Addon Idea: "Evoker"

A place to post your add ons and ideas for them

Moderator: Moderator

Post Reply
Message
Author
The Revanchist
Uruivellas
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:14 am

Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#1 Post by The Revanchist »

This idea is based partially on this idea, where, upon reading, I became enamoured with the idea. Probably played too much of the xbox version when I was younger... :)

Anyway, as this is little more than a concept at the moment, I'm going to pose a few directions this could take.

The first important distinction will be toward resources. Either it will all run off one single resource, which would be simple and boring, or many resources tailored to themes. I'm leaning toward that, but arguments can be made.

The second would be for the Evokers themselves. Will "Evoker" be a class of itself, capable of calling forth any creature they so choose, or will we venture into the themes again, with a "Nature", "Arcane", and so on?

The third is more about the called creatures. Ought they be stronger, on average, than a Summoners, though paired with much higher cooldown and cost, or typically weaker, yet easier to summon? If we run with themes, again, this is easier tailored to them.

Fourth, is also for Evokers, though in a different way than before. What they do when not calling creatures. In keeping with the roots of the idea, there was more to the game than casting creatures, with buffing your own, debuffing your enemies, and all sorts of other things to do. I pose the question, then: Do I stay true to this, allowing the Evokers alternatives to just summon, wait, summon? Also, will this be dependent on theme(s) used?

I apologize to anyone who wanted updates on any of these instead of another new idea. But I think this idea is worthwhile too. And I'll be able to use what I learn here to improve those. :)

So... You're all welcome to discuss, debate and debunk these ideas, add your own... Your input is appreciated. :D

(I've removed the poll. The five of you that voted, thank you)

The Revanchist
Uruivellas
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:14 am

Re: Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#2 Post by The Revanchist »

Themes
Alternative titles: Flavour, Tone or Archetype
A central idea for the resource, tree, or other specific portion.

Using resources for themes, a Stamina-evoked creature would most likely be natural, and fairly run of the mill. Not altogether special, but not weak by any means. Stamina regenerates naturally, and at a set pace for the Evoker, and the creatures would be made to reflect that, being sustainable and dependable, but not overly prone to more fantastic elements.

Compare that to, say, Vim as a resource. Vim has absolutely no natural regeneration, and as such, preserving an evoked creature would be important, lest the Vim-Evoker squander resources wastefully. A Vim-summon would need, then, to be durable, and strong. Flavour-wise, Vim is Life energy, and the creatures called would reflect that, being much more "fantastic" in nature, and much less amicable. One of them dying unexpectedly would be much more damaging for the Vim Evoker, of course.

Just tell me if it wasn't clear. I'll apologize in advance if I wasn't.

The theme in these cases are linked to the resource, whether determined by a (prefix)-Evoker class, or by a (prefix)-Calling tree, usable by a general class. We haven't made much progress there yet. :)

Sradac
Sher'Tul
Posts: 1081
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:18 am
Location: Angolwen

Re: Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#3 Post by Sradac »

yay! :mrgreen:

Sradac
Sher'Tul
Posts: 1081
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:18 am
Location: Angolwen

Re: Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#4 Post by Sradac »

I think a lot of it would depend on do you see this becoming a class that you play as in standard Maj'Eyal, or would it be its own Module like in my original thought?

Themes could work well either way I suppose, or it could just be one "class" but it has a huge selection of possible categories. Like the Adventurer, you get your pick of what you specialize in but obviously certain things could synergize well together, whereas other things would not and might even be detrimental to each other.

The Revanchist
Uruivellas
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:14 am

Re: Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#5 Post by The Revanchist »

Sradac wrote:I think a lot of it would depend on do you see this becoming a class that you play as in standard Maj'Eyal, or would it be its own Module like in my original thought?
I wouldn't be entirely opposed to a new module or campaign, honestly. I'm certainly considering it more than as a Maj'Eyal campaign class. I would probably allow it/them in the Arena and Infinite Dungeon, though.
Sradac wrote:Themes could work well either way I suppose, or it could just be one "class" but it has a huge selection of possible categories. Like the Adventurer, you get your pick of what you specialize in but obviously certain things could synergize well together, whereas other things would not and might even be detrimental to each other.
I think that's the most logical way. Free reign, with penalties.

EDIT: Just remembered something. You all are more than welcome to shoot ideas my way. Be it creatures, synergies, or otherwise. It'd save me some of the trouble of that portion.

The Revanchist
Uruivellas
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:14 am

Re: Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#6 Post by The Revanchist »

The following is a list of current and planned creatures summonable, organized by resource.
Later, I will probably be adding the expected abilities and field-effects, if those become things.

Please note that this is as much a place of feedback as it is a convenient place to organize my ideas. :)

Evokations
Vim-Called Creatures
The theme desired for this class was one of Power, but, obviously, I can't just have this category be the pinnacle of excellence. To balance thee creatures (required) sheer offensive capacity, the capacity to use them will suffer. High costs and cooldowns mean that is important to actually use their power. Otherwise they'll be starved and useless.

In general, Vim-evokes will be Demon-like, or have a Diseased feel.
Common abilities will include:
  • Respectable Damage and Defense.
    Predominantly Fire, Blight and Darkness damages.
Psionic-Called Creatures
This theme was actually split, for different aspects of Psionic focus. The main virtues of the Psi-calls will be their relative affordability compared to damage, fairly standard. These will typically be Thoughtforms, manifestations of the Evokers mind.

For this specific theme, they will, as I mentioned, be Thoughtforms. Beyond that, they won't be anything especially fantastic.
The Thoughtforms common traits are:
  • Average Damage.
    Rather low cost.
    Several will be instant cast, or multiple casts per turn.
    Predominantly Mind and Physical damages.
Nature-Called Creatures
These will depart the least from "traditional" summons, and be composed, obviously, of "natural" creatures. They will probably be more or less a Jack of All, at least for this aspect.

Comprised of natural creatures, they won't have all that many fantastic elements, and being more of a Summoner-strand, they won't have unrequited access to Fungi, Ooze or the like. Beasts are found here. (Not dragons, though)
Common traits will include:
  • Diverse blends of Speed, Power and Defense.
    Damages ranging from Physical, to Nature, and even some Elemental damage.
Stamina-Called Creatures
This will be the domain of the Human, or at least Humanoid and Sentient. Everything from Peasants to Knights, and perhaps even going so far as Elven, Dwarven and (dare I say?) Orc evokes.

Because this is Stamina, I'm going to assume this is the least fantastic of all. Expected damage will be appreciable, but almost universally Physical.


Nature-Called Creatures 2
Were you all in tears after hearing about no Draconic summons? I bet you were. I would be.
For that reason, here is the Draconic Evokation theme.


The Draconic creatures, as you know, are very heavily rooted in Elementals, almost as much as the foogoroth classes. Which there may also be... But enough of that! The creatures you can evoke will range from swarms of Drake hatchlings, to alarmingly powerful Greater Wyrms. The things to expect from these majestic beasts are as follows:
  • Very high costs.
    Suitably fair damage and defense for that cost.
    Elemental (fire, cold, acid, lightning, etc.) damage, with Physical as a secondary damage type.

Nightmare-Called Creatures
How many of you saw this coming?
NCCs will be a bit of a special case, in that they'll get fewer actual "summons", but, like their namesake, very frightening debuff-like evokations. Sleep in fear.


What you should expect of these are:
  • Hight costs, though not for their direct summons.
    Painful damage, but comparatively low defense.
    Predominantly Mind-based damage, with some Darkness and Temporal damage thrown in.
    Many different "special" evokation conditions, beyond point-click-summon. Early battle will be SLOW.

Mana-Called Creatures
Remember those Losgoroths from Derth? How about the Shivgoroths from Norgos? Maybe the Faeros? Now you too can control the Elementals!
I am not responsible for Element-themed carnage. That's on you.


I shouldn't even have to list it this time. I mean... really. But you can expect:
  • Elemental Damage. Lots of Elemental damage. Not all that much defense, though.
    Because of their arcane nature, Temporal, Arcane, Light and Darkness damage will also be present.
    Cheap, low defense foogoroths, and Expensive, powerful Faeros and whatever the other sentient elementals would be called. If there are any yet.

Nature-Called Creatures 3
Wow. Nature sure seems diverse. This section will be for the slimy, pustulant and oozy. Also the plant and fungus-like.

The tenets of the Oozes and their friends are as follows:
  • Comparatively low cost and difficulty moving.
    Sub-par direct attack, but dangerous talents, and decent defense.
    Many creatures can create copies of themselves, giving you time to do other things.
    Damage ranging from Acid to Nature. Probably not much physical damage, though.

Feedback-Called Creatures
Lots of Psionic aspects too. Not quite as diverse as nature, but... meh.
These creatures will, as with their resource, come from Pain. But it's probably even worse than Vim to have an abundance of.
I wonder how many of you will self-damage to power the summons?


The creatures of pain will exhibit such traits as:
  • Low cost. (So you can actually USE them)
    High damage, and in lieu of high defence, they gain strength inversely to health.
    Perhaps a "release" mechanism, directing pent-up pain on the enemies when they die.
    Mind and Physical damage.

Hate-Called Creatures
Those creatures brought forth by pure hatred. Expect them to be nasty.

The creatures cursed with Hatred will typically display:
  • Generally low cost.
    Very high damage, but just as extreme (lack) of defense on many of them.
    Stealing the strength of their enemies to fuel themselves.
    Physical, Darkness and Mind damage.

Mana-Called Creatures 2
Last time we had Elementals. Now... we have golems! Just not that one. Maybe.

Golems will feature some fairly golem-like traits. Because they're golems. These include:
  • Manageable but not minor cost.
    Good damage, as well as high defence.
    Lots of Physical damage, and some Elemental damage.

Soul-Called Creatures
These are creatures attributed to Necromancy. Forget about Vim troubles. These are ONLY fueled by the killing of your foes. That's probably as finnicky as Feedback.

Necrotic creatures will have similarities as well. Mostly for my convenience.
  • Depending on your perspective, Painfully high or absurdly low costs. This is because Souls don't regenerate, but you won't often spend more than one or two.
    Necessarily high damage and defence. Because if not, they might as well never be used.
    Common damages will include Physical, Arcane, Fire, Darkness and Cold.

Vim-Called Creatures 2
Among the suggestions given, Horrors came up, and I was appalled... that I had forgotten my favourite sort of enemy!
Focusing less on debility, these creatures will be some of the strongest... but also most expensive.
And perhaps... uncontrollable.


Horrors, as you're well aware, are horrible to fight. The things to expect are:
  • Very lethal, able to deal high damage, and take about as much.
    Very high cost, to offset their might.
    Perhaps a chance of them switching sides, turning their wrath on you.
    Damages will range from Mind, to Physical, to Blight, and Darkness.

Paradox-Called Creatures
Being an unstable resource as it is, I don't think it should be wise to focus on this tree. Backfiring and anomalies would probably make that a bad idea.

If you use Paradox creatures, you're gambling with:
  • Typically high damage, but below average defence.
    Scaling power, based on current Paradox.
    Chances to "accidentally" get unintended results, via Anomalies and Backfires.
    Damage will focus on Temporal, with some Arcane and Darkness.

Psionic-Called Creatures 2
Almost forgot about these. Oops.
Departing from Thought-forms, these are less Creatures, and more... animate weapons.


Being literally animated by the Evoker, these will exhibit typical traits of Metal.
  • Good damage, and generally high defence.
    Typically limited self-mobility. (Self being the distinction here)
    Mostly physical damage, though egos may be used...
    Unique traits for each category of weapon.

Suggestions on both Creatures, and literally anything for Positive/Negative are welcome.
Creatures will start being posted soon. Perhaps also Invocations, unless you all think the creatures are more important right now. :)
Last edited by The Revanchist on Sun Feb 02, 2014 4:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Updating information. Again.

loimprevisto
Thalore
Posts: 131
Joined: Sun Apr 21, 2013 8:27 am

Re: Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#7 Post by loimprevisto »

For paradox the obvious ones are temporal clones of the enemy, losgoroths, and telugoraths... maybe dredges if we need a filler. Should probably have good debuffs like confusion and 'fun' temporal anomalies... might need to tweak the anomalies to have a greater chance of being harmful to yourself though.

Vim 2 needs horrors!

Positive and negative are tough ones... the only thing that comes to mind is shadows for negative.

What about a telekinetic branch of psi-called creatures? Animate weapons and armor with a mix of tanky armors that do aura damage and glass-cannon weapons that are mobile and deal conduit damage...

The Revanchist
Uruivellas
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:14 am

Re: Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#8 Post by The Revanchist »

loimprevisto wrote:For paradox the obvious ones are temporal clones of the enemy, losgoroths, and telugoraths... maybe dredges if we need a filler. Should probably have good debuffs like confusion and 'fun' temporal anomalies... might need to tweak the anomalies to have a greater chance of being harmful to yourself though.
A different sort of "turn the enemy's strength against them, eh? Good idea.
loimprevisto wrote:Vim 2 needs horrors!
Heh... I agree. But should Vim 1 have "demonic", and Vim 3 have "diseased" types? Or keep Vim 1 as it is?
loimprevisto wrote:Positive and negative are tough ones... the only thing that comes to mind is shadows for negative.
Or "archon" expies for Positive. Light and Darkness don't really have many unique creatures associated with them that I can remember.
loimprevisto wrote:What about a telekinetic branch of psi-called creatures? Animate weapons and armor with a mix of tanky armors that do aura damage and glass-cannon weapons that are mobile and deal conduit damage...
That'd be pretty cool. I'll be sure to include them, at any rate, even as a test. Because who wouldn't love to summon daggers and boots to murder Greater Wyrms? :)

Sradac
Sher'Tul
Posts: 1081
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:18 am
Location: Angolwen

Re: Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#9 Post by Sradac »

Ooh Feedback based creatures? I like that. Feedback dosent really get much love or use as it is in the game. I personally like the idea of the more something is hurt, the more power it outputs until reaching critical mass. Kinda like fighting a Bomb in Final Fantasy

Faeryan
Sher'Tul
Posts: 1308
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2004 5:01 pm
Location: Finland

Re: Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#10 Post by Faeryan »

Kinda like fighting a Bomb in Final Fantasy
I hate you now.
Stronk is a potent combatant with a terrifying appearance.

The Revanchist
Uruivellas
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:14 am

Re: Addon Idea: "Evoker"

#11 Post by The Revanchist »

Faeryan wrote:
Kinda like fighting a Bomb in Final Fantasy
I hate you now.
Hey... Can we not declare such animosity in this particular thread? It isn't like you can't make one. :)

In other news, Feedback does deserve more love. And it seemed like the best "critical mass" resource. Now I just need to figure out how to code it. :)

Post Reply