Brainstorming An Equilibrium Class WITHOUT Meditation

[Lubaf]

So, because I like weird class ideas:

1. What mechanisms for shedding Equilibrium be like, for an Equilibrium class that lacks Meditation?

My first suggestion is "Blood of Eyal", which does Equilibrium*(a number derived from BoE skill) damage immediately to you, and sets your Equilibrium to 0.

2. What does this mechanism mean for the class?

For "Blood of Eyal", it implies a berzerker-style all-in class, who takes and deals lots of damage during a fight and lacks non-infusion healing options. Perhaps a "werewolf" style class?

Any other ideas?

Thanks
Luc "Bad Ideas Man" French

[Radon26]

well, i was thinking about a class just for the higher, and its equi restoration was supposed to come mostly from the combination of fungus and gift of the high born.
although, now that i think about it, that wont work until lvl 8...
yeah, i probably should think of something else.
ah, nvm. there is also "flower sniffing" option.

hmm. if your character restores equi too fast without and side effects, the talents might as well be free.
additionally, if its only able to restore them in combat, its a bit like vim. except failure chance instead of a hard limit.

[HousePet]

I do have a Werebeast class that doesn't have Meditation by has Equil regen on kills.
I should check the vault some time to see if people are grabbing Fungus for the extra Equil regen.

[nsrr]

I'm currently working on my first add on. It adds a Wilder class called the Prowler, and it does not have meditation. It does have a talent that gives resting regen, like Meditation when it's not active, but it does not have the active Meditation buff. Instead you passively regen Equi each time you move. Another talent restores Equi each time you dodge a melee attack. In the works is a short duration buff that will restore Equi with each melee hit. The class also has (locked) access to the high level Oozemancer talent tree Eyal's Fury, which has a bit of Equi regen. That is likely to be removed when I finish my own high level tree, however. This class is a Rogue hybrid and very mobile, so move, dodge and attack seemed like the logical sources of regeneration.

For another type of hybrid, say a Warrior, other mechanics could be used. Shield types could restore equi when blocking and/or counter-attacking. Two-hand types could restore equi based on damage dealt, or crits, or damage taken. A bow/sling type could restore equi based on the range from the target and/or movement. A caster type could generate equi based on a percent of a specific damage type they deal, or they could have a damage affinity that restores equi as well as health, or both, or restore based on mind crits.

Or, you could have a large AoE field like the necro aura that puts a debuff on all enemies in range, and each time an enemy that has the debuff does 'X' (takes damage, uses a skill, moves, attacks, dies, heals, farts, etc) you restore Equi. Or, you could add talents that have a negative Equi cost and make it a cycle like the Celestials. Or, you could have a permanent summon that is your Equi battery, but very squishy, so you have to put some effort into protecting it during battle. Or... yeah, I'm going to stop there. I'm sure I could come up with more. Think of a thing, any thing, that happens in ToME and it could potentially restore Equilibrium. Meditation is... kind of boring, especially with the huge damage reduction. It's my least favorite part of Wilders. It makes sense from a story point of view, though.

[Doctornull]

Fungus gives Eq regeneration at level 8, so if you have a mediocre low-level Eq regen mechanic plus Fungus, you're probably covered.

If you don't have any low-level active Eq talents, just sustains and passives, then you can make a fine hybrid Eq class with just Fungus.

Mucus is also an Eq regen mechanism, and it's available at level 1, but it might tend to be too strongly associated with Oozemancers. Also, it can be annoying to use, since you don't get back Eq by resting, but rather by hitting "Mucus" and then dancing back & forth over two tiles repeatedly. Still, in combo with Fungus it's fine (because Fungus takes over entirely at higher levels).

- - -

I like the idea of a way to convert some other resource into Eq, like if you're making a Stamina + Eq hybrid, then have a talent which costs Stamina and regenerates Eq, and which shunts Stamina regen into Eq regen when your Stamina bar is full.

[Radon26]

you can set mucus to auto activate, since it takes no time to use.
additionally, from a lvl 8, you can spawn mucus oozes which (if i read it correctly) increase your equi restoration.
so yes, its quite strong.

[Doctornull]

you can set mucus to auto activate, since it takes no time to use.
additionally, from a lvl 8, you can spawn mucus oozes which (if i read it correctly) increase your equi restoration.
so yes, its quite strong.

Indeed it is. But at low levels auto-activating will NOT, I repeat NOT, actually manage your Equilibrium unless you take specific care to dance back and forth like a little girl who needs to use the rest room.

That changes when you start producing Mucus in a radius around yourself at talent level 4, but that assumes a focused early investment in Mucus.

In contrast, Fungus 1/1/1 is fewer points, and the points are Generic.

So yeah, like I said, you can use Mucus to for Eq regen, but it's still annoying before you put in the 4th point, and it's not actually going to get you to your baseline automatically unless you're walking a long distance.

[Atarlost]

Are you sure just standing in one tile mucus doesn't give eq regeneration. I usually remove the point from meditation on them, don't dance back and forth, and don't have any issues with eq before fungus comes online.

[Doctornull]

Are you sure just standing in one tile mucus doesn't give eq regeneration. I usually remove the point from meditation on them, don't dance back and forth, and don't have any issues with eq before fungus comes online.

Huh, looks like it does now.

I think it used to only work when you or an ally walked on the mucus.

But either way, it's still a thing you may need to manage manually -- you won't keep resting unless you have some OTHER resource which is naturally recharging.

- - -

Honestly I don't have Eq issues before Fungus even without Mucus because level-up clears Eq, and healing pots also regenerate Eq.

[EatThisShoe]

So I figure if equilibrium is a natural state that you should return to, then maybe an interesting mechanic would be one where the class naturally loses equilibrium over time whenever they spend it. You could potentially make a class where your incentive was to not spam all of your abilities immediately by giving an equilibrium regen buff that refreshed its cooldown whenever you used an ability. You could even have the regen accumulate at a slow pace like 1/turn, but each refresh increases the rate by 1/turn while resetting the duration. So maximum equilibrium regen would be from refreshing the buff on the last turn, while hitting all abilities back to back would result in the minimum regen.

It would take a lot of tweaking to find good durations and regen costs, and the class would need to have a more sustained style of fighting, but I think it would be interesting and fitting to the concept of equilibrium.

[Radon26]

or maybe it could somehow relate to stamina and/or fatigue?
its hard to keep balance when you are exhausted.