ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Reqs: 50 Cunning, level 30, have killed Celia
Desc: You have mastered the curse of the mausoleum in Last Hope. You gain access to the Cursed/Cursed Aura tree (at 1.00 mastery or +.20 mastery) and 5 levels in Defiling Touch.

I mostly came up with this because I noticed Defiling Touch has specific extra powers available that require over 5 points in it. As far as I'm aware, that's the only skill with specifically defined upgrades that are unavailable in the course of a normal campaign.

So, this prodigy is for two groups of people: Afflicted characters who want to master their Cursed Aura, getting both extra cursed items and reduced penalties (by increasing Defiling Touch to TL 10); and other characters who have some spare generic points and want the extra curse benefits, although they'll not be able to truly master it to the extent that Afflicted characters can. Remember how it used to be that anyone could get cursed by opening the wrong coffin in the mausoleum? This also seeks to restore that without "trapping" characters into being cursed.

P.S. I don't know if Defiling Touch uses effective talent level or raw talent level. If it's ETL then only 4 extra points would be needed to let Afflicted characters fully master it. In that case the Defiling Touch could be reduced to 4 to reduce the overall power of the prodigy, or if the power level above isn't too high then a single point could be added to Dark Gifts which also mentions post-TL 5 effects.

This is an excellent idea. To make room for it, Elemental Surge and Endless Woes can be merged or Fast as Lightning can be removed since almost no one ever gets those prodigies.

Like this idea.

However, if you give bonus talent levels, don't also give +0.2 mastery. If you did that, then with 5/5 base investment you'd end up with talent level 12 which is just silly.

Suggest that this follow the model of Tricks of the Trade and grant a class skill unlock (and/or mastery boost) as well, perhaps the Fears tree which is available to both Afflicted.

Part of the suggestion to add +.2 mastery assumed that Defiling Touch used raw instead of effective talent level. I just checked, and it does in fact use effective so that was made under a flawed assumption.

Simple solution is to only give 4 levels of Defiling Touch. Cap out at 10.8, enough to get all the benefits, and you'd also get a "6th" point in Dark Gifts to gain a little more curse power, and if you were using Ruined Earth/Cursed Sentry they'd get a little boost too.

Oh, and I don't feel any prodigies need to be removed. Dunno about everyone else but on my screen there's room for a lot of new prodigies before we start cramping for screen real estate.

Regardless of a new prodigy, Elemental Surge and Endless woes should probably be merged. Even if they're merged, they'd still be pretty bad for a prodigy. This would help keep the symmetry of 8 prodigies for each stat.

I expect the screen would just add a scroll bar.

This seems too focused for a prodigy though. Making a prodigy that only applies to one talent is icky (looking at you Crafty Hands) and granting talent points can be fairly unbalanced *couLegacyoftheNalorengh*.

A mastery boost on/granting of Cursed Aura is fine, but it needs another benefit and given the flavour, an extra downside.

I actually like how Legacy of the Naloren works, it's my favorite "fun" prodigy. It's not the best prodigy for melee build (Flexible Combat is still better), but it's still pretty cool if you want to hit hard and it has other nice flavor bonuses. I suggest giving a 0.4 boost rather than 0.2 if you don't get the bonus points in Defiling Touch to make it better than just spending a category point. For other benefits, it could give you a chance to apply random Gloom or Fear effects to enemies you damage. For a drawback, it could lower your mental save by about 20 or lower all your resistances by 5%.

HousePet wrote:This seems too focused for a prodigy though. Making a prodigy that only applies to one talent is icky (looking at you Crafty Hands) and granting talent points can be fairly unbalanced *couLegacyoftheNalorengh*.

I feel like this is the Cursed version of Tricks of the Trade, and should be balanced as such. It's useful to a minority of characters, but that's equally true for Tricks of the Trade and Steamroller, so it's not really a problem IMHO.

Tricks of the Trade is good because it boosts/grants two categories and has an extra bonus effect. Which is what I'm suggesting is better than giving talent points to a specific talent.

Useful to a minority is fine, useful to only a single talent is bleh.

(Steamroller should work with Blindside/Shadow Step/etc )

Edit: Extra brainstorming.
How about the Corruption/Curses category?

Also thinking that killing Celia is a bit of an easy/dull prodigy unlock. Kill Celia and the Rak'shor Cultist? (in the Shadow Crypt)
If Doomed also got the Cursed extra dungeon, it could be having the Book and either killing Celia or the Rak'shor Cultist.
Ooo or it could involve the Ancient Elven Ruins in some way!

HousePet wrote:Also thinking that killing Celia is a bit of an easy/dull prodigy unlock. Kill Celia and the Rak'shor Cultist? (in the Shadow Crypt)

I don't see how getting to level 30, having 50 cun and killing Celia (new prodigy) is any easier than just getting to level 30 and having 50 st, which are required for one of the (quite possibly the most effective melee character) prodigy that is Flexible Combat. Also Rak'shor summoned player copy can be quite deadly for some classes to the extent that the players of those classes don't even want to enter the last level (hello Rogue and AB) so I don't like using that as a requirement.

Ancient Elven Ruins could definitely work, however, and is on the right level range too (my characters usually enter it near level 30).

HousePet wrote:Also thinking that killing Celia is a bit of an easy/dull prodigy unlock. Kill Celia and the Rak'shor Cultist? (in the Shadow Crypt)
If Doomed also got the Cursed extra dungeon, it could be having the Book and either killing Celia or the Rak'shor Cultist.
Ooo or it could involve the Ancient Elven Ruins in some way!

Rak'Shor Cultist is impossible on Nightmare and harder for many classes without gimmicks like unequipping your weapon. Celia is actually reasonably difficult since many players put off graveyard because of its ridiculous coffin enemies. I personally never do it before returning from the east and often skip it completely. Elven Ruins isn't as annoying as the Rak'Shor Cultist but killing Celia is a fine requirement by itself.

Also, since this prodigy is meant to be usable on any class, class specific stuff from Tranquil Meadow won't work as prerequisites.

Oops, that was meant to be (the Book, kill Celia, kill the Rak'shor Cultist) Pick two to qualify.

But something in the Elven Ruins would be much better. Its got Ancient in the name.

HousePet wrote:But something in the Elven Ruins would be much better.

Agreed. Currently, I feel AER are kind of...well, apart from the rest of the game. I mean, there is the link of former Shaloren roalty practising necromancy and all that but AER are not part of any quest, they don't give you any special skills and really, are not required to enter at all. Optional zones are fine, of course, but AER would still be optional even after this, unless you want this certain prodigy.

Celia is already part of a quest. Besides, curses and mummies are a very well known combination -they even have their own wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_pharaohs

I included killing Celia as a requirement for flavor not difficulty. Some of the existing requirements will be done well before you hit level 30 and some don't have requirements other than level 30 and 50 of x stat. Not every prodigy has to have a task you need to strain to accomplish.

Although the AER would also be acceptable. Killed 30 mummies or killed Mummy King (whatever his name is) or something along those lines. I'd like to do "have 5 mummy wrappings" because I secretly love those things but if a player didn't plan his/her prodigies he/she could lock themself out by transmogging all the wrappings.