Technomancer
09-06-2009, 10:13
*NOTE: This is a pretty large overhaul on the original idea, which I kept in quotes at the bottom. This class is now something of a D2 combination of Paladin, Amazon, and Assassin. This is pretty much a full class now, without technical game stats.
Background:
Upon the destruction of the Worldstone 20 years ago, a Vizjerei elder concluded that the mortal powers of Order had failed. Secretly, he went to the Viz-Jaq'taar Assassins to share his concerns and make a proposal. Even though the Prime Evils were defeated, mortal powers and agents were still not powerful enough to save the Worldstone. He feared that following it's destruction, things would get worse and proposed that the Assassin's lack of magic was weakness, that the time would soon come to fight fire with fire. He suggested that they should begin to incorporate magic to counter the coming flood. He was rejected outright by most of the clan, and nearly slain on principle, but one Assassin elder had reached a similar conclusion, but didn't know how to act upon it. With this opportunity, he stole away with the Vizjerei elder and a few of the younger clan members, to work on combining their knowledge and powers to create a new breed of mage-knight. Once the Viz-Jaq'taar realized what had transpired, they decreed death for all violators, but the group dissappeared and no one had heard from them to this day. All knowledge of what had transpired was hidden.
They spent years hidden away from the world in the northern reaches near the ruined Mt. Arreat. They honed their skills, focusing less on subversion and more on direct confrontation. From the Assassin's understanding of the mind and martial combat and the Vizjerei elder's understanding of the Elemental magics, a marriage was made into magically enhanced warriors. This combination of studies gave special insights into the nature of the world and gave these new warriors the power to tap into the very elemental threads that are woven into our world and weave them into their own bodies and equipment. They also gained some insight into exploring the Ether. They spent a great deal of time developing methods of countering and diffusing hostile magicks and it's practitioners, as per Assassin tradition, up close and at range. They also knew, however, that the demonic hordes need not rely on magic to reek their destruction, so great emphasis was also placed on raw combat power and fortitude.
With the coming of the falling star, they knew that their time had arrived. They re-emerged into the world to discover what foul forces were involved. While two of the apprentices were away doing reconnaissance, their base of operations was utterly destroyed. Most were killed, the rest were missing. The elders were not among the remains, nor were there any clues as to the perpetrators. Had the Assassins finally caught up to them? Was it the mustering forces of evil? The two apprentices had no answers, but were determined to fulfill their duties. They ventured into the world on their own to discover what evil schemes plotted against Sanctuary and to put it to an end... or die trying...
--------
Skills:
Base level Enchantment skills are cast by the character and last until overridden with new Enchantments or dispelled. They can be passively augmented with more spectacular effects with different skills. Can have only 1 Weapon and 1 Armor Enchantment active at a time. When special effects are triggered, they automatically drain mana, and if there is no mana, effect is cancelled.
Steel & Fire: This tree focuses on speed and raw destructive output. Uses Fire and Lightning. "A good defense is a good offense."
Tier I:
Burn: Active. Enchants Weapon. Adds fire damage to attacks and increases accuracy. Enables additional Fire Weapon Enchantments.
Jolt: Active. Enchants weapon. Adds electrical damage to attacks and increases attack speed. Enables additional Lightning Weapon Enchantments.
Lightning Spirit: Passive. Increase attack speed and accuracy.
Channeling the Flame: Passive. Increases damage done by Enchantments in this tree.
Tier II:
Twitch: Active. Missile attack. Essentially a Missile based Zeal or fixed # Strafe.
Flame Armor: Active. Enchant Armor. Deal fire damage to any melee attackers. Enables additional Fire Armor Enchantments.
Flame Spray: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Adds a chance to cause a spherical firewall centered on target.
Lightning Rod: Passive. Enchants Weapon. When enemy is struck, a lightning bolt goes from character thru target. Can trigger multiple bolts from one attack. More useful for multiple missiles against clustered enemies.
Missile Mastery: Passive. Increases Damage, Accuracy, and Crit. % of Missile attacks.
Tier III:
Sweep: Active. Melee attack. Spins once in a circle, striking any surrounding enemies within range.
Flame Sabres: Active. Spell. Creates floating swords made of fire that seek targets to attack and deal fire damage. They stay around until attacked and destroyed.
Flame Nova: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Can triggers a fire based nova from target. Increasing rank increases size of effect.
Chain Static: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Causes electrical damage to target that jumps to any units next to them, etc, etc, quickly rippling through tightly packed enemies.
Conflageration: Passive. Enchant Armor. When hit, has a chance of causing the ground around the character to burst into fire for xx seconds.
Tier IV:
Ricochet: Active. Missile attack. When a target is struck, the arrow jumps to the nearest target. Everytime a target is struck, the arrow keeps retargetting up to a skill based maximum or until it misses one.
Thunderclap: Passive. Enchants Weapon. When attacking, has a chance of calling down a lightning bolt on top of character, knocking all foes back next to character and dealing damage.
Burst: Passive. Enchants Armor. When an enemy attacks, has a chance of causing explosive fire damage to targets adjacent to character, knocking them back.
Fire Elemental: Passive. Activates if Burn or Jolt and Flame Armor are active. Transforms into a Fire Elemental, dealing extra fire and increasing Fire and Lightning damage. Also, absorbs fire damage.
Pax Arcanna: This tree focuses on penetrating and neutralizing hostile magics and magicians. Uses skills that interfere with magic, and uses teleportation offensively and defensively. "What good is magic if you're unable to use it?"
Tier I:
Displace: Active. Melee attack. On striking, teleport to another random position next to target. The confusion enhances your defense for x seconds. Has a 3 second cooldown.
Spellbind: Active. Enchants weapon. Has a chance to silence target. Enables additional Magical Weapon Enchantments.
Resist Affliction: Passive. Decreases the chance that negative condition magics can affect character, like chill, slow, silence, etc. and also decreases the duration of such effects if they get through.
Enhanced Spellbinding: Passive. Increases the duration of all effects caused by skills from this tree.
Tier II:
Dispel: Active. Spell. Sends out a shockwave that will dispel any negative magic effects on friendly units.
Mystic Fortress: Active. Enchants armor so that when attacked, fires a silence bolt at attacker. Enables additional Magical Armor Enchantments.
Interference: Passive. Enchants weapon to inflict a condition that causes target's casting rate to be greatly decreased.
Skip: Passive. Enchant Armor. When attacked, has a chance of teleporting to a random location within range. Could be annoying to some players, but to those who thrive on chaos, welcome home! Could be a particularly useful defense for range-based characters. Will not teleport through walls or closed doors.
Arcane Defenses: Passive. Increases resistance to arcane magics.
Tier III:
Summon: Active. Spell. When cast on a target, causes them to be teleported right next to caster. Doesn't work on bosses or other characters.
Short Circuit: Active. Spell. Cast on a single target. Caster loses half and target loses all mana, adjusted for Arcane resistance. (may not be very relevant, because they may not keep track of enemy mana. PvP uses would be neat-o.)
Blood Price: Passive. Enchant Weapon. Adds mana damage and inflicts a condition on target that causes any abilities that drain Mana to drain an equal amount of Health as well.
Absorb Magic: Passive. Enchants armor. Has a chance of absorbing spells cast at character, eliminating damage and restoring however much mana that skill cost.
Enhanced Evocation: Passive. Increases chances that any Weapon or Armor Enchantments will activate.
Tier IV:
Shift Stirke: Active. Melee. Quickly teleport next to an enemy, attack, then zips back to her original location. If hit, she's stuck where she's at.
Disruption: Active Spell. Sends out a shockwave that destroys any enemy spells, offensive or defensive, within the given radius. Does not affect friendly units (ie. use Dispel to get rid of negative effects).
Tiamat: Passive. Enchants weapon. Adds elemental damage of fire, cold and lightning to attacks. Enhanced by Burn, Jolt, and Frostbite. Only works if Spellbind is active.
Reflect: Passive. Enchants armor to have a chance of reflecting magics cast at character.
Efficient Evocation: Passive. Decreases mana costs incurred when Enchantment effects trigger.
Terra Firma: This tree focuses more on defense and fortitude. Attacks are based on strength more than speed. Uses Stone/Earth and Cold. "The mountain need not fear the storm." (Note: Earth elemental skills are only called that for conceptual reasons and cause physical damage, not an "earth elemental" damage type. That is, unless Blizzard adds that.)
Tier I:
Ethereal Anchor: Active. Missile attack. A successful attack can anchor the foe in place, unable to move, but can still attack. Doesn't work on bosses or other players.
Frostbite: Active. Enchants Weapon. Adds cold damage to attacks and chills targets. Enables additional Cold Enchantments
Immovability: Passive. Decreases the chance that any effect can cause the character to move against his will, ie. knockback effects.
Quenching the Flame: Passive. Increases damage done by Enchantments in this tree.
Tier II:
Stone Guardian: Active. Spell. Creates a floating fist of stone that randomly attacks nearby foes. Certain runes may add Knockback.
Rockform: Active. Enchants Armor. Increases Defense and Damage Reduction. Enables additional Stone Enchantment.
Project Cold: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Chills enemies within a given radius.
Inertia: Passive. Causes attacks to physically pack more force. Increases physical damage and with Missile attacks, increases the distance the missiles will travel.
Melee Mastery: Passive. Increase Damage, Accuracy, and Crit. % of Melee attacks.
Tier III:
Torque: Active. Melee or missile attack. Slower attack, but does much more damage. If missile, it travels faster (if engine supports that).
Stalagmite: Active. Spell. Summons a spike of solid rock from the earth at the desired location. Any enemies nearby take physical damage and pillar remains as an obstacle until destroyed.
Icicle: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Has a chance of causing a giant Icicle to fall on target, causing splash damage to nearby foes.
Attunement: Passive. Increases resistance to fire/ice/lightning.
Tier IV:
Anvil of the Earth: Melee attack. Crushing attack with cooldown time that does highly increased damage to target and nearby targets.
Ice Shield: Active. Spell. Creates a literal shield made of solid ice. If a shield is being used, it enhances it defenses and blocking. Without a shield, it floats near caster and confers double the blocking bonus that Ice Shield adds to a shield and can be used with 2-handed weapons.
Jagged Shards: Passive. Enchants Armor. Causes sharp rock protrusions to spring from armor, causing physical damage on melee attackers. Against missile attacks, has a chance of shattering the missile, causing no damage. Against attackers that have weapon Durability (ie. PvP), has an equal chance of reducing Durability of attackers melee weapon by one.
Earth Elemental: Passive. Activates if Frostbite and Rockform are both active. Transforms into Stone. Makes Earth and Ice skills do more damage, adds defense. Also, adds resistances to cold and lightning.
Arcane Warrior in DiabloWiki.
ORIGINAL:
Could probably think of a cooler name, but it would wind up being a confluence of many of the ideas people have been throwing around like Death Knight, Ranger, Battlemage, etc. He/she would be a highly magic augmented warrior that could focus equally on melee or missiles. His main skills are enchantments on his weapons and armor that add elemental or other magical properties. I'm even throwing around the idea of making some of them castable on allies. In D2 terms, it'd be a cross between a Pally and Zon, with some Sorc spillover. The weapon enchantments would work equally on melee or missiles, but could have certain benefits to one or the other. I was thinking that some (or all) Enchantments could operate on a "% to cast on strike", increasing with ability. There seems to be a clear hole in the existing classes regarding Fire skills, so this would be a good candidate to focus on. Whether the player could stack enchantments would be a balancing issue, but I think it'd be cool.
Weapon Enchantments: (Once cast, attacks automatically take on properties for duration.)
Flame Sabre: Converts physical damage to Fire. Works on Missiles too, maybe needs a better name. Could also have a lightning variant.
Fire Blast: On attack, explosive fire is dealt to neabry units (ala D2 Fireball or Explosive Arrows).
Flame spray: Melee, causes a spherical firewall centered on target. Missiles cause a trail of fire to form under arrows path.
Chain Static: Causes electrical damage to target that jumps to any units next to them, etc, etc, rippling through tightly packed enemies.
Nova Strike: On attack, causes a nova to launch from target. Especially nice with missiles: long range Nova. And don't get me started on hitting multiple targets... :evil:
or Flame Nova: An alternative to Nova strike. Or could have both!
Lightning Rod: When enemy is struck, a lightning bolt goes from character to target. Can trigger multiple bolts from one attack with missile Twitch or Ricochet.
Tiamat: Adds elemental damage of all 3 elements similar to Pally Vengeance, but lasts through the duration.
Channeling: Passively increases elemental damages. Could be broken into different skills per element.
Armor Enchantments: (Same as above.)
Fire Shield: Lifted from D&D as long as WotC doesn't come after me. :shhh: Deal fire damage to any attackers.
Fire Aura: Causes the ground around the character to burst into fire
Spark: Shoots a bolt of lightning at any attackers, even ranged.
Thunderclap: When an enemy attacks, has a chance of triggering a shockwave that knocks all foes back within a small radius, plus dealing damage.
Attune: Increases resistance to fire/ice/lightning. Passive.
Soul of Fire/Ice/Lightning: When cast, Absorb that element, but reduces other resistances.
Weapon skills(working name): (These are per attack skills, and in some cases, are just directly cast spells.)
Twitch: Essentially a Missile based Zeal.
Magic Arrow: Maybe an enhanced version of D2 Amazon's.
Ricochet: When a target is struck, the arrow jumps to the nearest target. Everytime a target is struck, the arrow keeps retargetting up to a skill based maximum or it misses one.
Torque: Slower attack rate, but missile travels faster (if engine supports that) and does much more damage.
Sweep: Spins once in a circle, striking any surrounding enemies within range. Enchantments can only be triggered once (maybe?).
Lunge: Attack and move forward in a short burst, knocking foes back a ways and following. Sort of a short burst Charge, but foe must be in melee range. Useful to break out when surrounded.
Ethereal Anchor: A successful attack, melee or missile, anchors the foe in place, unable to move, but can still attack. Doesn't work on bosses or other players.
Perhaps for this class, parhaps for another:
Shift Stirke: This is one of my babies here. :D He quickly teleports next to an enemy, attacks, then zips back to his original location. This could have abuse potential, but make it to where if hit, he's stuck where he's at. This might also be a good one for a Rogue style class instead.
Displace: On striking, teleport to another random position next to target. Should be a "skill used per attack" skill so it isn't abused (too much). As above, may be better for a different class.
Perhaps you could combine the Enchantments into one tree and add a new 3rd tree maybe? This class would satisfy a lot different "archetypes" in one. Another Melee class, a Missile class, a worthy Pally replacement, and open to any form of backstory.
This is something I've wanted to see since before I even heard D3 was in development. It's actually a re-adaption of a class I'd come up with for my own turn-based game that'll prolly never get done, and that was a re-adaption of an AD&D 2nd Ed. class I came up with about 8 years ago.
I figure a 5th class would be some kind of War Priest/Inquisitor/Exorcist (I mean, hey, SOMEONE has to cast Holy Bolt, right? :grin: ), or another physical character that's really out of the box, Rogue/Assassin style. It'd be a good fit for those last 2 skills.
Oh yeah. Hi, :newhere:.
Background:
Upon the destruction of the Worldstone 20 years ago, a Vizjerei elder concluded that the mortal powers of Order had failed. Secretly, he went to the Viz-Jaq'taar Assassins to share his concerns and make a proposal. Even though the Prime Evils were defeated, mortal powers and agents were still not powerful enough to save the Worldstone. He feared that following it's destruction, things would get worse and proposed that the Assassin's lack of magic was weakness, that the time would soon come to fight fire with fire. He suggested that they should begin to incorporate magic to counter the coming flood. He was rejected outright by most of the clan, and nearly slain on principle, but one Assassin elder had reached a similar conclusion, but didn't know how to act upon it. With this opportunity, he stole away with the Vizjerei elder and a few of the younger clan members, to work on combining their knowledge and powers to create a new breed of mage-knight. Once the Viz-Jaq'taar realized what had transpired, they decreed death for all violators, but the group dissappeared and no one had heard from them to this day. All knowledge of what had transpired was hidden.
They spent years hidden away from the world in the northern reaches near the ruined Mt. Arreat. They honed their skills, focusing less on subversion and more on direct confrontation. From the Assassin's understanding of the mind and martial combat and the Vizjerei elder's understanding of the Elemental magics, a marriage was made into magically enhanced warriors. This combination of studies gave special insights into the nature of the world and gave these new warriors the power to tap into the very elemental threads that are woven into our world and weave them into their own bodies and equipment. They also gained some insight into exploring the Ether. They spent a great deal of time developing methods of countering and diffusing hostile magicks and it's practitioners, as per Assassin tradition, up close and at range. They also knew, however, that the demonic hordes need not rely on magic to reek their destruction, so great emphasis was also placed on raw combat power and fortitude.
With the coming of the falling star, they knew that their time had arrived. They re-emerged into the world to discover what foul forces were involved. While two of the apprentices were away doing reconnaissance, their base of operations was utterly destroyed. Most were killed, the rest were missing. The elders were not among the remains, nor were there any clues as to the perpetrators. Had the Assassins finally caught up to them? Was it the mustering forces of evil? The two apprentices had no answers, but were determined to fulfill their duties. They ventured into the world on their own to discover what evil schemes plotted against Sanctuary and to put it to an end... or die trying...
--------
Skills:
Base level Enchantment skills are cast by the character and last until overridden with new Enchantments or dispelled. They can be passively augmented with more spectacular effects with different skills. Can have only 1 Weapon and 1 Armor Enchantment active at a time. When special effects are triggered, they automatically drain mana, and if there is no mana, effect is cancelled.
Steel & Fire: This tree focuses on speed and raw destructive output. Uses Fire and Lightning. "A good defense is a good offense."
Tier I:
Burn: Active. Enchants Weapon. Adds fire damage to attacks and increases accuracy. Enables additional Fire Weapon Enchantments.
Jolt: Active. Enchants weapon. Adds electrical damage to attacks and increases attack speed. Enables additional Lightning Weapon Enchantments.
Lightning Spirit: Passive. Increase attack speed and accuracy.
Channeling the Flame: Passive. Increases damage done by Enchantments in this tree.
Tier II:
Twitch: Active. Missile attack. Essentially a Missile based Zeal or fixed # Strafe.
Flame Armor: Active. Enchant Armor. Deal fire damage to any melee attackers. Enables additional Fire Armor Enchantments.
Flame Spray: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Adds a chance to cause a spherical firewall centered on target.
Lightning Rod: Passive. Enchants Weapon. When enemy is struck, a lightning bolt goes from character thru target. Can trigger multiple bolts from one attack. More useful for multiple missiles against clustered enemies.
Missile Mastery: Passive. Increases Damage, Accuracy, and Crit. % of Missile attacks.
Tier III:
Sweep: Active. Melee attack. Spins once in a circle, striking any surrounding enemies within range.
Flame Sabres: Active. Spell. Creates floating swords made of fire that seek targets to attack and deal fire damage. They stay around until attacked and destroyed.
Flame Nova: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Can triggers a fire based nova from target. Increasing rank increases size of effect.
Chain Static: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Causes electrical damage to target that jumps to any units next to them, etc, etc, quickly rippling through tightly packed enemies.
Conflageration: Passive. Enchant Armor. When hit, has a chance of causing the ground around the character to burst into fire for xx seconds.
Tier IV:
Ricochet: Active. Missile attack. When a target is struck, the arrow jumps to the nearest target. Everytime a target is struck, the arrow keeps retargetting up to a skill based maximum or until it misses one.
Thunderclap: Passive. Enchants Weapon. When attacking, has a chance of calling down a lightning bolt on top of character, knocking all foes back next to character and dealing damage.
Burst: Passive. Enchants Armor. When an enemy attacks, has a chance of causing explosive fire damage to targets adjacent to character, knocking them back.
Fire Elemental: Passive. Activates if Burn or Jolt and Flame Armor are active. Transforms into a Fire Elemental, dealing extra fire and increasing Fire and Lightning damage. Also, absorbs fire damage.
Pax Arcanna: This tree focuses on penetrating and neutralizing hostile magics and magicians. Uses skills that interfere with magic, and uses teleportation offensively and defensively. "What good is magic if you're unable to use it?"
Tier I:
Displace: Active. Melee attack. On striking, teleport to another random position next to target. The confusion enhances your defense for x seconds. Has a 3 second cooldown.
Spellbind: Active. Enchants weapon. Has a chance to silence target. Enables additional Magical Weapon Enchantments.
Resist Affliction: Passive. Decreases the chance that negative condition magics can affect character, like chill, slow, silence, etc. and also decreases the duration of such effects if they get through.
Enhanced Spellbinding: Passive. Increases the duration of all effects caused by skills from this tree.
Tier II:
Dispel: Active. Spell. Sends out a shockwave that will dispel any negative magic effects on friendly units.
Mystic Fortress: Active. Enchants armor so that when attacked, fires a silence bolt at attacker. Enables additional Magical Armor Enchantments.
Interference: Passive. Enchants weapon to inflict a condition that causes target's casting rate to be greatly decreased.
Skip: Passive. Enchant Armor. When attacked, has a chance of teleporting to a random location within range. Could be annoying to some players, but to those who thrive on chaos, welcome home! Could be a particularly useful defense for range-based characters. Will not teleport through walls or closed doors.
Arcane Defenses: Passive. Increases resistance to arcane magics.
Tier III:
Summon: Active. Spell. When cast on a target, causes them to be teleported right next to caster. Doesn't work on bosses or other characters.
Short Circuit: Active. Spell. Cast on a single target. Caster loses half and target loses all mana, adjusted for Arcane resistance. (may not be very relevant, because they may not keep track of enemy mana. PvP uses would be neat-o.)
Blood Price: Passive. Enchant Weapon. Adds mana damage and inflicts a condition on target that causes any abilities that drain Mana to drain an equal amount of Health as well.
Absorb Magic: Passive. Enchants armor. Has a chance of absorbing spells cast at character, eliminating damage and restoring however much mana that skill cost.
Enhanced Evocation: Passive. Increases chances that any Weapon or Armor Enchantments will activate.
Tier IV:
Shift Stirke: Active. Melee. Quickly teleport next to an enemy, attack, then zips back to her original location. If hit, she's stuck where she's at.
Disruption: Active Spell. Sends out a shockwave that destroys any enemy spells, offensive or defensive, within the given radius. Does not affect friendly units (ie. use Dispel to get rid of negative effects).
Tiamat: Passive. Enchants weapon. Adds elemental damage of fire, cold and lightning to attacks. Enhanced by Burn, Jolt, and Frostbite. Only works if Spellbind is active.
Reflect: Passive. Enchants armor to have a chance of reflecting magics cast at character.
Efficient Evocation: Passive. Decreases mana costs incurred when Enchantment effects trigger.
Terra Firma: This tree focuses more on defense and fortitude. Attacks are based on strength more than speed. Uses Stone/Earth and Cold. "The mountain need not fear the storm." (Note: Earth elemental skills are only called that for conceptual reasons and cause physical damage, not an "earth elemental" damage type. That is, unless Blizzard adds that.)
Tier I:
Ethereal Anchor: Active. Missile attack. A successful attack can anchor the foe in place, unable to move, but can still attack. Doesn't work on bosses or other players.
Frostbite: Active. Enchants Weapon. Adds cold damage to attacks and chills targets. Enables additional Cold Enchantments
Immovability: Passive. Decreases the chance that any effect can cause the character to move against his will, ie. knockback effects.
Quenching the Flame: Passive. Increases damage done by Enchantments in this tree.
Tier II:
Stone Guardian: Active. Spell. Creates a floating fist of stone that randomly attacks nearby foes. Certain runes may add Knockback.
Rockform: Active. Enchants Armor. Increases Defense and Damage Reduction. Enables additional Stone Enchantment.
Project Cold: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Chills enemies within a given radius.
Inertia: Passive. Causes attacks to physically pack more force. Increases physical damage and with Missile attacks, increases the distance the missiles will travel.
Melee Mastery: Passive. Increase Damage, Accuracy, and Crit. % of Melee attacks.
Tier III:
Torque: Active. Melee or missile attack. Slower attack, but does much more damage. If missile, it travels faster (if engine supports that).
Stalagmite: Active. Spell. Summons a spike of solid rock from the earth at the desired location. Any enemies nearby take physical damage and pillar remains as an obstacle until destroyed.
Icicle: Passive. Enchants Weapon. Has a chance of causing a giant Icicle to fall on target, causing splash damage to nearby foes.
Attunement: Passive. Increases resistance to fire/ice/lightning.
Tier IV:
Anvil of the Earth: Melee attack. Crushing attack with cooldown time that does highly increased damage to target and nearby targets.
Ice Shield: Active. Spell. Creates a literal shield made of solid ice. If a shield is being used, it enhances it defenses and blocking. Without a shield, it floats near caster and confers double the blocking bonus that Ice Shield adds to a shield and can be used with 2-handed weapons.
Jagged Shards: Passive. Enchants Armor. Causes sharp rock protrusions to spring from armor, causing physical damage on melee attackers. Against missile attacks, has a chance of shattering the missile, causing no damage. Against attackers that have weapon Durability (ie. PvP), has an equal chance of reducing Durability of attackers melee weapon by one.
Earth Elemental: Passive. Activates if Frostbite and Rockform are both active. Transforms into Stone. Makes Earth and Ice skills do more damage, adds defense. Also, adds resistances to cold and lightning.
Arcane Warrior in DiabloWiki.
ORIGINAL:
Could probably think of a cooler name, but it would wind up being a confluence of many of the ideas people have been throwing around like Death Knight, Ranger, Battlemage, etc. He/she would be a highly magic augmented warrior that could focus equally on melee or missiles. His main skills are enchantments on his weapons and armor that add elemental or other magical properties. I'm even throwing around the idea of making some of them castable on allies. In D2 terms, it'd be a cross between a Pally and Zon, with some Sorc spillover. The weapon enchantments would work equally on melee or missiles, but could have certain benefits to one or the other. I was thinking that some (or all) Enchantments could operate on a "% to cast on strike", increasing with ability. There seems to be a clear hole in the existing classes regarding Fire skills, so this would be a good candidate to focus on. Whether the player could stack enchantments would be a balancing issue, but I think it'd be cool.
Weapon Enchantments: (Once cast, attacks automatically take on properties for duration.)
Flame Sabre: Converts physical damage to Fire. Works on Missiles too, maybe needs a better name. Could also have a lightning variant.
Fire Blast: On attack, explosive fire is dealt to neabry units (ala D2 Fireball or Explosive Arrows).
Flame spray: Melee, causes a spherical firewall centered on target. Missiles cause a trail of fire to form under arrows path.
Chain Static: Causes electrical damage to target that jumps to any units next to them, etc, etc, rippling through tightly packed enemies.
Nova Strike: On attack, causes a nova to launch from target. Especially nice with missiles: long range Nova. And don't get me started on hitting multiple targets... :evil:
or Flame Nova: An alternative to Nova strike. Or could have both!
Lightning Rod: When enemy is struck, a lightning bolt goes from character to target. Can trigger multiple bolts from one attack with missile Twitch or Ricochet.
Tiamat: Adds elemental damage of all 3 elements similar to Pally Vengeance, but lasts through the duration.
Channeling: Passively increases elemental damages. Could be broken into different skills per element.
Armor Enchantments: (Same as above.)
Fire Shield: Lifted from D&D as long as WotC doesn't come after me. :shhh: Deal fire damage to any attackers.
Fire Aura: Causes the ground around the character to burst into fire
Spark: Shoots a bolt of lightning at any attackers, even ranged.
Thunderclap: When an enemy attacks, has a chance of triggering a shockwave that knocks all foes back within a small radius, plus dealing damage.
Attune: Increases resistance to fire/ice/lightning. Passive.
Soul of Fire/Ice/Lightning: When cast, Absorb that element, but reduces other resistances.
Weapon skills(working name): (These are per attack skills, and in some cases, are just directly cast spells.)
Twitch: Essentially a Missile based Zeal.
Magic Arrow: Maybe an enhanced version of D2 Amazon's.
Ricochet: When a target is struck, the arrow jumps to the nearest target. Everytime a target is struck, the arrow keeps retargetting up to a skill based maximum or it misses one.
Torque: Slower attack rate, but missile travels faster (if engine supports that) and does much more damage.
Sweep: Spins once in a circle, striking any surrounding enemies within range. Enchantments can only be triggered once (maybe?).
Lunge: Attack and move forward in a short burst, knocking foes back a ways and following. Sort of a short burst Charge, but foe must be in melee range. Useful to break out when surrounded.
Ethereal Anchor: A successful attack, melee or missile, anchors the foe in place, unable to move, but can still attack. Doesn't work on bosses or other players.
Perhaps for this class, parhaps for another:
Shift Stirke: This is one of my babies here. :D He quickly teleports next to an enemy, attacks, then zips back to his original location. This could have abuse potential, but make it to where if hit, he's stuck where he's at. This might also be a good one for a Rogue style class instead.
Displace: On striking, teleport to another random position next to target. Should be a "skill used per attack" skill so it isn't abused (too much). As above, may be better for a different class.
Perhaps you could combine the Enchantments into one tree and add a new 3rd tree maybe? This class would satisfy a lot different "archetypes" in one. Another Melee class, a Missile class, a worthy Pally replacement, and open to any form of backstory.
This is something I've wanted to see since before I even heard D3 was in development. It's actually a re-adaption of a class I'd come up with for my own turn-based game that'll prolly never get done, and that was a re-adaption of an AD&D 2nd Ed. class I came up with about 8 years ago.
I figure a 5th class would be some kind of War Priest/Inquisitor/Exorcist (I mean, hey, SOMEONE has to cast Holy Bolt, right? :grin: ), or another physical character that's really out of the box, Rogue/Assassin style. It'd be a good fit for those last 2 skills.
Oh yeah. Hi, :newhere:.