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The arcane Ascetic trains body and mind to gain enlightenment and deliver butt-kicking.
This class is based around Staff combat, supplemented by martial training and utility magic. It's got access to Stamina-based Cunning and Dexterity techniques, plus all sorts of Mana-based "utility" magic, but not much in the way of direct attack magic.
It's sort of an arcane Monk class, so it somewhat overlaps with the Shadow Blade in ability choice, but the focus on the Staff and different magic choices ought to make it play very differently, even if both of them can be stealthy bastards.
Link at the bottom. This is a playable beta!
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"I came here to kick butt and gain enlightenment... and I'm all outta enlightenment."
Download here: http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/arcane-ascetic
Current Class Talent Trees:
- Spells/Phantasm
- Spells/Temporal
- Cunning/Dirty Fighting
- Cunning/Tactical
- Technique/Mobility
- Technique/Combat Techniques
- Technique/Combat Veteran
- Spells/Meta
- Cunning/Steralth
General Talent Trees:
- Spells/Conveyance
- Spells/Divination
- Spells/Staff Combat
- Technique/Field Control
- Technique/Combat Training
- Spells/Aegis
- Cunning/Survival
- Technique/Conditioning
- Weapon Combat (the accuracy one)
- Channel Staff
- Staff Mastery (technically illegal but necessary)
- Defensive Posture (also technically illegal, but not overpowered)
- Blunt Thrust (yet again technically illegal, but very weak)
- Hack'n'Back
I've tested this out a bit as a Halfling and as a Skeleton.
- Between the stun-lockdown talents Blunt Thrust and Dirty Fighting, the Ascetic can play a bit like a stunlock Berserker, but a little weaker. Neither of these talents has the duration/cooldown scaling of the Berserker's Stunning Blow. That's fine: the Berserker doesn't have options like Disengage, Hack'n'Back, or Phase Door, nor can the Berserker easily use ranged attacks.
- As a ranged attacker, the Ascetic is adequate. He's able to quickly change damage types to exploit a weakness of his target, and he's often able to choose his range, but he lacks staying power. His attack spell is expensive for his tiny mana pool, and his reliance on Dex/Mag/Cun means he can't buy up Will if he wants to use his cool toys early.
- As a skirmisher, the Ascetic shines. The staff attack options are more convenient than the Time Warden's weapon swapping, even if they're somewhat weaker.
- The Ascetic lacks active crowd-control, and this is one of his big weaknesses, but if he can get Cunning / Tactical / Counter Attack up to 3-5 ranks, he's got some decent passive crowd-damage, especially combined with Phantasmal Shield.
- The focus on Dexterity, combined with Blur, Mobile Defence, Tactical Expert and Defensive Posture -- the Ascetic has a nice Defense value. Spells hurt, but he's got access to two kinds of shield spells already unlocked, and the Aegis tree can be unlocked.
- At high levels, his speed and mobility ought to be unmatched. He's got Essence of Speed, Blinding Speed, and Strider, not to mention all his active move-fast talents (Rush etc.). In particular, I'd expect Essence of Speed to combo nicely with Precise Strikes, but oh man that 250 mana sustain is going to hurt during the mid-game. Also, he's got Congeal Time and potentially Slow Motion, so flat-out dodging spells at high levels may be viable. Welcome to the Matrix, Neo.
Future Directions:
The Ascetic needs a custom tree for high-level talents. He's fine at low and mid levels, but I think he's going to fall behind towards the endgame. I'm thinking about:
- Staff Skirmisher: like Reaving Combat, when you cast a spell which takes 1 turn, you make a free melee attack against a random target... or maybe something with Wards:
Advanced Staff Magic / Warding:
1 - Create a Ward (1) for your Staff's current damage type.
2 - Create a Ward (2) for your Staff's current damage type.
3 - Create a Ward (2) for any of your Staff's 4 aspect damage types.
4 - Create a Ward (3) for any of your Staff's 4 aspect damage types.
5 - Create a Ward (4) for any of your Staff's 4 aspect damage types.
Advanced Staff Magic / Offensive Posture (mutually exclusive to Defensive Posture): improve chance to spell and melee crit; when you crit with your staff in melee, make another free attack against a random opponent for (30%-70%) damage.
Advanced Staff Magic / Aspect Harmony: gain resistances based on your Staff's aspect (mage, star, or vile).
Mage: when you suffer Fire, Cold, Lightning or Arcane damage, gain 10%-50% of the damage as mana.
Star: 8-40% blindness immunity; 4-20% resistance to Light, Darkness, Temporal and Physical damage.
Vile: 8-40% disease immunity; when you suffer Fire, Blight, Darkness or Acid damage, chance to remove a random negative condition.
Advanced Staff Magic / Aspect Invocation: when you use the Channel Staff spell, gain a benefit based on the Staff's aspect.
Mage: chain attack to 1-3 additional random enemies within radius 1-3 of the original target; chained attacks inflict 30% of the original attack's damage.
Star: 30%-60% chance to blind, slow or pin the target. At most one effect is checked per attack.
Vile: 30% chance to apply a 2-6 round damage-over-time debuf: burn-stun, insidious poison, acid-burn, or blight-disease. At most one effect is checked per attack.
Edit.001: Fixed file layout bug, file updated.
Edit.002: Firmed up the talent trees, wrote up more extensive notes.
Edit.003: Added random417's idea about Wards; added official download link.
