New Class: Hooligan

[devilindupriest]

The Hooligan is a Cornac only rogue subclass specializing in quick and dirty violence. The class is unarmed combat based with a variety of dirty tricks and cunning tactics at it's disposal.

Addon is up on the Te4 site at
http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/hooligan

and eventually steam if it ever successfully uploads.

This is literally the simplest class I could cobble together, and it still took me 2 hours because I am apparently congenitally incapable of counting pairs of parentheses. Mostly a test to figure out the absolute basics of class design, I am unfortunately pretty much just a script kiddie at heart and don't really have the patience to actually learn what I'm doing. Instead I stumble about cutting and pasting things till they work. With that said, I rather like the class. I might modify it to be Cornac, Dwarf, or Ghoul instead of Cornac only. I'm also considering locking it to the marauder unlock, mostly just to figure out how those get called and referenced but also because I actually think unlocks are fun. (even if I long ago had it myself) Talent-wise I like where it's at, although I feel like if it's going to stay Cornac only it needs more than 1 locked class and 1 locked generic that can be opened at level 1.


ETA: Spending time actually playing it now that it works, a few notes:
1: It could probably use a reason to side with the assasin lord. But that seems complicated to play with, especially since I think I've seen at least one other addon that modifies that quest. Pooosssibly easier/simpler/safer to modify the prodigy and get a scoundrel buff, or maybe sort of a reverse rogue and learn stealth from it.

2: BIG issue, I don't think it's getting the brawler speed bonus. I need to figure out where that gets flagged. I was assuming it was tied to unarmed mastery, since the talent displays the brawler physical power bonus for the class. If it's somewhere else, I suppose I'll have to figure out some of the other stuff earlier than I planned.

3: That one free generic at start pretty much has to go to Accuracy to get stuns rolling. Not sure if I should just put it in there baseline, put it in and take out the point in armor training and start them with gloves, or just let people figure it out. Not sure if it's because of the race's stats, or the class, or what, but without really using all the tools in the kit it was a very rough start.

follow up, I think the speed issue was just the Wyrm Breath gauntlets having 50% speed for some reason.

[stinkstink]

Mostly a test to figure out the absolute basics of class design, I am unfortunately pretty much just a script kiddie at heart and don't really have the patience to actually learn what I'm doing. Instead I stumble about cutting and pasting things till they work.

That's how I learned!

[Doctornull]

Neat!

I'm not sure if Scoundrel is a good fit but otherwise it looks like a solid package.

[devilindupriest]

Neat!

I'm not sure if Scoundrel is a good fit but otherwise it looks like a solid package.

I was going for a non-stealth non-poisons cunning class, and the tier 4 at least is an incredibly solid talent. Having played one to 20ish I have to admit the 8-9 points I put into the first two probably didn't really come to much. Thematically I just assume it's a series of gouges, clawing scrapes with nails on the back swing, and grinding the corners of their armor into the other guy. I was hoping that it would synergize well with Bleeding Edge from Battle Tactics, giving them a second level of synergy on top of the stuns plus stuns plus stun crit stunning crit from Dirty Tricks and the various crit+ abilities. I think overall they'd be better off just going with the stun, but even if it was just 1/1/1/5 it's still a pretty worthwhile tree. It definitely could have used Conditioning for a DoT and debuff counter, or anything really, but Conditioning, Cunning/Tactical, and Fields Control all felt a little too 'organized' for their kit. Really more of a rough and tumble dirty fighter.

Honestly, once Back Stab, GWF, and ...Thuggery's 3rd tier were going it was already pretty well killing stuff long before they could bleed out. But then again, every bit of damage helps, and I like the debuffs.

ETA: I had made it to 21, now that I think about it. One more level and I could have survived the named tentacled horror, Umbral horror, and 3 luminous horror orgy I stumbled into.

[devilindupriest]

Was bored and fooling around, uploaded a 2nd bare bones class.

The Hate Spiral:
http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/hate%20spiral

Yeek solipsists walk a dangerous path, to deny the Way leads to gloom and darkness; cast out alone and defenseless.

Cursed-Gloom, Cursed-Darkness, Psionic-Solipsism, Psionic-Distortion, locked Force of Will and Discharge.

Mostly just to play around with the idea, currently version 0.5 because it works, but if I'm going to continue it I think I want to come up with a synthesis psi/hate talent tree to really bring the idea together. For now I'm playing around with it to get an idea of how overpowered gloom, darkness and solip is, and decide what if anything a merged tree might bring to the table.

eta: In generics it has Cursed Form (because cursed), Feedback (because yes), Mentalism and Dark Sustenance to balance it at 2 and 2. Mind Link and Dark Sustenance let it really tunnel vision in on a target, Darkness and possibly unlocking Force of Will bring some great bonus damage to the table, Darkness and Gloom are excellent defensive kit, and Solipsism and feedback are, well, they're what they are.

[Sradac]

hate spiral actually looks cool, always wanted to see a psi / hate class

[devilindupriest]

hate spiral actually looks cool, always wanted to see a psi / hate class

They start naked, completely cast out of Yeek society. It's so sad. And totally not because I was too lazy to go look for the proper names to start them with mindstars and linen robes. Once I find someone else's addon that does something similar to crib off of I'll probably force start them somewhere other than the Yeek starter. Might even try my hand at making them their own starter.

Also, because I have an entire list I've been building up ever since I started playing (400 hours logged and counting...exactly 1 win on normal with an oozemancer...T_T)

http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/malleus

During the spellblaze it took a special kind of
warrior to bear the brunt of the inquisitions attacks. The Malleus
Inquisitare were the shock troopers of the inquisition, the first in,
the first to bleed, the first to die. Disbanded 1,000 years ago,
one lost legion has fought an endless battle after entering a fearscape
portal during the burning times. Today, having fought their way to
the dark throne of that place and been granted leave of it, they are
reborn anew on maj'eyal earth.

two-hand weapon, veteran, ooze, absorption, and fire drake aspect
combat training, Conditioning, antimagic, fungus, field control

locked:
Superiority (at 1.5 effective! Someone has to love this tree)
Warcries
Psionic/Augmented Mobility
Harmony

The birth of the non-mobility fighter. some AOE CC, knockbacks to keep them bouncing, and enough shields and regen to wade slowly to their doom. Preferably knocking them back with every step with Superiority and slapping them with a TK wielded great maul.
I really like the idea, I want to like the result, but there are flaws all over the place. Ignoring that Tales just isn't very non-mobile friendly, even being strength/will there are probably heavy stamina issues. Oozes reliance on cunning to really come into it's own hurts a bit as well. Fire resistance from drake tree is thematic, and the bellow and wing buffet fit the rest of the kit well. Originally I was going to write them a new tree with an arcane disruptive version of psychometery, a cooldown reduction on rush (which they no longer have) anytime they do knockback, a thematic version of Heightened senses, and a theme attack, but I switched focus entirely from shock and awe charger to heavy waddler. I considered some terrain control like Moss, but it doesn't play well in conjunction with bouncing things around with knockback.

[devilindupriest]

Speaking of which, some selections from my list of things I'll probably try to get around to doing. There's a bunch more that are kind of...eh...maybe. And a lot of 'what was I thinking when I wrote that down?'

Black Staff

Cunning-Stealth
Spell-Light
Staff Mastery

Charged with keeping the secret of Angolwen's location by any means neccesary, the Black Staff is an elite mage-rogue. Sort of an oppositely balanced rogue-mage playstyle to the Shadowblade. Sometimes you just don't want to deal with running around stabbing things for 12 levels to go buy staff combat.

Riven

offense trees from Reaver, Necro, and Cursed, light on mobility and defense

500 years ago two necromancers clashed in open war. One sent armies of reavers to face the fell forces of the others cursed arts. The end result was a breed of Cursed Reavers called the Riven.
Utilizing Hate and Vim, the Riven have a mix of abilities from both classes and a smattering of necromancy.
Let's face it, everyone loves vampiric gift melee. Probably rampage, reaver combat, scourge, endless hunt, dark sustenance, that tree with overkill which is awesomesauce, and graves, with a few modifications here and there to change out talents that reference not-included kit and possibly drop mana use for mixed vim/hate. As we all know from adventurers rampage +anything is generally good, the idea is that, plus a lot of drain healing, but not as much in the way of other defense or anti-cc. If they can keep steamrolling they should be able to keep themselves up, but if they get walled things might fall apart in a hurry.

Veteran Psyker

Wild talents should require heavy investment, resulting in either a psionic with lots of tools of medium power, or a very strong single talent (level 5 should get bonuses from each point earlier in the tree and be the main nuke. Typical path might be defense bonus-utility-offense bonus-nuke. No level limit, so a starting character could go 1-1-1-1 into for instance 'Pyrokinetic' and get a decent starting nuke)

During the time of the Spellblaze an equally violent, but unseen, war raged. Horrors from beyond sought desperately to part the weakened veil and invade Maj'Eyal, and were held in check by Mindslayers, Solipists, and other psionic actives. Veterans of a thousand psychic wars, the Veteran Psykers were the strongest of the wild talent psionics who fought during those times. Adrift in time like the Malleus Inquisitare, they have begun to re-appear through the odd angles they entered so long ago to hold off their inhuman foes.

War Surgeon of Xchitl

regen and heals heavy, stat and skill bonuses similar to cursed marked prey

The War Surgeons specialize in grafting parts of fallen enemies onto themselves and creating abominations to fight for them.

That's about it that's fit to print. A lot of my notes are things like 'A FREAKING LAMP SHOP'

[Doctornull]

Cursed-Gloom, Cursed-Darkness, Psionic-Solipsism, Psionic-Distortion, locked Force of Will and Discharge.

Note that Gloom and Gestures will work together in the main game thanks to an abandoned class idea of mine.

Feel free to exploit that fact.

[devilindupriest]

Cursed-Gloom, Cursed-Darkness, Psionic-Solipsism, Psionic-Distortion, locked Force of Will and Discharge.

Note that Gloom and Gestures will work together in the main game thanks to an abandoned class idea of mine.

Feel free to exploit that fact.

Neat! Hmm. Was avoiding gestures and psi-blade (at least at start) on the spiral but I do like the IDEA of gestures. Might be something to that.


Also:

http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/blackstaff

The Blackstaff, charged with defense of the secret of Angolwen's location by any means necessary. Which they are apparently very bad at, but oh well. There are several similar addon classes already, but I went a (very) slightly different direction. They start out as a stealth caster with a limited selection of spells, and by 10/20 make a choice to go magical combat/dual weapon training (although without dual wep techniques or stone for it's physical bonuses) or a wider spell range and time shield, or time shield and aegis. Do they stay a stealth caster, go to stealth-semi tank caster, or mix it up stealth caster and melee? Stone Alchemy starts unlocked as a freebie bonus for people who split their points to go magical combat/dual weapon and want the prodigy. Also, because elite secret spies should always have gobs of mad cash.

I think I'm done with new stuff for a while. May tweak these a bit, work on learning the other elements I need to add to them, maybe get really precocious and try to build some quests around one or two.

...there IS an item or two I want to write just for fun, though.

ETA: I appear to have managed to screw up 'linen robe' somehow. I don't care enough to fix it. They have stealth, no one will see you nakies.

[devilindupriest]

Okay, I lied. I found one more in my notes that I can't cobble together successfully as an adventurer that I really want. This one is going to take a while, since I actually have to learn to make talents to do it successfully. I also need to figure out where to view the 'core' game files so I can figure out how most of the talents work without looking for an addon class that has a similar talent.

First Note: Needs a more thematically imposing name. Maybe Deep Warden. Yeah. Yeah, I like that.

Dwarven Tunnel Lord

Down in the deep dark sometimes things are awakened that should not be. When you don't have a

crotchety color themed archmage to stop them, you send a Tunnel Lord. Wearing armor of spikes held

together by rust and spite, the Tunnel Lord is a master of returning damage, controlling enclosed

spaces, and holding the line. The majority of Tunnel Lords are dwarves who couldn't make the grade

as Stone Wardens, typically due to being unable to meet the 'higher' moral standards.

technique/combat-techniques-active
technique/shield-offense (locked?)
technique/shield-defense
spell/earth
Cunning/Trapping
spell/stone (locked)
wild-gift/cold-drake
wild-gift/slime (locked)
wild-gift/venom-drake (locked)
spell/nightfall (locked)
cunning/stealth (locked)

technique/thuggery
technique/combat-training (2 armour)
wild-gift/call
cunning/survival
technique/field control

technique/Retaliation (cunning, generic)
tier 1: Needs more spikes.
passive increase returned damage % and reduce damage taken by % of damage returned
(first part should be a straight % increase where it stores damage on hit damage, right?)
(if damage taken if damage return if talent needs more spikes reduce damage % apply?)
tier 2: make 'em bleed.
activated: adds bleed equal to damage on hit, duration of bleed increased with level
(if damage taken if damage return if talent if active then bleed dot apply?)
tier 3: Wrecking Ball.
Sustain, adds damage on hit damage to rush & lowers cd of rush.
(easiest trigger might be adding 1 physical damage taken from enemy when using rush?)
tier 4: Explosive Shatterspikes.
Charges based ala bone shield. damage on hit extends to any non-mind damage

A 4 stat class, but any one player could focus on 3 successfully. I like designing classes built to use their whole tool kit, even if it's not as powerful an option. The locked catagories give a choice based on which stats a player focused, another thing I like doing. If the answer is always 'bloodthirst for unstoppable' it's not a choice.

example dream combat: drop a trap, wrecking ball rush, cold breath into the group, drop an ice wall to split them up, disengage back over the trap, slime spit, acid spit or earthen missile, auger into the wall to move out of line of sight, drop another trap, wrecking ball the first survivor to make it, pop corrosive mist/hide in plain sight/fear the night and finish them off.

[devilindupriest]

Got bored during lunch, found myself remaking the same quick fun and games adventurer for the umpteenth time, reworked one of the other concepts and made it a class just for convenience:

http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/riven

Riven

blah blah, when a reaver loves a cursed very much, or something backstory, etc

two handed tech, two handed maining, corruption/bone, cursed/rampage, cunning lethality, locked bloodthirst and battle-tactics

generic, torment for overkill, thuggery, dark sustenance, cursed form, combat training.

Sometimes I just want to whack things with a really big stick. But also be even awesomer than a berzerker. Do miss the arcane destruction procs from magical combat, but didn't want the cast on hit or to take a tree just for 1 talent. Long run, more for the sake of 'fun' than a 'balanced class' I might work them up their own tree and bring the proc aoe in, move a copy of overkill to it, and maybe 1 really really big single hit attack

[stinkstink]

I also need to figure out where to view the 'core' game files so I can figure out how most of the talents work without looking for an addon class that has a similar talent.

The file TalesMajEyal\game\modules\tome.team is a renamed zip file, and can be opened with an archive program.

[devilindupriest]

I also need to figure out where to view the 'core' game files so I can figure out how most of the talents work without looking for an addon class that has a similar talent.

The file TalesMajEyal\game\modules\tome.team is a renamed zip file, and can be opened with an archive program.

ty!

[devilindupriest]

Reworked Riven to a straight afflicted 2handed weapon specialist. Not sure what i was thinking with the reaver/cursed mix, but it was counter productive and counter-intuitive in actual play. New talent list is:

2hand-offense, 2-hand maiming, combat veteran, rampage, endless hunt,

Thuggery, mobility, combat training, cursed form

locked: Bloodthirst, battle-tactics, war cries, cunning/lethality, Dark Sustenance

Very straight forward and obvious Adventurer sort of kit, but sometimes I like having them pre-made so I can run it without rebuilding it as an adventurer. Also, the better category levels. In terms of what it brings, it's straight crit bonuses, massive stun resist/immune, moderate confusion, fear, knockback and pin, moderate regen, several good options for dialing in on a single target, and massive movement bonus possibilities. Balancing that is a lack of heals baseline (and only one very limited, non-main stat heal at all) , limited defenses, and most importantly, NO RUSH. I like rush. Everyone likes rush. Everyone takes rush on every character ever. This one charges in on it's own power. Things that would go well with it from escorts would be vitality or healing light, the rest of both trees are probably mostly wasted for it. AM and Fungus is a possibility, and probably a good fit. Shields from arcane probably aren't what it wants if it wants to proc Rampage more often, but arcane gear itself can provide a lot of the missing aoe and other good benefits.