New Class Idea: Plague Bearer

[overgoat]

This Plague Bearer class is an idea I've been thinking of for a bit. A really dark class that makes the harsh actions from Zigur seem reasonable. It is a spell caster under the Defiler category, but more geared for an attrition fight. Its talents encourage being in close combat, but offer defensive abilities to offset that risk. Many of the talents have negatives (especially the Disease tree), but with positives that offset these as the talent level increases.

***Revision 4, 8 December. This has been edited to reflect changes made after the great feedback here. Please keep them coming!***

Class Defiler/Plague Bearer

Lore:
In times of great sickness plagues can seem to have an intelligence and will all their own. The plague acts like a malevolent entity that fights to sustain itself by all means possible. There are hushed tales of plague victims who have made a dark bargain with the plague itself to be granted a new existence in order to continue the spread of disease. When these creatures come crawling out of the mass graves they are not undead, but they are no longer truly human either. They have joined with the plague and become completely one with their diseases.

Unlocked by: Have a character die from disease damage

State modifiers:
+5 Magic +3 Con

Life per level +1

Restrictions:
Cannot be undead. Cannot use infusions or receive Harmony tree

Known Class Talents:
Corruption / Sanguisage (x1.30)
Corruption / Plague (x1.30)

Corruption/Plague Bearer 1.30

Diseased (cannot be unlearned)
Magic 12
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Your body is wholly diseased making future diseases irrelevant. Your corrupted physiology makes you tough, but you greatly fear the cleansing flames
100% disease immunity
-20% fire resistance
-20% max fire resistance
+10/15/20/25/30% blight resistance and blight absorb
+2/4/6/8/10 constitution

Plague Bearer
Magic 20
Use mode: Sustain
Sustain VIM cost: 10
Usage speed: 1 turn
Cooldown: 15
Description:
Enemies in a radius of 3/3/4/4/5 have a (15 + 8 x talent level %) chance of contracting a random disease each turn. Multiple diseases can stack, but there is a 20% less chance for each current disease. Adjacent enemies’ first disease is ignored for stacking purposes.


Absorb Disease
Magic 28
Use mode: Activated
Usage cost: 15 VIM
Range: 7
Cooldown 10
Usage speed: 1 turn
Description:
Rebuild your diseased body by violently pulling the diseases from a nearby enemy into yourself. Does 30/40/50/60/70% of all remaining disease damage to the enemy instantly and heals you for 60/70/80/90/100% of that damage over the next 3 turns.

Empower Diseases
Magic 36
Use mode: Activated
Usage cost: 10 VIM
Range: 7
Cooldown 8
Usage speed: 1 turn
Description:
Concentrate on a diseased enemy and make their current diseases more deadly. Adds 1/1/2/2/3 rounds to the duration of all current diseases (to a max of 10) and increases their damage by 50/75/100/125/150% Adjacent enemies are also stunned for 2/2/3/3/4 rounds. Stunning chance increases with Magic.

Corruption / Plague Rats (x1.30)

Call Vermin
Magic 12
Use mode: Sustain
Sustain VIM cost: 10
Usage speed: 1 turn
Cooldown: 15
Description:
Plague rats follow you and harass your enemies. A new plague rats will appear nearby every 3/3/2/2/1 rounds and attack the nearest enemy. You may have a maximum of 3/3/4/4/5 plague rats at once. Plague rats are immune to disease and resistant to blight damage. At talent level 3 rats now inflict a random disease upon hit. At talent level 5 plague rats will not be damaged by your corruption spells.

Infected Corpses
Magic 20
Use mode: Passive
Description:
When plague rats die they they and deal blight damage to adjacent enemies. At talent level 3 adjacent enemies are also infected with a random disease when rats are killed. At talent level 5 the radius improves to 2. Blight damage improves with magic.

One with the Horde
Magic 28
Use mode: Activated
Usage cost: 10 VIM
Range: 7
Cooldown 12
Usage speed: 1 turn
Description:
Switch location with any rat within range and remove 1/2/2/3/4 detrimental effects. All adjacent enemies at the new location will be dazed. Chance to daze increases with Magic.

Call the Swarm
Magic 36
Use mode: Activated
Usage cost: 10 VIM
Range: 7
Duration 3/4/5/6/7
Cooldown 50/45/40/35/30
Usage speed: 1 turn
Description:
Summon a swarm of plague rats to bury your enemies. While active three plague rats per turn will appear nearby and swarm your enemies. These do not count against your max rats from Call Vermin. After the duration ends rats beyond your Call Vermin limit will die one per turn.

Locked Class Talents:
Corruption / Blood (x1.30)
Corruption / VIM (x1.10)

Corruption/Plague Master (x1.30)

Virulent
Magic 22
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Your diseases are especially virulent and can infect even those creatures normally resistant or immune. Enemies have -25/33/40/45/50 less disease immunity and you gain +5/10/15/20/25% blight resistance penetration.

Metastasize
Magic 30
Use mode: Activated
Usage cost: 20 VIM
Range: 7
Cooldown: 8
Usage speed: 1 turn
Description:
All diseases on target deliver their their remaining damage instantly. Target receives 60/70/80/90/100% off remaining damage. If target has 10/15/20/25/30% or less life remaining after the damage is applied there is a chance it could be instantly killed. Chance of instant kill increases with magic

Sympathetic Disease
Magic 38
Use mode: Sustain
Sustain cost: 40 VIM
Cooldown 20
Usage speed: 1 turn
Description:
While active 20/30/40/50% of the damage you receive will instead be split evenly between diseased creatures in a radius 2/3/4/4/5 as blight damage up to a maximum of 15/20/25/35/40 * 1.(spellpower) damage shared per diseased creature in the radius

Replication
Magic 46
Use mode: Activated
Usage cost: 50 VIM
Cooldown 50
Duration: 4/5/6/7/8
Usage speed: 1 turn
Description:
Your diseased cells all split at once and separate creating a copy of yourself with 40/47/54/60/65% of your skills and abilities. When this copy is killed or the duration ends all adjacent enemies are afflicted with Epidemic. At Talent level five, enemies in a radius 2 are affected.

Known Generic Talents:
Cunning / Survival (1.0)

Corruption/Diseases (x1.30)

Hemophilia
Constitution 12
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Physical damage causes you to bleed. You take 10% of any physical damage received as bleeding damage spread over the next 3 turns. Your diseased blood is highly toxic and adjacent enemies also take 80/90/98/105/110% of this damage as blight damage. Enemies damaged by your blood also have their disease immunity reduced by 50% and have their blight resistance lowered by 5/10/15/20/25. At talent level 4 enemies are affected in a radius 2.

Brain Tumors
Constitution 20
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Your mind is addled by your brain tumors, but the voices you hear offer great advice and seem to almost cast your spells for you sometimes. -30% confusion resistance. Each turn there is a 20/25/35/40/45% chance one of your corruption talents will have their cooldown reduced by 1/1/2/2/3. There is also a 10/13/16/18/20% chance your corruption spells will be cast as an instant instead of taking a turn.

Ossification
Constitution 28
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Your bones and surrounding flesh are slowly turning to stone. This slows your movement greatly but you have become resistant to most attacks.
-20/25/30/35/40% movement speed
Resist all +4/8/12/16/20%
+20/30/40/50/60% Stun and poison resistance

Cataracts
Constitution 36
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Your eyes have clouded making everything beyond a few steps difficult to make out, but your affinity the plague has allowed you to ‘see’ through diseases. Your vision cannot be further affected and you gain 100% blindness immunity. Your sight range is reduced by 7, but you can see in a radius 2/2/3/3/4 of any plague rat or any diseased creature. After a plague rat or diseased creature dies you are able to continue seeing in that area for another 1/1/2/2/3 turns. The loss of your sight has greatly improvely your other senses and instincts which allows you to avoid attacks. Gain Evasion of 10/15/20/25/30

Corruption/Dark Pact (x1.30)

Fed by the Plague
Magic 12
Use mode: Passive
Description:
The plague rewards you for feeding its insatiable hunger by feeding you as well. Every time a disease damages an enemy you gain 2/2/3/3/4 VIM and 3/4/5/6/7 x 1.[magic stat] life. The VIM gain is increased from more powerful enemies.

Death’s Touch
Magic 20
Use mode: Passive
Description:
The plague prefers its final embrace to be intimate. Whenever an adjacent enemy dies you feel a surge of dark power. You receive +10/15/20/25/30% blight damage for the next three turns to a max of +20/30/45/60/75.

Plague’s Protection
Magic 28
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Your dedication to spreading the pestilence has caught the personal attention of the plague and it weakens your enemies to protect you. Diseased creatures in radius 2/2/3/3/4 have their physical/mental/spell power reduced by 8/13/17/21/25.

Reborn
Magic 36
Use mode: Passive
Cooldown: Cools down after 100 enemies die from Corruption spells or effects
Description:
You have served the plague well. After an untimely death the plague breathes new life into your diseases. When reduced below 0 hit points, you are resurrected with 20/40/60/80/100% off your life.

Corruption/Corrupted Fortitude (x1.30)

Corrupted Regeneration
Constitution 12
Use mode: Sustain
Sustain cost: 0 VIM
Cooldown 10
Usage speed: 1 turn
Description:
When you are damaged your corrupted flesh responds to heal itself. After being damaged your body consumes VIM to increase your regeneration rate by 3/6/9/12/15 x 1.(constitution) and your healing modify increases by 4/8/12/16/20 x 1.(constitution) for 3/4/5/6/7 rounds. This regeneration consumes 2 VIM per turn while the effect is active. If no VIM is available the effect will end. Receiving additional damage will not cause this effect to stack, but will reset the duration.

Amputation
Constitution 20
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Sometimes losing a body part is not all bad! Your corrupted flesh is able to consolidate your maladies into a single part of your body which are then removed if damaged enough. When damaged for more than 25/22/19/17/15% of your total life from a single attack 1/1/2/2/3 detrimental effects are removed.

Terrifying Presence
Constitution 28
Use mode: Sustain
Sustain cost: 10 VIM
Cooldown 20
Usage speed: 1 turn
Description:
When enemies look into your eyes they see the abyss staring back. After making a melee attack against you, enemies must make a mental save or be dazed or stunned. Chance to daze or stun increases with constitution. This sustain will end if you drop beneath 50/45/40/35/30% health.

Stream of Corruption
Constitution 36
Use mode: Activated
Usage cost: 0
Cooldown 50/45/40/35/30
Duration: 3/4/5/6/7
Usage speed: Instant
Description:
Your corrupted fortitude is so powerful it is able to completely fuel your powers for a brief period of time. While active all of your corruption abilities cost no VIM to use.

Locked Generic
Corruption/Torment (x1.10)

[darkgod]

Very well thought out!
I'm tempted to implement it

Some of the maluses are really evil though, -50% conf resist or -50% fire resist can really hurt, but yeah numbers can be adjusted
Also, Reborn, you really mean it to have no charges? As long as the cooldown is up you cant die?
Because a high cooldown can never balance a supremely powerful talent, since resting is mostly free

[Parcae2]

It's no different from Second Life, though, really.

[darkgod]

Second Life scales way less though, but I see your point

[stinkstink]

Second Life also has a significant sustain cost, and is on the class that probably has the least need for a self-revive.

[PureQuestion]

Maybe make it heal over time so you're still vulnerable right after death?

[HousePet]

Very nice. Its like Corruptor, but less all over the place in abilities.
I'm not sure about the heavily disease focussed generic categories though. They seem too Plague Bearer focussed..

[Planetus]

I love the idea and theme, and I'd love to see it become official, but a couple of things.

One, ANY sizable elemental weakness is a HUGE weakness for any class/race. -50% fire resistance means fire drakes, faeros, and pyromancers will tear this class to pieces, just to name a few, and this class doesn't seem like it'd specialize in quick kills before the enemy can attack. Realizing that every character will face probably all of those during it's career means this is a HUGE weakness. I see two possibilities here. One is to reduce this weakness as you increase the talent level of Diseased. Maybe leave it at something like -5% or -10% at max talent level, as those should be manageable and could be reached at level 5. The other option (and I like this one better) is to give the class a Fever tree. I'm imagining something like:

Corruption/Fever 1.20

Fever Tolerance
Magic 12
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Your diseases are more tolerant of fevers and heat, granting you +(30/40/50/60/70)% fire resistance.

This means that at talent level 3, you'd negate the fire resistance penalty, while at 5 you'd gain 20% fire resist. For one element and 5 points put into it, that doesn't seem too much to me, but as DG said, numbers can be adjusted.

Induce Fever
Magic 20
Use mode: Sustain/Active
Description:
Either: 1.) While sustained, all diseases you cause produce a fever in their victims, dealing additional fire damage every turn.
Or: 2.) When activated, causes all diseases active in the target to produce a fever, dealing additional fire damage every turn.
Pick which mode you like.

Fevered Dreams
Magic 28
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Your fevers burn so hot that they affect their victims' minds. Every turn that an enemy is under a fevered disease, there is a (20+5*talent level)% chance that it will be confused. (or maybe stunned? dazed? Maybe all 3 at higher levels? Maybe add more damage to fevers at higher levels?)

Consuming Fever
Magic 36
Use mode: Passive
Description:
Your fevers burn in their victims' cores, bypassing resistances. You gain +(20/30/40/50/60)% fire resistance penetration. Again, maybe this adds more damage to fevers as you level it.

The end idea here is a fever-themed tree that is focused mainly on buffing your diseases even more. The first talent negates your fire weakness while the rest boost diseases with fire damage and status effects.


More suggestions:
Sympathetic Disease is sounding a lot like Displacement Shield, and I don't like that much. The greatest threat in this game is random spike damage, which means anything that only gives you a chance to avoid all damage is iffy at best (defense, evasion, Displacement Shield, etc). I'd much prefer something that gives you a 100% chance to split damage with a diseased creature, with it taking 25/30/34/37/40% of the damage. With multiple diseased creatures around, you may want to allow it to hit multiple creatures with each taking the above % of the remaining damage (i.e. it goes through them sequentially, and maybe give a limit of how many creatures it splits by). This would give a different flavor to the talent than Displacement Shield while also mitigating spike damage but always allowing through some damage.

Feed the Plague is sounding iffy. While diseases may be potent over time, most players will seek to finish off their foes themselves, so diseases may not be what kills many foes. Maybe make this so that any time a creature with a disease dies, you get life and Vim based on how much damage is left?

Death's Touch will encourage players to close to melee with a caster class. Actually, between this and Hemophilia, this is heavily encouraged. This may actually be a really good idea. Maybe build more on this close-ranged spreading diseases idea?

Devil's Own Luck: unfortunately, luck doesn't offer a whole lot of bonuses in this game. It'll boost:

Accuracy: .40/point for a max of +12 at +30 luck. But wait, we probably aren't using accuracy for anything on a caster
Defense: .40/point for a max of +12 at +30 luck. As defense is an all-or-nothing stat that we probably aren't focusing on, this isn't much
Critical hit chance: .30/point for a max of +9 at +30 luck. Ok, this is nice. Who can complain about +9% critical chance? Especially if we're already stacking critical chance but haven't gotten to 100% yet?
Physical save: .175/point for a max of +5.25 at +30 luck. Saves aren't great in this version, and the gains diminish, so +5 save at higher levels may translate to more like +1-2.
Mental save: .175/point for a max of +5.25 at +30 luck. Saves aren't great in this version, and the gains diminish, so +5 save at higher levels may translate to more like +1-2.
Spell save: .175/point for a max of +5.25 at +30 luck. Saves aren't great in this version, and the gains diminish, so +5 save at higher levels may translate to more like +1-2.

Ok, so all of that means that basically critical chance is the only thing that seems really great about that. Maybe give some separate bonuses on top of the luck bonus, like a reduced chance of taking a critical, increased damage resistance (1% resist all per creature up to a max of +6%, granted at level 3?), or something.

Will Reborn have a cooldown? Is it one use only? I think I'd rather see it a sustain with a long cooldown like the Sun Paladin's Second Life. Still, as this will probably deactivate all sustains and not reduce any cooldowns or restore any resources other than life, it's of iffy use. Maybe make it restore Vim based on how much damage the final blow dealt you?

[overgoat]

Very well thought out!
I'm tempted to implement it

Thanks! I'm excited about the reception. I was kind of expecting a bit more apathy. Maybe this is a sign a Maj'Eyal needs some more evil!

Some of the maluses are really evil though, -50% conf resist or -50% fire resist can really hurt, but yeah numbers can be adjusted

I agree about the fire resist and thought it was important for balance, but one idea I saw below that I really liked was to combine it with a -max resist. Maybe -20% fire resist and -20% max resist. Combined with the +resist all in Ossification this wouldn't be so painful and would just limit you to having a max 50% resist.

For the -50% confusion, I know that's painful and god knows I hate getting confused, but I thought it important balance benefits of that disease. Having a passive that can make some spells instant is pretty powerful. If you got lucky you could chain several spells together all as instants in a single turn. But maybe that could be tweaked down some.

Also, Reborn, you really mean it to have no charges? As long as the cooldown is up you cant die?

I hear you loud and clear here. One thought I had originally, but nixed it because the need for more behind the scenes mechanics was to have it have no cool down, but 'recharge' after 100 kills with corruption talents and would also fit with the theme of being rewarded by the plague for doing its work. This would prevent it from recharging on rest, but make it usable more periodically. As this is class is intended as a close range spell caster I figure it will need it!

I'm not sure about the heavily disease focussed generic categories though. They seem too Plague Bearer focussed..

I agree these could easily be class skills. I struggled a bit with coming up with other generic trees. I looked at generic trees from other similar classes and they didn't too far off, but I could easily understand these being shifted to class.

Sympathetic Disease is sounding a lot like Displacement Shield, and I don't like that much. The greatest threat in this game is random spike damage, which means anything that only gives you a chance to avoid all damage is iffy at best (defense, evasion, Displacement Shield, etc). I'd much prefer something that gives you a 100% chance to split damage with a diseased creature, with it taking 25/30/34/37/40% of the damage. With multiple diseased creatures around, you may want to allow it to hit multiple creatures with each taking the above % of the remaining damage (i.e. it goes through them sequentially, and maybe give a limit of how many creatures it splits by). This would give a different flavor to the talent than Displacement Shield while also mitigating spike damage but always allowing through some damage.

You caught me! Displacement Shield was the inspiration for this one. I like your idea of 100% chance to split. As this is intended as close range caster they will likely need more consistent damage mitigation than most casters.

Feed the Plague is sounding iffy. While diseases may be potent over time, most players will seek to finish off their foes themselves, so diseases may not be what kills many foes.

I was thinking the same and intentionally left off how much health and VIM would be generated each time this proc'd. The idea behind this was to give the player motivation to let the diseases do the killing. Maybe this is too much pressure to fit the theme? There are a lot of synergies that can make diseases more powerful and to stack so it might happen more often than not, but I definitely think this would need some play testing to balance.

Death's Touch will encourage players to close to melee with a caster class. Actually, between this and Hemophilia, this is heavily encouraged. This may actually be a really good idea. Maybe build more on this close-ranged spreading diseases idea?

Ding ding ding! This was a major influence in the class. I like the love the of caster who wants to be in the thick of it instead of at max range. I was thinking some of the talents could be tweaked further to make them more effective at closer range as well.

Devil's Own Luck: unfortunately, luck doesn't offer a whole lot of bonuses in this game.

Hmmm I knew luck bonuses were small, but after looking at your figures you are right. Maybe stacking defense and reduced chance of crit instead?

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Does anyone have an opinion on 'Blindness' in the Diseases tree? I think it could be neat having to see through your rats and diseases, but wasn't sure how hard it would be to implement.

[overgoat]

Edited 11/27 to reduce the all of text

This post was originally an update of talents, but was out of date after future revisions. The first post on the thread should now reflect all these changes.

[loimprevisto]

I love the look of this!

Perhaps add something that interacts with or gives a boost to bloodspring/corrupted shell/blighted summoning...?

[PureQuestion]

"Devil's Own Luck" ought to have a different name. There may be demons, but there is no devil in this world, at least not in the same way as we'd think of it

[Planetus]

Maybe call it something like "Diseased Fate", or "Plague's Mercy"? I agree that names should be lore-appropriate, though.

I like the idea of blindness as a whole, and I also love the addition of blindness immunity.

I'd still love to see Sympathetic Disease run through several enemies at once, with each one taking a sequential X% of the damage left over from the previous one. I just like the idea of the sequential %, I don't know why. It would also fit with the plague theme, though, encouraging spreading it to many enemies. Of course, mechanically, that would mean it would be more effective against hoards and less effective against individuals. There are already a few fixed bosses that are solo, and it's not unusual for a random rare/unique to be solo and powerful. Anyway, if you leave it as a single enemy at a time, I'd suggest upping the percentage back to 40% at max.

I love the solution for Reborn. It's creative and unique. If the mechanics can work, it'd be really nice.

[overgoat]

"Devil's Own Luck" ought to have a different name. There may be demons, but there is no devil in this world, at least not in the same way as we'd think of it

Yeah, the name was mostly an attempt to be witty because of the luck modifier. Since that's been ditched there is no reason to hold on to the name.

Maybe call it something like "Diseased Fate", or "Plague's Mercy"? I agree that names should be lore-appropriate, though.

I like Plague's Mercy that would fit well.

I'd still love to see Sympathetic Disease run through several enemies at once, with each one taking a sequential X% of the damage left over from the previous one. I just like the idea of the sequential %, I don't know why. It would also fit with the plague theme, though, encouraging spreading it to many enemies. Of course, mechanically, that would mean it would be more effective against hoards and less effective against individuals. There are already a few fixed bosses that are solo, and it's not unusual for a random rare/unique to be solo and powerful. Anyway, if you leave it as a single enemy at a time, I'd suggest upping the percentage back to 40% at max.

I like the idea of sequential enemies. Maybe start at full power on the first enemy and and drop 10% for each additional other diseased creature? For going to 40% I was worried it might be too powerful. Basically reflecting 40% of your damage back to an enemy, and likely more if you have + to blight damage gear, could be a lot. But then again it might need it again tougher bosses.

[AlexMdle]

This a really great and well thought out collection of talents. Some thoughts I have on it:


Plague Bearer

Nothing I have to add. It's perfect.


Plague Rats

Cluttering the playfield with many weak enemies can prove supremely annoying, however I like how the talents tie into their numbers.
Potentially give rats higher innate blight resistance to give them some presence before lv5?


Plague Master

Flat disease reduction with addition of 25% blight penetration sounds a tad too powerful. Potentially have higher disease reduction (up to 66%), but only of the actual enemy disease immunity.

Metastaze sounds like an inferior version of Catalepsy.

Replication is a good idea, but feels like it feels like the copy needs some unique quality about it.


Disease

Ossification needs major buffing, 20% all resist against 20% global speed reduction is hardly worth it and the initial penality (4% resi against 20% slow) is downright terrible. I'd suggest reducing the penality and spread the bonus across some more stats, like armor or somesuch.

Hemophilia has a great concept behind it, but Im worried about the disease reduction here. Currently combing it with Virulence basically negates 100% disease immunity.

Think about it from the view of a player - aquiring gear with even as high as 100% disease reduction is rendered entirely worthless, instantly.

Brain tumors are interesting, but the random nature can be frustrating. Potentially overpowered with Eye of the Tiger.

Blindness is amazing, but needs a better name


Dark Pact

This tree feels kinda bland und unbalanced compared to others. I thoroughly despise talents that work off of "every time you kill an enemy", as they are worthless against large singular enemies. Reborn in particular does not need a mechanism like that, as barring exceptions it sounds abusable.