OK, so in the very near future, as many of you may have guessed, Warlockery is exiting the Compleat Essential Skills, and it's leaving behind a mage-skill-shaped hole. I've got an idea for a replacement skill -- Degree In Dungeoneering. The concept is "not necessarily spells, but simple practical things a smart person (i.e. wizard-type) would learn at school to make dungeoneering easier and better all around." Here's what I've got so far: A level (probably level one): Pathmaker. Uses the Trompenent template (@XXX), deals 1 blasting damage and Knockback. For getting items off of islands, opening secret walls, etc. Probably a mana cost, quite low. Another level: Dorm Life. Grants a foodBuff called "extra cheese" that adds a second stacking buff giving an extra +7 HP over 7 turns; a boozeBuff called "extra beer" that adds an identical buff for MP, and a consumebuff called "extra herb" that opens your mind, granting +4 Sagacity and +6 Caddishness for 24ish turns. Another level: Saved By the Bell. (title may change). Grants a teleport ability for no mana, but it Paralyzes you for 24 turns or until you get hit by something. Another level: Cram Session. Grants +1 in all 4 crafting skills, but also comes with -2 Sagacity, Savvy, and Stubbornness. I'm still trying to come up with a couple more clever 'practical' things that aren't powerful, but are useful within the context of the game. I'd also like ideas for coherently arranging these ideas in an order that makes sense. Any ideas?
Obv. these are not all winners or good fits for this particular skill, but: All-Nighter: put an enemy/some enemies to sleep. Flee the Scene: Teleport, turn invisible, leave a decoy behind. Fraternity Rush: Rook teleport, knock/damage everything in your way, drop booze at your feet. Homecoming: Set a spot to teleport back to in an emergency (sort of like the Grandfather Clock Paradox in Chronomancy) MacGuyver It!: cooldown skill that gives you an item from a vast spawnitemfromlist of practical objects (bolts, throwing weapons, ingots, crafting materials, lockpicks, &c.). Leech Wifi: ongoing DoT buff: if a monster is exactly five squares away from you, drain their hp. Repeated, successive activations grant temporary primary stat bonuses.
Didn't really get the point of these two at first but I think I might get them now... Saved by the bell seems like it's not going to actually save the character very often if it is a blink. Do you mean a directed teleport? That'd be handy. Blink would be pretty awful though. Cram Session might be sweet in first position. Cast a spell on yourself to get an early ability to make an Iron Weapon or efficient health potions or something without ever leveling, but the debuff after has to be managed and you spend a fair chunk of mana to do it (12 mana perhaps?). I'd reorder things slightly too I'd go: Cram Session Pathmaker Saved by the Bell Dorm Life The 1 crafting buff isn't really that handy in 4th position, and of all the skills I think Cram Session is the most relegated to being a "utility" spell only and the least worth buying. Dorm Life looks a bit too awesome for second place, even though second place often has awesome things in it. Pathmaker is still pretty awesome, though, and if the mana cost is low, probably very practical for giving some early crowd control, which is really invaluable for helping a low level character survive. Anyway here are some other ideas I have from my college experience: Procrastinate: Use some mana for an to set a deadline that stresses you out for an increasingly intense buff (to physical stats at the expense of magical ones?). Player has to avoid doing something before the deadline hits (kill a monster? drink some booze?) to keep the buff building, but if they don't do it before the deadline hits, then they get hit by some penalty. You could also have some kind of a spell to summon a pizza, or a roomate to fight with you (I wonder if booze and food triggered buffs work on monsters? If they do, something cool to do might be if the summon can be buffed by giving it booze).
Eye of the tiger: 5 in critical, counter and attack chance You know you want too: 1 in health regen Gods be my witness: 2 in aethereal resist and damage just meta it: Just grab something metal and hit like a madman krong be with you: 5 in strength You are the one: 10 in magic resist Joke's on you: 20 in magic What?: 1 in all damage Random stuff Objection: see through walls Red or blue wire: 1 in tinkering Gold? GOOOOOOLD!: 1 in alchemy Sticks who knew: 1 in wands My hammer on your anvil: 1 smithing crafting genius: 1 in all crafting stuff Bird is the word: seriously why are you still here? (teleport/fly?) My God: summon a small god Pathfinder Dorm life Saved by the bell (just make it 12, 24 seems a bit excessive Cram school ( minus 2 in all base stats maybe more)
Like Fax, I like the idea of an ability built around the all-nighters i used to pull with every assignment. However, looking at what you already have there, it seems the only thing missing is some kind of trap related ability. I think it should instead be a utility themed "overdrive" ability - you get a big buff to your sight range and trap skills (detection too), but at the end of that, you get a "sleep deprived" debuff that gives you the -ve equivalent of those same stats. Coffee related flavor text would of course be somehow involved.
Oooh, I like that, Allurlewts. That's good. Red-Ox Chaser: boozebuff -- +1 Visual Radius, +2 Trapsight Radius, +2 Trap Affinity, +6 Nimbleness. Lasts for 18 turns, then comes the crash: The Slump -- -1 Visual Radius, -6 Nimbleness, -2 Health Regen, -2 Mana Regen. Lasts 12 turns. Thoughts?
I More or less what i wanted, even though I kind of wanted the negative debuff to include a -X Trapsight radius as well. -1 Visual Radius is not that punishing on its own, all told.
Trap affinity is pretty powerful stuff. As a caffeine addict (badly enough that I get headaches if I abstain), I don't feel caffeine makes you any cleverer, just faster and more efficient/effective. So trapsight radius for sure, but I'd hesitate to give a big chunk of the rogue's most powerful stat (trap affinity) to a mage class. Consider the similar clockwork visor skill thingy. *fix'd sense to affinity for clarity
^That's part of the reason why I wanted the trapsight radius to be matched by a relevant debuff. Traps are probably the number one cause for later level mage death. Now that I think about it, being able to spot them 2/3s of the time at the cost of 1 sight radius and 2 mana regen (which are the only two things that mages care for among those debuffs) is too beneficial for mages. A few ways to work around this would be to put it further down the skill line (which would be kind of self-defeating, imo), or to add a negative sight trap radius. Being able to see traps very well 2/3s of the time, but being completely blind to them for the rest seems like an even toss up.
One minor detail. If you drink another while the debuff is up, it should be removed instantly. Otherwise it is only six turns worth of benefit before you return to normal if you attempt to chain chug them.
OK, I haven't done the spellDB.xml yet, but here's the skills. Anyone have any feeback: Code: <skill name="Degree in Dungeoneering" id="610" type="wizard" description="You signed up for an Astral College, which you attend in null-time while you explore the Dungeon of Dredmor in meat-time. Your experiences in Astral College teach you a certain level of practicality while your Astral dorm-parties give you a unique set of tolerances and skills surprisingly helpful in the dungeon."> <art icon="skills/DiG64.png"/> </skill> <ability name="Degree in Dungeoneering" skill="610" type="wizard" icon="skills/DiG64.png" startSkill="1"> <description text="You signed up for an Astral College, which you attend in null-time while you explore the Dungeon of Dredmor in meat-time. Your experiences in Astral College teach you a certain level of practicality while your Astral dorm-parties give you a unique set of tolerances and skills surprisingly helpful in the dungeon."> </ability> <DegreeSkills> <ability name="Practical Magic I: Pathmaker" icon="skills/Pathmaker64.png" skill="610" level="0"> <description text="Dormitories can get MESSY. This first spell, taught to you by your RA, simply clears a small path directly in front of you, getting rid of the mess. Can also come in handy, it turns out, for clearing away smaller enemies as well."/> <spell name="Pathmaker"/> </ability> <ability name="Cram Session" icon="skills/CramSession64.png" skill="610" level="1"> <description text="You've mastered the art of using your Astral time to shove loads of precious knowlege into your head all at once. Unfortunately, your Meat-time faculties have overloaded as a result, and you've paid for your knowledge with the loss of some of your executive function."/> <secondarybuff id="19" amount="1"/> <secondarybuff id="20" amount="1"/> <secondarybuff id="21" amount="1"/> <secondarybuff id="23" amount="1"/> <primarybuff id="1" amount="-3"/> <primarybuff id="5" amount="-3"/> <primarybuff id="4" amount="-3"/> </ability> <ability name="Practical Magic II: Conjure Extras" icon="skills/Extras64.png" skill="610" level="2"> <description text="Parties at the dorms are great, but there's never enough. You've mastered a spell so simple it doesn't even require mana -- you just summon extra cheese, extra beer, and sometimes even a bit of extra...herbs...any time you see fit to snack or chug on anything."> <foodBuff percentage="100" name="Extra Cheese"/> <boozeBuff percentage="100" name="Extra Beer"/> <consumeBuff percentage="20" name="Extra Herb"/> </ability> <ability name="The Art of Self-Stimulation" icon="skills/Red-Ox.png" skill="610" level="3"> <description text="Even in Astral-space, you get tired and weary -- especially during your mechanics 101 class. You've learned to follow up your booze with a chaser of Red-Ox, the Astral energy supplement. Because you consistently do so during mechanics class, you've also managed to Pavlovianly train yourself to do better with the gizmos as long as you're pepped -- just don't try it once the Ox has left you without your wings."/> <boozeBuff percentage="100" name="Red-Ox Chaser"/> </ability> <ability name="By The Bell" icon="skills/ByTheBell64.png" skill="610" level="4"> <description text="You've been late for class often enough that you've developed a patented trick for getting to class in time for roll-call. It moves you through space to exactly where you want to go -- for no mana, no less -- but you pay for it by being unable to do much of anything for a decent chunk of time thereafter. This works well in class; we'll see if it serves you as decently in the Dungeon."/> <spell name="By The Bell"/> <playerHitEffectBuff percentage="100" name="By The Bell Recovery Effect"/> </ability> <DegreeSkills>
Will Pathmaker be a digging spell? We need another digging spell still. I have considered stealing it from Golemancy and adding it to Wind Magic instead. That would certainly make Wind Magic too potent, but potency be damned.
No, no digging. Just knockback and a point of blasting damage for opening breakable walls. Also, Fax, I have no idea what you're talking about.
You've got the flavor nailed. I was initially let down to learn that it actually has nothing to do with Dungeoneering in the D&D sense, but once I read your skill descriptions I was won over in spite of that. Might I suggest Red Ox should actually be Red Aurochs? Just to fit that faux-historical "ye olden tymes" feel. Plus, it being an "astral" energy drink, and Aurochs kinda sounding like "Aura", it kinda goes together. Or Red Baal, so as to use IP that's already in the game? Red Ox is fine, I suppose, being mildly parodic, but it's not a particularly close fit to the setting, and "only works on one level". A little something extra to make it fit the setting better (or have more comedic zing) would be nice. What character builds would use this Degree in Dungeoneering? As I look at it, I gather it's a support-skill for Wizards that want to be Rogue-Wizards without actually watering down their magic power by taking any Rogue levels? I guess there's room for that. If that's the intent, then the bonus healing portion of "Dorm Life" seems a little out of place, as rogues aren't known for their healing powers in DoD, and wizards usually only get healing with a dedicated spell that trades MP for HP. I'd consider breaking the symmetry of Dorm Life given the nature of the skill tree. Keep the "extra booze" at +7 MP, but downgrade the "extra food" to just +3 HP. That pushes it "more wizard" as well as making it "more college" in the sense that you're a drunkard not just a glutton. (At my school at least, there were a lot of beer parties, but not any cheese parties that I knew of.) Moving on, I must say I'm a rather skeptical about the balancing of 2 and 2 in a wizard skill via temporary debuffs. Won't "The Slump" just encourage people to mash the space bar or hit "digest"? Timers (and timer-like effects such as this) are best suited to reign in powers you want to use during a fight or other time-sensitive moment. Traps are immobile, and almost never spawn in places you've already been to, so there's very little (other than impatience) to make you regret the -4 debuff. Presumably, you'll already know where all the nearby traps are before you drink the Red Ox. I see this as the biggest worry spot of the proposed skill. Likewise a tiny bit concerned with bonus craft levels, especially getting four of them for a second-level skill and only being counter-balanced by what amounts to -1 percentage point to a handful of derived stats and a tiny bit of mana lost. "1 of everything" is a lot less flavorful than if it targets just one or two specific crafting skills. If this is mainly a wizard and wizard/rogue skill, does it really need to boost smithing? What level 1 smithing items would a wizard want access to? Dropping the smithing would flavor the skill a little more tightly, make a nod towards balance, reserve some design space for other skill mods, and help direct players towards making intelligent build choices. Plus, there's bonus craft levels everywhere these days, which is fine now, but god forbid Gaslamp ever gets the crafting system fixed and balanced. In general the proliferation of craft levels outside dedicated crafting skills strikes me as a little pessimistic. Overall, the crafting thing is not nearly as big a concern as the trap skills, since not having a specific crafting skill never directly results in the PC dying. I would ask yourself, though, if and when they do get dedicated crafting readjusted to be "worth it", will you feel the need to revise the skill? It's okay to answer "yes" to that question and still keep the skill as-written for now. I mostly just wanted to bring up the subject since "+1 to all craft skills" is "the new black" these days. I put it in the same category as "1 of/for every damage type", it's cute if you see it once in a blue moon, but loses the charm (and waters down skill differentiation) once everyone's doing it.
