Another brainstorming thread! This time I'm going for a full eight-level skill, with the theme of spells and abilities that are risky to use, but yield a great reward. In this skill, Browz/ette has been turned into a human thaumite hive after an incident involving a tuna sandwich, a thaumite nest trap and a paperclip, and can thankfully reap some benefits. Here's what I had written down: Level 0: Thaumite Nest Thaumites are finnicky, and you haven't got a proper grip on their hierarchy yet. They like to lash out at anything you point at. Passive: When casting any spell, 20% chance to cause to the target. This includes self-target spells. That's right, casting a healing spell could kill you if you're not careful. Level 1: Soldiermites [needs description, name unsure] A basic missile skill, that damages an enemy through and and prevents them from attacking. Level 2: Trail of Bees Sometimes, they just come out when they feel like it. It's uncomfortable. Ten-turn, removable buff that drops a permanent="1" mine at your feet, which causes when anything steps over it. Might be fit with if needed. Then I'm blank, up until the capstone: Level 7: A Veritable Assload Of Thaumites Yes! Yes, the bees! 3x3 unanchored spell that infects enemies caught with Thaumite Infection... multiple times. I am not budging on that capstone. Don't even try. Thoughts? Ideas?
http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/skill-galactic-bee-herder.3970/ Probably want to have a look at this to try to avoid repetition and what not On a side note, you probably want a nuke themed around the notion of "covered in bees" (I know it from Little Nicky, but it's probably older than that). Maybe a "time bomb" nuke around the notion of tossing honey on someone, applying a debuff that eventually procs a damaging nuke. Something around the notion of "To bee, or not to bee" A 50/50 attack that either does a lot of damage, or nothing.
I've seen it. They're different concepts (one controls bees for a living, the other has been forcefully turned into a living hive for thaumites), so I feel pretty safe here.
Well, if we are clear on that - There are 3 broad ways you can take this tree. One of them would be some kind of "gish-ish" gimmicky tree, but Bee-herder does that already, so there's no point in going down that path if you ask me. Which leaves either the "warrior" option, which is fairly straightforward (boosts durability, scales off a warrior stat, gives a few nukes, has a few negative debuffs that warriors ultimately do not care for, yadayadayadayada, complement to existing tree, TLDR, boring) or the "mage" option. Personally, I daresay I'd like this tree to be the quintessential reverse proposition to Radiant Wizard - Where radiant wizard gives mages crazy damage AS LONG AS THEY DON'T GET HIT, this tree would give mages crazy damage FROM GETTING HIT. The big way to do this, imo, would be to give you, at each level, a chance of applying an "onplayerhit" debuff to nearby enemies that you can then exploit via the relevant nuke/nukes.
I've already decided how to tackle this tree. It is a double-edged sword that will cause many suicides on the unwary. This is on how to develop that idea, not what idea to develop on.
Maybe "Protect the Hive"? "The thaumites have a fierce natural instinct to protect all things that threaten their homes, which is nice, but not as nice as not being a living shell for tiny flesh-eating parasites. However, you can jump around and shake a little to agitate the already-keen and finely honed protection instincts of the thaumites, and those who smack you around may experience trauma in the form of very small, very sharp creatures worming their way into various uncomfortable places. You don't know what happens when you terrify thaumites and you don't want to find out, so you can only jiggle around once in a while." Also possibly a John Dies at the End reference, with his drilling brain-controlling needle bugs. "Some thaumites just go for the organs. Yours call that a depressing lack of ambition, and with your level going entirely into providing each thaumite with high-level tinkering, they have managed to invent tiny collapsible gantries that can jack directly into the higher motor functions of your enemies and provide tasty treats when parts of the brain die from having sharp things poked in them." Basically Thaumite Infection + Charm, with the intent of getting the charmed/infected monster to infect other monsters.
Ah, but you see my friend, these two things are not mutually exclusive. E.g. the onplayerhit debuffs could apply to YOURSELF as well as the enemy everytime it procs, thereby making casting a heal spell on yourself EVEN MORE dangerous. Similarly, if you want to be really evil, you could have a nuke that damages yourself AND the enemy. E.g. "To bee, and not to be". "The fact that you are now the living home to a collectively led bunch of evil thaumite-bees has led you to question your very own existence. These musings hurt you, but they cause for more damage to whoever happens to be nearby. Or maybe that part has something to with the bees?" Damages adjacent enemies with , but does damage to yourself, scaling on w/e offensive stat you happen to be preferring. More in general, a high risk, high reward, suicidal tree is more compatible with wizard archetypes who naturally tend to rely on their spells to get everything done (including healing). The combination of low and high make wizards exceedingly vulnerable to a "double-edged sword" tree. However, the rapacious wizard hunger for MOAR POWER also makes them the most likely to make that kind of Faustian bargain.
Or you make it a bit like Necronomomics, for example with the bees stinging you randomly every few turns or continually, though giving you extraordinary powers when getting hit. No-Choice-Necronomics if you so will And choose a damage type that is less common than necro
I don't know what that is. Also, I've already decided on how this skill is gonna work thanks to some chat help from Createx. So this thread is pointless now.
