The Harrier (Throwing-Knives: The Class)

[astralInferno]

Yeah, another one. This one's a rogue focusing on throwing-knives!
Try it here!

"While most knife-wielders turn to stealth and shadows, you prefer to arm and defend yourselves with the simplest of measures - distance.
You fight nearly entirely with throwing knives, although you can throw a mean punch between throws.
You like to keep most of your enemies at a distance while dealing with one of them up close."
They use: Dexterity and Cunning.,
Stat modifiers:
+0 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +0 Constitution
+0 Magic, +0 Willpower, +5 Cunning
Life per level: +2",

(whoops the in-game desc still has a line from my last addon in it)
Talent Trees Known:
["technique/throwing-knives"]={true, 0.4}, --core.
["cunning/dirty"]={true, 0.3}, --unarmed synergy, fits theme very well
["cunning/trapping"]={true, 0.3}, --I'm not a huge fan but it's pseudo-ranged physical damage so it seems right

--new class trees
["technique/harrying"]={true, 0.3}, --cc to keep them at a distance
["cunning/lurk"]={true, 0.3}, --defences and athletics

--high level
["cunning/artifice"]={false, 0.1}, --hidden blades supports unarmed theme and doesnt have a range limit, rogue's brew defends
["cunning/stealth"]={false, 0.1}, --I was specifically asked to add this and sure why not
["cunning/shadow-magic"]={false, 0.1}, --shadow magic works on the knives, also its cool
["technique/battle-tactics"]={false, 0.1}, --greater weapon focus nuff said
--new high level
["cunning/hail-of-blades"]={false, 0.1}, --fast knife attacks
["technique/throwing-blades"]={false, 0.1}, --heavy knife attacks

--generic
["cunning/lethality"]={true, 0.3}, --needed for cun knives
["cunning/survival"]={true, 0.3}, --everyone gets this
["cunning/scoundrel"]={false, 0.3}, --optional for added bleed and trickery
["technique/combat-training"]={true, 0.3}, --everyone gets this
["technique/mobility"]={true, 0.3}, --important for defence, escape
--new generic
["cunning/juggling"]={true, 0.3},--unarmed+throwing knives

unlockable_talents_types = {
["cunning/poisons"]={true, 0.3, "rogue_poisons"},

I know they have too many locked trees, but they all add fun possibilities!

Cunning/Juggling
"Use your bare hands to better manage your throwing knives, and get in a few extra hits."
An unarmed Generic category.

Knife Juggler
Your skill at handling multiple moving objects helps you to use your throwing knives with great accuracy and speed.
As long as you're unarmed, you reload one additional knife her turn. This will be reflected in Throwing Knives' tooltip.
Additionally, at Knife Juggler level two or higher, all throwing knife attacks made while unarmed deal an additional (up to 20)% damage.
If they would deal physical damage, 33% of that damage is dealt as a bleed over 5 turns. All tooltips will include this as part of the base damage.
Thanks to your comfort with being unarmed, you naturally gain 0.5 Physical Power per character level while unarmed (current brawler physical power bonus: n) and attack 20% faster while unarmed.

Deadly Hands
Your hands are as deadly as your knives.
Increases weapon damage by (33-76)% and physical power by 30 when fighting unarmed.
Additionally, when you reload your throwing knives, you regain (2-5) stamina for moving; or (4-11) for standing still.

Circle of Death
Your easy motions and cheerful demeanor make you a frightening presence. As you focus on one target, you can activate this talent to scare nearby foes (within (2-4)).
Affected foes will flee (3-5) spaces on instinct, as if knocked back.
This effect checks fear immunity, not knockback immunity, and does not check saves.

Watch the Hands
While your knives are deady, it's a mistake to pay too much attention to them.
Whenever you hit with a throwing knife, if you are unarmed, you will attack an adjacent foe for %d%% unarmed damage.
If you're not adjacent to a foe, you will first dash adjacent to a foe within 3. (The dash will happen first, and will occur even if armed. It will not reload a knife.)
Both dash and attack cost %0.1f stamina, for a combined cost of %0.1f. The effect will not trigger if you have less stamina available.
Struck foes are juggled for five turns. As long as you either moved or attacked, the effect will go on cooldown (as an other-type detrimental effect) for five turns.
Being juggled has no intrinsic effect, but represents a character being too off-balance to properly threaten you - they will not get knocked away by Circle of Death, and they will be subject to the damage reduction of Duck and Cover (Cunning/Lurk) regardless of distance.

Technique/Harrying
"Use throwing knives to distract and weaken your foes."
A category full of active knife throws to injure and debilitate foes.

Through the Boot
You throw a knife at the target's feeting, pinning them to the ground through their feet.
The knife deals (70-150)% throwing knife damage to a foe within the normal range of (as throwing knives), and attempts to pin for (3-7) turns. (Applied with physical power.)

Heavy Blade
You ready a much heavier knife, and aim for the centre of mass.
The knife deals (100-170)% throwing knife damage to a foe within the normal range of (as throwing knives). Additionally, the weight of it tries to knock them back 4 spaces. (Applied with physical power vs physical save.)

Arterial Aim
You take aim, and launch a single knife at a target's vulnerable spots.
The knife deals (140-210)% throwing knife damage to a foe within the normal range of (as throwing knives). Additionally, the target will bleed for another (70-105)% damage over 5 turns. ((14-21%)% per turn).
If you know the Knife Juggler talent (Cunning/Juggling), it will directly increase the damage of this attack.

Agonising Precision
You throw a knife with one goal only - dealing the most pain.
The knife deals %d%% throwing knife damage to a foe within the normal range of %d.
Additionally, they are so overcome with pain that they find it hard to concentrate, and are slowed by %d%% for 3 turns.

Cunning/Lurk
"Use throwing knives to defend yourself by keeping your distance."
A category full of defensive and evasive effects.

Sleight of Hand
Your arms move so fast that they're difficult to see, and you begin to sway and shift, maximising your movement to make you very hard to track.
Whenever you throw a knife, you create a stack of Blurred Hands, increasing your raw defense by (3-10).
You can gain a maximum of (2-7) stacks, for a total raw bonus of (6-70).

Backflip Ballistics
You flip over nearby enemies to a spot within two spaces, throwing a knife at the apex of your height.
The knife will strike a foe within 5 of your landing spot for (60-120)% knife damage.
This talent cannot be used while wearing heavy armor, and leaves you exhausted.
The exhaustion increases the cost of Backflip Ballistics and your activated Technique/Mobility talents by (75-40)% (stacking), but fades over (10-5) turns.
Backflip Ballistics will also have its cost increased by Mobility talents.

Duck and Cover
To distant foes, you are a dancing, waving figure, blurred by mist and distance. They can't be entirely sure you even exist.
Because of this, they can't target you effectively. This means that all foes more than two spaces away from you have their damage against you reduced by (15-33)%, while you snipe them from the shadows with well-placed knives.

Isolate and Eliminate
You trick an enemy away from the group, allowing you to focus on them exclusively.
No-one will interrupt the two of you for (3-7) turns, and they will be shocked enough to be Juggled for the same duration.
Being juggled has no intrinsic effect, but represents a character being too off-balance to properly threaten you - they will not get knocked away by Circle of Death (Cunning/Juggling), and they will be subject to the damage reduction of Duck and Cover regardless of distance.
(You are both transported to a safe place.)
If they die, you get to relax for the rest of the duration. this should probably be in the desc.

Technique/Throwing Blades
"Use heavier throwing knives to deal high damage with single strikes."
An advanced level 10 category focusing on big slow single hits.

Launch Greatknife
The so-called greatknife, a weapon invented to get around laws forbidding the carrying of swords. Not designed to be thrown.
(As if that's gonna stop you.)
Because of its size and power, the greatknife deals a staggering (200-350)% of your normal knife damage. It has the normal range of (as Throwing Knives).
(That bit about laws is based on real historical events! I couldn't work out where that might've happened in Eyal so I didn't bother trying.)

Sickening Shnck
You have a canny eye, knowing where best to place your strikes to split your foes in two with a fountain of blood.
You gain (3-10)% critical strike chance, and (5-20)% bonus critical damage.
As a bonus, the sickening noise that occurs when you land such a blow inflicts fear in a radius of 2 around the target, reducing damage inflicted by (15-32)%.
Effects scale with talent level. This fear is affected by fear immunity, but does not check saves.

Weighted Weapons
You prefer to take your time, striking foes with one heavy strike rather than a hail of small ones.
Your new weapons are fired at half speed.
However, they deal (240-320% of normal knife damage. (Note that this will only affect the weapon's base damage multiplier, not the listed damage stats.)
(ahhhh I only learnt like two days ago that the listed damage range isn't actually the weapon's base damage. weapons don't even HAVE base damage. just multipliers. AHHHH.)

Executioner Instinct
You sense weakness in your foes. When the fighting spirit begins to falter, you strike with one final blow, crushing all resistance.
When increasing an instance of damage you deal by (20-60)% would cause it to kill the foe, you do so.

Cunning/Hail of Blades
"Use throwing knives in massive numbers to lacerate your foes."
An advanced level 10 category focusing on hitting many, many times.

Pincushion
When you really need it, you can grab a handful of lightweight knives, piercing a single foe five times in the blink of an eye.
You throw five knives without requiring or using knife stacks. Each one deals (40-100)% knife damage to the target. ((200-500)% damage total if all five hit.

Blade Bandolier
Many scoundrels play with hails of knives, but you have made it an art form.
Because of the incredible speed with which you burn through your stocks, you have taken to carrying a large supply of spares.
Activate this talent to instantly reload your knives to their maximum of (as Throwing Knives).
At talent levels higher than one, you concentrate on making use of your excess of armaments, increasing your speed with throwing knives by (0-35)%.
This stacks with the increase from the Quickdraw talent, for a total increase of (5-70?)%. (Throwing Knives take (down to a disappointing minimum of 60)% of a turn to use.)

Blade Bomber
The key to victory is skill, cunning - and advanced technology. By putting explosive goop in the middle of a whole bunch of sharp things, you can penetrate multiple targets at the same time.
You can throw this bomb out to your normal knife range of (as Throwing Knives), and it explodes in a radius of 3.

All creatures within the area will be struck as if by one of your knives, taking (100-180)% knife damage each.
Lobbing the blade bomb is less graceful than you are accustomed to. This talent cannot trigger Sleight of Hand. (Cunning/Lurk)

Ambidextrous Assault
You ready a knife in each hand, and become a maelstrom of blades.
For the next five turns, you automatically throw a knife with your offhand at a foe within (as Throwing Knives), at the cost of 5 stamina.
This deals (30-70)% knife damage and uses ammo as normal. If you have no ammo or no stamina, nothing will happen.

Changelog
1.0.1
-fixed typo in init.lua description
-removed stray desc text remaining from the addon I copied this from
-changed reference to brawler physpower bonus
-no longer use the word 'feeting'.
-fixed typo in circle of death, stray )s in several descriptions
-changed agonising precision to a slow, made it juggle too
-changed ambidextrous assault to mention knives instead of ammo
-blade bomber no longer has friendly fire
-sickening shnk now mentions its cooldown in the desc. sorry about that, I added it late in dev.
-added a security line for duck and cover to account for things that cant have effects
-changed weighted weapons to a sustain
-added missing Quickdraw req to weighted weapons.

1.0.2
-now starts with gloves equipped and gauntlets in inventory
-fixed typo in knife juggler
-ungendered the message log from circle of death
-Removed mention of 5-hit limit in throwing knives
-added locked Stealth for rukaneo
-quickdraw now works with knives for all harriers (tied to Knife Juggler) instead of being limited to Pincushion-ers
-made Watch the Hands a LOT weaker, but also less annoying and more QoL-y.
-Nerfed the slow on agonising precision.
-forced movement - knockbacks and pulls, but also teleports, dashes, and jumps - all movement, in fact - now causes a reload.
-fixed backflip ballistics
-buffed blade bomber damage
-Pincushion now hits three times for slightly reduced damage (500%>450%). this class gets such a benefit from on-hits, and pincushion was resulting in dozens of separate hits.
-battle tactics uses str/dex reqs

1.0.3
-fix for blurred hands not updating on additional stacks.

1.0.4
-groundwork update for Viper compatibility. of note, harriers will get Cunning/Toxins.
-also fixed dying in isolate and eliminate trapping you forever in a quiet urban purgatory

1.0.5
-new harriers spawn with pugilism as a locked tree. why not?
-sleight of hand now lists duration
-cunning/lurk is now an unarmed category, as are throwing blades and hail of blades
-Harrying isnt, but 3/4 of its talents have reduced effect while armed.
-fixed a typo in watch the hands
-executioner instinct is now banned on npcs
-npcs don't get scaling damage on greatknives, but its cooldown reduces for them instead.
-the speed penalty of weighted weapons is reduced, but it now significantly reduces knife projectile speed while active.
-greatknives also have reduced projectile speed, but the reductions don't stack.
-weighted weapons should now actually double damage while used. we'll see.
-all four harrying talents will not break stealth on use. (They might still break stealth when the knife hits? unsure how that works, I dont use stealth.)
-minor groundwork for next content patch.

[Seventeer]

It feels like the damage of throwing-knives is lower than nomal ？
if the 33% damage converts into bleed，not do additional bleed ？

[astralInferno]

Okay, so how it works is...

Knife Juggler directly improves the damage you deal by x%.
In the code for Throwing Knives, your damage is multiplied according to Knife Juggler.

It's done this way so that if you do an attack that isn't doing physical damage, you still get the bonus damage.

Then, the damage type that I set for the knife attacks checks to see if you have Knife Juggler. If you do, it splits off 33% of the damage, and applies it as a bleed, doing 1/5th (6.6%) per turn.

This does mean that enemies that can't bleed take 33% less damage.

So, yes. Its 33% blewed CONVERSION, and a smaller damage BONUS that is included in throwing knives.
If you level knife juggler up and down again, you should be able to see it changing the damage in the Throwing Knives tooltip.

[Laughmore]

Minor stuff:

In description of Knife Juggler, "..you reload one additional knife her turn." Should it be "per" instead of "her"?

When using Circle of Death, it says in the log, on my male character, "..terrifies her foes with a grin!" Is there a way to have it say "his" for male characters/ "her" just for females?

I thought Backflip Ballistics wasn't "flipping" over monsters; it turns out that I kept trying to flip over diagonally. Hit up against diagonal goes 1, 3, 4, ..., which is in the game logic (not your addon logic). Non-diagonal flips do go over monsters.

Is there a way you can counter that just for a diagonal jump?

[furioussouls]

I haven't played yet but some of the skills are weird

- Agonizing precision: CD 6 turns that slows for 70% for 3 turns? Don's you think it's a bit too OP?
- Knife juggler: You gain 0,5 PhysPower per level, means 25 at lvl 50. Since stats are rescaled, this does basically nothing.
- Watch the hands: If the class is designed to keep distance from foes, what's the point of rushing in?

[astralInferno]

Minor stuff:

In description of Knife Juggler, "..you reload one additional knife her turn." Should it be "per" instead of "her"?

When using Circle of Death, it says in the log, on my male character, "..terrifies her foes with a grin!" Is there a way to have it say "his" for male characters/ "her" just for females?

I thought Backflip Ballistics wasn't "flipping" over monsters; it turns out that I kept trying to flip over diagonally. Hit up against diagonal goes 1, 3, 4, ..., which is in the game logic (not your addon logic). Non-diagonal flips do go over monsters.

Is there a way you can counter that just for a diagonal jump?

typo noted, thank you!

my bad on circle of death. xD I was clearly in a writing/rping mood and forgot male characters existed. I'll see how hard it is to put player gender in there, change it to 'their' if its obnoxious. :p

Are you sure that backflip ballistics has enough range to go diagonally? it might be treating some of the diagonal squares as two, meaning that it doesnt have enough range to flip over someone..?
but that's just spitballing. I'll... see about looking at it when I can, but I can't promise anything.

I haven't played yet but some of the skills are weird

- Agonizing precision: CD 6 turns that slows for 70% for 3 turns? Don's you think it's a bit too OP?
- Knife juggler: You gain 0,5 PhysPower per level, means 25 at lvl 50. Since stats are rescaled, this does basically nothing.
- Watch the hands: If the class is designed to keep distance from foes, what's the point of rushing in?

I took the sllow scaling from Blood Boil, which also does a similar slow. In retrospect, blood boil requires jumping through hoops, so I'll probably cap it at 50%. I dont mind it being high since it's meant to be a primary defensive ability.
the physical power bonus is an unarmed thing. Look at Unarmed Mastery in Unarmed Training, it does the same.
The class is perfectly happy closing with one foe. it doesn't want to be surrounded. That's what Juggled is for. I've been doing an actual Harrier run myself, and I'm probably going to give Watch a cooldown and a damage boost, though.

[Kato]

I suppose that Sleight of Hand always gives me raw defense as stack 1, regardless of the stack number.

[astralInferno]

sleight of hand always gives raw defense, so it's always going to be rescaled.

also, patch time! Based mostly on my own experiences doing a run to 50.
1.0.2
-now starts with gloves equipped and gauntlets in inventory
-fixed typo in knife juggler
-ungendered the message log from circle of death
-Removed mention of 5-hit limit in throwing knives
-added locked Stealth for rukaneo
-quickdraw now works with knives for all harriers (tied to Knife Juggler) instead of being limited to Pincushion-ers
-made Watch the Hands a LOT weaker, but also less annoying and more QoL-y.
-Nerfed the slow on agonising precision.
-forced movement - knockbacks and pulls, but also teleports, dashes, and jumps - all movement, in fact - now causes a reload.
-fixed backflip ballistics
-buffed blade bomber damage
-Pincushion now hits three times for slightly reduced damage (500%>450%). this class gets such a benefit from on-hits, and pincushion was resulting in dozens of separate hits.
-battle tactics uses str/dex reqs

[Kato]

Well, I mean the stacks beyond 1 don't work.
If my defense is 23(Tier2) and the talent gives me 6 raw defense per stack, my defense is 26 when I get the first stack.
However, my defense is still 26 even when I have 3 stacks(should be 32 or so)

[astralInferno]

oh! I didn't understand what you were saying.

1.0.3
-fix for blurred hands not updating on additional stacks.

[Kaja Rainbow]

Just found a rather nasty bug. If you die while in the area you go to by using Isolate and Eliminate, you're stuck in that area once you go back.

[astralInferno]

...seems that I never mentioned fixing that! My bad. I did, though, in 1.0.4.

1.0.4
-groundwork update for Viper compatibility. of note, harriers will get Cunning/Toxins.
-also fixed dying in isolate and eliminate trapping you forever in a quiet urban purgatory

(its funny because that Viper patch still hasnt come out yet)

1.0.5, aka the STOP USING WEAPONS patch:
-new harriers spawn with pugilism as a locked tree. why not?
-sleight of hand now lists duration
-cunning/lurk is now an unarmed category, as are throwing blades and hail of blades
-Harrying isnt, but 3/4 of its talents have reduced effect while armed.
-fixed a typo in watch the hands
-executioner instinct is now banned on npcs
-npcs don't get scaling damage on greatknives, but its cooldown reduces for them instead.
-the speed penalty of weighted weapons is reduced, but it now significantly reduces knife projectile speed while active.
-greatknives also have reduced projectile speed, but the reductions don't stack.
-weighted weapons should now actually double damage while used. we'll see.
-all four harrying talents will not break stealth on use. (They might still break stealth when the knife hits? unsure how that works, I dont use stealth.)

[scul]

I really enjoy playing your class as well as the additional challenge/variety it gives to rare and unique enemies.
One thing that I was curious about, you mentioned that scaling damage was eliminated for greatknives wielded by NPCs.

I was just one shotted for about 1650 damage. Granted my physical resistance was very low, and I do pretty much only play on insane but it just seems like the scaling might need tweaking?
Full health, step around a corner, no time to shield or put up additional defenses, just instant death.

That number was reduced by resistance and class damage reduction of almost 100 (so it was likely about 2000 base damage crit, no other damage added on, just the single launch greatknife skill).
Is this just an insane thing, or the class is just not tuned for the buffs on insane? Just curious.

PS Salty at losing a character to this, but I know it is insane so those are the risks

[astralInferno]

I play on normal so I absolutely don't/can't balance for insane, sorry!

the Greatknife talent scales its cooldown for NPCs, and its damage for PCs - players always have cooldown 6, and NPCs always have 200% damage.

NPCs still get the class's other scaling factors - Sickening Shnck gives them boosted critical damage, Weighted Weapons gives double+ damage (remember base damage is roughly that of a knife, though), and Executioner Instinct gives boosted damage when it'd get you a kill - oh, but I already prohibited that on NPCs.

If I remember rightly, Insane gives very high talent levels, which likely boosts the effects of these skills to Very scary numbers.

Sorry this happened, glad you're otherwise enjoying it!