Chronomancer (Class Idea: with Revisions added)

[edge2054]

Goal (for full revisions see the third reply down)
To create a playable mage-like class focused on time manipulation without breaking the engine by going into time travel per say.

Note this is still a work in progress. Just wanted to share what I had so far. Still need to flesh out the rest of the trees.

Chronmancer
A class of Archmage that focuses on the manipulation of time, space, and probability.

Credit to Taxorgian for some of these spell ideas.

Class Talents

New Trees
Chronomancy
- Ashes to Ashes (range 20): Target creature suffers X time damage. Damage increases with each talent point invested and with spellpower. At level 3 it becomes a beam.
- Regeneration: As the Nature spell.
- De-evolution (range 15): Creatures other then the caster in a radius of X devolve into savage beasts gaining +2 Str, Dex, and Con but lose -4 Magic, Wil, and Cunning for 5 turns. While the spell persists, affected creatures will attack the closest creature to them, regardless of faction and will favor melee over ranged or spell attacks. If more then one creature is equal distance from the affected creature, it will choose a random target of those targets available or attack the last creature that caused it damage, preferring the later. Radius increases with each talent point invested. Stat changes increase and decrease with spellpower.
- Evolutionary Perfection (Self): For the next 2 turns (+2 turns per talent point invested) you gain +10 Str, Dex, and Con as well as +10 to hit, damage, physical crit, defense and armor. Increases scale with spellpower.

Timeline Manipulation
- Destabilize Lifeline (range 20): For the next two turns the target is stunned and suffers X damage per turn. Duration increases with each talent point invested. Damage increases with spellpower. At level 3 it affects creatures in a radius of 2.
- See the Threads (passive) Gain +2 Magic and +2 Willpower per talent point invested.
- Temporal Clone: You summon a ‘clone’ of yourself from another timeline for 2 turns. The twin’s stats and equipment scale with your spellpower and the duration of the spell increases with each talent point invested. (Note this is basically just a cool summon, the stats don’t have to be based on the character’s own stats since the clone comes from an alternate timeline but a caster summon would be cool.)
- End of the Line (range 20): Target creature is killed (spell resistance applies). Creatures resisting the spell (or those immune such as bosses) suffer X damage instead. Damage increases with spellpower and each a talent point invested.

Advanced Chronomancy (Available at level 10)
- Spell Extension (self): Upon casting extends the duration of all spells active on the target by 1 turn per talent point invested. Scales with spellpower. (Note this spell should have a cooldown long enough that it can never be chained to keep your spells active forever).

Old Trees
Temporal (as the mage tree but open access)


General Talents
New Trees
Advanced Conveyance (available at level 10)

Probability Control
- Probability Sheild (passive): Adds +1 to Armor and Defense, Physical, Spell, and Mental Resistance and reduces the chance that you’ll be crit by 1% per talent point invested. Scales with Willpower (should probably cap at 3 per talent point invested for really high Willpower with 2 being more typical for the average winner who invests primarily in magic and has capped out the +10 Magic and Willpower talent. In other words 3% should really only happen when maxing Willpower through gear, rings etc.).
- Roll of the Dice (passive): All targeted incoming attacks have a 1% chance of being redirected onto any creature adjacent to you aside from the attacker. If no target is available the attack is instead counted as a miss. Redirection chance scales with Willpower (again probably shouldn’t go higher then 3% for really high willpower with 2% being more typical).
- Stroke (range 15): Creatures in a radius of 3 suffer X damage and are confused for 2 turns. (Creatures with no brain should be immune, undead, golems, etc.) Duration and damage increases with each talent point. Damage scales with spellpower.
- Fatespinner (passive): Use Willpower in place of Cunning for all crit calculations (physical and spell) and increases physical and spell crit by 2% per talent point invested.

Old Trees
Conveyance (as the mage tree)
Divination (as the mage tree)

[Taxorgian]

- Evolutionary Perfection (Self): For the next 2 turns (+2 turns per talent point invested) you gain +10 Str, Dex, and Con as well as +10 to hit, damage, physical crit, defense and armor. Increases scale with spellpower.

I would name this "Futuristic Robotic Exoskeleton" instead. After all, the "tendency" (bearing in mind that there are plenty of exceptions) would be for smarter but more fragile beings (compare humans to gorillas for example).

- Destabilize Lifeline (range 20): For the next two turns the target is stunned and suffers X damage per turn. Duration increases with each talent point invested. Damage increases with spellpower. At level 3 it affects creatures in a radius of 2.

However, since the monster is mixed with other realities, it has a 90% chance of resisting damage from any other source, since it gets channeled into an alternate reality.

- See the Threads (passive) Gain +2 Magic and +2 Willpower per talent point invested.

I would think this should be +2 MAG and +2 DEX instead. The DEX is due to prescience (so you dodge attacks better, and if you use a dagger, you know where the vital organs will be).

- Temporal Clone: You summon a ‘clone’ of yourself from another timeline for 2 turns. The twin’s stats and equipment scale with your spellpower and the duration of the spell increases with each talent point invested. (Note this is basically just a cool summon, the stats don’t have to be based on the character’s own stats since the clone comes from an alternate timeline but a caster summon would be cool.)

But the summoned 'clone' is always stunned for 2 turns initially ("Where am I?"). And in case the timeline is far enough away, it has a (60-level*10)% chance of being hostile; as you put more levels in you are better able to recognize the ones with Spock beards.

- End of the Line (range 20): Target creature is killed (spell resistance applies). Creatures resisting the spell (or those immune such as bosses) suffer X damage instead. Damage increases with spellpower and each a talent point invested.

Since this is presumably changing the timeline to the death of the creature, this spell should fully heal undead. Although if you are playing an undead since you were closer to your death at lower experience, you lose a half-level of experience as the additional price.

- Stroke (range 15): Creatures in a radius of 3 suffer X damage and are confused for 2 turns. (Creatures with no brain should be immune, undead, golems, etc.) Duration and damage increases with each talent point. Damage scales with spellpower.

Yuck. This is a mindcraft spell not a probability manipulation one. How about

Perfect Aim (activated, cooldown 7): All of your variable damage abilities are automatically maximized for X turns, whether physical or magical. [For example, if a spell does 45.18 to 72.11 damage, it would always be 72.11, subject to normal modifiers, to-hit, etc.] At 3/5 you have an additional 75% chance of a critical hit as well.

[edge2054]

No offense Tax, but I'm trying to follow this general principal, KISS and some of your suggestions over complicate things. Remember all of this would have to be coded, implemented, and then explained to the player.

I thought Stroke fit perfectly for probability manipulation. Granted it could work as a Mindcraft ability too but the idea that you're manipulating probability to cause a stroke to happen to a target seems to fit in my mind. That said I like Perfect Aim and had come up with a similar idea but nixed it since so few spells do variable damage (the lightning spells being the only exception I can think of off the top of my head). However I did think of a melee combatish tree while I was at work so maybe that could still work.

You're right about Evolutionary Perfection and I had the same thought when I picked the name. Any other name suggestions? Futuristic Robot Exoskeleton doesn't really mesh well with either what the tree is accomplishing (though it could be moved into another tree) or the game setting.

See the Threads could be renamed Wisdom of the Ages and moved to another tree. Yes I see your point about Dex but knowing what's coming and how the universe works isn't going to make you a better acrobat or better at typing. Changing it to +Magic, +Hit, and +Defense might work though.

End of the Line ends a creatures Life Line. It has nothing to do with age and even though some creatures are ageless there's no creature that I know of that can't be destroyed. Aside from that look back on the first paragraph.

For Destabilize Lifeline I think the idea you have makes sense but it would really weaken the ability, basically just turning it into a Time Bubble (or whatever the first Temporal spell is called) with an added DOT effect. Aside from that look back on the first paragraph.

The stunning on Temporal Clone would work but the base duration would have to be increased by two turns to accommodate the stun. I like the idea of evil clones and last night after I typed this up I imagined that this spell could have multiple possible clones. In other words you might get a clone who focuses on melee combat one time, then a caster clone the next, chosen randomly. The evil clone could be a clone type with the chance of getting a clone other then him being reduced with each talent point invested. But... again, first paragraph.

[edge2054]

Here’s the revisions I came up with while at work. Note that a lot of stuff has changed, some of the spells work differently and a few trees have been added.

With these revisions the Chronomancer has three class trees (with two more available at level 10) and four general trees (with one more available at level 10) which should allow for a lot of variety in builds.

I also have an idea on a quest to unlock this class. Basically at the mage town (Agnorwhatever) there’d be a quest giver added to the game who would give you a scroll to summon a purple worm on the lowest level of the sandworm liar that swallowed an ancient artifact (the Anchor of Spacetime from Tome 2). Upon killing the purple worm you get the Anchor and can either turn it in to the quest giver for a reward (Timekeepers Insight, permanent +2 Magic and +2 Will and unlocking of the Chronomancer class) or simply hang onto the Anchor, which could function much as it did in previous versions (preventing teleportation for both the holder and NPCs and protection from Time effects good and bad such as –speed, +speed, or whatever else gets added to the game, such as many of these powers listed.)

Chronmancer
A class of Archmage that focuses on the manipulation of time, space, and probability.

Credit to Taxorgian for some of these spell ideas.

Class Talents

New Trees
Age Manipulation (Open to Name Suggestions)
- Slow Decay (range 20): Target creature suffers X damage per turn for 3 turns. (Roughly equal to the first tier flame spell). Damage increases with each talent point invested and with spellpower.
- Chronomantic Metabolism (self): Heals X damage per turn for 5 turns and has a chance each turn (10% per talent point) to cure you of any poison or disease that’s currently effecting you.
- Ashes to Ashes (range 20): Target creature suffers X damage. If cast at a target suffering from Slow Decay, Slow Decay ends and all it’s remaining damage is applied as additional damage. Damage increases with each talent point invested and with spellpower. At level 3 it becomes a beam.
- De-evolution (range 15): Creatures other then the caster in a radius of X devolve into savage beasts gaining +2 Str, Dex, and Con but lose -4 Magic, Wil, and Cunning for 5 turns. While the spell persists, affected creatures will attack the closest creature to them, regardless of faction and will favor melee over ranged or spell attacks. If more then one creature is equal distance from the affected creature, it will choose a random target of those targets available or attack the last creature that caused it damage, preferring the later. Radius increases with each talent point invested. Stat changes increase and decrease with spellpower.

Temporal Combat
- Sonic Swing (melee): Hits the target for 120% of weapon damage and knocks it back. At level 3 it hits all creatures in a cone as long as the initial attack hits. Damage increases with each point invested and with Magic.
- Inertial Theft (self, activated): Lowers hit and damage of all creatures adjacent to you by 1 + 1 per talent point invested and increases your hit and damage by 1 + 1 per talent point invested for each creature affected. Lasts 2 turns. Duration scales with Magic.
- Multi-Strike (melee): Hits the target for 100% of weapon damage 1 + 1 per talent point invested times. Damage increases with Magic. (Tweak damage ratio as needed for balance).
- Lingering Image (self, activated): You move so swiftly you appear to be in two places at once. Attacks have a 30% chance to miss you for the next 1 + 1 per talent point invested turns. Miss chance scales with Magic.


Timeline Manipulation (Open to name suggestions)
- Destabilize Lifeline (range 20): For the next two turns the target is stunned and suffers X damage per turn. Duration increases with each talent point invested. Damage increases with spellpower. At level 3 it affects creatures in a radius of 2.
- See the Threads (passive) Gain +2 Magic and +2 Willpower per talent point invested.
- Temporal Clone: You summon a ‘clone’ of yourself from another timeline for 2 turns. The twin’s stats and equipment scale with your spellpower and the duration of the spell increases with each talent point invested. (Note this is basically just a cool summon, the stats don’t have to be based on the character’s own stats since the clone comes from an alternate timeline but a caster summon would be cool. Something else that would be interesting is to have the spell give you a random clone ‘type’ from several pre-built clones.)
- End of the Line (range 20): Target creature is killed (spell resistance applies). Creatures resisting the spell (or those immune such as bosses) suffer X damage instead. Damage increases with spellpower and each a talent point invested.

Chronomancy (Available at level 10)
- Extension (range 15): Upon casting extends the duration of all affects active on the target by 1 turn + 1 turn per talent point invested. Does not affect Borrowed Time. Scales with spellpower. (Note this spell should have a cooldown long enough that it can never be chained to keep your spells active forever).
- Paradox Twin (range 15): Places an immovable Paradox Twin with in range with 10% of your hit points (+10% per additional talent point) whose eyes you can see through and from whom all your attacks and spells originate. If you suffer damage or move the spell ends immediately, otherwise it lasts for 2 turns. Duration scales with Magic.
- Spell-Binder (self): Allows you to pre-cast a spell that will be triggered when your hit points decrease below a percentage of maximum chosen at casting time (choices are 75%, 50% or 25%). Each talent point invested widens the spell selection (first tier talents at one point, second at 2, etc.). At fifth level allows you to pre-cast two spells.
- Borrowed Time (self): You take three turns immediately but are stunned for three turns afterwards. During this time you may only use first tier talents (second tier talents with two points invested, etc. etc.). At level three you’re only stunned for two turns, at level five you’re only stunned for one turn. (Note since this spell takes a turn to cast the net gain on actions is only two turns).


Old Trees
Temporal (opens at level 10)


General Talents
New Trees

Probability Control
- Probability Sheild (passive): Adds +1 to Armor and Defense, Physical, Spell, and Mental Resistance and reduces the chance that you’ll be crit by 1% per talent point invested. Scales with Willpower (should probably cap at 3 per talent point invested for really high Willpower with 2 being more typical for the average winner who invests primarily in magic and has capped out the +10 Magic and Willpower talent. In other words 3% should really only happen when maxing Willpower through gear, rings etc.).
- Roll of the Dice (passive): All targeted incoming attacks have a 1% chance of being redirected onto any creature adjacent to you aside from the attacker. If no target is available the attack is instead counted as a miss. Redirection chance scales with Willpower (again probably shouldn’t go higher then 3% for really high willpower with 2% being more typical).
- Stroke (range 15): Creatures in a radius of 3 suffer X damage and are confused for 2 turns. (Creatures with no brain should be immune, undead, golems, etc.) Duration and damage increases with each talent point. Damage scales with spellpower.
- Fatespinner (passive): Adds 10% of your Willpower to your Cunning per talent point invested and increases physical and spell crit by 1% per talent point invested.

Old Trees
Conveyance
Divination
Combat Training
Survival (Available at Level 10)


Other spell ideas that could replace some of the spells above.

- Evolutionary Perfection (Self): For the next 2 turns (+2 turns per talent point invested) you gain +10 Str, Dex, and Con as well as +10 to hit, damage, physical crit, defense and armor. Increases scale with spellpower.

- Perfect Aim (activated, cooldown 7): All of your variable damage abilities are automatically maximized for X turns, whether physical or magical. [For example, if a spell does 45.18 to 72.11 damage, it would always be 72.11, subject to normal modifiers, to-hit, etc.] At 3/5 you have an additional 75% chance of a critical hit as well. (From Tax’s post).

[edge2054]

And one more spell I forgot to add above but again don't know where to put (maybe replace see the threads with this?).

- Temporal Reprieve (self): You regain health and mana as though 2 turns (per talent point invested) had passed. In addition all abilities on cooldown are 2 turns (per talent point invested) closer to becoming available.

[darkgod]

Those ideas are really starting to mature, I like them!

I'd like to have two kinds though (as your talents seems to hints), a mage-like and a warrior-like version.

[edge2054]

Thanks DG!

I was more looking at giving the player the option to play more of a melee type but with spells backing him up with the base class (evolutionary perfection would have fit well with that concept). In other words my aim was more to allow the player to build the class either way, either as a spellslinger or as a caster who lays down enough self buffs to melee.

But I'll flesh out some more melee powers and post them and we can go from there.

[Zaive]

Maybe there could be a "Chrono" class with a mage and warrior subclass.
It could have some sort of resource based around time rather than using mana.

[getter77]

IIRC, though it has been a fair while personally, the Roguelike MageGuild had something like this implemented along with crazy things like Astromancers. Perhaps you've played it since their big 2.0 update the other week DarkGod and company?

http://lukos.x10hosting.com/

[edge2054]

Nope haven't played it but I might take a look at it.

Most of the ideas I have come from playing a Superhero in the Heroes game that could bend time and space. For those familiar with the system he basically had a variable power pool which focused on space and time(can do pretty much whatever you want just not all at once, so if you used your power to boost your speed or dex you couldn't also be using it to teleport or age someone).

As to the previous post, Tax had brought up a Time resource based off a percentage of the characters max age. The older you get the more powerful your spells become but if you go over your max age you die.

Another idea would be a chronomantic version of equilibrium called Paradox. Just a quick idea on that.
<100 Paradox - No changes
100+ Paradox - Abilities have 150% of their normal effect but cost 300% of their normal cost.
200+ Paradox - Abilities have 200% of their normal effect but cost 400% of their normal cost.
Makes the world a more dangerous place (out of depth monsters and traps more likely to spawn).
300+ Paradox - Abilities have 250% of their normal effect but cost 500% of their normal cost.
Makes the world a more dangerous place and makes Chronomancy more difficult to control (ability failure chance).
400+ Paradox - Abilities have 300% of their normal effect but cost 600% of their normal cost.
Makes the world a more dangerous place, makes Chronomancy more difficult to control, and makes Chronomancy sometimes have disastrous results (buffs that target the caster sometimes buff the enemy instead, spells cast on creatures sometimes effect the caster instead).
500+ Paradox - Abilities have 350% of their normal effect but cost 700% of their normal cost.
Makes the world a more dangerous place, makes Chronomancy more difficult to control, makes Chronomancy sometimes have disastrous results, and makes Chronomancy sometimes behave oddly (good or bad but always interesting, like being teleported off a level or summoning a multi-hued dragon who thinks you're lunch, you get the idea).

So basically, the more Paradox you have the more your spells do but also the more easy it becomes to gain Paradox. The higher your Paradox gets the more dangerous the game becomes and the less you can rely on your abilities to work when you need them too.

Could make for an interesting mechanic.

[edge2054]

Alright, I'm going to build a group of classes based around the Paradox mechanic (which means all abilities will be balanced around having variable power levels). I'm going to be using the abilities in this thread but the numbers will have to be adjusted. Each of the classes will have some control over time, space, and probability but each will focus on using these abilities in different ways.

Chronomancer - This will be the mage like class. They'll focus on ranged attacks and scale mostly off Spellpower (magic) and Willpower.
Infinite Traveler - More of a rogue (or luck) based class. They'll focus mostly on probability control and will use daggers as their primary means of attack. They'll scale mostly off Dexterity and Willpower (and will be able to up their cunning through the fatespinner talent in the probability tree).
Time Warden - This will be the warrior class. They'll focus mostly on self buffs and physical combat. They'll scale mostly off Strength and Willpower.

I'm posting all of this here in the hopes of getting some more ideas and suggestions from anyone that has any. The class names above aren't set and I haven't thought of a name for the group of classes at all yet. So if anyone can think of some better names please post them.

Some stuff to consider, Willpower shouldn't really increase their Paradox pool. So scaling abilities off Willpower gives the stat something to do. It also reflects their ability to exert their Will over space and time.

Each class should probably get access to a Conveyance type tree and a base tree that lets them manage their Paradox levels and perform basic Chronomancy (like Equilebrium's balance talent or whatever it's called). Maybe these two trees could be combined, Basic Chronomancy maybe?

Really I'm just brainstorming at this point so if anyone has some ideas let me know.

[darkgod]

I like those!

As for your questions earlier, no all classes do not have to have a different resource pool, only when it adds something interesting, like the energies of the divine classes.
I have some more "meta kind" of classes planned with different resource pools:
- Corruptor classes, using Vim (life force) as resource, it does not regen and must be drained from your victims, or yourself.
- Arachnomancer classes, dunno if they have their own pool, possibly

I like the class names BTW, as for the meta class, you can just also call them chronomancers IMO

[edge2054]

Here's a fully fleshed out talent that's balanced around the Paradox mechanic along with a few more talent ideas I haven't fleshed out yet. Anything in () should be left out of the in game description and is merely there to explain. The metagame notes explain how the ability will scale with Paradox, talent points, and stats as well as any miscellaneous notes I felt needed to be included.

Turn Back the Clock (class)
Use Mode: Activated
Paradox: 20
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 30
Description: You create an area around you in a radius of 3 where time runs in reverse for 1 turn (plus 1 turn per additional talent point invested). All targets caught in the area suffer 5 damage, lose 1 level, and lose 2 points from their highest stat per turn they remain in the area. The damage will increase with the magic stat.
Metagame Notes: Damage should be relatively low because the real damage comes from the level loss which can get pretty high at 500+ Paradox (3.5 per turn and 7 stat points). Level and stat loss should not scale except with Paradox. Duration scales with talent points and Paradox. Based this spell off Icestorm so players don’t accidentally wander in to it (since there’s no method yet of losing or restoring levels/stats). Note that the damage is lower then Icestorm because of Paradox scaling.


At 500+ Paradox and five points invested the talent would look like this with more manageable Paradox levels falling in between.

Turn Back the Clock (class)
Use Mode: Activated
Paradox: 140
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 30
Description: You create an area around you in a radius of 3 where time runs in reverse for 17 turns. All targets caught in the area suffer ?? (depends on talent and stat scaling, but a 25 becomes close to 80 before spellpower so five per talent point might be to much) damage, lose 3.5 levels, and lose 7 points from their highest stat per turn they remain in the area. The damage will increase with the magic stat.


And here's the spell ideas I brought up. All of these are passive or free and won't be affected by Paradox, figuring that Paradox only effects abilities that cost Paradox to use.

- Reincarnate (passive): When you die you have a 20% (per talent point) chance of being reincarnated, allowing you to recreate your character with its current level and talent selection intact. You do not however retain any gear you may have collected and you must recomplete any previously completed quests. Each time this ability is used it loses one talent point (which the player can reinvest if he or she chooses).

- Avoid Fate (passive): As long as your current hit point total is at least 60% of your maximum (-10% per talent point invested to a minimum of 10%) any single attack that reduces you below 1 hit point instead reduces you to 1 hit point.

- Stabilize Timeline (self): Lowers your current Paradox level by 10 points (per talent point invested). Scales with Willpower (up to 20 points per level max).

*typed this up before you're last post DG so let me know what you think of the Paradox mechanic now that I've given an example. I think it's pretty interesting but the real question is do you want to code another level of variability into these three classes? If not they could just as well run off mana or something simpler*

*Also I came up with a better name for the mage, Paradox Mage. So the three classes will be Paradox Mage, Infinite Traveler, and Time Warden. Chronomancy can be the group name*

[Taxorgian]

A common set for all classes?

Spacetime weaving (skill)

Static History (No paradox cost, 200 cooldown)- Reduce Paradox by WIL*skill level by carefully 'rearranging' your history to make it consistent. You step out of time (like time bubble) for 10 turns so monsters might surround you but cannot attack while you do this action.

Twinning matter (Special paradox cost) - You duplicate an object in your inventory. The paradox cost is 5 times the purchase price from a store for the object; artifacts cannot be duplicated since they are all reflections of a single object outside time.

Deja vu (paradox 35) - Rearranging the past, you "remember" where all items on the floor of your level are located. At 3/5 you remember the floor plan. At 5/5 you remember where monsters are located for a few turns.

Damage smearing (paradox 70, activated) - When you take damage from any source, it is divided over the next level+1 turns. For example if you are hit for 250 damage and the skill is at 4/5, you instead take 50 damage each turn for 5 turns. (Since the initial damage already accounts for armor, there is NO reduction of the damage.) The mechanics for this already exist I think in the fire/poison damage code?

[Taxorgian]

Sorry I think "Static History" duplicates "Stabilize timeline". We're all trying to put ideas in at the same time!