Chronomancer (Class Idea: with Revisions added)

[Taxorgian]

Personally I think Rethread is an even more unbalancing thing than Extension. It's a perfect Get the Heck Out of Jail Free card; maybe there is a two turn delay before it works?

I think a direct port of Probability Travel works here as Advanced Timetravel (Perhaps renamed as "Wormhole"?)
Perhaps Tighten Timecord: Permanently losing any exp since the last level up, your HP and body condition (but not stamina or paradox) are restored to what they were at level up

[edge2054]

I agree with the assessment of Rethread. I planned on this having a really long cooldown, like Teleport:Angolwhatever. A casting delay on top of that would help too and would make sense. Altering the timeline to to that extent wouldn't be easy and it wouldn't be quick either.

Wormhole is good.

I like Tighten Timecord too. It's a really powerful heal basically but with a steep cost. Since everything needs to scale though how do we go about that part of it? Allow the player to keep a percentage of what xp they have earned maybe with it capping around 50%? Also I think this will need to be another one with a pretty long cooldown.

I'll get the tree typed up and added to the other thread.

Also Tax if you see anything that doesn't look right about the finished trees in the Infinite Traveler thread feel free to speak up. I'm more attached to effects then mechanics and have no problem looking at that stuff again if the mechanics are out of tune.

[darkgod]

Just a note about long cooldowns, it does not balance an uberpowerful ability because you just wait for it to be on before entering the boss level and then can be overpowered in the important fight.

[edge2054]

Yeah, I agree with that. Or you'll just hit 5 until it's back up.

Are void gates in the game? That might be a good effect for Wormhole instead of duplicating Probability Travel.

[edge2054]

Here's a possible build for the heal effect. Note that the scaling is not multiplied by Paradox since the XP is in effect part of the abilities cost.

Tighten Timecord
Use Mode: Activated
Paradox: 40*(1+(Paradox/100))
Range: Melee/Personal
Cooldown: 100
Description: You restore your body to a previous state but at a great cost. You’re healed completely and all physical status ailments, including but not limited to poisons and diseases, are removed. Unfortunately you lose all but (Will*TL/10)% of the experience that you’ve earned since you last leveled up.


(So at 20 Will and 1 Talent Point you keep 2% of the XP you've earned. At 80 Will and 5 Talent Points you keep 40%. The Paradox cost is pretty high too for a heal, coming in at 120 at 200 Paradox which is double the Mage's Heal spell.)

[Taxorgian]

If cooldown is as low (!) as 100 on Tighten Timecord I think there should be another cost -- for the next 50 turns all stats are reduced by 5? Or perhaps (10-TL)? Or all actions for 50 turns take twice as long as normal? Your body is reverting to a younger time and it takes 50 turns for your body to catch back up to the present.

[edge2054]

The biggest potential for abuse I see with this talent is the guy that waits to do a boss fight until right after he levels so he basically can cast it when he needs it for free and I'm not really sure how to fix that. The Paradox cost is one balancer since using the talent in the middle of a boss fight might push your Paradox up far enough that your abilities start to misbehave. I see your suggestion as another one, especially the half speed thing which would be easy enough to code I imagine. Letting a boss act twice as often as you is another good way to get killed and probably not a situation many players would want to put themselves in. Even ten turns of half speed that can be scaled down to two with talents and Will would keep the talent from being a boss killer.

Adjusting the talent and replacing the Infinite Traveler entry.

[edge2054]

Some stuff I worked on yesterday. I'm going to dig up the old D & D 2nd ed Wild Magic and Wand of Wonder tables for some anomaly ideas once I get fully woken up.

Chronomancey (Meta-Class)
Description: Few know of Chronomancy and fewer still practice it. But the ability to bend space and time with nothing more then your own Willpower is something that everyone has dreamed of. Chronomancers make that dream a reality, with one foot literally in the past and one in the future they manipulate the present at a whim and wield a power that only bows to nature’s own need to keep the balance. Indeed it’s this that they constantly struggle against more then anything else, the temporal instability they create in the natural fabric by their mortal meddling. The wake in space-time they leave behind them makes every bit of their own chronomantic abilites that much stronger, and that much harder to control. The wise Chronomancer learns to maintain the balance between their own thirst for cosmic power and the universe’s urge to flow unperturbed. For the same hole they tear to amplify their own abilities just may be the same hole that one day swallows them.

(Note: Not sure if Temporal Instability should really be described beyond that. Going into the exact mechanics for the player may end up spoilish. But, since we need mechanics for a game to work, here they are...)

Temporal Instability Formulas
Cost: *1+(TI/100)
Effect: *1+(TI/200)
Danger Increase:(TI/200)*(TI/200)*(TI/200)*2%
Failure: (TI/300)*(TI/300)*(TI/300)%
Backfire: (TI/400)*(TI/400)*(TI/400)%
Anomaly: (TI/500)*(TI/500)*(TI/500)%
Time-Space Correction: (TI-499)/50000 chance per turn.

Effect Descriptions
*note that not all Chronomancy abilities will be effected by having a high Temporal Instability. Backfire only applies to targeted abilities for instance (because I imagine it’s much easier to implement). Abilities without a Temporal Instability cost (passive abilities) are not effected by having either a high or low Temporal Instability at all and have been balanced accordingly.

Cost - Flat out Temporal Instability cost increase.
Effect - Increases the effect of most abilities with a Temporal Instability cost, including but not limited to duration and damage.
Danger Increase - Increases the character’s effective level for purposes of dungeon generation only. In other words the game thinks the character is higher level then he is and acts accordingly when it populates a dungeon level.
Failure - Ability failure rate. This affects all abilities that have a Temporal Instability cost.
Backfire - Chance that an ability that normally targets a creature instead targets the player. Abilities that deal weapon damage only apply the effect to the non-weapon damage portion of the ability, in other words the weapon damage is inflicted on the target but any additional effects apply to the player. AoE abilities and those abilities that do not target creatures are not effected.
Anomaly - Chance that an ability creates a random anomaly from the Anomaly List instead of it’s usual effect.
Time-Space Correction - Chance each turn of nature attempting to correct the temporal distortions the character has created. When a correction occurs it is chosen randomly from the Time-Space Corrections list and the character’s Temporal Instability is reduced by 40.

Anomaly List

Time Space Corrections List (Credit Taxorgian for this mechanic and all of these ideas not otherwise marked)

Danger Room: Space-Time distorts around you and (TI/100) monsters (highest level monsters are chosen first) are teleported from elsewhere in the level to your location, randomly appearing with in a radius of 10 around you (no minimum value, can appear in any of those squares even right next to the character). If Temporal Instability>=700 all means of teleportation, such as but not limited to phase door, teleport, door to the past, and wormhole, cease to function for (TI/100) turns with in the same area (radius of 10 around the character).

Black Thirst: 1d5 beneficial potions (slime mold juice would not count) vanish from your inventory. If Temporal Instability>=600 lesser healing potions and remove poison/disease are preferentially skipped. If Temporal Instability>=800 healing potions are preferentially skipped. If Temporal Instability>=1000 ego potions are always taken first, followed by full healing, and then greater healing potions. (Edited this Tax. Since these classes don’t use mana potions I removed the references to them.)

De-Equip: One non-artifact item that you are wearing will vanish, if any. (If Temporal Instability>=600 and you are only wearing artifact equipment, reroll on the list until a different correction occurs) If Temporal Instability>=700 the most valuable item will be the one taken. If Temporal Instability>=1000 any item in your inventory which is identical to the item that vanished also disappears.

Perfect Stun: You are stunned for 15 turns (no resistance check). If Temporal Instability>=700 a random monster on the level is teleported beside you as the past is re-written and an additional monster appears in a random spot with in a radius from you of 10. If Temporal Instability>=1000 two additional monsters appear, another one adjacent to you if possible and another in a random spot with in a radius from you of 10.

[darkgod]

Ohhhhhhhhh neat!

Just a note: perfect stun can be renamed to "instadeath" IMO. It is highly likely that a given monster can kill you in 15 turns of inactivity, no ?

[edge2054]

Forgot to mention... I used the term Temporal Instability instead of Paradox in that document to see how it sounded. I like it personally. Paradox still works though. Any other thoughts on that?


haha... and yeah for sure!

But it only summons a monster if your Temporal Instability is above a certain threshold. Then again if it happens in combat it's pretty much insta-death too.

[darkgod]

Paradox is shorter to writen on the player dispaly
But I kinda like temporal instability...

As for perfect stun I am not fan of purely random deaths maybe something else ? )

[edge2054]

That was exactly my thoughts on Temporal Instability and Paradox. The former would have to be shortened to Temporal, Instability, or abbreviated TI. It does sound good though and fits the effect a bit better.

Tax's concept for Perfect Stun was that nature was 'taking back' extra time the player had stolen. So a slow effect would work too. Half speed for 15 turns is still very very dangerous but not outright deadly. I'll update the doc.

Once all the ideas are hashed out do you want me to pm you the document address dg? I'm writing a lot of this stuff in google docs and word and I can copy the word files over to google easily enough.

[darkgod]

Ah yes that'd be perfect

[Taxorgian]

My revised idea would be something like
Time Snap: For Paradox div 30 turns the player does all actions at half speed (probably skip a player turn after any player action). At Paradox>=800 all stats are temporarily reduced by 10 as well.

[You all are posting FAST! ]

[darkgod]

Yeah I much prefer taht to insta-stun-of-death