ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Psions bring the heavy mind artillery to a fight. They are the paragons of pure mental force, able to bend matter and minds to their immense will.

I was looking to create a class that acts as the caster to the mindslayer's melee. I know they can go down the focus tree and act like a caster, but I felt like that path wasn't quite the same as what I'm going for here. I wanted something that really just focuses on hard hitting abilities that deal mind and physical damage. The idea being that physical damage abilities are the psion acting upon forces in the material plane, such as Telekinesis, and mind damage being direct assaults on the mind, such as Psionics.

General Mechanics:
-Psions use psi, as they are a psionic class, and do not use any other resource naturally.
-Their most important stats are Willpower and Cunning.
-They use a telekinetically wielded gem as a focus for all their abilities, and must have one equipped for any psi based ability to be used. I want disarm to remove the gem for it's duration if that is possible to code.
-Train of Thought: This is a mechanic similar to combo points. I wanted to reward psions for using their abilities quickly in succession, and as such each time they use an offensive ability they gain a stack of train of thought. Each stack lasts 6 turns, stacks independently (so a new ability will not refresh the duration of old stacks), and gives +3% damage each. Currently one class tree (Genius) can use these to do special abilities, but they do not need to be used for anything other than a damage buff if the player chooses.


Class Trees:::
Telekinesis::open

Description:Crush and batter your foes with force of mind.

Impact-Deals X physical damage to the target, and places a stacking X% physical damage reduction debuff for X turns. Applying the debuff again refreshes the duration.

Collapse-Pick a single target in range, collapse force onto them and release for X physical damage and stunning in a burst of radius 1.

Force Nova -Deals X physical damage to targets in a radius X centered on yourself and knocks away enemies levelnum+1 spaces.

Inversion- Attempt to invert the target. Deals X physical damage and bleeds the target, dealing X bleed damage per turn for 4 turns. If the target is brought below X%, the attempt was successful, inverting and instantly killing the target.


Waves::open

Description: Create waves of force to damage and control your foes.

Wave of knives-Shoot out a wave of sharp psychic fragments, dealing X physical damage in a range levelnum+2 cone and applies a bleed dealing X damage over 5 turns.

Expulsion wave-Expels enemies with a violent force wave in a range 4 cone, dealing X physical damage and knocks enemies back levelnum+1 spaces.

Pinpoint wave-Shoots a pinpoint wave of force in a beam dealing X physical damage and has X% armor penetration.

Vortex of Waves-Create a vortex at the target point that sucks in enemies in radius X each turn for X turns.

Psionics::open

Description: Unleash your mind on weak willed foes.

Mind Wrack- Wrack the targets mind with psychic force, dealing X mind damage and lowering Willpower and Cunning by X for X turns.

Brain Scramble - Scramble the targets mind, dealing X mind damage and silencing the target for X turns.

Mind Spike- Deals X mind damage to the target, but causes the target to heal 40% of the damage over 8 turns.

Mind War-Causes the enemies minds to war with themselves and each other. Causes enemies in a radius X ball to deal X mind damage to themselves and enemies in a radius of 1 each turn for X turns. //2 adjacent enemies = 2x damage, 3=2x and so on

Genius:open

Preface: These are sustains that have a certain buff depending on stacks of train of thought, you can spike sustain (same as mindslayer shields/auras) to remove buff and apply super buff. These are the finishers in a way for the psion's combo points, and as such spiking the sustain will remove all stacks of train of thought. I didn't want them to be straight attacks, but rather a way to express the Psion's mastery over their own abilities. Trainstacks is the placeholder for the number value of current stacks of train of thought

EDIT: Forgot to include this, you are limited to one of these sustains at once. The spiking them places a cooldown on all of them. So you basically have to choose one at a time. But I think the plan is to have the CD after spiking one be longer for the one you spiked, to encourage using more than just one.

Clarity-Gives each ability an X*trainstacks% decreased psi cost
Clarity spike-Restore X*trainstacks Psi.

Insight-Gives X*trainstacks % mind and physical damage penetration.
Insight spike-Gain X*trainstacks% mind and physical damage penetration for X turns.

Understanding- Gain an X*trainstacks% increased chance to crit with mindpower based abilities.
Understanding spike-The next offensive ability you use will have an X*trainstacks% increased crit multiplyer, and will crit automatically.

Inspiration-every ability has an X*trainstacks% chance to bring an on cooldown ability X*trainstacks turns closer to being off cooldown.
Inspiration spike-Bring all abilities on cooldown X*trainstacks turns closer to being off cd


Psi Mastery::level 10 unlock

Description: Pure displays of mental power

Mind blast-Blasts an area with mental cacophony deals X mind damage in a radius 1 ball and stuns for x turns.

Mind over Mind and Matter-Dissolves the targets mind and matter, dealing X mind and physical damage.

Overload-Deals X mind damage in a radius 1 ball, and dazing the targets for X turns.

Overwrite-Dominates the target, charming them for X turns.//same as yeek ability without killing the target


grip::level 20 unlock //same as mindslayer tree


Generic Trees:::

Survival::open
Voracity::open

Defensive Matrix::open

Description: Manipulate force around you to your advantage.

Deflection-Sets out a psionic matrix around you, letting you sense and control the forces near your body.Gives a passive X bonus to defense. Activate to give a X% chance to evade abilities completely for X turns.

Redirection-Learn to redirect the force deflected: when an attack misses you, you gain an X% bonus to your next offensive abilities damage

Application-Learn to apply the force deflected: when an attack misses you, you have an X% chance to gain one stack of train of thought, and add 1 turn to current stacks duration.

Automation-Learn to automate the force deflected: when an attack misses you, gives an X% chance to cause the next offensive ability to be instant and does not trigger cooldown.

Mental Aptitude::open

Description:Expand your mental prowess.

Psychoport- same as torques with possible extras

Mindcage- Passive. Increases your mental saves by X. Also grants X% fear/charm/confusion immunity.

Mind over matter-Passive. Adds a bonus to physical saves equal to X% of your mindpower.

Mental Sanctuary-Retreat into your mind while protecting your body.Dazes yourself and makes you invulnerable for X turns, restoring X health and X psi per turn.


Subconcious::level 0 unlock

Description: Act upon the subconscious minds of your foes.

ESP-Sense foes around you for x range, does not require line of sight.

Implant fear-implant fear in a radius 1 ball, giving enemies a X% chance to fumble their abilities. Does not require line of sight.

Implant loathing-implant loathing in a radius 1 ball, informing enemies of your presence and giving enemies a X% chance to run at you instead of acting, if they are in melee range,they attack you with +X% increased damage.Does not require line of sight.

Implant insanity-implant insanity in a radius 1 ball, causing enemies to have a X% chance to randomly become feared, charmed, slept, or confused. Does not require line of sight.

Psy Manipulation::level 10 unlock

Description: Advanced manipulations of psychic power.

Refraction:Absorb the next X instances of damage. //identical to bone armor, but psi costed

Spill: Causes X% of the damage dealt to a target to splash onto nearby targets.

Pierce:Passive. Pierce X% of a targets shield when dealing damage to a shielded target.

Psionic trap:Place a trap that will trigger when an enemy walks over it, dealing X mind and physical damage and slows the affected targets global speed by X% for X turns.



Afterwords:

If anyone has any suggestions, ideas, criticisms, etc, please do not hesitate to tell me. I plan on figuring out lua/t-engine over the next few days and am going to start working on adding this class as an addon, and I would like this class to be the best it can be.

A couple of thoughts.

- The grip tree as is doesn't work for these guys as well. For one thing, as a caster, the final ability is nigh-useless until level 5. Also, can they use mindstars instead of gems for their TK focus?

- the way you're planning to run Train of Thought is interesting - but it will cause massive spamming of the buff/debuff stack that will probably cause a UI problem.

- I'd suggest that genius sustains all spike when one spikes. That way, you don't find yourself in the position where you're sustaining two or more of them, and you want to spike one for the temporary burst, but are frustrated by not wanting to steal the Train of Thought bonuses from the others - and it should lead to a somewhat different feel than the mindslayer, who is always trying to figure out *what* to spike.

Just to avoid problems in the future I suggest you take a look here http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=3 ... 89&start=0

For instance I beat you to the name Clarity

Sirrocco wrote:A couple of thoughts.

- The grip tree as is doesn't work for these guys as well. For one thing, as a caster, the final ability is nigh-useless until level 5. Also, can they use mindstars instead of gems for their TK focus?

Yeah, I'm not entirely happy with using it either. I'll think of something along a psychic hands tree.

- the way you're planning to run Train of Thought is interesting - but it will cause massive spamming of the buff/debuff stack that will probably cause a UI problem.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of that. I have a feeling a lot more of the abilities will change due to feasibility, my hope is to copy what I can from existing abilities and go from there. It might end up changing to pretty much be a carbon copy of the brawler system, for just the combo point mechanics, not the abilities.

- I'd suggest that genius sustains all spike when one spikes. That way, you don't find yourself in the position where you're sustaining two or more of them, and you want to spike one for the temporary burst, but are frustrated by not wanting to steal the Train of Thought bonuses from the others - and it should lead to a somewhat different feel than the mindslayer, who is always trying to figure out *what* to spike.

You actually reminded me about something I lost when moving from a .txt file to the forums! Thanks! I made an edit to the OP about the Genius tree. I want only one of them to be active at once, so that you can't overlap sustains. I want them to be pretty strong since you'll be giving up a bit of damage to get the spike bonus, and I want it to feel worthwhile to do so. I know that's a bit contradictory to what you suggested, but I kind of liked the mechanic where the mindslayer has to make a choice what to spike, and I wanted to maintain that here.

Thanks very much for the feedback. I appreciate it.

edge2054 wrote:Just to avoid problems in the future I suggest you take a look here http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=3 ... 89&start=0

For instance I beat you to the name Clarity

I'm assuming there's going to be an issue with unique names while coding? I'll make sure to avoid any duplicates, is there any other issues I should look out for? Thanks very much.

Yeah, the talent name is the default ID for a talent.

So as far the game is concerned a chronomancy spell named clarity and a psionic one named clarity would be like two separate entities trying to occupy the same space. The engine will throw an error if you try it.

You can get around this by using a short_name.

So you could do short_name = "ADD_ON_CLARITY" or whatever.

Also you can't have a talent name with odd characters in it. Again use a short name to get around this.

So a talent you want to call Dodgey-Spell would need to be name = "Dodgey-Spell" short-name = "DODGEY_SPELL"

For the genius powers... would you be able to have one spiked and another sustained at once, or would they all be grayed if one was spiked?

Actually, it might be interesting if they had a reasonably long cooldown and no-sustain-while-spiked but an instant activation speed. That way, in a major fight, you might wind up using two or three of them in succession, each one consuming the Train of Thought points that you picked up while its predecessor was running. It would be one way to have a "Tree full of mutually exclusive sustains" and still have a reason to invest heavily in more than one of them.

Also, and this is general advice for anyone learning T-Engine.

Control + S to save the game and then control+alt+shift+r will reload the last save. You can test out small changes very quickly this way.