Cursed

[edge2054]

Got my game to load.

Enrage didn't give me Hate, just did damage to me.

[benli]

I know how you feel about going into town. I think its kind of fun having to work your way out of 0 hate though. You really feel the curse. I've tried to compensate for the characters weaknesses by adding other strengths. That's one of the reasons the class does a lot of damage. I want it to be a real killing machine when it gets worked up, but a sniveling wimp when its down. Very smeagol/golum-like. I'm trying out some new code, so I'll see if that holds true.

[benli]

I've coded the talents for cursed as well as some of the particles it uses. They work but are not fully tested and balanced. This build is a lot more powerful than the first pass. It might be a strong melee character at the moment, but I'm nerfing it a little. I'm also not 100% certain about a few of the more simpler talents but they are easy to tweek.

Thanks Edge for the ideas. I especially like nether walk (which I turned into "Stalk" that makes you invisible to a single target). I'll need to look at how to make a shopkeeper dislike you...

Edge, DG: I'm going to test for a bit, but If you want to have a look beforehand, let me know.

Cursed Form
Cursed Body [Passive]
The curse has twisted your body into an unnatural form.
(-25% -> -5% fire resistance, -10 -> -2 spell save, +15 -> + 75 maximum life, ~.4% -> ~1% life per turn
Obsession [Passive]
Your suffering will become theirs. For every life that is taken you gain an extra 0.1 -> 0.5 hate.
Relentless [Passive]
Your thirst for blood drives your movements. (+15% -> +75% confusion, fear, knockback and stun immunity)
Enrage [Passive]
In a burst of rage you become an even more fearsome opponent gaining +35 -> +175 extra life for 10 turns.
Note: Increases life and maximum life but after 10 turns you lose both life and maximum life, which can kill you.


Slaughter
Note: talents require a 1 or 2 handed axe
Slash [Action, Cooldown 6]
Slashes wildly at your target causing a cut that bleeds for ~8 to ~20 rage-based damage for 3 turns. Cut damage increases with strength and willpower.
Frenzy [Action, Cooldown 8]
Assault nearby foes with 4 fast attacks for ~40% to ~70% rage-based damage each.
Reckless Charge [Action, Cooldown 20, Range 4]
Charge through your opponents attacking anyone near your path for ~80% to ~140% rage-based damage. (small -> med -> big) opponents may be knocked from your path.
Blood Bath [Passive]
In a frenzy of rage you gain a second strike (3% -> 15% chance) after each attack doing 30%% to 100%% hate-based damage.


Endless Hunt
Dominate [Action, Cooldown 6]
Combine strength and will to overpower your opponent. A failed save versus will adds X damage and briefly pins your opponent to the ground.
Preturnatural Senses [Passive]
Your preternatural senses aid you in your hunt for the next victim. You sense foes in a hate-based radius of 2 to (3 -> 9).
Blindside [Action, Cooldown 10]
With blinding speed you suddenly appear next to a target up to 10 spaces away and attack for ~100% to ~160% rage-based damage.
Stalk [Action, Range 2 - 10]
Stalk an opponent that is at least one square away.
You will be invisible to your target for 4 -> 8 turns or until you attack.
Your gloom will not affect the the stalked prey.


Gloom
Gloom [Activated]
A terrible gloom surrounds you affecting all those who approach you.
25% -> 45% chance the weak-minded may suffer from slow, stun or confusion.
This ability is innate and carries no cost to activate or deactivate.
Weakness [Passive]
The weak-minded caught in your gloom are crippled by fear for 4 -> 8 turns. (2->7% to 7->20% attack, 2->7% to 7->20% damage).
Torment [Passive]
Your rage builds within you for 12 turns then unleashes itself for X to X hate-based blight damage on the first one to enter your gloom.
Absorb Life [Passive]
Each turn you absorb up to ~1% of the life of foes caught in your gloom.

[edge2054]

Looks like fun.

I'd be glad to play around with the class some more once you get it working the way you want. Mind sending me another copy when you do if you still have my email?

[darkgod]

Benli sent me a new version, checkout this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocHjlrpNys0

Note: the Gloom particle effect is REALLY neat but it does not show up nicely in youtube :/

[yufra]

It looks great Benli, can't wait to try it.

[edge2054]

Hate seems to be working way differently. I was gaining about half a hate every time an attack connected.

As for a generic tree I'd give them survival without having to spend a category point. The fighter and the berserker both get it.

Otherwise how about using Hate as fuel for some utility abilities?

Cursed/Cursed Soul
Wretched Soul (passive) - Improves your mental save by X. Additionally mental attacks targeted at you have an X% chance of being reflected back on to the attacker.
Haunting Echos (sustained) - Spend Hate to know the bloodshed a weapon has caused. Identifies target weapon and brands it with darkness damage X for as long as haunting echos is sustained.
Grim Determination (sustained) - Heals you for X life upon activation and then you regenerate X hit points per turn while it's sustained. Drains hate while active.
Horrifying Presence (active) - The strength of your hatred is such that others can actually feel it when you manifest your presence. All targets with in a radius of 3 tiles of you are affected by fear (the pathfinding kind that makes mobs run) (will save applies) for X turns. At talent level 3 affected targets will also be dazed (will save applies) for X turns. (In other words at talent level 3 the aura makes it's check, if it's successfull the target makes a will save vs. daze and a will save vs. fear, daze should over ride fear, at least until the target is attacked).

[benli]

Your are right about hate. I introduced a bug when moving it to 10b. It started adding hate for every attack instead of every kill. I'm adjusting hate a bit as well to ensure it runs out now and then.

I was considering adding two new generic trees (one strength-based and one will-based). Hopefully I can complete them before the weekend. Here are some of the talents I had come up with so far:

RAMPAGE - Every % of damage you take accumulates in a counter. When you reach X% you rampage for X turns.

Rampage
Rampage when you reach 200% - 20% * TL damage
Rampage adds 10% + 10% * TL Critical Chance (with hate-based reduction)
Brutality
Rampage Lasts 6 + 2 * TL turns
Rampage adds 10% + 10% * TL Damage (with hate-based reduction)
Reflexes
Rampage Cooldown is 50 - 5 * TL turns
Rampage adds 10% * TL Speed (with hate-based reduction)
Instinct
Rampage adds 10% + 10% * TL Attack (with hate-based reduction)
Rampage Adds 10% * TL evasion (with hate-based reduction)


OUTSIDER (a grab bag of talents)

Bitter Heart
Hate is increased by 0.6 * TL for the purposes of all hate-based effects.
Pity
Foes that see your pitiful form from a distance of 16 - TL * 2 will ignore you.
Curse Mastery
Spell Power and Spell Resistence use 15% * TL Willpower in place of 15% * TL Magic
Dominant Will
The duration of bad effects have a 50% chance of being reduced by 1 for each TL
Blade Fetish
Identifies blades (axes, swords, knives) based on the item and TL
Terrible Visage
3% * TL Chance to frighten an attacker and avoid the damage
Invigorate
Move 2 spaces at a time for X turns

[edge2054]

Blade Fetish
Identifies blades (axes, swords, knives) based on the item and TL

This is probably to weak. Identify is already a generic talent and IDs everything even artifacts at TL 1.

Hence my suggestion for haunting echos branding the weapon, same could be applied to blade fetish.

[Graziel]

Share Fate tree

• Numb - You get -X% speed
• Anorexia - You get -X% attack
• Spell frail - You get -X% spell resistance
• Sunder - You get -X% defence
  And as main skill of that tree:
• Wheel of fortune - Transfer all status from Share Fate to monsters at Y distance

[benli]

I was thinking about your idea. It fits the cursed concept well. I really liked the idea of getting the player to willingly accept lower resistances and of sharing them with foes, but I couldn't figure out why they do that so I kept the idea in the back of my head for a while.

I started thinking about what talents might be interesting in annother "cursed" class (possibly a ranged class called "doomed"?). I liked the gloom aura from Cursed, but it needs better range for a ranged class so I though a line-of-sight "gloom" would be good ("doom"?). One idea is to have the "Doom" aura automatically attack anyone in line of sight/range. The players job would be to enhance that attack enough to do real damage. That's when I realized your mechanic was a great way to do this. Talents add weaknesses to the player that regenerate like mana. You can then transfer that weakness to a target and the otherwise harmless "doom" damage to would become real damage. Sending -50% fire resist to a foe would add 50% of the "doom" damage as fire damage. And if having -50% fire resistance on your character as "mana" gets you killed then its your own fault for investing in that talent! Here is a sample set of talents:

DOOM
Aura of doomed fate
The tragedy of your doom surronds you like an aura. Any foe's weakness is turned against them inflicting up to a total of 200 damage.
Death by fire
You lose 5% fire resistance per turn up to a maximum of -75%. You can transfer this to any foe in your doom for 3 turns.
Death by XYZ
You lose 5% XYZ resistance per turn up to a maximum of -75%. You can transfer this to any foe in your doom for 3 turns.
Hubris
One of your foe's resistances are turned against them becoming negative for 3 turns.

This might be an ok overall approach to other talents. For example:
Willfull Blast
Blast your target for 100 damage. Each blast will slow you by 30% for 5 turns.
Shared Fate
Everyone in your line of sight including yourself are stunned for 3 turns taking 30 damage per turn.
Lost Hope
Your target's next talent will fail. The next time you are hit it will be a critical.
etc.

I haven't decided if I like the approach of using the players attributes as mana pools, but it is interesting.