OK, so I've been brainstorming about a new Wizard skill for CES. Rogue has four, with Gangnam Style, Warrior will have four, so it only makes sense to add a new Wizard skill to the mix. I've had lots of ideas, but it's come down to two of them. So: which is cooler? Option 1: Secret Agent Mage There's a mage who lives a life of danger... Secret Agent Mage has spells that replicate either suave debonairness, or classic movie moments like the Daring Getaway (a low-level targeted teleport that only works when you're surrounded.) Secret Agent Mage has some very powerful abilities that have a chance to summon a Nemesis -- a random in-depth monster that gets buffed with a few random buffs that make it named-boss challenging. (Daring Getaway is one of them.) Finally, Secret Agent Mage has a polymorph skill called Action Sequence, in which he loses all of his normal tricky/suave spell likes and picks up Perfect Dark-style weapon-spells like Proximity Mine and Rocket Launcher. The final level is a Commandeered Doomsday Weapon that is the single-target damage spell that everyone secretly wants to kill Dredmor with. Option 2: Spellstryker Have you ever seen Witchblade? Yeah...this is nothing like that. Spellstryker is a Wizard class that offers a shit-tonne of spells at every level -- but every spell requires specific weapons in hand to use (and most are targethiteffectbuffs). Depending on what weapon you're wielding, your first-level spellstryker might do anything from implant his foes with electrical epilepsy to give himself a bonus to dodge/counter when he attacks. Obviously, the class is not for Unarmed people, but both Dual Wielders and Sword-and-Board types will benefit, as shields will have their own effects in play as well. This one is less fleshed out, but has vast potential. So...which is cooler?
My vote is Spellstryker. It's probably around 19-21% cooler. I like its gishness. More ways to gish are always welcome. It also uses the new mechanic, and would be more unique in that sense.
Secret Agent sounds more like a rogue skill than a mage one, no matter how much you tack the word Mage onto the end. It does sound much cooler and more fun to play than Spellstryker though.
You might have a problem with spellstryker coding wise. I'm not sure the skillDB handles having 2 abilities of the same kind assigned to the same spell level (not to mention that it assigns flavour from the skillDB rather than the spellDB). I've been banging my head agaisnt the wall with the Alienist for a while now because of it.
Both sounds very interesting, the first being ideologically on the same level than Magical Law: wizards have lots of secret stuff. And the summoned villain bosses... lol. But the second sounds very interesting to play with too: it seems to be the apoteosys of "each game is a different game". So... I vote. For both. Also, Essence?
Vitellozzo -- Essence is saying the mix will be 4/4/3, once his current project (the Gangnam Style Warrior skill) is finished. lujo86 -- Essence knows how to get around that limitation. (Related: <3 Archmage.) QFT. So ... another vote for Spellstryker.
I say Spellstryker, if only because I prefer wizards and warriors to rouges, and the Secret Agent sounds a tad rougish.
Well, personally I prefer rogues, but really, since I usually end up playing without any weapon proficiency skills other than Throwing or Dual Wielding (my warrior builds do have these, though, it's just that I consider these to be limiting for a versatility-centred rogue), Spellstryker would be a fun thing to play with because it would be another thing that adds to the versatility I already have.
Sounds basically unanimous, then. Oh, and lujo: there's no need for multiple skill levels per level, because one spell will trigger a host of others, but each of the others will have weapon requirements, so only the ones that you're currently wielding the weapon for will go off. mainspell --> trigger 7 other spells (Swords, Maces, Axes, Staffs, Daggers, Polearms, Shields) 7 other spells --> check for relevant item; go off or fail depending. Each spell will have to be about half as powerful as a normal activated ability and/or proc, because the expectation is that you'll get two of them every time you press the button and/or trigger the proc. The fun part is, every level can have both an active ability and one or more procs, because whichever one you don't have the weapon for will simply be greyed out / not trigger at all. 5 skill levels * 7 spells per level = 35 different effects to pick and choose between. Sheesh, I built myself a tall ladder to climb. This might take a few months. I think I'll update CES with just the new updates to the existing skills first. Gangnam Style will take a couple more weeks at the pace I'm going, and Spellstryker...a while longer.
Well, it would work Wouldn't be the first time you did something with a million effects, so knock yourself out
I hope you manage to bring out Action Sequence in some other incarnation. A polymorph that's all about the cool skills it gives you sounds pretty damn awesome. You didn't ask, but I have an opinion: I sometimes take builds that use Dual Wielding and no weapon skills. This is so that I can swing the two highest-damaging weapons I can find and not worry about what type of weapon they are. This obviously is only beneficial if I happen to get two crazy OP Chest of Evil items or something, but if it works, it WORKS. Especially before I started using Essence's skillDB alphas, because back then weapon skills had to be leveled up in order to have good effects--this strategy, by comparison, gave me a huge benefit for no level investment. So, Essence, good job unintentionally foiling a sneaky trick! I'm a sucker for flavorful builds with features that theoretically synergize and make sense. My latest thing is doing pure mage builds with Wild Magic + Alchemy + Mana Mastery. The theory is that I can only cast one spell every round, so there's no need for more than one death-dealing kaboom spell, so I might as well only learn one set of spells and make them count as much as possible. This hasn't been working out for me mostly because I'm a very careless (read: stupid) player and I shouldn't be trusted with a pure-mage build. SpellStriker makes me think about dual wielding and what it would mean to a spellstriker...
One thing about why Segrent Agent Mage is a must-have: you can take full effect from Blood Magic even in polymorph. Also, SAM is a cool name. And a gish tree, too.
