I apologize for throwing out an idea with no mod, but if I waited until I learned xml this mod would never exist, and I'm not sure of the feasibility to begin with. Core concept: High damage unarmed skill line, overpowered at a price, single space attacks with cool-downs, reverse skill leveling (this will make sense later). Skill description: You have dared to go where few even dream. You kick enemies not in the shins, but in their FACE. Warning armor, sight radius, and trap sight radius decrease damage. You are a heretic of the unarmed school, thrown out because of your unusual fighting style. Skill level 0: Your leg stretches have made you unusually limber. plus 1 to The idea is to make the starting point pretty useless forcing the player to invest one point in the skill line to get a "overpowered" attack. Skill level 1: Your initial attempts at a face-kicking style show promise. Armor encumbers you reducing damage. (12 - ( * 3)) One turn cool down. Template 30. 50% to cause stubbed toe -3 for 8 turns, stacks 8 times. This is when the skill line shows it's true nature. Throughout level 1 and level 2 this skill should one-shot every enemy as long as the character has no defense at the risk of damaging your self like necronomiconomics. Skill Level 2: You now put more force behind your attacks, and armor hinders your damage worse. Body strain has appeared as well. (20 - ( *4)) One turn cool down. Template 30. 45% chance to cause sprained ankle -5 for 8 turns, stacks 6 times. I'm hoping this planned obsolescence works so that the player has only one viable skill at a time, and that the negative scale to defense forces the player to "upgrade." Skill level 3: By kicking your enemies in the nose your damage has increased however traps have become a distraction. (30 - (( *4) + ( * 2))) one turn cool down. template 30. 40% chance to cause shin splints -8 for 10 turns. stacks 6 times. This is when the drawbacks start to really rear their heads, and the nature of this skill line shows itself. I wanted to make a skill line that would force the character to play "wrong." A deliberately low stat skill line. Skill level 4: You now aim your foot for their eyes (where applicable) this requires huge amounts of concentration. (62 - (( *4) + ( * 2) + ( * 4))) one turn cool down. Template 30. 45% chance to cause pulled a hammy -10 for 10 turns. stacks 10 times. Skill level 5: Your attacks contain every ounce of effort you can put into them. (100 - (( *6) + ( * 5) + ( * 5))) one turn cool down. Template 30. 50% chance to cause broken leg -15 -1 for 15 turns. stacks 10 times Skill level 6: You once saw a master use the dragon foot technique. How hard can channeling Aetherial magic be anyway. (72 - (( * 3) + ( * 3) + ( * 3))) one turn cool down. Template 03. 50% chance to cause Blew your leg off stun for 3 turns -25 -10 for 25 turns. stacks 5 times. The idea is to have skill 5 be your use a lot skill with skill six being the i'm in trouble skill. Skill six is also the only skill that can hit multiple spaces. Things to note. I came up with these numbers as i was writing this post therefore there is no balancing at all right now. Also i have no idea how the engine will handle the possibility of negative damage dealt (badly i would assume). This is all most likely impossible however this is the skill i would make if i were not so lazy. I would have loved to negative scale against nonstandard damage types just to be a stinker however im 95% sure that is impossible.
Alternative level 6 skill: much better in my opinion. You once saw a master use the dragon foot technique. How hard can channeling Aetherial magic be anyway. (72 - (( * 3) + ( * 3) + ( * 3))) magic skill -1 cost. Template 03. 25% chance to cause blew your right leg off stuns for 2 turns -25 -5 for 50 turns. stacks 5 times. Follow by (in the same turn) attack template 88. 25% chance to cause blew your left leg off stuns for 2 turns -25 -5 for 50 turns. stacks 5 times. The idea is that you swing with your right leg three spaces forward follow by a sweep with your left leg hitting the space directly in front of the player twice for massive damage. The reason why i posted this: is any part of this skill line feasible? Can you scale damage to stats the way i'm trying to? How does the engine hadle negative damage dealt? can you tag a skill as unarmed only? Is a glass cannon warrior a feasible build? should i add negative due to leg damage to my side effects? is it possible to play the game using only the Poncho With No Name? Is this skill being to much of a dick to the player?
The big problem you have right now is that you can't tag a skill as unarmed-only. That MAY change within a few weeks...but I wouldn't hold my breath. (They're talking about it, but a good chunk of what they talk about turns out to be non-feasible.)
Like Essence said, the best you can currently hope for is to put a nag in the skill description indicating it would be cheating to use it with weapons. Some would obey. But then some also mod their starting gear to be uber and can one-shot Dredmor from the beginning. I suggest not worrying about it. Make any mod you want and let common sense do the hardest part of balancing for you.
I don't know if you've ever watched community...but this is an excellent opportunity for a great reference (kick-puncher). That aside, I like the concept of a somewhat kamikaze fighter. My one criticism would be that with the high volumes of monsters (most of which are not too hard on their own) makes high single target damage not all that attractive, at least compared to area of effect abilities. High single target is still good, but with your proposed costs, I don't see the risk-reward panning out favorably. Maybe you should start ramping up some small AoE earlier, with the final skill covering a bit more ground than template 3. As it is now, it is much safer, and probably not much slower, to take a normal melee skill and pile on the armor.
