Some ideas for Mage skills/spells

Cuckoorex · 22/06/2017

I know the Mage class is pretty far off, being something that'll be added after 1.0 is finished, but I thought Id throw some ideas out there anyway:
Skills/Spells:
Mana Recovery (passive) similar to recovering health by standing still in Casual mode. This way it doesn't make the Mage too powerful, but still allows a Mage who runs out of mana and mana potions to recover a portion of mana for, say, a teleportation or protection spell if he's desperate.

Detect Secrets (active) functions like the scroll of course.

Ice shards (active) bolt of damaging ice that has a chance to maybe slow enemies. Higher ranks of course increase damage and effect chance for a lesser mana cost.

Fire blast (active) Pretty self-explanatory, shorter range flamethrower-like effect, maybe flares out to a cone shape, with the width of the cone increasing with higher levels and the duration of the flames increases. A necessity against Trolls.

Teleport/Recall (active) similar to Recall scroll, except that you could cast it a second time and get to choose to return to the area you teleported from.

Lightning Bolt (active) Maybe this spell, along with damage, has a chance to stun (and maybe paralyze with higher ranks)

Magic Armor (passive) increases armor magically with a constant aura (needn't be a visible aura, that'd be a pain... maybe it kicks in like Fury?) (higher ranks also increase resistance)

Enchant weapon (passive) Increases damage for melee attacks for any weapon equipped by imbuing it with magic; includes increasing effects like Death Damage, Fire Damage, etc with higher skill ranks. The spell only effects whatever weapon he Mage is currently using and is cancelled when he unequips it, until he reequips it.

Advanced skills:
Summon Elemental (active) Like the scroll Summon Earth Elemental, but you get to choose which element the Elemental is composed of.

Weaken Foes (active) area effect spell that lowers Armor and resistance for a number of seconds, with the amount lowered and the duration of the effect increasing with higher levels.

Chain lightning (active) like the Diablo spell of the same name, lighting bolt that "jumps" from the initial target to other foes nearby, with secondary hits doing less damage (like Cleave). Higher levels make the bolt connect with more enemies and do a higher percentage of damage to secondary targets.

Meditation (active) Fully recover entire mana pool a limited times until you rest, works like health recovery except with mana instead of health.

Confusion (active) A chance that targeted foes turn on their fellow bad guys. Spell lasts until they kill the foe they attack (or are killed themselves). A way to recruit some help in tough spots, plus if you're casting it on the undead, it's kinda like you're a Necromancer! Higher levels increase the percentage chance of success.

Mana mastery (passive) You've learned to channel your mana more effectively, reducing the mana cost of spells across the board.

Blizzard (Active) Area effect cold attack, blizzard effect surrounds the caster for X number of seconds, similar effects to ice shards.

Charm (maybe?) (active) temporarily increases personality, useful for conversations and gossip... allows Mages to concentrate trait points on Intellect where they really need them.

What do you guys think?

VDX_360 · 23/06/2017

Not a bad list but reads like a summary of every other mage class in every other game..... Not a bad idea, but let's hope for something unique to EK as a game.
On the same idea, most Warrior skills are pretty much common across games. Nothing new under the sun, I guess.

Xen · 25/06/2017

it's a good list for damaging skills except for meditation and mana recovery because it can ruin the balance between characters, maybe mana recovery can be something like the Retribution skill for Cleric except that it can work for all types of enemies not just undead and outsiders(construct/demons)

Cuckoorex · 25/06/2017

Xen":c3iamfq7 said:
it's a good list for damaging skills except for meditation and mana recovery because it can ruin the balance between characters, maybe mana recovery can be something like the Retribution skill for Cleric except that it can work for all types of enemies not just undead and outsiders(construct/demons)

I don't think it would really unbalance the game; we already can see how limited the cleric is, being dependent so much on mana which doesn't regenerate, and the mage is probably going to be even moreso. So as an advanced skill, giving the mage a couple of extra chances to recoup mana could be a life saver. The ability to regen mana while standing still would be limited as to how much max would regen, enough maybe for one or two spells, not enough to take on tough foes, so it's more like it gived him a chance to teleport to safety. Mage is likely to be physically vulnerable and have lower hit points, so mana is really super important for mage to be effective at all.

Of course, I'm speculating, since mage doesn't currently exist.

Xen · 25/06/2017

I disagree, because unlimited mana means unlimited usage of skills. It is considerable if the destructive skills is also underpowered just like the Cleric spells but if it isn't then it is way too OP and is very unfair to the nerfed sniping strategy for rogue archers. I like your idea of skills but I say no to unlimited mana, because that means potions with mana is just a trash.

Cuckoorex · 26/06/2017

But mana potions are hard to find, and the mage is likely to take a LOT of damage because enemies tend to close in quickly and surround you, so mages will also need lots and lots of health potions to stay alive, and that's going to get real expensive really quick. Without mana, a mage (in most rpgs) is just a glorified cheerleader; against low level rats and goblins he might be able to survive, but he'd still take hits, since (again, in most rpgs) they don't typically use armor or high dps weapons. It would be the underpowered cleric problem times ten. At least when the cleric runs out of mana he can still crack a few skulls, albeit not as effectively as warrior or rogue.

Honestly, I think the best answer besides multiplayer is to let the player add ALL companions to join up eventually. Maybe make it something dependent on personality; every two points allows another companion to join along with the standard 1. Why? Because clerics are support characters for the most part (Hirge is my favorite companion for the healing, but cleric is my least favorite class) and rogue has a part to play with detection, trap disarm, and stealth and gossip. Mages (in most rpgs) tend to avoid combat and either strike or buff from a relatively safe distance while the tanks engage in melee.

Another part of the problem is there really is no way to play the game *without* it coming down to a LOT of combat, most of it melee. Griss and Hirge and Adaon can't train advanced skills and are always a lower level than you, and usually get taken out quickly in tough fights, meaning that a mage would very often find himself alone in those tough fights very quickly. If all three were on hand at higher levels (after building up personality enough) boss fights with a mage might be doable, but only if he's stocked up on mana potions and can avoid too much damage. But right now it would almost be like a solo game with a heavy emphasis on melee combat and a character that would need both health and mana potions aplenty to make it through any dungeon.

Jazz · 26/06/2017

All interesting thoughts... could the future of EK be a party-based RPG game???

A mage might work as a support character that requires one of your companions to take the center stage combat role. Imagine Grissenda taking on foes while you support her! For all intents and purposes, companions have unlimited HPs, so it could kind of work. With the few support spells listed, I could see it happening.

The only question I have is how the buttons would be set up on the screen. If you have 6 active spells, how do you have all of them arranged, or would you have to pick 3-4 active spells from your list?

The other way I can see this working is to give the mage a generic "energy bolt" attack that he can use without having a weapon, and then give him wands to add an element (fire, ice, lit, poison, death) to his attacks. More powerful wands boost his base attack, and so does increasing his Intellect (similar to how melee atracks get damage boosts from Strength). Using this method, the mage could get more powerful spells in the form of things like those described here.

I dont like the idea of regenerating mana, but I do like the idea of a recovery that restores health AND mana as one of the skills.

Add to that list a spell that produces a stun effect (like the Turn Undead effect, except it works on any type of creature).

Grim Rapper · 26/06/2017

Jazz":3peotjxy said:
The other way I can see this working is to give the mage a generic "energy bolt" attack that he can use without having a weapon

I think it''s pretty pre-arranged, since there's little to no weapon available for mage class

Jazz":3peotjxy said:
I do like the idea of a recovery that restores health AND mana as one of the skills.

Recovery button is already recover HP and mana, so I don't really think a skill for recovering HP and Mana is necesarry (I prefer Mana regeneration, so Mage and Clerics have a skill synergy when the online feature is implemented)

As for Mage class itself, there's some people that using Mage that dealt an AoE (Area of Effect) kind of damage, being the second highest DPS dealer after Rogue. And some can use Mage class as a fully supportive character, with HP & Armor booster and Elemental resistor for Companion. David decision regarding the mage class build may depend on what kind of mage this game will provide, but until then it's all just a speculation

Cuckoorex · 26/06/2017

Grim Rapper":dav5s7do said:
Recovery button is already recover HP and mana, so I don't really think a skill for recovering HP and Mana is necesarry (I prefer Mana regeneration, so Mage and Clerics have a skill synergy when the online feature is implemented)

Yeah, what I had in mind was actually separate into two different skills: health-only recovery or mana-only recovery. Obviously if you're a non-mana character the choice seems easy BUT you have to consider if you're going to have a mage or cleric companion you might want to put a rank into mana recovery as well. Otherwise if they had mana regen they'd be OK, but without regen they'd not recover mana when you recovered. So it might be a tough choice; do you put more points in physical recovery or do you get the skill to fill your companion's mana back up?

Grim Rapper · 29/06/2017

Cuckoorex":x2tmx2d1 said:
Yeah, what I had in mind was actually separate into two different skills: health-only recovery or mana-only recovery. Obviously if you're a non-mana character the choice seems easy BUT you have to consider if you're going to have a mage or cleric companion you might want to put a rank into mana recovery as well. Otherwise if they had mana regen they'd be OK, but without regen they'd not recover mana when you recovered. So it might be a tough choice; do you put more points in physical recovery or do you get the skill to fill your companion's mana back up?

First of all, Cleric and Mage skill in mana is (in my opinion) one of the core problem in this game, since both class is very dependant on mana consumption through active skill, yet there's not a single skill that offering mana recovery/reduction cost (idk about mage skill, but from the cleric skillset it's clearly obvious), resulting in dependant in mana potion stock everytime a mana-based character want to go to the dungeon.

Second, putting a recovery skill for both HP or mana in both class is redundant (also just my opinion), simply by the cleric already have the skill to recover HP already (which in my opinion is furthurmore depending the Class effectivity in mana potion), and creating 1 more skill for mana recovery is pretty limiting, since the amount skill slot is really strict to 8 slot

Third (and last), even you implement the HP AND mana recovery for each mana-based class, it'll un-balanced the strength equality for other classes, since cleric and mage become pretty much unstoppable (especially Mage) and ruin the enjoyment of of other player (mostly Beta player tbh xp) when the online feature is implemented into the game

My suggestion is still the same, applying HP recovery to Cleric class and giving mana recovery to Mage class in the future, since it's suit the class characteristic, create a pretty good synergy for both class, and resolving the problem of cleric in mana dependancy

Some ideas for Mage skills/spells

Cuckoorex

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VDX_360

Xen

Cuckoorex

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Xen

Cuckoorex

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Jazz

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Grim Rapper

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Cuckoorex

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Grim Rapper

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