Based on http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/idea-plague-victim.2796/ This is the mod I'm working on while Magic Missile gets resolved. I have no experience or facility with art/animation, so that'll be appreciated if I get this mostly done. Plaguebearer For some reason, when you caught that nasty plague that was going around, you didn't die. You didn't get better either. Mostly you infect everything. Occasionally chunks of skin fall off. No big deal. Well, there's fire. Fire is a big deal. This is a warrior skill focusing on getting into the meat grinder mode - as long as you can steer clear of fire and keep up a steady kill rate. Work in progress. Seriously. Level 0: What To Expect When You're A Zombie Okay, you're not really a zombie, but children say mean things. You do catch fire easily, and if you can get a bite in on the enemy, or a you-coated piece of your weapon gets in them, it'll spread that infection. If it shambles like a zombie. . . Gives the home stats: + ; - Adds on-hit chance to debuff enemy - reduce their defensive stats primarily. Call it Infection. Level 1: Weaponized Rotting Dungeon life is wearing you out pretty fast, the plague is getting a proper foothold in your system. Fortunately, this means you need to protect fewer parts of you, and you tend to get infectious fluids everywhere when defending yourself or smashing faces. Adds 2 (scale with burliness?). +1 to core resistances; -2 . +2 (since you only bother blocking significant strikes) Adds additional infection proc when being hit. Level 2: Necrotics For Fun And Profit Interesting. You can see bone in some places. Normally you'd say that's pretty bad, but considering bone is by definition not a vulnerable spot, you'd say it'll help you through this dungeon in one piece, even if you're a little stiff. But what's left of you is starting to seem. . . oily. This one just gives solid stats. Same resistance effects as last time, with an extra -7 and a +2 or so It make make some sense to switch level 1 and 2, to force a bit more investment from the player to get major returns. Level 3: Gross Cannons While one should never pop another man's pustule, you've worked out that you can spray a concentrated corrosive out of this one organ you can get a firm grasp on just beneath your ribcage. You're really not sure which one. No stats this time, just allows you to lay down a pool. Or, adds a very weak health regen bonus, scale the acid pool to health regen. This level is kind-of crap; I just needed something to stand in the way of the really good stuff for the player. Got a better idea? Let me know. Maybe I'll just use the original Plague Victim's Leaking. Level 4: What is Dead Can Never Die The plague has done something amazing; you now get caked in layers of rotted tissue when you're killing stuff. It tends to slough off pretty badly, but it doesn't burn! Hallelujah! Suck it dragons! Gives chance of brittle buff on kill (assuming we can do that); say 7 hits. Buff gives stacking and -. It's hard to maneuver in all that extra rotty stuff, and it doesn't give slashing resistance since slash attacks will just kind-of cut it to ribbons. Ideally, on three stacks (max), you can't dodge, you block pretty much every attack at least, you have positive fire resistance. Perhaps a health regen bonus as well if Gross Cannons get the health regen effect. Level 5: My Arm's Big Adventure A disturbing new development. Or awesome. Your arm fell off and totally handled that last thing you did all by itself. It rotted out pretty quick and your arm grew back. There's no way this could ever possibly be useful. Grants "Rip Off Arm" spell. On cast: Summons oversized hand monster called Thing to fight for you. Should be fairly powerful. Is there a way to scale summons? -of course, this is a pretty significant art investment for someone. May have to find something else for this level. Possible balance measure would be to make it a timed summon of immense power, with a very long cooldown. You wouldn't want to rip your own arm off unless you *REALLY HAVE TO*. Also afflicts you with "Mostly 'Armless" debuff, which gives you some negative offense and positive defense, as you can't very well get at the enemy and your main concern is making sure your arm grows back, so you keep it very safe. Level 6: I Am Legend You've finally attained equilibrium with the disease. They can't stop you now, you're having such a good time stomping faces. There's also this cloud of rotted flesh you can release which seems to be really, really unhealthy for everyone else. Biggest stat change; makes you really fear fire without corpse armor in place. Grants AoE spell: The Rottening. Has a respectable AoE around the player, leaves damaging mist which stacks Rot debuff on enemies caught in it. Rot has DoT, and subtracts from offensive stats. As you may notice, I didn't make Plaguebearer especially virulent, because I feel that's a bit too powerful for a warrior. I imagine it may be useful to give that distinctive plague feel to add a mechanic which softens up approaching enemies before The Rottening. I think i'll add a bit more support into the skill for both resisting your plague and infecting yourself and enemies with it. Thoughts, Comments, Suggestions, Assistance, Hatemail, etc.?
This is pretty nice! Everything except the "what is dead can never die"'s flame resistance...I just find it a bit off. That's my only qualm. But this seems like a nice mod/skill!
CaptainCactus - thanks. I'm getting around to actually putting it together soon, though I think Plague Dottore will be done first. As to the fire resistance, it's basically intended as a reprieve for the player. This thing hits you with some nasty fire resist debuffs, such that you can take serious damage from the humble thermoblobby or dwarven IED, and players need some reason to use it, and some reason to stick around even on floor 9. If you have another theory on how to reprieve players of the fire debuff (or compensate for it), let me know.
I suggest nerfing the fire resit bonus from what is dead can never die, and instead, adding some extra hp and health regen to that skill. After all, you are supposed to never die (theoretically). Still wouldnt be overpowered, since so much can do fire damage, and it tends to do more damage throughout the game than anything else. Also, lots of putrefying. Possibly give slight loss to slashing damage in upper tier skills to balance out a bit. Thats my suggestions, at least.
