ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Power is a resource that represents an expenditure from a power battery that constantly renews energy. It has a maximum pool that is determined by willpower (maybe?), and a regeneration rate that is positive, possibly incrementable by various talents or ability stats.

For each talent that uses power that is on cooldown, this regeneration rate is reduced by 1, even turning into a drain if too many talents are on cooldown. Talents don't normally cost power to use, but some talents that are sustained or have a timed effect may cost power to sustain, reducing power regeneration by some integer value.

If power ever reaches at or below 0, all effects that are using power are canceled, and such effects cannot be used. If power regeneration is still negetive, then only some talents will have their cooldowns reduced, but the cooldown reduction will iterate through all talents as power becomes available. The number of talents that will have their cooldowns reduced is equal to power regeneration assuming no cooldowns.

Any effect that prevents cooldowns from recharging, such as stunning, sets the regeneration of power to 0 for the duration of the effect and prevents cooldowns from being recharged. Be careful, as effects that use power will still run.

Could this be a good idea for another class?

It sounds interesting and a bit sci-fi to me. Could really fit something for the community module or maybe a super hero module if someone ever does one.

Thematically I can't think of any resource currently in Tome that would run like this but with some modifications it might suit Steam-Tech pretty well.

To many steam powers on cooldown could not only drain your steam tank but also your steam tanks ability to make more steam for instance.

It could work if you spun it as a sort of "Good" version of Vim. Vim steals life force from others, and converts it into effects, "Power"(or any name, really) uses energy directly from the user, sapping their life-force. The energy of the user replenishes naturally over time, similar to stamina, but over-using it can have negative effects on the user's body.

Varil wrote:It could work if you spun it as a sort of "Good" version of Vim. Vim steals life force from others, and converts it into effects, "Power"(or any name, really) uses energy directly from the user, sapping their life-force. The energy of the user replenishes naturally over time, similar to stamina, but over-using it can have negative effects on the user's body.

I was thinking of a more mechanical-like effect but I like that idea. Perhaps instead of only allowing some talents to cool down, all talents would cool down, but when you don't have enough power, it drains X hp per power point needed and it temporarily reduces your maximum by the same amount. When your talents have cooled down, power will be spent to "heal" this hitpoint loss.

I think it would be tough to develop for ToME, but you could design a whole roguelike around "engineering" your build (or equipment, or whatever). Positive/Negative already work a little like this.

Maybe a possessor Psionic would work well with this sort of resource management. Psi is already one of the most class-dependent resources on function.

steamtech is coming somedays

Why not just have a class based on sustained talents. Power could just be a fixed resource. For example, start with 100 power and activate Fire Shield for 20 power, bringing you to 80 remaining power, etc. That would allow you to create a configurable set up of different powers within the current system.

If you wanted activated talents, they would have to be free or cost something else like life or harmful temp effects. They could then be powered up with sustains. For example:

Talent tree: Fire Powa!
Talent 1: Blast for 20 damage (activated, free)
Talent 2: Add stuns to your blasts (sustained, 30 power)
Talent 3: Increase range of your blasts (sustained, 10 power)
Etc.