ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I know spell casters typically use magic and will stats, but I thought it would make more sense for corrupters to use magic and constitution instead. The idea is that they are using life energy, including their own to cast their spells. The physically tougher they are the more of their own life they can sacrifice in the casting of their spells.

Along the same lines, it has always bothered me a bit that VIM doesn't increase by anything except leveling. I thought maybe a compromise would be a sustainable ability that took away a fraction of the health to add to their VIM potential. Maybe something where the player sacrifice con points to increase their VIM?

Thoughts?

The truth is Corruptors don't actually use Willpower, no real benefits in doing so. They're the Berserkers of magic I guess.

Actually I think the class would be much more interesting it it used hp instead of vim as a resource, although that would require some redesigning.

Dervis wrote:Actually I think the class would be much more interesting it it used hp instead of vim as a resource, although that would require some redesigning.

Vim works pretty well, but it'd be cool to have spells cost HP if you cast them when your vim is low. So a spell might cost 10 Vim 0 HP at first, but if you only have 15 Vim, the spell instead costs 5 Vim + 5 HP.

The vim rebate would get you back 10 Vim and 0 HP, of course.

Dervis wrote:The truth is Corruptors don't actually use Willpower, no real benefits in doing so. They're the Berserkers of magic I guess.

I always seem to have to ride this point when it comes up (and it almost always does when corruptors are discussed!) but this is just flat out untrue.

Every vim user gets an extra point of vim-on-kill per 10 willpower. A moderate willpower investment (effective 30-40) makes a tremendous difference in long term/large number fights. While I'd definitely love for the governing stat of this to switch over to constitution, corrupters definitely get a very noticeable benefit from willpower. It's especially noticeable if you've played corruptors before the change to vim collection -- the extra vim-on-kill makes even more of a difference in vim staying power than the cost recoup on kill.

That said, corruptors prime stats certainly don't include willpower -- its their secondary, along with con. The corruptor's prime stats are magic and cunning, despite what the class description says. They're a very crit-focused class.

Frumple wrote:Every vim user gets an extra point of vim-on-kill per 10 willpower. A moderate willpower investment (effective 30-40) makes a tremendous difference in long term/large number fights.

While this is true in the early-mid game, all willpower is meaningless when your drain starts passing the 500 mark regularly. And even if you manage to waste that, there's always blood sacrifice.

Perhaps if Wil or Con increased your *Max* Vim too...

Part of my frustration with the inability to raise VIM is that Flame of Urh'Rok & Fearscape are available at 8 & 12 respectively, but each are a 90 VIM sustainable so these are not really usable until much later on.

overgoat wrote:Part of my frustration with the inability to raise VIM is that Flame of Urh'Rok & Fearscape are available at 8 & 12 respectively, but each are a 90 VIM sustainable so these are not really usable until much later on.

I mentioned this there, yes: http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=28577

I think a decent solution would be changing that tree to level 10+ and then providing some ways for Corruptors/Reavers to boost their max Vim

What if Vim-using skills could dip into your health? Absorb Life is an atrociously useless talent and could stand to be replaced:

Bloodcasting
Activated, lasts 3-8 turns, no Vim cost, 40 turn cooldown
While active, any excess Vim costs of your talents are directly drained from your life.

That way, it's usefulness is tied to how much health you have (and consequently, your Constitution). Many classes are designed to use Willpower as a secondary statistic (if not a primary statistic), but I think Corrupters would be a valid deviation from the norm for thematic reasons.

Maybe it could replace Blood Ritual?

good idea, done

How does this interact with sustains? Does the max HP get lowered? And if so, can you trick the game into converting a lowered max HP into an increased max Vim?

Only affects active spells

Great, just wanted to make it explicit before Shoob broke the game again.

EDIT: As your signature always reminds me!