Race/Class Idea: Elementals [Coders aquired?]

[darkgod]

And I would like to encourage a coder with too much free time to help you !

[jenx]

This is too good not to be coded, but alas, I don't have the skills. Anyone?

[AlexMdle]

Elemental/Chaos(Generic Points) - [Asha]


It's the spending heat tree, which has gotten very far into experimental area. I usually hate to include randomness in skills, but here it seemed almost unavoidable. Don't want people to munchkin a perfect tactic out of talent combinations. You'll see what I mean.

Backburner (Sustained)
Cooldown:25 turns

Your flames burn hotter, but take longer to set in.
While this talent is active you generate 20/25/30/35/40% more heat from all sources, but smeared over 2 turns.

I battled for a very long time with the concept. Was it to slow down the heat generation, speed it up or just smear it? For a while I played with the idea of a heat buffer that allowed you to carry a reserve of heat, but then it would probably fall into the whole pitfall of positive/negative energy. Still, it gave me an incentive to go back and add comments as to the exact triggers of heat generation in the main Asha post, of which only Eruption is completelly targetless.

Anyway, functionally it gives you extra heat to spend, balanced in that you don't get it instantly and infact, your burst potential is hampered. After that, you also get little stat rewards for spending heat, which works with the skills in this tree as well as Consume.

Mindless fire (Active)
Heat cost: 20(Up to 60)
Cooldown:24 turns

A spark alone suffices to start more fires. Suffices to say, a living spark like yours can bring forth even more devastating things.
Creates up to 3 duplicates of your fiery being adjacent to yourself.
Each duplicate is uncontrollable and attacks in blind rage, with no use of your talents. They deal 20/24/28/32/36% of your melee damage (50% of which is converted to fire) and take 248/236/224/212/200% damage from enemies.
Duplicates are able to generate heat.

Their life force is tethered to you - if they remain within the range of 3 to you when dying, you regain up 20 heat based on their current heat and the cooldown of this talent is reduced by 2.
Activating this talent will instantly extinguish all already active duplicates.

Damage dealt and received increase/decrease with dexterity.

I was afraid this would push the tree into the summoner area, but managed to tiptoe around it. The duplicates are weak, numerous and persistant and you are not able to coherently focus them on the target of your desire. In other words, they are your support, not your backbone. They soak up extra damage you would take, deal extra damage themselves and give you a constant trigger to spending heat, with a net loss of 0 heat if you manage to keep them close to you.

I'm not sure if I should streamline the mechanism though, like have this be a sustain that automaticly summons duplicates. Would make it too familiar to Doomed and I'd rather have the player retain the control of his heat sink as well.

Inscribed flames(Sustain)

Your fire carries over not just your power, but your knowledge as well.
Each level of Inscribed flames allows your duplicates to utilize one of your talents from other trees, chosen randomly upon the summoning, at the effective level of 1.2/1.4/1.6/1.8/2.0.

On level 5, two talents are chosen at random to use.

You choose the talents available for inscription whenever you level this talent, once per level except for level 5 - you can choose 2 talents then.

Effective level increases with dexterity.

First of all, you may have noticed I have bolded the 'other trees' part. The very first reason is to avoid a loophole where a duplicate gets the ability to get more duplicates. This could spiral heavily out of control, like vrocks.

Second, an explanation. The talents chosen are not randomly picked from your total talent pool, but rather every time you level this ability, you can pick 1 talent that you have already learned and add it to the pool of possible talents picked. This means that you have a degree of control as to what you want the duplicates to use and can avoid them getting talents that would be useless without conjunction to other talents. In the end, on level 5, it means that there is a pool of 6 talents you chose, of which a freshly summoned duplicate gets 2.

Cremation(Sustain)
Heat cost: 25 per turn
Cooldown:35 turns

Lets loose an almighty wave of fire to purge the last speck of life from the target wide cone in range of 6, draining 20 heat per turn of use.
Every turn the enemies caught in that area take 100/115/130/145/160 fire damage and cannot heal or regenerate until they leave the flames.
This talent has to be channeled every turn with no interruption. Failure to do so deactivates it prematurely.

Mindless duplicates caught in the flames gain maximal heat.

Damage increases with current heat and dexterity.

Big nuke of the tree. The only reliable way to avoid it is to get out of it as quickly as possible. Depending on the heat smear and your maximum heat, this could last up to 5+ turns, which suddenly makes that damage look much more intimidating. Additionally, it's a nice tool to use when your duplicates distract the enemies in a cluster. Just light them all up.

Edit: I somehow feel like it would work better if I swapped this and Lingering Fires around. Anyone agree/disagree on that?

[AlexMdle]

Elemental/Illusions of fire(Class Points) - [Asha]


High offense tree that hybridizes mindpower and fire damage, if you feel like doing a less magic run.

Mindflare (Active)
Heat: +35
Cooldown:8 turns

Sears the target's mind with psychic visions of fire, dealing 75/85/95/105/115 mind damage, as your will invades theirs.
The vivid psychic link of flames is then imprinted upon 3/3/3/4/4 random talents for 4/5/6/7/8 turns. If the enemy uses them during that duration, they receive a backlash of psychic fire, taking 40/45/50/55/60 fire damage.

Damage increases with current heat and willpower.

This is kind of ambitious, in that I know it would require a custom resource in case this is used on player. Basically some fiery overlay over the icons of talents that are currently 'on fire', or maybe a red glow of some kind. Just something that clearly indicates "DONT USE IT, WILL BURN YOUR BALLS OFF".

Warm sensation(Passive)

Your fires keep burning in the mind of your victims, long after they have died down.
10/12/14/16/18% of any fire damage keeps burning your enemies for 3 more turns, dealing mind damage. The damage dealt is static, but halved each turn, unless refreshed.

Damage ratio increases with willpower.

Ok, gotta explain the exact mechanics.

Basically, all damage taken has a fraction of it dealt over 3 turns as mind damage, with each turn not spent taking fire damage halving it. Like, on level 5, enemy takes 100 fire damage, means they take 18 fire damage on next turn, then 9, then 4.5. This damage can stack, but each instance runs only for 3 turns.

So, another example.

Turn 1: You take 100 fire damage.
Turn 2: You take 50 fire damage.

Red will show the first damage instance, blue the second:

You take 18 mind damage, then 18 (refreshed) and 9, then 9 and 4.5, then 2.25.

This means that the idea is to keep up the fire damage, which is not that hard if hybridized with other ambient fire damage abilities, like Radiation. Not tending to the potential damage on level 5 drops it from 48% to measely 26%. ...this may actually be hella high. I will need to see if the numbers need fixing.

Burnout(Active)
Heat: +35
Cooldown:24 turns

Attempts to conflagrate the target mind outright. Reduces target's current hp by 60/63/66/69/72% or 220/260/300/340/380 - whichever is lower. (Percentual hp loss counts as fire damage and can be resisted as such, elite enemies also ignore 33% of that effect)

Flat damage increases with current heat and willpower, percentual damage increases with willpower alone.

Supposed to reinforce the previous ability by dealing huge chunk damage to high hp-pool enemies, balanced by the fact that it can never kill outright. Also, left like that it would probably become a bigger boss killer than Impending Doom, hence the lesser effect on elite enemies.

Mass Hysteria (Passive)

Your illusory flames become real to the point of being contagious, just like real fire.
Every 100/94/88/82/76 points of fire damage dealt to an enemy reduce their mindpower and mind save by 2 for 5 turns, stacking up to a malus of 16.
Additionaly, every cast of Mindflare and Burnout has a 37/44/51/58/65% chance to burst in radius of 1.

Damage threshold, maximum malus and burst chance increase with mindpower.

One of the big flaws of the tree is it's obsession with mind damage and single-target spells, both of which need some support to work properly with the other trees. This talent is supposed to accomplish just that, it uses latent fire damage of pretty much any tree to improve the effect of this one and allows the spells in this tree to cover a wider area of enemies. There may be better alternatives, but Ive to think of them yet.

[AlexMdle]

Elemental/Wind Archer(Class Points) - Silyhe

I actually decided that there should be 2 archer trees, one for more offensive use(this) and one more based on utility. The two can go well back to back.

Windbreaker(Passive)

The wind guides your arrows true, granting 7/9/11/13/15 armor penetration and 12/14/16/18/20 accuracy when using bows.
Additionally, every point of strength and dexterity increases the damage done with bows by 0.5%.

Armor penetration and accuracy increase with dexterity.

It seems kinda strange, every weapon based tree has a generic talent that increases its physical power and damage - except default archers, for who its a class tree. I wanted to make a smell exception here as well and hybridize the damage based on both dexterity and strength, this way it becomes possible to to build a dual wind warrior/archer.

Deluge(Active)
Cost: 3 arrows
Cooldown:6 turns

Your fire three enchanted arrows in a cone, dealing 85/100/115/130/145% weapon damage to all enemies hit.
This talent can strike critically.

Damage increases with dexterity.

Cone-targeted arrow attack for quick clearing. Area of effect is something an archer class needs as much of as they can get. Cone in particular is a very good reticle for that. Also, critical strike compatability means that that various item egos that emphasize offensive become more desirable.

Drawback(Sustained)
Cost: 30 air
Cooldown:15 turns

Overdraws the bowstring to the breaking point, increasing the velocity of the next 3/3/4/4/5 shots by an extra 250% and their damage by 15/20/25/30/35%.
Also grants 33% critical strike chance, which dissipates over the duration.

Duration and extra damage increase with dexterity.

Very important detail - This is a sustain, it lasts for indefinite amount of turns, until the attacks have fired and only then does it go on cooldown. In effect, it synergies well with both Deluge and Pincushion, as both benefit rather well from extra damage and critical strike.

Pincushion(Active)
Cost: 35 air
Cooldown:20 turns

Empties your entire quiver into the target enemy, dealing a base 65/68/71/74/77% weapon damage with the first arrow and 10/12/14/16/18% with each successive hit.
The arrows fire so fast, to the point they connect instantly.

A maximum of 10 arrows can be shot in total. This talent does not take your critical strike chance into account (although it does use the critical multiplier), instead every shot has a 5% chance to strike critically for every arrow in the quiver at the moment, with a maximum of 60% chance to strike critically.

Damage increases with dexterity.

Can be very powerful if timed correctly, otherwise the reloading might be problematic. The idea is that the talent hits instantly, without taking in consideration various projectile-affecting envivronments. Also, as you might already be thinking, it would work very well with any sort of damage on hit.

[AlexMdle]

Elemental/Ephermal hunter(Generic Points) - [Silyhe]

Went back and added proper formatting to the newer entries, for the most part. Anyway, the tree is focused on proper positioning and single-target engagement. It's good for exhaustive 1 on 1 duels.

Wind-up(Passive)

Every 4/4/3/3/2 critical hits replenish 1 arrow and you gain 2/2/3/3/3% critical strike chance for every arrow missing from the quiver.
Maximum critical hit bonus is 20/22/27/30/33%.

Critical chance increases with cunning.

Not everyone likes to run out of arrows in middle of combat. The idea is that you can replenish arrows in a pinch, but not just outright swim in them. Less arrows = More crit = More arrows. Of course, Pure told me of the quiver of infinite arrows then. These two would not like each other.

Also of note, you gain the arrows for ANY physical critical strike, this includes normal attacks and talents such as Deluge, Pincushion(Can trigger for every individual hit) or Helix(Also can trigger for every instance of the cast that crits). Not sure if Deluge should just grant one trigger of this effect, or one per every enemy hit critically. While on that subject, Im not sure if the crit chance check should be performed for the ability as a whole, or for every individual enemy hit.

I think my preferable opinion on this is "arrow for every enemy hit critically by deluge" and "each enemy has an individual check for whether Deluge hits them critically".

*Name fixed/balanced*

Thrill(Passive)

You can sense the danger in the air and prepare accordingly. Allows you to sense the presence of special enemies in range of 4/5/6/7/8, through walls if need be, but not the exact information on their nature. (Displayed by a ! sign)
Each talent level taken adds following rank: Elite/Rare/Unique/Boss/Elite Boss.
First strike against an enemy on the above list with full health deals 13/15/17/19/21% of their maximum hp as dark damage(Less effective against enemies of rank 3.5 and above).

Damage increases with cunning.

Displays a mark over the tiles with elite enemies on them, which can be seen through the fog of war. That way you do not see what enemy exactly it is, or how powerful it is, you know only that it's elite and it's relatively close. Also makes up the first synergetic step with the final skill of the tree, wherein this serves to soften up the target.

Helix(Active)
Cost: Up to 3 arrows depending on level and 8 air per cast
Cooldown:16 turns

Shoots an arrow in the target line with range of 8, dealing 31/34/37/40/43% weapon damage to the first enemy encountered and knocking you 2 tiles away from the target direction.
This talent can be used 1/1/2/2/3 times in a single turn before it goes on cooldown, but each cast costs an arrow and 8 air.

Damage increases with cunning.

As this goes up in levels, you can make more complex movements with this talent, like jumping around corners, or performing multiple attacks while escaping, on different enemies if needed.

Does not need to hit a target for the knockback to take effect.

Shoot the core!(Active)
Cost: 40 air
Cooldown:30 turns

Upon activation, grants you 440/460/480/500/520% movement speed for 1 turn. During each step taken while the bonus is still active you fire 1 arrow at the target enemy, dealing 50/55/60/65/70% weapon damage.

Target's stealth is reduced to 0 during the effect. No arrow will be fired if the enemy leaves your sight, or your quiver runs empty.

Maximum damage bonus increases with cunning.

Changed to, basically, a much cooler pincushion.

[AlexMdle]

Elemental/Stratosphere(Class Points) - [Silyhe]


Took entirely too long to conceive and went through a number of drafts, from pseudo-summoning, which I decided I relied too much on, to an ersatz of solipsist force tree. Finally, I took inspiration from another tree I have already penned down for Naiar, where I had 2 initial ideas for how to handle a more dynamic use of spells.

The idea is following, the 3 first spells in this tree can be learned at level 1. The final talent can be learned starting from level 10. You'll see why.

Also, it has given me a great idea for a rework of Vacuum, which I will add shortly.

Oh, you may also have noticed that some names might have changed. That's due to a friend of mine going over all the talents and giving me some ideas on how to give some of them better names.

Cosmic tract(Active)
Air: 25
Cooldown:2 turns

Smites the target enemy with empyral powers from the stratosphere, instantly dealing 100/120/140/160/180 arcane damage.
This affects you with Arcane tampering for 5 turns.

Casting this spell while under the effect of other tampering effects changes its properties, consuming the old tampering effect:

-Temporal tampering: The spell consumes only 65/57/49/41/33% of the turn and deals 25% temporal damage.(Depends on level of Realign.)
-Dark tampering: The spell gains -2/-1/0/1/2 range and becomes a beam dealing 25% dark damage. (Depends on level of Strange Aeons.)

Damage increases with spellpower.

Not much to say about the first three spells, rather than the general mechanic behind them. The first one instantly smites the target enemy, as long as its in your sight. If you casted the other spells of the tree within 5-10 turns beforehand, the nature of this spell changes and 25% of it is converted to a different element, so tampering always gets you some mixed damage.

Realign(Active)
Air: 25
Cooldown:5 turns

Rearranges the subtle strings of influence on a cosmic scale, warping the target ball area of 2, dealing 90/100/110/120/130 temporal damage to all enemies caught inside.
This affects you with Temporal tampering for 5 turns.

Casting this spell while under the effect of other tampering effects changes its properties, consuming the old tampering effect:

-Arcane tampering: The damage is dealt over 3/3/4/4/5 turns and 25% of it is arcane. During that duration, enemy cooldowns do not tick down. (Depends on level of Cosmic tract.)
-Dark tampering: Pins down all targets for 2/2/3/3/4 turns and deals 25% dark damage. (Depends on level of Strange Aeons.)

Damage increases with spellpower.

The AoE variety, which changes its function according the previously cast spell. Not much else special talk about here.

Strange aeons(Active)
Air: 25
Cooldown:4 turns

Celestial manipulation of matter and density allows you to form a miniature black hole on the target tile in range of 5, forming a reverse cone from your location towards the point.
All enemies hit by the cone are pulled 1 tile towards the final point and take 95/110/125/140/155 dark damage.
This affects you with Dark tampering for 5 turns.

Casting this spell while under the effect of other tampering effects changes its properties, consuming the old tampering effect:

-Arcane tampering: The spell is now a point blank circle with range of 2/3/4/5/6 around you and knocks all affected enemies 1 tile back, dealing 25% arcane damage. (Depends on level of Cosmic tract.)
-Temporal tampering: You quickly reappear at the final point of the cone and knock enemies in the opposite direction, 2/2/3/3/4 tiles away, also dealing 25% temporal damage. (Depends on level of Rearrange.)

Damage increases with spellpower.

Now this here is kind of important: The trageting reticle for this spell is a reverse cone, this is the half circle broad part starts from the player and ends in a tip, 5 tiles away. Enemies hit by it get pulled towards that final point.

Arcane tampering just changes it into a circle and pushes all enemies away from you, with no targeting.
Temporal tampering kinda reverses this, porting you onto the target cone tile, which retroactively changes the spell targetting from a reverse cone, to an actual cone, without really changing the actual targeting. And then the enemies are pushed away some more.

Eversion(Passive)

You live in the fleeting moment where magic, time and darkness mingle within each other.
All tampering effects last 1/2/3/4/5 turns longer and grant 6/9/12/15/18% resistance and elemental penetration to the two opposite elements while active.

Resistance increases with spellpower.

Finally, the passive gives you more room to keep around the tampering effects and gives them a great 3-way synergy with each other.

To clarify, in case it's needed:
Arcane tampering = Temporal/Dark resistance and penetration.
Temporal tampering = Arcane/Dark resistance and penetration.
Dark tampering = Arcane/Temporal resistance and penetration.

[Sebsebeleb]

I would have loved to try to code this! I usually get bored by my own ideas quite quickly, but this is pretty awesome.

I do not have that much experience with tome modding though, but it would be fun to try!

[Sradac]

SOMEBODY make this already at least. I dont care who. Just do it.



nao.

[AlexMdle]

(Flavor changed entirely from 'alcoholic' to 'neurotoxic')

Elemental/Neurotoxic(Class Points) - [Naiar]

I am not entirely sure on the status of alcohol as a thing in the setting, but honestly, alcohol is a neurotoxin, so from the sight of a chemist, attacking enemies with methanol is actually kinda viable. I found it to have an interesting mechanics that could be worked around and I really liked the results. See ahead.

And yes, I am currently utterly drunk.

Stiffle (Active)
Psi: 25
Cooldown:4 turns

Drenches the lungs of all enemies in ball 1/1/1/2/2 in range of 5 with toxins, dealing 50/68/86/104/122 cold damage and silencing them for 2 turns.
The toxic solution wracks at the minds of the enemies, inflicting soul poison for 3 more turns.

An enemy can only suffer soul poison for a maximum of 5 turns at once.

Soul poisoned enemies lose 2 mindsave and 2 accuracy per turn.

Damage increases with mindpower.

Ok, to explain how this works. An enemy can only be affected by a drunk status for so many turns before it runs out. So, trying to apply 3 more turns of drunkeness when the enemy already was drunk for 3 turns, will only net 2 more turns, because initially, max turns of drunkeness are 5.

During each of those turns, there is a cumulative loss of mindsave and accuracy. So the longer the target is drunk, the more drastic those become.

Drench (Active)
Psi: 25
Cooldown:8 turns

Looses waves of highly toxic waters in range of 2 around yourself. All enemies hit suffer 45/58/71/84/97 cold damage and are soul poisoned for 3 more turns.
The poisonous liquid also blinds all enemies hit for 1/1/2/2/2 turns.

An enemy can only suffer soul poison for a maximum of 5 turns at once.

Damage increases with mindpower.

This needed at least 2 spells to allow you to reliably refresh the duration of drunkeness. This one is also a reference to moonshine and it's folk association with methanol-induced blindness.

Intoxication (Passive)

Increases the maximum extended duration of enemy soul poison status and adds additional effects to prolonged intoxication.

-Maximum soul poison duration of 6/7/8/9/10 turns.
-From level 3 on: Every 3/3/3/2/2 turns the enemy loses 2% global speed.
-From level 5 on: Every 5 turns confuse the enemy for 1 turn.

Mindpower increases the loss of minsave and accuracy.

Now we get serious. This improves the merits of keeping the targets drunk for as long as possible. It gives new bonuses over time and extends the maximum duration of the drunkeness - which improves the maximum benefits of how much the existing losses can stuck up.

Global speed and confusion would be kind of op if let to stack too much tho, so they dont scale beyond level 5.

System Shock (Passive)

Prolonged exposure to neurotoxins becomes fatal during withdrawal...

When the soul poison effect ends, the enemy takes 10/14/18/22/26 mind damage for every turn it spent in that state.
If the damage exceeds the threshold of 50/70/90/110/130 damage, the enemy forgets how to use 4 random talents for 3 turns.

Damage increases with mindpower.

And then, for when the duration inevitably runs out, they take damage based on how much you managed to chaindrunk them. And if you did a well enough job, they get another punch to the face.

[Amphouse]

Hmm...I like most of what you've done so far, but I'm not too keen on that last tree. Or at least the theme of drunkenness. Not to mention alcohol wouldn't effect everyone the same way; Dwarves would enjoy it and large animals/giants/dragons would barely be effected. Yeeks would probably pass out. Would probably have no effect on the undead or constructs. There's a good chance Darkgod wants to keep the game rated "E"(metaphorically, I know PC games don't get ratings), as well, judging by the lack of blood/gore/drugs in the game currently anyways. So yeah. I would either scrap the tree or change the theme to something else. After you sober up, that is.

[PureQuestion]

Rated E? I don't think you've gotten very far in this game. At all.

[AlexMdle]

Well, I mentioned in the preface comment that it's a purely chemical outlook on the substance as a toxin, you're not drowning the enemies in whiskey and vodka here. I could rename any instance of "alcohol" to "ethanol", or "drunk" to "inebriated", but I think it would cause more head scratching than just leaving it at "alcohol".

That and holy crap, E? You DID get to virginal blood sacrifice catacombs and the breeding pits yet, didn't you?

[SageAcrin]

It's not really E, no.

It just doesn't run such themes into the ground. It's nice.

[Amphouse]

Argh, I knew somebody would make this argument...yes, I beat the game and I saw all the sacrifice/genocide/slavery references, but that's all they were. References. There aren't any brutal cutscenes where Melinda's womb is ripped open by demons, people. You are just told what happens. It's not a violent game. Nor are there any scenes involving drugs or alcohol. So it would be rated E or T at most, that's all the ESRB cares about, I think. I'm not actually an expert on them, I was just trying to make it easier to understand why the tree bothers me.

Listen, my main complaint is that it makes no sense to add an alcohol based tree just so you can say, "lol I made my enemies drunk". It doesn't feel right, it has no connections to lore or psionic powers. What does alcohol have to do with Naidar, AT ALL? It would feel totally out of place. It's the equivalent of giving rogues a REAL stoning poison, if you know what I mean. Why on earth would you do that?

Naidar's a water elemental, maybe you can keep the tree but have it use corrupted/polluted water and vapors instead. Would make a lot more sense. Or you could take it from a chemical standpoint like you said, but I still don't understand why a water elemental would have control over ethanol.

Sorry if any of this came off as angry, I didn't mean it that way, it just seems like an inappropriate thing to add, it would make me cringe a little if I saw it in game. ToME is a mature game(NOT IN RATINGS I MEAN IN THEME ARGH), but that tree came off as immature. That's all. I wouldn't take the time to write all this if I didn't love your other ideas and really care about them, because I do. I love them so much I've considered learning to code in Lua so I can help make these ideas a reality.(Can't be much harder than Java, right?) If this ever where to be added to the main game, I would want it to feel like the elementals had always been part of ToME. They'd get their own starting zone and lore explaining their origins and role in this wonderful world of Maj'Eyal. I just want to make sure their trees reflect that. In other words, I don't want it to feel like an addon. Do you know what I mean?

EDIT: Did you recently change the title of this thread in a very significant way?