Sun Paladins

[darkgod]

*WARNING* This is obviously spoilly, as anything in the dev forum


Sun Paladins will be one of the new playable class, wont tell how they get unlocked obviously
They will use a new kind of talents (akin to techniques, spells, wild gifts, ...) called divine.

Divine is obviously related to the valar but in a distant way, sun paladins as their name says revere the sun (and thus Arien).
They are a melee/caster hybrid that uses weapon & shields + divine talents.

The current divine schools are as follow:
- Chants: 4 chants as sustained effects, only one is active at one time
- Light: healing & protection (not sure this is sucha bright(...) idea to have too many talents to heal)
- Sun: light/fire based attacks
- Combat(divine): melee enhancement, will remind a bit of tulkas
- Glyphs (not accessible to sun paladins): setup glyphs on the floor for various effects

Divine talents mostly use the magic stat.

Now I am not sure what power source to bind on them.
Currently we have:
- techniques/cunning: stamina
- spells: mana
- wild gifts: equilibrium

Each working in a different way.
Now I am not sure what to do with divine. Piety is the obvious one but I am not sure how it would work. I also dont want to associate the valar too closely, so probably no worshipping.
They could use mana but I'd not so happy with it.

Currently they use nothing and are based on longer cooldowns, this can work maybe.

Note that at least an other class will use divine talents, the Anorithil (sun-moon mage, better name is welcome) which will be more like mages, using the existing divine talents + divine talents bound to the moon.

[bio_hazard]

Name for the mage: Astral Mage or Celestial Mage?

As for the Paladin, I like the idea. It seems like something close to equilibrium would fit with piety, so I could see the mechanics being pretty similar.

Not sure how far you have this worked out DG but here are a few quick thoughts for spells and abilities:

Chants:
Divine Wrath: Extra dam against undead (and/or evil), piety regained with killing undead
Helping Hand: Piety cost and cooldowns reduced
Radiance: Light radius +X, chance to detect traps/stealth monsters increased

Instant Activations:
Inner Reflection: Recover Piety
Blinding Shield: Shield Bash with chance to blind, at higher levels, chance for auto melee hit if successful.
Rising Sun: Light room. Higher levels- act like blur vision.
Dazzle: multiple rapid, lower damage melee hits with chance to stun.

Longer effects:
Divine Shield: Boost defense, resistances
Summon Protector:
Healing Light- heals self and allies, higher level cures poison and disease

Not sure about Glyphs- cool idea though!

[madmonk]

Sun Power = Equilibrium but with a twist.

So during the daytime equilibrium goes back to zero (automatically and at a slow rate), but at night time or when in darkness Sun power does not do this - it can only increase.

You could have fun with the Twilight Mage (Anorithil) and introduce a second equilibrium Moon Power. (Which exhibits the same behaviour as Sun Power but in reverse).

So give the Twilight Mage both moon and sun power... along with some spells that use both!

[darkgod]

Ah yes it could work a bit like equilibrium.
The dual nature of twilight mage could be fun (damn it when I say twilight mage I half expecta shining-in-the-light vampire to show up ...)


As for spells, I have those for now:
* Chants (in addition to their effect all chants provide a small light damage to attackers); all sustained
- chant of fortitude: +spell/physical resistance
- chant of fortress: +physical damage reduction
- chant of resistance: +elemental resistance
- chant of light: +light %damage
* Light
- healing light: direct self heal
- bathe in light: healing zone, both you and foes if standing in it
- barrier: temporary damage shield
- second life: sustained, if active whe a damage blow would kill you it does no kill you but puts you at X% life and puts all your abilities on cooldown
* Sun
- searing light: ranged light damage bolt + DOT (on the floor not on the target)
- Sunflare: low light damage PBAOE + blinds
- Firebeam: fire damage in a beam
- Sunburst: high light damage PBAOE
* Combat(divine)
- weapon of light: +light damage on melee blows
- martyrdom: target becomes a martyr, any damage it deals also deals it some
- wave of power: project a melee blow to a ranged distance
- crusade: normal melee attack but deals only light damage(thus ignoring physical damage reduction) and heavier hitting
* Glyphs (not accessible to sun paladins)
- glyph of explosion: a "light trap"
- glyph of warding: prevents passage
- glyph of repulsion: knockbacks passing actors
- glyph of paralysis: daze actors (daze is a stun that breaks on damage)

[Final Master]

I like the concept, I like the idea, I like the abilities. However, the Bathe in Light, I'm going to assume is a cloud like effect? So it active for multiple turns. That's fine and all, but would a Sun Paladin have much use for it during combat, seeing as it has a one shot heal? I guess if you are able to deal a lot more damage a turn than that could heal then it's a huge plus in a 1 v 1fight... I dunno. I like the spell, just don't see too many options for it yet.

[bio_hazard]

I agree with Final Master- healing light could could be targetable at higher levels in the event you needed to heal an ally.

A couple of other thoughts- it seems like if there was a need for more glyphs, that the ones you have could be combined. Light could be Dazzle at higher levels, and warding could be repulsion at higher levels. Same with the bolt/beam and AoE spells under Sun.

Another thought- how about a Conversion ability? Maybe as a chant or sustained- if a critical hit would kill the NPC, the paladin has the choice to convert into ally.

[rmeakins]

Just trying to imagine a tricky battle involving a Sun Paladin and a demon... I'm thinking it would be really nice if some of those abilities could be activated without using up a turn. For example bathe in light - would you really use it in a battle if it gave the demon a free round to deal damage? Unless it's meant to be a non-combat ability.

Also, you could start chanting and swing a battle-axe at the same time

[registeringislame]

Seems like sustains should be free to turn on. (That is take no time There is already a penalty and cooldown for turning them off.

[Final Master]

That's actually a really good idea to make them a free turn, however, would that make some of them too powerful for their current effect? And, would turning on multiple sustained talents in succession all be considered free? That could get a bit out of hand with some melee builds...

[darkgod]

I think I found their ressource system:
They have Positive energy. It starts at 0, and fills up when then use light/sun talents and empties when they use divine combat talents.
This provides a nice alternance of spells to use.
An it decays over time. no hoarding!

Star mages will have both positive and negative energy, both decaying over time. Their light spells will incraese positive energy and they can then use a talent to convert it to negative energy to cast their other spells.

They probably wont make it into beta 3 though

[Final Master]

That is an actually incredibility cool and innovative way to handle talent points in this case. I love it.

[aztec]

Ideas for Healing Light and Bathe in Light

Healing Light: (Single) Heals whoever the target is for x% health. If target is undead or Evil, deals damage instead.

Bathe in Light: (AOE) Basically does the same thing except its targeting is like that of Corrosive Vapor. It won't be that useful if you're playing alone except to AOE damage undead, but if T.O.M.E. gets co-op play then it could be a good skill to have (unless your ally is an undead race).

[darkgod]

So how are them ?

[Shoob]

once I get my computer up and running I will say, until then I cant really say nothing.

[Jaorin]

I think they are pretty interesting to play. The give and take nature of their energy system is really cool. It was a lot of fun to do so much passive damage/damage over time.

The spell effects look great.

It seems kind of difficult to balance all of your stat needs. You've got to worry about str and mag for you talents, dex for hitting stuff, and con for survival. I didn't put anything into dex or con and got wiped out on the merchant quest at level 6 (I wasn't very well equiped though).

I'm definitely not playing these guys very well.