ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Before I get into how i expect the gnoll to be different and fun, I think I will start with how to jigger them into the Lore.
Being the same rough height as dwarves, but not so stocky, they are not as powerful as the other races, and that they originate from the desert in the far east they have adapted to be very secretive, cunning, stealthy, and pack oriented.
They are clannish, virtually never alone, and seem cowardly if encountered.
The orcs are one of the few races that are aware of them, but have too much difficulty tracking them down to have exterminated them.
Gnolls resemble bi-pedal hyenas, with short snouts, thick fingers, and long legs.
Now on to what actually effects game-play
Gnolls start with STR-2 DEX+2 WIL+0 CUN+4 CON-2 MAG -2, and get 10% bonus to global speed
to level about the same as Higher. They cannot equip boots do to their oddly shaped feet and legs, and helms are also not wearable.

Gnoll Racial Tree

Summon the pack - no cost, 200 turn cooldown - Summon two Gnolls (2/2/1/1/0) level(s) below you. These Gnolls will have the same skill set as a rogue, minus trapping and poison. You can only have three Pack members at one time.

Lead the Pack - Allows you to give further orders to your Pack.
Level 1 - Allows you to set behavior (tank/support/beserker etc)
Level 2 - Allows you to set leash
Level 3 - Allows you to set ability frequency
Level 4 - Allows you to change equipment on other gnolls
Level 5 - By clicking on your other gnoll's portrait you can control them directly. as long as you have line of sight you control you can maintain this indefinitely. Once line of sight is broken you have 5 turns before control is reverted.

Dominance Hierarchy - Your leadership can inspire more from your pack than slinking in the dark
At level 1 you have a 15% chance to summon a gnoll with a marauder skillset instead of a rogue skillset.
At level 2 you have a 15% chance to summon a gnoll with the skillset of a brawler.
At level 3 you have a 15% chance of summoning a Gnoll with the skillset of a fighter.
At level 4 you have a 15% of summoning a gnoll with the skillset of a berserker.
At level 5 you have a 15% chance to summon a gnoll with the skillset of an archer

Alpha Supremacy - Your pack looks up to you for a reason. With their presence you gain certain bonuses.
Level 1 - when you are in a space adjacent to another gnoll there is a chance that they will take damage for you. Chance for damage to be shunted rises with cunning and low health.
Level 2 - When you are adjacent to another gnoll all stats go up by one. this bonus ends as soon as there are no adjacent friendly gnolls.
Level 3 - When you are adjacent to another gnoll they will call warnings to you. your defense rises. bonus defense is affected by number of adjacent gnolls and cunning.
Level 4 - When you are adjacent to another gnoll all stats go up by two. this bonus ends as soon as there are no adjacent friendly gnolls.
Level 5 - When Adjacent to another gnoll your stun resistance, fear resistance, confusion resistance, and all elemental resistances are raised by 5%.

And all Gnolls are birthed with a Passive
Pack mentality - A lone gnoll is weak. when you are more than 2 spaces away from another gnoll you take extra damage, receive a -1 penalty to all stats, your defense is lowered by 5 and your resistance to fear, stun, confusion are lowered by 5%.

So that is the gnoll. What do you all think?

hamrkveldulfr wrote:So that is the gnoll. What do you all think?

Somewhat interesting. They will absolutely hate the maze and sandworm's lair, with the intensity of a thousand burning suns.

They'd also have a deep dislike for movement speed increasing items, which might be somewhat annoying. It might be interesting if one of the talents (perhaps the control one, lead the pack) granted more and more of the PC's intrinsc abilities to the packmates -- stat boosts, movement speed increases, etc. Throw in a chance for beneficial timed effects to spread to your packmates (i.e. movement infusions, etc) and I'd call that gravy.

sounds kinda cool except for the you take damage if you arent adjacent to your pack. Seems more annoying than beneficial. And would make some classes that rely on AE damage almost unplayable. Do the summons have a permanent duration? That seems a bit extreme for a racial.

The summons are permanent, and you do not take damage from your pack just being far off, just extra damage from other sources.
Gnolls are not meant to fight alone, so they should be under powered by themselves. Being that your packmates do not get the same bonuses you get and only have normal AI I think that keeps them from being overpowered. You Rarely hear that the golem is too strong, and they are not trying to use a rogue build.
I do understand a small army may be overpowered though, so toning down on yourself or your packmates may be needed

I really like the basic idea

Interestingly different.

Goblinz wrote: Summon the pack - no cost, 200 turn cooldown - Summon two Gnolls (2/2/1/1/0) level(s) below you. These Gnolls will have the same skill set as a rogue, minus trapping and poison. You can only have three Pack members at one time.

Anything above 50 turns cooldown is sorta pointless - if you can afford to wait 50 turns, you can afford to wait 200, too.

Concerning the level scaling: consider making them 50% + TL*10% your level, rounded normally. That'd make it less of a one point wonder at higher levels, while working quite well at one point while you are still low-level.

Goblinz wrote:Dominance Hierarchy - Your leadership can inspire more from your pack than slinking in the dark
At level 1 you have a 15% chance to summon a gnoll with a marauder skillset instead of a rogue skillset.

I fear the 15% chance could become very annoying. Possibly grant a surefire ability every TL, traps style? An instant duration ability that modifies the next use of Summon the Pack would be best, I think. I'd give you one of the requested type, with the extra (if it doesn't put you above three packmates) being a standard rogue. Alternatively mutually exclusive sustain would work, too.

Name 'em "Call of the <class>".

Going on, Alpha Supremacy seems a bit weakish. Also the "new stuff every TL" mechanic looks a bit complicated. How about:

When adjacent to one or more gnolls, gain:

• chance of packmate blocking hits: (CUN + % health missing) / 8 - TL
• +1 every stat per 10 levels of adjacent gnoll (max TL)
• +1 defense per gnoll adjacent per 7 points of CUN, divided by 8 - TL
• +25% stun/fear/conf resist (elemental doesn't make much sense to me)

That actually looks more complicated, but the computer will do the formulas and just show the numbers...

Sounds like a Death Yeek to me.

Only way I can see the fun outweighing the tediousness would be to put the pack member summoning on a short cooldown (but limit the total number of gnolls). I also don't care for three skills that grant a new effect at every level, it makes going 20/20 seem like a neccessity. I'd rather see more of the "Pack Mentality"-type skills Also; a passive that causes gnolls to sometimes take attacks for you. The problem with having 2 allies on a long cooldown is that they will probably spend 90% of their uptime dead. It'd be like playing an Alchemist a full game without Supercharge Golem; you'd be better off just not using him.

I also don't care for the equipment restrictions, they seem unnecessarily punishing. No Garkul's Helm? None of the fantastic melee/rogue boot egos?

My thoughts:

The basic idea of a summoning / swarm race is cool, but you need to make it waaay less complicated.

In terms of general guidelines: Players should not have to micromanage these things or care too much when they die, because worrying about keeping an NPC alive sucks. Think in terms of Alchemist golems, summoner summons, or Doomed shadows.

I don't feel it's necessary to have every single racial talent relate directly to the pack, either. Keep it simple.