[Class Idea] Geomancer

[Chronosplit]

We see Geomancers every now and then, why not a class? MIne's a strange way to go about what is usually a bread and butter Archmage focusing on certain trees, but hopefully this sets it apart from the rest. Here's a dirty idea of what I'm thinking, will probably update as I think of more.

-Dependent on Mana and Stamina.
-Most important stats: Magic, Dexterity, Constitution
-Melee/Mid range Staff focus. Can also work with shortstaff/shield.
-Obviously, a physical type focus. Another type may be needed? A fire tree dealing with lava might look cool.

Class Trees:
Spell/Earth (A given. Other trees will have talents that work with Stone Skin's recent buff, but not whole trees.)
Spell/Sandstorms (Tree with a mix of mid-range spells and sustains. Status can be thrown in the mix, like Blind or Slow/Pin.)
Spell/Enchanted Metal (Somewhat defensive. High investment needed, but it allows things like wielding heavy/massive armor with the magic stat instead of strength. Or shields for short staff builds. May need to be locked as you have Stone Wall?)
Techniques/Combat Techniques (for the close combat crowd.)
Techniques/Earthen Staff (A technique tree built around staff combat, uses Stamina. Similar to Two-Handed Assault in some respects but different in others, some talents have different effects according to your staff being one or two handed to account for Enchanted Metal.)

Techniques/Superiority (Locked. Onslaught might actually have a use here, and Battle Call would be nice.)
Techniques/Dirty Fighting (This+Sandstorms? Maybe Shield Offense would be useful here instead.)
Spell/Stone (Locked, a given.)
Spell/Meta (Locked. Disperse Magic, Quicken Spells, and Metaflow.)
Spell/Tremors (Locked, a tree that does low/no damage, but focuses on controlling the battlefield. Bring enemies closer or farther away similar to Warp Mines but not a teleport and instant, move smallish walls a certain distance, a spell somewhat similar to Sand Drake Aspect's Quake, etc.. Keep in mind that you have Stone Wall already though.)


Generic Trees:
Techniques/Combat Training
Techniques/Conditioning
Spell/Staff Combat

Spell/Stone Alchemy (Locked, Stone Warden has it locked.)
Techniques/Survival (Locked, according to Archmage locked trees.)
Spell/Aegis (Locked for more defense, or this can be unlocked and Conditioning locked. Defensive things like Light are pretty viable here without, and I'm afraid with Aegis that would make things go way OP.)

[astralInferno]

Nice idea. Think it could use a unique generic tree, but they're hard to design.

[Razakai]

You should take a look at the Stoneshaper addon. Quite different as it's a Wilder and has more of a focus on melee combat, but thematically similar.

Geomancer is a class I really want to make, but it's currently #5 on the list of classes to write, and seeing as the other ones are required for DLC it probably won't be for a while.

[Chronosplit]

Nice idea. Think it could use a unique generic tree, but they're hard to design.

A tree that puts a Staff Mastery sort of talent as first in the line along with other things centered around melee had occured to me, for those who go short range. Perhaps one that uses Dex as a stat requirement?

You should take a look at the Stoneshaper addon. Quite different as it's a Wilder and has more of a focus on melee combat, but thematically similar.

I agree that at this point Stoneshaper has some similar ideas in different ways. Same with Harbringer but much less so.

[Razakai]

Actually you know what I'm bored and have finished the latest bits of my DLC work so I fancy a new project. Going to start writing a Geomancer, although I might give it a fancier name. Rather than use any existing trees, all new ones across the board. Stuff like conjuring stone weapons, using sling ammo without a sling (railgunning stones at people!), terrain creation/manipulation and so on.

[Davion Fuxa]

To be honest I'm not really a fan of having every single class being entirely distinct from every other class. Having some cross-class skills is okay.

[Chronosplit]

Actually you know what I'm bored and have finished the latest bits of my DLC work so I fancy a new project. Going to start writing a Geomancer, although I might give it a fancier name. Rather than use any existing trees, all new ones across the board. Stuff like conjuring stone weapons, using sling ammo without a sling (railgunning stones at people!), terrain creation/manipulation and so on.

Hey, that's not a bad idea!

Since you're considering all new trees, brainstorming on a couple of other themes that would be neat:

-A tree with a Rush-like talent revolving around moving the ground directly underfoot.
-Putting a stone point on the end of your staff, similar to how Nullpack did the blood spear thing. I'm unsure of the effects though. Bleed on hit?
-Other uses for gems, as they come from the earth and would most likely fit in (maybe for conjuring?)
-Volcanic activity. Stone Wardens have Deeprock but this would go a bit deeper than just summoning them.

To be honest I'm not really a fan of having every single class being entirely distinct from every other class. Having some cross-class skills is okay.

This isn't wrong. The original idea I was thinking of would be in a situation where knowing already existing trees has a good thematic reason. For example a Geomancer would study in the same city, however unlike their Archmage piers a tightened focus on study also gives some time to learn general battle techniques.

[Micbran]

Actually you know what I'm bored and have finished the latest bits of my DLC work so I fancy a new project.

DLC confirmed launching next week

get your hype hats ready /s

[Razakai]

Yeah saying all new trees wasn't for any particular dislike of Earth/Stone, more that I've got enough ideas that they probably wouldn't fit in.

-A tree with a Rush-like talent revolving around moving the ground directly underfoot.
-Putting a stone point on the end of your staff, similar to how Nullpack did the blood spear thing. I'm unsure of the effects though. Bleed on hit?
-Other uses for gems, as they come from the earth and would most likely fit in (maybe for conjuring?)
-Volcanic activity. Stone Wardens have Deeprock but this would go a bit deeper than just summoning them.

Some bits from my doc:

- Rather than teleporting yourself, a talent that'd move an enemy towards you via shifting the ground. If you have a free conjured stone sword, on impact they'd be impaled, pinned and bleeding.
- Transform the staff into a stonespear. Innate Staff Mastery, have it interact with other talents that buff conjured weapons, and depending on what secondary stats the class uses, perhaps give it innate +damage from Con/Armor.
- Animating a gem as a guardian would work, like a take on cursed sentry. Talents would vary based on colour, but a fairly tanky floating gemstone that shoots elemental bolts with a few utility bits.
- You can have a fairly synergistic category with this. Basic talent can give innate chance to proc volcanos on it, rest of talents make volcanos do different things, command volcanos to attack, have volcanos project debuffing ash fields around them, etc.

[PseudoLoneWolf]

-Other uses for gems, as they come from the earth and would most likely fit in (maybe for conjuring?)

How about for conjuring Crystals? Give us a skill, or even a whole tree, revolving around summoning/conjuring Crystals as allies. The type that you summon depends on the type of gem that you use.

Matter of fact -

Spell / Crystal

Unearth Crystal - Consumes a gem from your inventory to summon a Crystal ally for X turns. The strength and type of Crystal summoned depends on the tier of gem and the innate damage type, respectively. Crystals can be created from non-artifact gems of tier [raw Talent Level] or lower. If this Crystal times out without dying, the gem used to create it is dropped at the spot where it despawned. (Is this part too strong?)

Resonant Ally - The health, defense, armor and main stats of your Crystals are increased by [some X amount per talent level that I'm not putting numbers into because I'm terrible at balance]. At TL3 or higher, your Crystals get a bonus to damage of [Y%]. At TL5 or higher, your crystals get [Z amount of die_at].

Crystal Cluster - You now summon +[raw talent level] more crystals per use of Unearth Crystal, at -[scaling factor]% stats (this affects raw statistics as well as derived stats such as health, defense, armor, etc.... maybe?). This still only requires one gem. Only the "master" Crystal drops the spawning gem upon expiration.

Bones of the Earth - Each type of Crystal now has a special additional talent.
- Red Crystals now cast Fireflash instead of Flame.
- Ice Crystals sustain uttercold.
- Black Crystals can now use Bone Grab.
...And so on and so forth.
At TL5, artifact gems can be used to summon unique Crystals.


Edit:

- Animating a gem as a guardian would work, like a take on cursed sentry. Talents would vary based on colour, but a fairly tanky floating gemstone that shoots elemental bolts with a few utility bits.

Shit, you beat me to it.

[Razakai]

Yeah that's a pretty good implementation. I was thinking a mix of summons and self buffs like adding gems to weapons but yours is cool.

[Erenion]

Here's my idea:

Spell/Sandstorm

Raging Gusts (sustain)
You are constantly surrounded by a vortex of wind. Whenever you deal a critical strike, the winds flare up, creating a small but violent swirl of dust and debris (probably range 3?).
This deals %d physical damage to all nearby enemies, (slowing them?)
This cannot trigger more than %d times per turn and can obviously not trigger off of itself.

Violent Wind
You conjure up an extremely concentrated bolt of air, dealing physical damage to all enemies this projectile hits, dragging them towards you.
(This works similar to Temporal Bolt)

Blinding Sands
A cascade of sand spews forth from your hands, blinding enemies hit (and maybe confusing them?). If the volcano stuff is active, searing hot ash is added to this cascade, reducing the armor of enemies hit and adding fire damage.

Hurl Debris
Your winds pick up any nearby solid objects smaller then a well-grown dragon, hurling them in a direction of your choice. Enemies are knocked back (depending on their size category), dealt physical damage and stunned. Projectiles are displaced as well.

[Chronosplit]

Yeah saying all new trees wasn't for any particular dislike of Earth/Stone, more that I've got enough ideas that they probably wouldn't fit in.

-A tree with a Rush-like talent revolving around moving the ground directly underfoot.
-Putting a stone point on the end of your staff, similar to how Nullpack did the blood spear thing. I'm unsure of the effects though. Bleed on hit?
-Other uses for gems, as they come from the earth and would most likely fit in (maybe for conjuring?)
-Volcanic activity. Stone Wardens have Deeprock but this would go a bit deeper than just summoning them.

Some bits from my doc:

- Rather than teleporting yourself, a talent that'd move an enemy towards you via shifting the ground. If you have a free conjured stone sword, on impact they'd be impaled, pinned and bleeding.
- Transform the staff into a stonespear. Innate Staff Mastery, have it interact with other talents that buff conjured weapons, and depending on what secondary stats the class uses, perhaps give it innate +damage from Con/Armor.
- Animating a gem as a guardian would work, like a take on cursed sentry. Talents would vary based on colour, but a fairly tanky floating gemstone that shoots elemental bolts with a few utility bits.
- You can have a fairly synergistic category with this. Basic talent can give innate chance to proc volcanos on it, rest of talents make volcanos do different things, command volcanos to attack, have volcanos project debuffing ash fields around them, etc.

Completely understandable.

1. Sounds like reverse Rush. That's actually a really cool idea. In fact, I wonder how such talents would effect certain race choices.
2. A stone spear sounds much better than just a point, I like it a lot. Making more Con an incentive like you see for Berserker is a big deal that I definitely approve of, as some are still hesitant to put points into it. Buffing your melee damage would be a good reason to max it for this class depending on how it scales.
3. A nice support summon at the cost of a gem would be very nice. I also like the previously mentioned idea of artifact gems making unique summons, it gives them a little more use than crystalline weapons for example. Depending on the range these would also be useful for things like mages and gunslingers.
4. This way of doing volcanoes sounds like a great way for dealing with large mobs or other sorts of crowd control. It reminds me slightly of Stone Spikes too, in that it surrounds one talent but gives it a whole lot of utility that makes it worth it.

Yeah that's a pretty good implementation. I was thinking a mix of summons and self buffs like adding gems to weapons but yours is cool.

By self buffs do you mean similar to Trikal's Maul, or with a different function?

Hurl Debris
Your winds pick up any nearby solid objects smaller then a well-grown dragon, hurling them in a direction of your choice. Enemies are knocked back (depending on their size category), dealt physical damage and stunned. Projectiles are displaced as well.

This sounds like it would serve the purpose I would see Onslaught having only it sucks much less. This combined with bringing people in would likely make for some great crowd control in a wide open space.

[Razakai]

Kinda like the maul, yeah. Pick a gem, it'd apply buffs to both your staff and any 'conjured' weapons like stone swords or your stone bullets. Like red gems giving fireburst projections etc, maybe a generic boost like +mag scaling based off gem tier.
And yeah you could prob create a multihued gem guardian that'd get elemental bolt rather than a plain bolt. Or go all out and make custom guardians for artifact gems, like goedelath rock summoning a corruptor/shadowflame pet.

Also I decided to start coding, and wrote most of their first tree. Tackled one of the trickier ones first as it intrigued me, most of it is working now. Pretty fun!

Code: Select all

Lava - Fire/Physical themed tree that acts as the basic ranged attack. Rather than spells, this relies on propelling superheated chunks of rock sourced from your sling pouch.

Searing Shot
Grants sling mastery, allows equipping sling ammo via Magic, and replaces Dex with Mag for the purpose of damage/accuracy. Activate to launch a shot at the target dealing fire/physical damage, without the need for a sling. 

Heat Metal
Searing Shot ignites the target, applying a small damage taken increase that stacks repeatedly. Each shot also deals bonus fire damage based on stacks.

Molten Boulder
Spells other than Searing Shot grant charges. On reaching max charge, your next Searing Shot instead fires a slow moving, highly damaging molten boulder - those hit by it are knocked back, potentially being crushed by the boulder repeatedly.

Lacerating Shards
Sustain that transforms your Searing Shot to also fire multiple rock shards in a narrow cone, striking a number of secondary targets for physical damage. Your Molten Boulder instead explodes on reaching it's end point, dealing high damage to nearby enemies.

[Erenion]

Or go all out and make custom guardians for artifact gems, like goedelath rock summoning a corruptor/shadowflame pet.

Let's make some, then!

Windborne Azurite: Crackling Conglomerate
A mass of pale blue shards, swirling in a chaotic pattern. Lightning arcs between them, making your skin tingle faintly.
Has 100% lightning resistance, 50% cold resistance, -20% fire and physical resistance.
Knows the Chain Lightning, Hurricane and Shock talents and has lightning_daze_tempest = 33.
Massive lightning retaliation damage.

Burning Star: The Sun Shard
Radiant and awe-inspiring, this shape is too bright for you to look at directly.
Has 100% light resistance.
Light radius 8, Illuminate, Bathe in Light, Sun Pallys Sun Ray, Sun's Vengeance, Phantasmal Shield.

Prothotipe's Prismatic Eye: The Gazing One
A massive crystalline eye, gazing malevolently at everything around it.
Knows Eye Beam, Lightning, Flame at level 5 or higher, Spellcraft.

Goedalath Rock: The Stone of Blood
On the outside, it appears to just be a statue - but you made it, and so you can sense the violent, disturbed energy just underneath its surface.
Knows Soul Rot, Darkfire, Dark Portal, Poison Storm and Blood Fury.

Telos Staff Crystal: Avatar of Telos
This crystal has, despite your attempts to shape it differently, taken on a humanoid form. And it seems very angry at you for attempting to change it.
Has NO ally compassion.
Knows Virulent Disease, Cold Flames, Dissolving Acid, Dark Ritual, Blightzone, Ice Storm and Uttercold.

Lifebinding Emerald: The Soul of the Green
This avatar - you have no other words for it - is almost completely alive, moss growing all over it and plants springing to life nearby.
Has an aura similar to Tree of Life, but also increases armor of nearby allies.
Strong melee attacker, but no talents. Incredibly high life regen.

Petrified Wood: Avatar of Rage
A form made of rage and pain. Whatever you felt before fades away when you look at it, to be replaced with a sensation of incredible suffering.
Knows Madness, Hateful Whisper, Agony, Body of Flame and Fire Storm.
High armor.

Crystal Focus: Twinkling Wisp
Small and mischievous, this tiny shape seems to fade out of vision whenever you are not looking directly at it.
Knows Phase Door at a reduced cooldown. Knows Elemental Bolt.

Crystal Heart: The Simulacrum
It is... you. If you were taller than life, and also made of crystal.
100% arcane resistance, 50% arcane affinity.
Knows Manathrust, Aether Breach and Pure Aether. Arcane retaliation damage.

Runed Skull: The Burning Bones
You can almost discern a humanoid shape encased within the crystal - as if a skeleton was encased, like in amber. Burning amber.
Knows Flameshock, Flame, Flame Infusion, Flame of Urh'Rok and Burning Wake.

Ureslaks Focus: Profaned Dead
You are not sure how a crystal can be undead, but this one is.
Knows Raze, Infectious Miasma and Circle of Death. (yes, we can give it EoR talents since this one is from EoR)
Is undead.