ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Note: Edited to change Combat Training to Staff Combat, and to boost Placebo slightly.

The idea is to have a magic-using character that is focussed on tricks rather than damaging spells. The Illusionist would rely on Magic, Willpower and Cunning to survive. It confuses and distracts its opponents with various spells, and knows some staff combat skills to help finish off its enemies. Due to the nature of the class it may need a lower experience requirement to be properly playable.

The class would have several new trees which are reliant on Magic to unlock, but which depend heavily on the caster's Cunning to actually pull off effectively. Each illusion would give the enemy a test to disbelieve, based on the enemy's own Cunning and spell save, and the caster's talent level and Cunning - heavily weighed in favour of the latter. Spells that have a long duration give only one test per enemy at the start of the spell. No creature is fully immune to illusion, though some creatures would be immune to some of the more mind-based effects (such as golems and certain undead).

The Illusionist is unlocked by encountering an enemy that uses one of the illusionary talents and successfully disbelieving the effects of their spell.

The Illusionist would have access to the following talent trees:

Conveyance (1.2 - initially locked)
Divination (1.2)
Phantasm (1.3)
Cunning -> Survival (1.0 - initially locked)
Staff Combat (1.0)
Deception (1.3)
Phantasmal Force (1.3)
Hypnotism (1.3)
Mass Hallucination (1.3 - initially locked)

The four new schools would go as follows:

Deception
The school of Deception is focused on manipulating enemies to behave how you want them. It uses mostly physical illusions that work on all creatures.

1. Forget (activated, 20 Mana)
Causes enemies within a certain radius to forget about the caster's existence for a short number of turns. If the player performs an offensive action within view of the enemy, or is within melee range, they will be immediately noticed again.
Radius and duration of spell depend on talent level and magic.

2. Doppelganger (activated, 40 Mana)
Creates an illusion of yourself in a nearby square for 8 turns. Enemies may attempt to attack it instead of you. Any attack against a doppelganger illusion will cause it to disappear. At higher talent levels more doppelgangers will appear.
Duration of the spell increases with talent level and magic.

3. Illusionary Dragon (activated, 60 Mana)
Summons the illusion of a large, shadowy dragon. Enemies will prioritise attacking it over the caster. The dragon will act as if real, and take damage, dissipating when reduced to -1 HP. Attacks from the dragon (both physical and its shadow breath) will cause real damage to enemies that fail to disbelieve it. The dragon will follow the caster until the spell ends after 6 turns.
The power of the dragon and the duration of the spell increase with the caster's Magic and talent level.

4. Untouchable (sustained, 180 Mana)
Creates the illusion of invincibility on the caster. Enemies who fail to disbelieve the illusion will not attack, considering it to be futile.
This powerful spell continually drains Mana.


Phantasmal Force
This school of magic concentrates on using illusionary magic to cause direct effects on the world.

1. Dark Claw (activated, 10 Mana)
A large clawed hand reaches from the ground and grabs an enemy, crushing them for 60 physical damage and stunning them.
The damage and range of the attack increase with talent level, Magic and Cunning.
(Note that it is cannot be cast outside of the caster's line of sight, though it can be cast behind obstacles like enemies.)

2. Placebo (activated, 20 Mana)
That which you believe must be true! You regenerate 5 Health per turn for 20 turns and cure one physical status effect.
The level of healing and duration increase with talent level and Magic. At level 3 it can remove mental and magical status effects, and curses and hexes at level 5.

3. Shadow Wall (activated, 45 Mana)
You create the illusion of an impassable obstacle for 10 turns. However it takes only one unbelieving creatures to pass through it to break the illusion.
The duration of the spell increases with the talent level and Magic.

4. Winds of Phantasm (sustained, 200 Mana)
You summon forth a storm of phantasmal energies, slowing and damaging all enemies within a radius of 2.
The radius and damage of the spell increase with talent level and Magic.


Hypnotism
This class of magic creates sensory and emotional illusions in the target that rely on their individual mental state. As such it does not work on creatures without minds. Hypnotic effects can be induced on any enemy within line of sight.

1. Daze (activated, 15 Mana)
With a conjuration of scintillating lights the target is dazed for 3 turns.
The duration of the spell increases with talent level.

2. Burning Skin (activated, 30 Mana)
The target believes their skin is aflame, and suffers real burning damage to their flesh for 3 turns.
The damage and duration of the spell increase with talent level and Magic.

3. Charm (activated, 60 Mana)
You create the illusion of being a close ally of the target. They will avidly defend you against all enemies for 5 turns.
The duration of the spell increases with talent level.

4. Self-Harm (activated, 90 Mana)
You prey upon the target's deepest insecurities, warping their vision to make them even more hateful to themselves, and causing them to try harming themselves for 3 turns.
The duration of the spell increases with talent level.


Mass Hallucination
This tree of magic is focused on deceiving large groups. Indeed, the more enemies within the radius of effect of the spell, the less chance they have of disbelieving it.

1. Fits of Laughter (activated, 15 Mana)
You cause the enemies to erupt into uncontrollable fits of laughter for 4 turns. This severely reduces their attack chance and ability to perform complex functions like casting spells.
The duration of the spell increases with talent level.

2. Paranoia (activated, 40 Mana)
Whisper words of dissent amongst your foes, causing them to turn against each other. Note that enemies will still remain hostile to you as well.

3. Now You See Me... (activated, 50 Mana)
You step into nothingness right in front of your enemies' eyes, making you invisible for 6 turns. Note that the illusion is much more believable if you are not holding a light source.
The duration of the spell increases with talent level.

4. Terrifying Fright (activated, 120 Mana)
The end is nigh! Or so your enemies think - they are convinced that their lives are about to end in horrifying fright. An illusion so real... it is. They get two saves against the spell - fail one and they run off in fright, fail both and they instantly die. (Elites and higher cannot be killed by this spell.)

The difficulty here is that boss enemies could be reasonably expected to be better at saving than non-boss enemies - and some should be especially good - and the illusionist just doesn't have much that he can do to someone who consistently ignores his spells. Of course, if they *can't* consistently ignore his spells, then he's got a spell that has a decent chance of one-shotting them (or, really, anyone) - which seems like a strong incentive to play silly phase door games., and wait in safe rooms while you take however long you need to refresh Terrifying Fright.

That's not to say that I don't like the idea. I think it's a delightful idea - but I don't like the "instakill from full health" power, and I'm a bit concerned as to the possible "already difficult monsters ignore illusions better" effect.

I suppose that if you wanted to make the disbelieving an "it's just unreliable sometimes" check, where (for a crude example) it fails 20% of the time on just about everyone, except for constructs or whatever, then that might work (easier on trolls/orcs/spiders, harder on undead/wizards? ) - but I'm not sure it makes sense - and as soon as you start including level and boss/elite status in a meaningful way, you're seriously warping the comparative difficulty of bosses and the dungeons they inhabit. The illusionist doesn't have *any* non-illusion powers. Perhaps you could give him the staff fighting tree. That would help, at least. It would give him a magic-based attack that wouldn't require an illusion check. Someone based on Magic, Willpower, and Cunning (primarily magic/cunning, with some willpower to round out the mana pool, I suppose) isn't going to be able to do much of anything in melee, especially not just based on combat tree of 1.00 - not if he wants to live

I might even suggest borrowing the rogue's traps tree as an unlockable (or one of them, if there's more than one. I don't pay much attention to rogues). That's based on Cunning, right? The idea of an illusionist as someone who runs around trying to get his spells to work and falling back on trickery and the magician's trade when he has to seems right to me - especially if we include illusionary enemies early enough that the player is likely to unlock illusionists before they unlock archmages.

I see elites as being immune to Terrifying Fright - both for the sake of the player (in case of enemies using it) and the bosses. Everything else should be possible though, and bosses shouldn't be exempt from other illusions, otherwise the class can't work.

You may be right about Staff Combat instead of Weapon Combat, makes a lot more sense. Traps could work well too, and would have a nice synergy with cunning.

I also like the idea, but don't know how to address Sirrocco's concerns. It has too much promise not to brainstorm some more, so just offering my encouragement for now.

Perhaps an illusionist's fighting strategy would be to convince other enemies that your target is, in fact, you.

That way, it doesn't matter if the boss has high resists, because you're targeting your spell at his minions..

I should note that this isn't meant to be a balanced class - it would be a real challenge to play, and would require a lot of careful thought and clever strategy from the player. The lack of real damage output is quite deliberate, with the player struggling to properly kill many monsters. This is intended to be fun :) Undead areas like Tol Falas would be especially tricky. I imagine this is a class that will benefit from wands more than any other...

if they are supposed to utilize wands, why not have one of the talents let you have a chance to use a dead wand (no more charges)

That doesn't sound very illusionary :P And they're not specifically meant to use wands, it's just a viable tactic I would imagine many players would use.

I agree on giving them staff combat though

Aye, makes a lot more sense.

Some ideas for enemies that would use illusion:

Firefly Swarm
Similar to midges, but uses Daze.

Golden Cobra
Snake that uses Daze and poisons. Found in the Old Forest.

Akakaheya
Hyena-like mammal that can use Phase Door, level 3 Doppelganger and Fits of Laughter. Fairly weak in actual offense/defense. Found in Old Forest.

Grey Ooze
Ooze that both multiplies and uses level 5 Doppelganger. Found in maze and later dungeons.

Dreaming Mold
A magical mold that dreams of being something greater... wait, what's that noise? Uses Illusionary Dragon. Found in Tol Falas.

Shadow Minotaur
Found in the Maze. Uses level 1 Doppelganger, Shadow Wall, Dark Claw and Burning Skin.

Dark Imp
Weak minor demon. Uses Phase Door, Phantasmal Shield and Now You See Me. Found in Tol Falas.

Dread Inceptor
A terrifying ghost that haunts your every thought. Uses Blur Sight, Mind Disruption, Self-Harm and Now You See Me. Found in Tol Falas.

Daurudeloth
Major demon. Uses Freeze, Winds of Phantasm, Terrifying Fright and Untouchable.

Grey wrote:That doesn't sound very illusionary And they're not specifically meant to use wands, it's just a viable tactic I would imagine many players would use.

This is one of my favorite illusionist tactics. The prop!! So what if the wands dead enemies still will react to you pointing it at them and if an illusionary fireball shoots out even better.

I'd suggest adding an ability which reduces resistance of enemies by 10/20/30/40/50% to illusion magic. They're essentially like any 'mancer class in specializing in one school.

edge2054 wrote: This is one of my favorite illusionist tactics. The prop!! So what if the wands dead enemies still will react to you pointing it at them and if an illusionary fireball shoots out even better.

Now *that* would be cool - a power to use dead wands for an illusionary spell of its nature. Would only work on offensive wands, but would be very fun. Hmm, perhaps this "Alakazam!" ability would replace Placebo, with higher talent levels allowing access to higher material wands.

Also, I think "Now You See Me..." should be renamed "Vanish", and potentially be given to more monsters. Temporary invisibility is more appropriate for them than the permanent invisibility spell. Should have a longish cooldown though.

Hmm, new idea for an artifact helm:

tall black top hat "Magician's Hat"
This silk hat has more to it than meets the eyes.
+5 Cunning
+2 Magic
Can be used for one item slot
Can be used to summon rabbits or doves.

Zeno's Paradox

Sustained. Drains mana continuously.

When you activate it, the game remembers the tile on which you activated it. You can then after move normally. When the spell ends, or you stop sustaining it, you are pulled back to your original position. (An illusion of movement.)

While under this spell there's several benefits and restrictions

*You can't die. Dying simply ends the spell. (Pulling you back to the original square.)
*You can't take any harmful action against any mob. (Any damage you cause will be set to 0, and the illusion will end.)
*You can't get in a range farther than your magic score. if you do, the illusion ends.
*Mobs can't walk over your original square. (They will see you hide there) Your illusion will end, and you will be placed in an adjecent free square.
*You can't pick stuff up, or drop stuff. You can change armor, use scrolls, potions, whatever. (They will stay consumed once the illusion ends.)
*You have increased speed based on your magic stat. (Or maybe the secondary stat. Willpower?)

Magic could increase the range, and reduce the mana drain per turn, and increase the speed.
I can think of a few uses for this, mainly escaping from OSHI- situations, drawing mobs away from your real position, or lining them nicely for a beam/AoE attack.

*up thread because I really like that class idea*