ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

There's some chatter elsewhere about how positive energy works, in particular referencing Weapon/Shield of Light. One problem I see is that Positive Energy is a very dull resource - it's easily filled up, and there's very little tactic to doing so. Negative is a bit more interesting in how it plays about with Positive, but Positive alone (ie Sun Paladins) is a pretty boring resource.

So one suggestion is to make the max amount kinda mean something. Every time a talent overfills the Positive Energy bar the amount it overflows is translated into light damage (scales with Mag) which is released in a radius 1 burst around the player, *including* the player. So you get damaged (and damage enemies) when you go overboard with positive-restoring talents. If you then change Shield of Light to actually *restore* positive on-hit then Weapon and Shield would have an interesting interplay with each other. The player is forced to think more tactically about the resource than "Oh, Positive low, another Sunburst, carry on..."

Not a bad idea, but then it becomes a very number crunching resource. And could eventually make it to where [depending on what talents you have available at the time] make you unable to use certain talents without hurting yourself, especially as the Sun Paladin in particular doesn't have a whole lot of pos energy activates that drain the resource until later on.

If the damage isn't too high then it may not matter so much. Also Shield of Light could provide some light resistance to synergise with the effect.

I don't like the idea of semi-unavoidably damaging yourself, unless it's a sustain.

Actually, that's an interesting idea for a mechanic - sustains that give effects based upon how much you overfill a resource. I could see Celestials and Corrupters all making interesting use of that playstyle. Ideas for effects (someone like Grey or Edge could make these more coherent and flavorful, I'm sure):

-Damage (burst)
-Status effect (burst)
-Healing/regen (also a burst?)
-Damage-smearing style effect, except with excess resource gain (so you could over-Positive yourself, then keep from wasting it all by then using a bunch of talents that drain Positive)
-Temporary damage boost
-Temporary resist pen. boost

Perhaps combine this with the other thread, and have Weapon of Light's damage scale based on how full your positive energy meter is.