill it fastest." And so much better. I'm thinking a sort of attrition-style class with this proposition, trying to empower itself while crippling the enemy. Which is interesting. Better than a "more of the same".

You still go with the "almost any spell can be cast in any color" schtick - give the player three instant-use sustain powers with relatively short cooldowns (either freebies or as the first three skills in a tree). Each establishes a single color as the dominant color - spells are cast from that pool, and have secondary effects based on that color. Each unsustains if you run out of saturation of that type. When you don't have one of these sustained, it selects your highest current pool, choosing one at random if they're all the same.

So essentially a "Cyan channeling", "Yellow channeling" and whatnot? That has been proposed here before, and I think I forgot to respond to it. But that would make the most sense. And give an interesting struggle. Do you try to focus on one tree, debilitating the others, or attempt to balance the three? It'd be a nice thing to make someone choose.

Not saying you have to go this route, or even that you should - but it's an interesting place to go.

I'm not either. But you're right, it is a good place to go. Both for practicality and distinction. Which are two things I want from this. I think I like where it's heading right now.

[malboro_urchin]

I personally liked the idea of having a wide breadth, or a diversity of effects, enough so that you can target enemy weaknesses. Sirocco, I'm also very fond of your idea of managing damage zones. This gave me a bit of an idea:

Since we're working with color, and my thoughts are heavily colored (*cue dreamforge rimshot*) by some of the ways color is manipulated in those Lightbringer novels I mentioned earlier, would it be possible to have an ability that makes your damaging zone expire, as it folds itself into a single target nuke? My vision here involves the single target nuke including the debuff that the saturation zone previously conferred, and the damage would hopefully reverse-scale with the time remaining on the saturation zone; that is, as the timer on the zone decreases, the nuke becomes more powerful. This rewards an attrition-esque playstyle, which seems to have become the goal here.

TL;DR: ability idea, turns an existing saturation zone into a single-target nuke; the less time the zone has left, the stronger the nuke