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New Promotion: Raider (LEGENDARY) (WIP)
#1
not done yet nerds this got posted early on accident

Hailing from the northernmost reaches of Hyoya, only the most desperate and violent men live out in the reaches of the cold north. Clutching to their lives through good and bad, they make their living from others, seizing goods, food, and raiding monasteries to sate their needs and wants in equal measure. For every one the Hyoyans catch, ten more rise to take their place. They hold no master, no gods, and no goal save survive to the next day. Life is short, life is brutal, and their axes are hungry.

Promotion Class Name: Raider
Promoted From: Soldier. It could fit Rogue, but Rogue has enough promotion classes that avoid the classic rogue archetype already, and having a more active Soldier class that had more than a few tricks up its sleeves seemed like a fantastic idea.

There are three main archetypes I wanted to work into the Raider class mentality. These three archetypes are, I suppose, the main "builds" for the classes, so to speak. These three archetypes are as follows.

- Pirate: This class specializes entirely in the creation and usage of Pillage tiles. This archetype relies more on supporting type actions coupled with acid and water damage, in addition to having a number of crazy tricks up their sleeves that make things more interesting. I haven't quite established what tricks I want the Pirate to do yet, but it will be a grab bag of stuff that is versatile and somewhat obnoxious to deal with.

- Viking: One of the things that I found most disappointing about tanks in SL2 was that there was no ACTIVE component to tanking, save for slamming guard and bam you take less damage. it's not very satisfying from a game feel standpoint to be tanky in this game, so I thought about how a tank could still prevent damage to himself and others without it just being boring passive defenses and guarding and cover. The answer was pretty simple: Knockbacks, Knockdowns, and momentum reducing options that can hinder an opponent's ways of causing damage directly, rather than simply being too tanky to take any damage from folks, in addition to outright denying the opponent certain actions. Shields are a completely 100% mandatory part of the equipment set for this archetype, mostly due to the number of skills it possesses that require it.

-Berserker: I wanted Berserker to feel powerful, and to reward people from going in ham on someone and not relenting, but at the same time provide a pretty serious malus if they were unable to burst out their opponents. As a result, Berserkers are a glass cannon DPS build that is entirely revolving around melee burst damage, with their main gimmick rendering them incapable of doing any other job but that, but also allowing them to do that one job very very well and efficiently.

These are the three main design philosophies I wanted to touch on going into this design, and you'll clearly see the concepts laid out.

Offensive Skills


Flay

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3*
Range: 1
FP Cost: 10 at all levels.

Axe Skill. Targets a single tile within one range. A crippling strike that wreaks havoc on muscles. Engages a regular attack that must roll to hit and crit as normal. Reduces enemy STR by Rank on hit, does not stack.

Concussive Blow

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3*
Range: 1
FP Cost: 10 at all levels.

Axe Skill. Targets a single tile within one range. A smashing blow towards the head that leaves the target dazed and confused. Engages a regular attack that must roll to hit and crit as normal. Reduces enemy WIL by Rank on hit, does not stack.

Dislocate

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3*
Range: 1
FP Cost: 10 at all levels.

Axe Skill. Targets a single tile within one range. A brutal chop to the enemy shoulder, making proper aim painful and distracting. Engages a regular attack that must roll to hit and crit as normal. Reduces enemy SKI by Rank on hit, does not stack.

Hamstring

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3*
Range: 1
FP Cost: 10 at all levels.

Axe Skill. Targets a single tile within one range. A quick slice to the opponent's hamstrings (or equivalent thereof). Engages a regular attack that must roll to hit and crit as normal. Reduces enemy CEL by Rank on hit, does not stack.

Bone Breaker

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3*
Range: 1
FP Cost: 10 at all levels.

Axe Skill. Targets a single tile within one range. A crushing, vicious blow that wears at the physical resolve of even the hardiest man. Engages a regular attack that must roll to hit and crit as normal. Reduces enemy DEF by Rank on hit, does not stack.

Smash Guard

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 2
Momentum Cost: 3*
Range: 1
FP Cost: 20 at both levels.

No specific weapon required. Targets a single tile within one range. You quickly smash aside the opponent's weapon or shield, making them unable to counter you. Does no damage, but negates any on-hit reactions the opponent has, and removes blocking and guarding statuses. Lasts only one round. Counts for starting a Rampage chain.

Knock Knock

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 3
Momentum Cost: 3
Range: 1
FP Cost: 15/20/25

Shield Skill. Targets a single tile within range. Rearing back, the Raider slams the shield with full force into his opponent. Knocks back opponent 3/4/5 tiles, causes 20/25/30 blunt damage, and applies a Staggered debuff, reducing movemment by -1/-2/-3 for 1/2/3 turns.

Who's There?

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 3
Momentum Cost: 4
Range: 3/4/5
FP Cost: 20/30/40

Shield Skill. Targets any recently Staggered opponent within 3/4/5 tiles. Rushing forwards at the staggered opponent, the Raider slams into them at full force, knocking them down onto the ground. This applies the Guard Break status effect as well, increasing all damage taken by the opponent by 15% for 2/3/4 turns.

Plunder

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3*
Range: 1
FP Cost: 15 at all Ranks.

Axe Skill. Targets a single tile within range. Swinging their axe recklessly, the Raider ruins the very ground the opponent stands on. Engages a regular attack that must roll to hit and crit as normal. Spawns a Pillaged tile underneath the opponent even if it misses, and has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to spawn an additional pillaged tile in a random bordering tile.

Crashing Waves

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 4*
Range: N/A
FP Cost: 10/20/30/40/50.

Axe Skill. Targets all Pillaged Tiles on the battlefield. Even the oceans follow the Raider's call, when they beckon. All Pillaged Tiles send out a wave from them in a random direction, automatically hitting and bypassing evasion if an enemy is standing ontop of one. If this wave impacts an enemy, it pushes them 1/1/1/2/3 tiles away from the point of impact and causes 100%/110%/120%/130%/140% Water Attack Scaled Magic Damage.

Ravage

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3*
Range: 1
FP Cost: 20 at all Ranks.

Axe Skill. Targets a single tile within range. The axe of a Raider is so keen, it cleaves even through magical boons, stripping them from those they benefit. Engages a regular attack that must roll to hit and crit as normal. On hit, strips any and all magical buffs from the target. Has a 3/3/2/2/1 round cooldown.

Cheap Shot

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3
Range: 1
FP Cost: 20 at all ranks.

Shield Skill. Targets a single tile within range. Feinting with their weapon, the Raider instead jabs their shield into the enemy's gut. Causes 10/15/20/25/30 damage, and reduces enemy M by 1 on their next turn.

Attack Break (*GRUDGE SKILL*)

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 4
Range: 1
FP Cost: None.

Axe Skill. Targets a single target in range. Unleashing the wrath of their grudges, the Raider cleaves into the arm of their opponent, damaging it to the point where swinging a weapon is nearly impossible. Causes 100/110/120/130/140% Scaled Weapon Attack damage and disables any Attack actions for 2 turns.

Skill Break (*GRUDGE SKILL*)

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 4
Range: 1
FP Cost: None.

Axe Skill. Targets a single target in range. Unleashing the wrath of their grudges, the Raider chops roughly into the opponent's chest, dampening their spirits and making them unsure of their abilities. Causes 100/110/120/130/140% Scaled Weapon Attack damage and disables any Skill actions for 2 turns.

Spell Break (*GRUDGE SKILL*)

Type: Offensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 4
Range: 1
FP Cost: None.

Axe Skill. Targets a single target in range. Unleashing the wrath of their grudges, the Raider swings his axe in a mighty arc into the opponent's skull, scrambling their thoughts and making spells and summons harder to call upon. Causes 100/110/120/130/140% Scaled Weapon Attack damage and disables any Spell or Summon actions for 2 turns.


* - Indicates skills to which Rampage applies.

Defensive Skills

Shield Wall

Type: Defensive
Max Rank: 2
Momentum Cost: 3
FP Cost: 20

Shield Skill. Targets 1/2 squares next to the Raider when facing in a direction. Every Raider knows the importance of standing where you can cover your allies with your shield. Takes half of any damage received by allies standing on one or both sides, but reduces all damage taken by allies by half.

Plow Through

Type: Defensive
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3
FP Cost: None
Range: 3/4/5/6/7 tiles

Targets any ally within the range. A Raider often doesn't care about his allies in his rush to get into the fight. Instantly moves the Raider to his allies position, and pushes the ally to a random neighboring square, or, if Shield Wall is active, to a square affected by it. Cannot target allies that are surrounded on all sides.

Utility Skills

Stand Ground

Type: Utility
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3
FP Cost: 30
Range: N/A

Targets Self. How can you feel fear or fall back when the only thing that lies behind you is frost, fire, and death? When activated, provides immunity to knockback and later Fear for 1/1/2/2(Fear)/3(Fear)

Kindled Hearth

Type: Utility
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3
FP Cost: 30
Range: 7 tiles.

Targets one Pillaged Tile within range. Sometimes, the best way to celebrate a raid is with a cozy fire and friends. Sets the Pillaged Tile ablaze with a cheery fire. Standing next to the hearth will restore 1/2/3/4/5% of HP and FP per turn when standing next to it to anyone. Can stack with multiple hearths. Hearths last 2 turns each, or an infinite number of turns in Spars.

Razed Ground

Type: Utility
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3
FP Cost: 30
Range: 7 tiles.

Targets one Pillaged Tile within range. Other times, the best way to celebrate a raid is to leave a hellish inferno of death in your wake. Sets the PIllaged Tile ablaze with a cruel vicious fire. Standing next to the fire will cause 1/2/3/4/5% HP damage per turn. Getting knocked into the fire causes 100/110/120/130/140% Fire Attack Scaled Magic Damage, and sets a level 5/10/15/20/25 burn on the target. Blazes last 2 turns each.

Makeshift Barricades

Type: Utility
Max Rank: 5
Momentum Cost: 3
FP Cost: 45
Range: Circle AoE, 2/3/4/5/6 tile radius.

Targets all pillaged tiles within radius, and sets up barricades in each of them, rendering them immobile terrain. Each barricade has 10/15/20/25/30 HP and will break apart if their HP is depleted or if something is knocked into them. Anything knocked into Makeshift Barricades take 10/15/20/25/30 damage and can travel through multiple barricades.

Summon Crew

Rank D Invocation
Max Rank: 5
FP Cost: 50
Range: Map

Targets all pillaged tiles on the map. Sometimes, when you need to get the job done, you just need to call up all of your friends. Summons a weak minion into every single unoccupied pillaged tile on the map. These minions are not very good. I have no idea what their statline should be at the moment. I'll figure it out at some point. Point is, they're chaff that exist to fill space and give you Ganging Up bonuses. The minions last for 2/3/4/5/6 turns, and get better every rank too.

Riot

Rank D Invocation
Max Rank: 5
FP Cost: 50
Range: Map

Targets the Map. The best way to get a raid started is to get everyone all nice and riled up, isn't it? Has a 5/10/15/20/25% chance for each tile to change to a pillaged tile. Anyone standing on a tile that is changed takes 100/110/120/130/140% Acid Attack Scaled Magic Damage.

Passive Skills

Rampage

Type: Passive
Max Rank: 2

Just the scent of blood can drive a Raider into a frenzy, which grows more and more wild as the battle progresses. Toggleable skill. When active, each unique Raider Offensive Skill reduces the momentum cost of the next unique Raider offensive skill by 1, to a minimum of 1, and reduces Phys. Def and Mag. Def by 25% for 2 turns, which stacks down to 0% Phys. and Mag. Def. Cannot equip a shield if active. Rank 2 allows equipping without taking up a skill slot. Rampage Chains end after 5 attacks.

Grudgebearer

Type: Passive
Max Rank: 2

A Raider has a list of grudges a mile long. Just hope that you aren't on it. Untoggleable skill. Every time an opponent is knocked down or knocked back by any action the Raider takes, a Grudge is added. Only one Grudge can be added by non-Raider skills at a time. When a Raider reaches 4 Grudges, new skills can be utilized.

Innate Skills

Ganging Up

Type: Innate
Max Rank: 5

A fair fight isn't a fun fight at all. When an enemy is surrounded by allies, the enemy takes +1/2/3/4/5 *x number of allies surrounding opponent extra damage from the Raider.
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#2
done for the night brain semi-melted, probably will fix typos at some point, still not finished yet
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#3
Axes. AXES? BY MY BEARD, THIS DESERVES MERIT.

*Guard breaks you and pushes you off the map edge.*

"WRAH!"

All things considered, this seems neat, keep it up. I'll leave the analysis to the pro SL2 players.
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#4
A good class suggestion for once?...

YOU HERETIC!

I love it.
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#5
If Rampage is going to make Raider skills cost less momentum in exchange for botched defenses, I'd suggest having it negate ALL defensive values/reductions, not just Phys/Mag Def. I'm not against another Combination Fighter, but if this version isn't going to botch offensive output, it sure as hell shouldn't let the player have any sort of defenses. I also wouldn't let the player toggle Rampage while it's in effect.

Otherwise, this suggestion is actually quite sound. There's a few underwhelming skills, but I'll address those in a later post.
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[12:53:15 AM] Chaos: don't hit dyst
[12:53:18 AM] Chaos: that's cruelty to animals
[12:53:20 AM] Chaos: you have to shoot it
[12:53:20 AM] Dystopia: ye
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#6
Why is this not implimented yet?
DO IT! JUST DO IT! MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE DEV
OOC Devourer Of Souls: it makes me feel like someone slipped me acid laced water
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#7
So I decided to pretty much thoroughly go through this idea. Figured I'd break up the skills into their archetypes too.

Pirate archetype:
Plunder
The fact it only creates two tiles, one of which in a random direction is not good enough. It needs to be able to create more tiles.

Crashing Waves
I'm not fond of the random chance this skill has. It's not mentioned how far the waves travel either. Does it deal multiple instances of damage if hit by different waves? I'm concerned how ridiculous this could be when it comes to the Riot skill later on.

I think it's best to go back to the drawing board for this. Perhaps a wide-line AoE water skill that creates Pillaged tiles or has some kind of bonus when affecting Pillaged tiles and pushes enemies would be better but still be thematic.

Kindled Hearth
Kinda weird but I don't have a big issue with it other than the duration. 2 is too short, permanent is too long. I think you might want to try 3 or 4 rounds.

Razed Ground
I don't have a problem with this one other than the duration. Being able to knock people into the fire for more damage and burn works with other skills.

Makeshift Barricades
Due to the way Pillaged tiles are created, this is not reliable or useful. I also don't think it's a good idea to have skills for the same kind of thing. Razed Ground also serves as a thing to push enemies into for damage.

Summon Crew
Considering the next skill in the list, this can get silly fast. Even without Riot, I think it's still a recipe for disaster, there needs to be a limit, especially considering we don't know how strong or weak these will be.

I think you should to go back to the drawing board for this skill.

Perhaps something along the lines of a non-Invocation 3M skill that creates 3 Mooks (that don't require Pillaged tiles to be made), they'd still be mostly fodder but they'd also have some kind of ability to create Pillaged tiles too. (Through movement or an active AoE skill)

Riot
This skill is way too random to be helpful but worse is that can be used to cause frankly ridiculous scenarios when paired with the other skills Crashing Waves and Summon Crew.

Your average SL2 battle map is fairly big, I don't recall the exact measurements but I think they're approximately ~20x19. On Average, at Max Rank, this would create 95 tiles. That means ~95 instances of Crashing Waves (most of which wouldn't be doing anything productive and probably not great for the game) and ~95 Mooks from Summon Crew (a lot of people doing nothing and a lot of heartache for the game to process).


Viking archetype:
Knock Knock, Who's There, Cheap Shot
The damage of all of these options are too low. Knock Knock and Who's There are also slightly too FP hungry for what they are.

Attack Break, Skill Break, Spell Break
These ones are concerning, they're strong and have utterly crippling effects. I'm not keen on having three similar skills, I think you could make the Grudge skills more interesting but beyond that I'll address my further concerns at Grudgebearer.

Shield Wall
I think Shield Wall should simply affect all allies within 1 Range of you, that way we don't need the weird stipulation from Plow Through.

Furthermore, Shield Wall doesn't really list any kind of duration.

I think you could make Shield Wall work by simply making it a "Guard" Skill that also reduces damage from allies within 1 Range.

For instance, let's say I use Shield Wall. The Raider and all allies within 1 Range of him will take 30% less damage. Additionally, actions or effects that would break the Raider's Guard would also break the Shield Wall.

Plow Through
Looks good to me.

Stand Ground
I think it needs to be a little better, especially for 30FP. How about throwing pull prevention to the mix? Knockdown Immunity also would be cool but considering how Grudgebearer works, this might be unwanted.

I don't think there's much point to it having 5 Ranks either, 3 Ranks would do.

Grudgebearer
I'm iffy on this mechanic. I'm assuming using a Grudge skill consumes the Grudges despite nothing stating that and that "Only one Grudge can be added by non-Raider skills at a time" means only one Grudge per applicable non-Raider Skill use.

If that's the case, frequency is a problem. Against a typical opponent, knocking them around might be too easy, Bash is a fairly Momentum effecient way to score Grudges, getting 4 Grudges in 2 Rounds easily enough.

This would mean every 3 Rounds you could throw out a Grudge Skill which stops them from using something like Skills/Spells for 2 Rounds which then lets you build up 4 Grudges again fairly safely, making it difficult to fight against, especially with Knockdown and Cheap Shot to also helping impede them.

On the flipside, if you're against an opponent with Knockback Immunity like Spiked Treads, gaining Grudges is a chore, gaining at best against players 1 per 2 Rounds via knockdowns.

Hard to say what exactly should be done here but I do think it needs some more thought into how it should work.


Berserker archetype:
Flay, Concussive Blow, Dislocate, Hamstring, Bone Breaker
In my opinion, these skills are numerous, lackluster and samey. -5 isn't much of a drop for some stats which really leaves most of them as little more than easy 1 Point pick ups to use for Rampage. I think these could use more thought.

Smash Guard
This skill is fine. Might need some damage to it depending on if or how things are tweaked.

Ravage
Depending on what counts as magical boons, this could be overpowered. Also I don't see the point in making this have 5 Ranks when the odd ranks don't give anything. Might want to make this 3 Ranks or have some kind of other benefit to fill the Ranks.

Rampage
The core skill for this archetype is obscene and doesn't offer much of a downside when built around it. While normally, I'd like the downside as it doesn't make building DEF/RES ideal, we still have to consider Damage Reduction from other classes as an issue.

My other big gripe with this is that being able to churn out 5 Attacks in a round is just too much. Axes are strong weapons, they generally have high Power and offer the second highest critical damage behind daggers, which means they can do a ton of damage with basic attacks. Even more so if you factor in On Hit effects from weapons like Burngada or skills like Elemental Augment.

There doesn't seem like a lot of options when faced against this. Buffing up may not be ideal on a count of Ravage being able to clear some buffs. Guarding or counter damage won't keep them at bay due to Smash Guard. Keeping your distance since they don't have gap closing options while going ham seems smart but that may not spare you either, on a count of access to the Grapple talent allowing them to pin someone down the round prior and then unleash a full combo.


The groundwork is mostly solid for the class idea but still needs more tweaks and polish.
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#8
it's part of the reason smash guard does no damage, prevents a full combo and also burns a solid 3m if used at the beginning of a chain with no crit chance whatsoever, so the gamble and tradeoff is simple, guarantee the next few hits are going to bypass guard and reaction skills for the cost of damage and less total M in the turn, or go all out and hope the enemy doesn't have riposte, stalemate, or any of the other things that would instantly shut down a serious combo

other problems come with axes inherent inaccuracy, with little passives other than raw stats to carry it, and with strength almost required as a damage scaling stat with most of the good ones, that's a pretty huge stat investment

another limiting factor that I baked in is that the FP costs for doing this class berserker style are obscene with your average damage focused build, though I agree on the one point thing, so I have a solution, adding a base accuracy debuff to each attack ability that is increased by how far you are in the chain, so say 1st chain you have -5, next you have -10, so on so forth, so it incentivizes getting higher ranks to make you able to hit anything with it

the funny thing is there is meant to be cross use for a number of skills within the class, and the sole reason the debuff attacks exist is to give berserkers options but also to give other specs things to do as well

a lot of the pirate abilities are given in vagueness, which is wholly my fault on the matter as I am not entirely sure what way to go, my thought at the moment is to have crashing waves instead emit a wave from only one pillage tile and the direction chosen by the player

Plunder is designed with the idea that you're already using Pillawag tbh

riot is getting changed to an area about the size of a lantern bearer lantern, because the entire map is excessive I agree

the main idea for kindling hearth in spars being infinite is to allow for "infinite" spars where people can get low on health and just heal back up in a few skipped turns without leaving battle, but if that's an issue, 3-4 turns is a okay

with summon crew, the individual minions are piss weak, as in even at max level your average powerful aoe spell should clear most, if not all of them out, I don't have the final numbers for this and I honestly doubt I ever will tbh, I have zero clue on statting minions and I don't really wanna dive into that can of worms for what is essentially a design suggestion rather than a fully functional right now SL2 class

agree on most of the points for viking, 4 grudge is too low, planning on bumping it up to 6 or 8 depending on what popular consensus is, the main balancing thing for grudge skills is how much grudge you need to actually use them, so it's a solid one stop way to balance them without hitting anything else in the class for nerfing purposes

my thoughts on cheap shot are reducing M cost or increasing damage, a small damage 1m for 1m trade sounds like it'd be the best combo and wouldn't allow the knock knock + who's there combo in the same turn either

knock knock should get damage and so should who's there, maybe something scaling off of weapon damage but not a very powerful autohit obv

as for the purpose of the grudge skills, I have to object to anyone saying they should be stripped out, the grudge skills and rampage are the two main standout things in the class and are the defining elements of what make the class what it is
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#9
Personally the stat decrease skills should be able to stack up to 4 times but each stack lowers the accuracy of the hit for it by 10 on the second hit. Then doubles each stack. So first Flay is normal and gives -5 str. Flay 2 has -10 to hit and gives -10 str, Flay 3 gives -15 str and has -20 to hit, Flay 4 has -40 to hit and gives -20 str. And no two of these debuff skills apply to the same target.
OOC Devourer Of Souls: it makes me feel like someone slipped me acid laced water
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#10
Also Crashing Waves should target a direction to launch waves OR should send waves in the cardinal directions.

Ravage feels like it'd only affect fortune wind, Enchants, curate/Priest buffs, and Lantern Bearer effects which doesen't seem all that overpowered. Solid work.

Shield Wall NEEDS to be coded to either not work for non player chars or for shared pain to not interact with this skill or else doomwall Raider Bonders will be a thing. A scary thing.

Stand Ground should have a decreasing FP cost per rank.

Kindled Hearth and Razed Ground need to last 4 rounds each and NOT show the skill name when placed. Razed Grounds damage per turn should be fire for flavor but also ignore def, res and fire resist.

Summon Crew minions just need a similar statline to phase python level 60 with no affinity or buffs. The class should also get a skill where they command the minions to pillage the tiles in front of them at once.

All I can think of right now.
OOC Devourer Of Souls: it makes me feel like someone slipped me acid laced water
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