Class Proposal: Mindslayer

[Susramanian]

Mindslayers

A Psionicist subclass that gets all their beatings done through telekinetic manipulation of forces in their immediate area. Their main stats are Willpower and Cunning.

The primary focus of the class is on controlling damage in and out through sustained shields and auras, respectively. Shields can be spiked up to enormous levels, but at the cost of losing all protection from that shield once the spike is used up. Similarly, auras can be spiked to deal massive damage, but at the cost of losing all damage from that aura.

For example, say a Mindslayer has their Kinetic Shield up. Based on his talent level and Willpower, suppose it absorbs 10 damage. That means 10 damage knocked off all incoming sources of physical, acidic, and poisonous damage. Even with eight enemies beating on him simultaneously, each attack's damage is reduced by 10. Now say our Mindslayer sees Bill the Stone Troll coming his way. Reducing Bill's damage by 10 per swing is laughable, so our Mindslayer spikes his Kinetic Shield (he deactivates the sustained ability). He loses his 10 point reduction, but gains a 400 point shield! That'll keep Bill at bay for a few turns. But now the Kinetic shield is on cooldown for 40 turns, so he better make sure Bill is dead before his spiked shield is used up.

Same idea for damage auras. Deal sustained, minor damage with no maintainence, but spike the damage up to awesome levels when the need arises. The Mindslayer class will have unmatched flexibility and control in their offensive and defensive capabilities. I think this will be particularly fun with the new projectile system. Fireball coming your way from that elite caster? Time to spike the Thermal Shield. Is The Master about to come around the corner? Better get ready to spike everything you can think of and pray.

But those aura cooldowns are long, so the Mindslayer needs something else to kill people with in the meantime: weapons... wielded with his huge, huge brain. The Psi Fighting tree is all about using Willpower and Cunning to wield regular old mundane weapons with power and skill.

Mindslayers use Energy as their resource. Damage absorbed through shields and certain other talents gets added to the pool. Damage dealt through spiking auras and certain other talents gets subtracted from the pool. Mindslayers have to absorb energy in order to dish it out. Make sure you have a full pool of energy before you go picking a fight with The Master.

The goal of this class is to make a melee character (or at least a melee range character) who gets to make more interesting, fun decisions than the current melee characters. Constant mild damage vs. spike damage right now? Constant mild defense vs. OH GOD ORC BLOOD MAGE SPIKE SHIELDS RIGHT NOW ARGH.

The numbers I give in the detailed descriptions are just guesses as to what would be fun and (sort of) balanced. It's almost certain that many of these abilities are grossly underpowered or overpowered right now due to cost, cooldown, scaling, or any combination of reasons. I welcome all suggestions and constructive criticism.

New Class Talent Trees:


Absorption (Damage shields)
-Kinetic Shield
-Thermal Shield
-Charged Shield
-Absorption Mastery

Projection (Damage auras)
-Kinetic Aura
-Thermal Aura
-Charged Aura
-Projection Mastery

Psi Fighting (Beating things up)
-Beyond the Flesh
-Telekinetic Smash
-Sweeping Strikes (Hello, WoW)
-Conduit


Available at 10:

Finer Energy Manipulations (Fun Mindslayer tricks)
-Reshape Weapon
-Reshape Armor
-E=mc^2
-Perfect Control

Old Class Talent Trees:

[Insert a couple Psionicist talent trees here]

New Generic Talent Trees:

Voracity (Energy acquisition + side effects)
-Kinetic Leech
-Thermal Leech
-Charge Leech
-Insatiable

Mental Discipline (Improve saves, stamina, cooldowns)
-Iron Will
-The Mind is Willing
-Shield Discipline
-Aura Discipline


Old Generic Talent Trees:

Cunning/Survival
-Trap Detection
-Heightened Senses
-Trap Disarm
-Evasion

Detailed descriptions:

Absorption (mastery 1.3)

-Kinetic Shield
Use Mode: Sustained
Energy cost: 30
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 40
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Absorbs 5 + TL*(WILL/15) damage from all incoming physical, acid, and poison damage. Absorbed damage is added to the energy pool at the rate of 10 damage per point of Energy (rounded up). Deactivating the shield triggers the cooldown and erects a shield that absorbs a total of 40*(5 + TL*(WILL/15)) physical, acid, or poison damage. Only (50+(CUN/2))% of any incoming source of damage is blocked by the shield (with a minimum of 5 + TL*(WILL/15) blocked), the rest getting through to the caster.

-Thermal Shield
Use Mode: Sustained
Energy cost: 30
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 40
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Absorbs 5 + TL*(WILL/15) damage from all incoming fire and cold damage. Absorbed damage is added to the energy pool at the rate of 10 damage per point of Energy (rounded up). Deactivating the shield triggers the cooldown and erects a shield that absorbs a total of 40*(5 + TL*(WILL/15)) fire or cold damage. Only (50+(CUN/2))% of any incoming source of damage is blocked by the shield (with a minimum of 5 + TL*(WILL/15) blocked), the rest getting through to the caster.

-Charged Shield
Use Mode: Sustained
Energy cost: 30
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 40
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Absorbs 5 + TL*(WILL/15) damage from all incoming lightning and blight damage. Absorbed damage is added to the energy pool at the rate of 10 damage per point of Energy (rounded up). Deactivating the shield triggers the cooldown and erects a shield that absorbs a total of 40*(5 + TL*(WILL/15)) lightning or blight damage. Only (50+(CUN/2))% of any incoming source of damage is blocked by the shield (with a minimum of 5 + TL*(WILL/15) blocked), the rest getting through to the caster.

-Absorption Mastery
Use Mode: Passive
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Reduces the cooldown of all shields by 2*TL turns. Also multiplies energy added to your pool by a factor of 1+(TL*(WILL/5))/100

Projection (Mastery 1.3)

-Kinetic Aura
Use Mode: Sustained
Energy cost: 30
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 40
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Deals 5 + TL*(WILL/15) physical damage to all enemies in melee range every turn. Deactivating the aura triggers the cooldown and a kinetic blast centered on the player that does 20*(5 + TL*(WILL/15)) physical damage to all enemies in melee range, knocking them back TL squares. Damage dealt by this blast is drained from the energy pool at the rate of one point of Energy per ten damage dealt (rounded up).

-Thermal Aura
Use Mode: Sustained
Energy cost: 30
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 40
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Deals 5 + TL*(WILL/15) fire damage to all enemies in melee range every turn. Deactivating the aura triggers the cooldown and a targetted beam of heat (range: TL*2) that does 30*(5 + TL*(WILL/15)) fire damage to all enemies in the beam's path. Damage dealt by this beam is drained from the energy pool at the rate of one point of Energy per ten damage dealt (rounded up).

-Charged Aura
Use Mode: Sustained
Energy cost: 30
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 40
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Deals 5 + TL*(WILL/15) lightning damage to all enemies in melee range every turn. Deactivating the aura triggers the cooldown and a blast of chain lightning that does 40*(5 + TL*(WILL/15)) lightning damage to the target as well as forking to TL other targets, dealing half the initial damage. Damage dealt by this blast is drained from the energy pool at the rate of one point of Energy per ten damage dealt (rounded up).

-Projection Mastery
Use mode: Passive
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Reduces the cooldown of all auras by 2*TL turns. Also increases any damage spike's critical strike chance by TL*(CUN/15)%.


Psi Fighting (Mastery 1.3)

-Beyond the Flesh
Use Mode: Passive
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: You wield your weapon with the power of your will alone, leaving your hands free for other matters. The weapon swings once against one melee-range target each turn, using (25 + 15*TL)% of your Willpower in place of Strength and (25 + 15*TL)% of your Cunning in place of Dexterity for the purposes of calculating damage, accuracy, critical strike chance, and weapon-wielding eligibility. You may wield items according to the usual rules: one-hander and a shield, a single two-hander, or two one-handers. At level three, you may wield a two-hander with a shield or a two-hander with a one-hander. At level five, you can dual-wield two-handers. Equip another weapon in your actual hands while this is going on to look awesome.

-Telekinetic Smash
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 30
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 6
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Brutally smash the target with all telekinetically-wielded weapons (not the ones in your actual hands), doing (100 + TL*(WILL/5))% weapon damage. The target will be flung backwards TL*2 squares. If they smash into a wall, they take an extra 5 + TL*(WILL/10) damage for every square of progress the wall halted. If, instead of a wall, they hit another monster, the same amount of damage is dealt, but split between the two monsters.

-Sweeping Strikes
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 50
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 100
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Your telekinetically-wielded weapons leap into a frenzy, their follow-throughs striking two additional melee-range targets each turn for TL*3 turns.

-Conduit
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 30
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 40
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Spikes all three auras (thus turning them off and triggering their cooldowns) and imbues your telekinetically-wielded weapon(s) with physical, fire, and lightning damage equal to the appropriate aura's per-turn value times (1+TL/3). All damage dealt is drained from the energy pool at the rate of 1 point of Energy per 10 damage dealt (rounded up). The effect lasts TL*(WILL/25) turns or until it runs you out of Energy.



Finer Energy Manipulations (Mastery 1.3)

-Reshape Weapon
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 30
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 1
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Manipulate forces on the molecular level to realign, rebalance, and hone your weapon. Permanently increases the attack and damage of any weapon by TL*(CUN/25). Can only be used once per weapon.

-Reshape Armor
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 30
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 1
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Manipulate forces on the molecular level to strengthen a piece of body armor or a helm. Permanently increases the armor value by TL. Can only be used once per item.

-E=mc^2
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 0
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 50
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Matter is energy, as any good Mindslayer well knows. Unfortunately, the various bonds and particles involved are just too numerous and complex to make the conversion feasible in most cases. Fortunately, the organized, crystalline structure of gems makes it possible to transform a small percentage of its matter into usable energy. Turns any gem into TL*GEMQUALITY*CUN energy, which is added to your energy pool. The gem is reduced to carbon dust in the process.

-Perfect Control
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 80
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 150
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Encase your body in a sheath of thought-quick forces, allowing you to control your body's movements directly without the inefficiency of dealing with crude mechanisms like nerves and muscles. Increases Attack and Defense by TL*CUN/10 for TL turns.


Voracity (Mastery 1.3)
-Kinetic Leech
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 0
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 40
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Pulls kinetic energy from your surroundings, slowing any enemy within 2 squares for TL turns. Gives TL*30*(1+WILL/30) energy for each enemy leeched.

-Thermal Leech
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 0
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 40
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Pulls heat from your surroundings, freezing all tiles in a radius of 1 for TL turns and returning TL*10*(1+WILL/30) energy for each tile frozen. (That would be nine, so really TL*180*(1+WILL/30) energy). Any enemies on a frozen tile take TL*2*(1+WILL/30) damage each turn.

-Charge Leech
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 0
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 40
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Pulls electric potential from the air around you in a radius of 1, returning TL*10*(1+WILL/30) energy for each tile affected. Any enemies in the area at the time of the cast experience a nasty shock and take TL*20*(1+WILL/30) damage.

-Insatiable
Use mode: Passive
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Boosts the size of your energy pool by (TL*10)%.


Mental Discipline (Mastery 1.3)
-Iron Will
Use mode: Passive
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Increases Mental Save by TL*5

-The Mind is Willing
Use mode: Passive
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Increases maximum encumbrance by TL*WILL/3

-Shield Discipline
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 0
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 150
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Reduces the cooldown of all shields by TL*3

-Aura Discipline
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 0
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 150
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Reduces the cooldown of all auras by TL*3

edit: Included the one-per-item limit for Reshape Weapon and Reshape Armor.
edit2: Reclassified the Mindslayer as a Psionicist, thus eliminating warrior talent trees and the Stamina resource. Energy is now the only resource. Redid the Psi Fighting tree. Added Cunning-based percentage efficiencies to shield spikes. Changed The Mind is Willing to affect max encumbrance, not Stamina (this is lame and probably temporary; Mindslayers should have their Willpower substituted for their Strength anyway when determining max encumbrance).

[Taxorgian]

Finer Energy Manipulations needs some tweaking -- or maybe can only be used once (or twice) per item? Otherwise someone goes to Bree and waits for a while until his puny little iron dagger is doing 200 power and 25 apr....

[darkgod]

Interresting idea, thought spikes could make bosses too weak no ?

[Hedrachi]

Maybe some sort of smallish modifier to damage absorption, based on rank of the attacker? Something that says, in essence, that monster x has lived long enough to have encountered a mindslayer before and knows how to overwhelm a shield, if only slightly?

[edge2054]

Why cunning and willpower instead of strength and willpower? It seems to me that if this is meant to be a warrior then it should follow that strength should be the main stat.

Also how does cunning really fit the concept? I can see it used in the finer energy manipulation talents but really these aren't class defining talents anyhow and honestly could be toned down and made into a generic tree.

Anyway that critique aside, how about making an energy pool a default psionic resource and having the mindslayer have a unique means of refilling it? Like a different take on the the difference between the mage and the arcane blade.

Could also give them a talent that directly inflates said energy pool to such high numbers, since they'd use the pool differently then other psi classes conceivably would.

[Susramanian]

Darkgod: Yeah, as things stand currently, the spikes might make bosses too easy. I've tried to make the damage spikes not pour all their damage into a single target, but they're still pretty painful. And the shield spikes might simply be too big. Hedrachi's proposal seems like a reasonable solution. Or maybe change the nature of the spiked shields to make them only affect a percent of incoming damage based on cunning. For example, you might have a 900 point spiked physical shield, but based on cunning (your mental dexterity), only X% of incoming damage gets absorbed by the shield (up to 900). The rest gets through. I kind of like that idea. It gives cunning a bigger role, and one that makes sense. Your willpower determines how much energy you can manipulate, but your cunning determines how skillfully you can manipulate it.

Another possible change is to make the spikes shorter. Right now they 'borrow' 40 turns worth of absorption and cram it all into one big shield. Maybe it would be more balanced (and fun?) to have them only borrow 5 or 10 turns worth of absorption for a spiked shield. I'm open to suggestions! Same goes for damage auras.

Edge2054: If a Mindslayer had a motto, it would be "mind over matter." They get work done with their huge brains. Strength doesn't fit. And what I just came up with two paragraphs ago makes Cunning even more appropriate. As for your energy pool suggestions, they seem like a reasonable way to treat energy. Do we have other psi classes right now? I couldn't find any, though I might not have unlocked them. If they exist, then Mindslayers would probably feel more at home with them than with the Warriors.

[edge2054]

No, there's no other psi characters but I imagine there will be eventually.

I still don't like cunning and here's why.

- The class has access to two class trees that use strength as prerequisites. (and one generic cunning tree that half the classes in the game have access too)
- The class doesn't do enough damage through auras alone and it shouldn't, meaning the player will probably want to pump up his weapon damage through weapon masteries, again talents that require strength.
- The class has numerous abilities that increase weapon damage but physical strength means nothing to them....
- It really seems like you want this class to be in melee beating things with a weapon while doing damage with it's auras and absorbing damage with it's shields... but again these guys don't care about strength.

I know I'm being nitpicky here but I just see to much stuff that doesn't fit.

My suggestions would be to either make cunning mean something to the class (or even make them more roguelike, I could see a rogue/telekinetic guy using cunning) or just accept that if you're job is to be in melee beating things with a stick that strength fits better then cunning. The class screams overpowering your enemy. Strength is physical power, Will is mental power. A class that uses both at the same time sounds like fun. A class that's outsmarting it's foes, now that's cunning. There's no outwitting going on here.

Final thoughts.

Why not use the energy pool for the more psi like powers instead of stamina? Maybe make the kinetic leech effect cost zero energy and have this be the starter power (in other words, you pull kinetic energy to get your shields going, then you feed your shield energy into your auras and what not.) On that same note multiplication could be your friend. In other words instead of having a huge power pool you could have energy gained equal damage absorbed divided by 10. Then have the discharge go energy spent x10. This would let the class use energy as something other then just a number to pump back into bosses.

Anyway, those are my thoughts and opinions. Sorry if I come off like a jerk. I like the concept and I've always been a big fan of kinetic absorption and discharge in comic books and I think the class has a lot of potential. Even if it ends up being based off cunning instead of strength in the end

[Susramanian]

Edge, thanks for the carefully thought-out feedback. Exactly what I'm looking for. It sounds like a lot of your objections stem from the fact that I decided to classify the Mindslayer as a Warrior subclass. That admittedly questionable decision led to a lot of other (odd) decisions.

I thought, well, if he's going to be called a warrior, then he should share at least one or two trees with the other warriors. I picked the ones I did. Then I noticed that they involved Stamina, which I hadn't even included in my original concept at all, so I just threw Stamina costs in. Notice that they all look suspiciously copy-and-pasted in. I hadn't noticed that the weapon mastery abilities required Strength, as I've never even looked at them with a character who didn't have a pile of Strength anyway.

It's clear I need to rethink some things, and I want to do it in such a way that Strength is not emphasized, for these reasons:

1) That mind over matter motto. Mindslayers hold the capabilities of mere flesh and bone in contempt.

2) I don't want them wearing heavy armor, as it would deemphasize the need for managing damage shields cleverly, which is the defining ability of the class.

Possible revisions:

Make the Mindslayer the first subclass of a new class: the Psionicist. Chuck those warrior trees and put in a couple more appropriate ones (that don't emphasize Strength) that do roughly the same job. Throw out Stamina and use only Energy, with the changes you suggested. Maybe move Beyond the Flesh to the first talent in the Psi Fighting tree, so it's clear right from the start that Mindslayers wield their weapons with their minds.

Thoughts?

[darkgod]

Psionics are indeed planned as a class :=)

[edge2054]

I like it.

Another thought on Beyond the Flesh. Maybe this could be sorta combined with the other two talents in the tree. In other words something like this.

-Beyond the Flesh
Use Mode: Sustained
Stamina cost: 100
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 1
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: You wield your weapon with the power of your will alone, leaving your hands free for other matters. The weapon swings once against one melee-range target each turn using 25 + (15*TL)% of your Willpower in place of Strength and 25+(15*TL)% of your Cunning in place of Dexterity. You may duel-wield weapons, two-handed weapons, or a sword and shield using this ability but you suffer no fatigue penalty for using a shield. At talent level 5 you may wield an additional pair of duel-wielded weapons, two-handed weapon, or sword and shield.

Granted this means you'll be a lightweight in the armor department but hey, the class has psionic shields. Also you could replace the two stat boosting powers with active combat techniques for the telekinetic weapons. Stuff that isn't done automatically but requires your concentration.

For instance you could copy stunning blow and change the requirement to 'Telekenitically Wielded Weapon'. (granted something more imaginative then that would be good but I wanted to illustrate )

Some other thoughts on mindcrafters/psionic classes.

The possesser could be interesting as a mindcrafter instead of loremaster. Con and Will might be primary stats for many psionic classes (maybe not the mindslayer) since fitness of mind and body are common goals amongst many yoga practitioners. Other psionic classes may regenerate energy naturally or have other talents that let them regenerate (ala meditation). The kinetic absorption works really well for the mindslayer though.

[Susramanian]

Redid things a bit.

Reclassified the Mindslayer as a Psionicist, thus eliminating warrior talent trees and the Stamina resource. Energy is now the only resource. Redid the Psi Fighting tree to be way cooler. Added Cunning-based percentage efficiencies to shield spikes. Changed The Mind is Willing to affect max encumbrance, not Stamina (this is lame and probably temporary; Mindslayers should have their Willpower substituted for their Strength anyway when determining max encumbrance).

Something to consider: you should be able to control what enemy your telekinetically-wielded weapons attack. So maybe Beyond the Flesh should be an activated ability with a cooldown of 0 that, when you activate it, lets you target an enemy to be the victim of Beyond the Flesh. Need to be careful that those automatic attacks happen at the right time; it would be game breaking to be able to walk directly away from an enemy and still get a swing in each step.

[Hedrachi]

Maybe a hidden talent in Finer Energy Manipulations to be unlocked by escort quests or a tome that acts as a panic-button cure poison?

-Poison Purge
Use Mode: Activated
Energy cost: 75
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 100
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Psionically redirects toxins within your body to be expelled outward, onto a weapon of your choosing for TL*(WP/4) turns, doing TL*(CUN/5) nature damage.