Idea for a new class

[The Cosmic Gerbil]

On the wiki I have posted up a page about an idea I had for a new class...the Soul-Stealer. Here is a link to it http://wiki.t-o-m-e.net/IdeaArchive_2fM ... _2dstealer

There is a discussion about what to actually call the new class (as you can read form the link). So I have made a poll here. If you choose "A different name altogether", please suggest one if you can. I am rubbish at thinking up names, so I need all the help I can get

Also I wondered if anybody has any ideas about what races should be allowed to play as the new class. So far I think: humans, half-elves, orcs, yeeks and mindflayers. If anyone has any ideas and suugestions on this, please post them up.

Cosmic Gerbil (r )

[MCKelly]

Ok, here's my $10.02:

Love the concept. Could make for as interesting a game as a possessor is now. There are some changes I would make, though...

First off, I voted for different name altogether. If it were me, I'd name the class something akin to "Reaper" or "Soul Harvester". Both retain the element of evil that Gerbil is looking for. And come on, who wouldn't want to be a Soul Harvester?

Second, hear me out on a suggestion for the implementation. For those of you familar with the Elder Scrolls series of RPGs (Morrowind, now Oblivion, etc.), there is a concept of a "soul gem". Follow me down this road...the character would start off with an array of soul gems whose "capacity" is rather limited (i.e. a "weak" or "petty" soul gem). You could either make monsters' souls worth a certain amount of soul energy, or tie the number into monster level (so levelled monsters yield higher energy). Along the way, the character may find/buy larger soul gems to store souls of more powerful monsters. The soul gems change to reflect a particular ego type depending on the soul trapped in the gem:

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The Cyclops's soul is trapped in the Average Soul Gem!
You have an Average Soul Gem (Cyclops).

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The Cyclops's soul is trapped in the Grand Soul Gem!
You have an Grand Soul Gem (Cyclops).

The character could then imbue a piece of equipment with the filled soul gem to grant it extra powers. The larger the gem, the more powers specific monsters' souls grant:

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You imbue the Average Soul Gem (Cyclops) with a Broad Sword (+0, +0).
You have a Broad Sword of Cyclops (+0, +0) (+2).

An Average gem may yield a Broad Sword that increases strength by 2.

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You imbue the Grand Soul Gem (Cyclops) with a Broad Sword (+0, +0).
You have a Broad Sword of Cyclops (+0, +0) (+2).

A Grand gem may increase strength by 2 and grant bonuses to searching and seeing invisible, etc.

You could place a restriction that uniques could only be trapped in the highest quality gem, but their soul would make a weapon sentient up to the unique's clvl or grant a piece of armor an immunity or two, or something along those lines. Some extra evil uniques may be especially powerful, but also have "accursed souls" that curse the weapon with AFC or Morgothian or something.

Expanding upon the concept, perhaps a player could set a Soul Gem in an empty amulet/ring and receive powers that way.

Granted, this is all very complex, and you'd have to carry a variety of soul gems to accomplish exactly what you want to, but it would make for a more strategic game than any other imaginable.

Sorry for the long post...guess that's actually more like my $35.02

[The Cosmic Gerbil]

Yay, thanks for the suggestions of names . I really *really* like Soul Harvester...it does give the class an element of fear and horror. You can imagine a dude in an inn saying to the innkeeper "there is a Soul Harvester in town" and everyone would go quiet and stop drinking

The idea for soul gems sounds cool, although I'm not sure how I would code it. I think definately there should be different levels of gem available, because one of the problems I was having was how to limit the powers to a realistic level, especially where uniques were concerned. It should be harder to "use" a unique monster's soul, so limiting their soul storage to high quality (and therefore rare or expensive) soul gems would prevent the class from becoming too easy.

Cosmic Gerbil (r )

[MCKelly]

Great! I wonder if you can add names to an existing poll...

You're right, the coding would be tricky. Mind you, I've never code-dived ToME, I have no knowledge of LUA at all, and very very basic C skills. Still, I know this is no easy task, but there may be a way to simplify it:

Above, I stated making each monster worth a specific amount of soul energy. What I meant to suggest is that each monster has a predetermined "level" of soul energy. For the sake of argument and ease of math, let's scale it from 1-5, with 1 being the weakest, 4 being the strongest non-unique, and 5 being unique. Now, correlate that with types of soul gems:

• Petty - Capacity of 1
  Lesser - Capacity of 2
  Average - Capacity of 3
  Grand - Capacity of 4
  Ultimate - Capacity of 5

Say, for example, that a Young Dragon has a soul energy level of 1, a Mature Dragon is a 2, an Ancient Dragon is a 3, a Great Wyrm is 4, and Glaurung is 5. If you have a Petty Soul Gem, you can only trap one Young dragon (anything else surpasses the gem's capacity limit). But if you have an Average Soul Gem, you can trap 1 Ancient Dragon, 3 Young dragons, or 1.5 (ceiling to 2 or floor to 1? your choice) Mature Dragons. The better the gem, the more powers are conferred to the player.

So if I have a Petty Soul Gem with a Young Red Dragon, maybe I imbue that and get rFire. An Average Soul Gem with a Mature Red or three Young Reds gets me rFire, breathe fire, and Flight if it's the Mature Dragon.

See where I'm going? This prevents Uniques from being trapped in anything but an Ultimate Soul Gem, and at that point the unique's actual clvl would determine the maximum sentient level a weapon can achieve (or the number of major powers armor will receive).

Sorry for these lengthy posts...ever since this topic came up, it's been pretty much a brain dump. And my brain dumps are ugly.

[The Cosmic Gerbil]

Don't worry about the long posts, I'm glad you are interested in the new class. It is a good idea to restrict uniques to level 5 gems as this balances out the class and prevents it from becoming too easy.

I'm not sure whether I could do sentinent weapons that reach the same level as the unique whose soul is contained inside them under the T2 Engine. That may have to wait for T3.

Lots of thanks for the ideas again I will try to do as many as possible.

Cosmic Gerbil (r )