Class idea: The Mentalist

[CCCenturion]

So maybe the name needs work, I'm not 100% sure on it.

Background / Lore:

Instantly recognizable by their distinctive blindfolds, the Mentalists are a class of Warrior-Monks who seek to disconnect themselves from the physical world and live in the astral plane. One of the first stages of a Mentalist's training is to learn not to rely on his sense of sight, but rather to see the world with his "spiritual" eyes. Some have rumored the most powerful Mentalists have removed their own eyes as proof of their mastery of these powers.

The Mentalists believe that the physical world is merely a veneer that covers the spiritual world, and that by shifting their consciousness into this higher level of reality they can gain absolute power over physical matter.


Skills:

The Mentalist's strategy is based on his psychic abilities. His three skill trees are Telekinesis, Clairvoyance, and Combat Skills.

Telekinesis Tree
Telekinesis: same as the Sorc skill from D2, although instead of pushing enemies back, they are thrown into the air and forcefully slammed into the ground.
Disarm: tears your enemies weapons out of their hands and hurls them away, severely weakening their attacks until they retrieve them.
Constrict: renders an enemy unable to breathe or move, they slowly lose life until they free themselves with a melee attack which does damage to themselves.
Guided Attacks: increase the Attack rating of your party. Passive skill, like Blessed Aim but much weaker, although it is always in effect.
Return Projectiles: causes arrows and other missiles to stop in midair, then launch them back at the attacker.
"Rei Ginsei": I don't know what to call this skill, but anyone who's seen the movie Vampire Hunter D will know what I'm talking about. In it there's a character named Rei Ginsei, with the power to warp space around his body. So when D tries to stab him with his sword, Ginsei causes the sword to warp back into D's body instead. It basically has the same effect as Iron Maiden, although it's not a curse. What I have in mind for this character is a passive skill that works like a permanent (but nerfed) Iron Maiden. So any time a melee attacker hits you, he takes a small percentage of the damage himself.

Clairvoyance / Ghost Tree
Telepathy: same as the Infravision skill from Diablo 1. Allows you to see monsters behind walls and outside of your light radius. (I know, telepathy really means mind reading, but think of it as being able to feel where monsters' thoughts are coming from.)
Clairvoyance: increases the radius that Automap uses to map your surroundings. Like a legal version of Maphack.
Pyrokinesis: using the power of his mind, the Mentalist causes his enemies to ignite, suffering fire damage for the duration of the spell.
Hallucinate: turn your enemies on each other, like the Confuse curse from D2.
Levitate: allows the Mentalist to walk across water or chasms without the need for a bridge.
Etherealize: the Mentalist's body temporarily becomes ethereal, allowing you to walk through walls; also grants immunity from physical attacks. (Will have to have a very short duration, of course - even just a split second).
Mind Control: this is basically the Paladin's Conversion skill from D2, but it can be a ranged attack. I guess that means it works more like the Attract curse.

Combat Skills Tree
(This tree needs a better name)
Guided Missile: similar to Guided Arrow, but works with any missile weapon. I've considered allowing the Mentalist to use any weapon as a throwing weapon, including 2-handers, since he's not actually throwing them, he's controlling them with his mind.
Retrieve Missiles: brings all of your knives / arrows / etc back to you.
Backstab: teleport behind an enemy for a chance at an unblockable attack (unblockable by shields, armor defense still counts).
Flying Scimitar: everyone's favorite enemy from D2 makes a comeback! Just kidding. This is more like an Iron Golem that doesn't turn into a golem. The weapon you use it on comes alive and fights for you, like the Flying Scimitars in D2.
Strafe: this is not the same as the Amazon attack in D2, and hence it needs a new name. With this skill, the Mentalist throws knives or shoots missiles while running.
Blade Storm: Blade Shield and Hurricane had a baby, and named it Blade Storm. You cast this skill on your stack of throwing knives, and they spin around your character. It works just like Blade Shield, but with a larger radius, like Hurricane. After the duration runs out, you'll want to cast Retrieve Missiles to collect all your knives again. Or maybe they just come back to you on their own.
Colossus: with this skill the Mentalist calls up the ground on which he stands to cover his body in earth and stone, taking on the appearance of a 12 foot tall golem, and proceeds to pummel his enemies with stone fists weighing a ton each.

[CCCenturion]

Notes:

Basically the inspiration for this class came from thinking about a failed D2 build, the Throwbarb. There were so many cool throwing weapons in D2 that never really reached their full potential, and I wanted to do something about that. So I started this build by asking myself, what are the coolest things you could imagine doing with a stack of Warshrikes? Obviously, this class doesn't need to be built around throwing knives, but they would be a good choice of primary weapon since they don't take up a lot of space, and you get a ton of ammo to use.

I realize that most of these skills aren't completely new (not that most of the official ones already in D3 are either). Basically what I've done here is repackage a several D1 and D2 skills around a new theme, which is pretty much what everybody has done in every computer game, comic book, and movie ever made. I think what I've come up with is sort of a hybrid of sorceress, paladin, amazon, necromancer, and assassin classes from Diablo 2, but which doesn't really feel like a clear replacement for any one of them in particular.

[Leord]

Love Telekenisis. Use it a lot on my D&D P&P Sorcerer :)

That and Disintegrate!

[IGotGreasyBalls]

This is the first fan made class that i actually like. This char kicks ***!! I know for sure i would love to play that stuff. Really cool spells and concept its just awesome. Seems original to me.
:( now i'm just sad i won't get to play it in d3

[TopHatCat64]

I gotta agree, a lot of creative ideas in here. Looks like a very mobile character that would dominate ranged combat. A good mix of support, range, melee, and direct damage.

[CCCenturion]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. I was thinking of doing some concept sketches to pass along to a better artist for a more polished version, but waiting to hear for some good responses.

I'll get something up in a day or two.

[IGotGreasyBalls]

i just want to use strafe while levitating over a river xD

[CCCenturion]

I'll see if I can work that into my concept sketch ;)

[sirroman]

I really liked your idea! First fan-made class that forces me to log and reply! =D

Liked most of the skills, really interesting and nicely designed, most of they are wraped nicely, but that doesn't mean that they can't get better!

For once, I don't see the whole logic behind colosus: if you can change incoming attacks, get into the "spirit world" (etherialize) and you want to one day step into that world and... stay there!

Why would you cover yourself with rocks? It may be effective, but don't fit very well (at least for me). I can picture the mentalist throwing boulders, but not this. =/

Maybe you can have a "mass levitate" or a "transport ally" spell, where you can get your allies away from danger (or help them jump a chasm/river).

Hmmm... What about a "psychic short circuit" or "mental burst" (or just "paralize" or "kinetic trap")? With that you could stun your enemies for a short time (like the assassin) ... OR stun/slow/lower attack/lower defense of a single enemy while you channel the skill? Like when you try to "hold control" of the body of tougher enemies (but this seems like constrict)?

Remember that the guided missile should also enhance the critical chance! =DD

Hmm... now we need some skill to make the mentalist a melee-able class (at least one! =D) she could have a "bash-like" ability (but it isn't that original), she could have a "enchant-like" ability ("heating" the weapon with psychic energy). I don't know. =/

Maybe I hadn't come up with really original skill ideas, but maybe you guys can make something with that. ^^

CCCenturion: keep bringing nice ideas like that! =D

[CCCenturion]

Yeah, I agree that the Colossus skill doesn't really blend with the others. I just thought it was a cool idea I came up with while brainstorming, and had to write it down. Having played most of my D2 days as a Necromancer, I thought it would be kind of cool to actually be the golem yourself.

As for the paralyze skill, I did have that in my first draft list of skills, but felt that Constrict does the same thing but better, since it actually damages the enemy. So my paralyze skill got the axe.

Heating weapons with psychic energy is a cool idea, and blends in well with the Pyrokinesis skill. Maybe that could be a skill that you can cast on yourself or party members, for a good effect, or on enemies, for a damaging one. Sort of like how Holy Bolt can heal allies or hurt enemies. Or they could be separate skills, with one a pre-req for the other. (Err... I don't think D3 has pre-reqs. Just different tiers then.)

But you're right, I need some more close range skills. Some good knife-fighting ones, I think, to stay consistent with the theme.

I'm actually very busy with school right now--I'm in a PhD program and I have to pass my qualifying exams next month or they kick me out with a Master's degree (which sometimes actually doesn't sound like such a bad idea :scratchchin:). But spending the entire day studying for exams isn't much fun, so I plan to add a little to this every day.

Good news: I went through some old comic books and I think I've found a picture that's the perfect inspiration for the character sketch I've been wanting to make. I haven't really drawn much since high school, so don't expect a masterpiece, but I'm excited to show you guys the mental picture I've been working with.

[Telzen]

Good concept but some of those skills seem overpowered.

[DrImp]

Awesome idea CCCenturion!

Also, good luck with the PhD. I finished mine a year ago to the day, and while it was a hard slog it's very a rewarding experience.

On the class, I like the idea, in that it sounds intrinsically fun and like it would offer a different play experience from the other classes. I love the telekinesis tree, I love the idea of the clairvoyance tree, and I like the skills in the combat tree, but think they belong in the telekinesis tree.

At the moment your skill trees are all over the place, with skills that manipulate kinetic energy in the clairvoyance and combat trees.

All of the skills in the combat tree are telekinetic in nature... maybe move them to the telekinesis tree and come up with something new and cool for the third tree... more on that later.

If I could offer some suggestions?

Telekinesis Tree
Skills here are already great, and fit well into this tree.
Move combat skills here? I'd include most of the current combat skills here though, since they're also to do with moving things with the mind.
Move some Clairvoyance skills here? Pyrokinesis could be imagined as the mental manipulation of the kinetic energy, and therefore belongs here. It doesn't have anything to do with manipulating minds. Likewise Levitate sounds like the application of telekinesis to yourself... nothing to do with manipulation of minds.
Rei Ginsei: maybe call it warp space? It could have a large effect for a short time... like returning all damage from one attack. Imagine it like this, you trigger it in boss fights right before an attack, you take no damage and the boss hits himself. It's a combination single use damage shield and attack. Very cool.
Psychokinetic shield: A shell of force clings to the mentalists skin, increasing armour or absorbing damage... whatever the game balance needs.

Clairvoyance (Rename to Telepathy Tree?)
The name Clairvoyance is a misnomer: clairevoyance means 'clear-vision ', so clairvoyance is to do with vieiwing and not manipulating... but I think you're aiming for a tree that revolves around manipulation and observation of minds. Maybe call the tree Telepathy Tree?
Most skills here are great.
Telepathy skill: Maybe rename to Mind-sense... This skill wouldn't work on constructs like golems, or anything that has no mind.
Some new suggestions:
Mental scream: A telepathic scream that stunns and does minor damage to all creatures with minds (radius centered around the user).
Seeds of doubt: Creat fear in the minds of enemies, weakening the attacks of strong opponents and causing weak oponents to flee for a short time.
Read mind: allows the mentalist to see into the mind of an opponent, and therefore know how and where they plan to attack next, and where they're anticipating the mentalist will be. This allows the mentalist to avoid the attacks they know are coming, and attack from where they're not expected (mentalist defensive bonus and crit bonus against enemy... could be a passive)
Still mind: The mentalist gains better control over their own mind, coming closer to achieving their ultimate goal of transition to the mental plane. As they add points they become more calm and calculating in all situations... what game effect? Better energy regen... resistance to mental attacks... I've got nothing that seems to work for this skill.

Replacement for combat tree:
Psychometabolism
I suggest Psychometabolism for a replacement to the combat tree. The mentalist focuses their powers inwardly, altering their body. Yes, borrowed the idea from D&D. But I think this is a good balance. One tree is the mind focused outwardly on kinetic alterations of the world, one tree is the mind acting on minds, and the last is the mind focused (mostly) inwardly on altering your own body (maybe also altering other's bodies?). If used on enemies the mentalist must physically touch (hit?) them (e.g. only melee range).
Suggested skills:
Muscle and bone: The mentalist psycically increases the strength of their muscles and the density of their bones, increasing melee damage and resistance to damage and knockback. Could be either passive or active (just adjust relative strength accordingly).
Boost metabolism: the mentalist manipulates their metabolism, boosting it for a short time. Increases reflexes (crit bonus) and healing.
Transmute blood: Can be used on self or enemy. On self the mentalist psychically rearanges the molecules in toxins in his blood and body, rendering them harmless. When used on an enemy the mentalist reverses the process, creating toxins or disease within an enemy from their own tissue. Only works on fleshy creatures.
Reptile skin: The mentalist alters their skin, toughening it like the hide of a reptile. Minor reduction to reflexes, removed at higher levels, large increase in armour.

Anyway, just suggestions. I really like the class idea, and would like to see it in game. What do you think?

[CCCenturion]

Well, I saw my grades for the last quarter of school, and realized that I'm going to have to kick it up a notch over the next few weeks if I want to pass my qualifying exams. So don't expect any major updates to this class for about a month.

However, I do appreciate your comments and suggestions, so maybe if I take a break from it for a bit and let you guys toss around some ideas, we can come up with something very cool. (Not that it'll ever make it into the game, but hey, isn't imagining up stuff like this really the true purpose of RPG's anyway?)

DrImp:

I really liked your ideas. Moving the Combat skills into the Telekinesis tree does seem appropriate, since they're all telekinetic skills anyway. Renaming the Clairvoyance tree to Telepathy also would probably be better. When I named the tree, it was actually a toss-up between those two names, and Clairvoyance won the coin toss.

Mental Scream is a cool idea, although it seems a bit too similar to the Constrict skill. The idea is different, but the gameplay would basically be the same. So one or the other would work, but not both, unless you tweak one of them a bit. I had thought of a skill called Precognition, which is identical to your Read Mind skill, but I didn't include it because I thought it would make the game a bit too easy. After all, if you knew exactly when Diablo was about to turn on the Red Lightning Hose, fighting him wouldn't be that much of a challenge. Still, it is a cool concept, and there might be some way to make it work.

Love the idea of a Psychometabolism tree. It would basically work like the Barbarian Masteries tree or the Amazon Passive and Magic tree from D2. It's nice having some passive skills because that frees up some of the mods you have to look for in your equipment.

One skill I've been thinking about lately would be some sort of Force Field (although it needs another name, since force fields are very sci-fi) that repels attacks... basically it's just the Iron Skin skill from D2, passively increasing your defense rating. I'd really like to see this class done in a way such that the character would have an incentive to not wear heavy armor... it just doesn't seem right.


Anyway, I'll take another look at my skills, do some rearranging, look over the suggestions I've been getting to see what fits, and touch up my ideas this week. Don't look for new additions any time soon, but maybe I'll have something up by next weekend.

[bigpipe]

I actually quite like this idea - kind of like a rogue in World of Warcraft?

I bet they will have this type of class, will be interesting to see what the character is though.

[CCCenturion]

So here's the concept sketch I'd been planning to do. Like I said, it's just a sketch, and the throwing knives could definitely use some work, but I honestly haven't even really drawn anything in like 10 years, so I'm happy with the way it turned out.

In a nutshell, you're seeing him using his Levitation and Blade Storm spells, as well as some kind of telekinetic force field skill that I've been thinking of but haven't written up yet. In leaving him shirtless, I really wanted to emphasize the idea that I'd like to see this class wearing light armor or no armor at all, since a character who can repel projectiles with his mind needs no armor. The little "dimple" near the back of the top of his head is just me being a mediocre artist.

I'm going to post this in the Fan Art forum and see if anyone can help me bring it to life. Some time later this week I'll get around to revising my original post and making an article for the Wiki.

http://i43.tinypic.com/j17sd0.jpg


Oh and yeah, the tattoo on his shoulder is just the letters CCC arranged in a spiral. Couldn't help myself, had to leave my mark.

[TammerHime]

I think this would make a great charecter for the D3 world, i could see this guy replacing our traditional form of the "ranger" class. Because of his ability to use his mind to move objects it would make since that projectiles would be his greatest weapons thus allowing him to be a master with thrown weapons, maybe bows that's a little strectch but it could work. all in all i would play this class because it isn't the same old thing we see every day. All i really see needing work is toning down some of the skills obviously and refining his look to fit our world.

[zorro8081]

I was thinking that this character may be able to use his mind and connection to the spiritual world to enhance melee strikes as well? He could stab them but the injury also hurts them spiritually which in turn, weakens their spirit and them. In game it may be similar to the wizard's magic weapon skill. This way, his knives are no longer simply ranged weapons but deadly melee weapons as well giving him some flexibility in how he fights. Great idea though and the sketch reminded me of Kenshi. A blind swordsman from mortal kombat. Looking into how he was drawn may help you out for ideas....

[DrImp]

Good the sketch CCCenturion, if I could do anything half as good I'd be happy. I think it gets the essence of the class across which is really what it needs to do.

I was envisaging Constrict as a single target longer duration snare/root with damage, while psychic scream would do AoE short duration stun and damage.

I agree that true (or 100% accurate anyway) precognition would be overpowered... but you could balance a skill like that by simply adding the lore that it only allows the mentalist to look a short way into the future, or to only see some of the possible futures and not tell which will come about with 100% accuracy... hence the ability provides an advantage without making you invincible... hell, even with perfect knowledge of the next few seconds you wouldn't be able to avoid all attacks, sometimes you'll simply be overwhelmed and have nowhere to dodge, or be too tired to move.

For passively increasing defence rating I suggested the Reptile Skin skill. I like the idea of the telekinetic shell... it could absorb an amount of damage before collapsing?

Another idea for Psychometabolism tree would be physically altering the appearance of the body, growing spikes from his skeleton through his skin (damage to enemies), or other alterations for different effects.

[CCCenturion]

Telekinetic Shell... I like the sound of that. Way better than "force field," which I was hoping to avoid using.

Physically altering the body's appearance feels like it would be branching into shapeshifter territory, which is something I'm holding back from until we've explored the limits of what we can do with traditional psychic abilities.

Here are the Psychometabolism skills I've been thinking of:

Adrenaline Shot: releases a burst of adrenaline into the Mentalist's body. Increased speed and power for a time duration. Useful skill if you want to try a melee build.
Slow Metabolism: reduces the effects of Poison.
Heightened Reflexes: provides a passive Faster Hit Recovery bonus.
Fast Healing: provides a Replenish Life bonus.
Will Power: provides a Mana Regeneration bonus.

Basically, they're all passive skills that provide the sorts of bonuses that you'd normally get from your gear in D2. A lot like Barbarian Masteries, but giving different types of bonuses.

To prevent the class from becoming too overpowered, there would be a lot of balance issues to address. One way is to make the skills very costly in terms of Mana, or increasingly costly as they become more powerful. Another is to make some of the more powerful skills have increasing returns to skill points, so if you want to get the full benefit of the skill it would require a heavy investment, forcing you to leave other skills less developed.

[lunarleif]

This class name sounds mental, sorry, just had to say it.
Telekineses may be off limits since the wizard is drawing from the sorcerer. Furthermore, having the name of the class tree be the same as one of the spells is a :nono:.
Disarm might be out as its use is mainly pvp, since Siegebreaker Assault Beast, scavenger, dune thresher, unburied, fallen hounds, gnarled walker, and others don't have "weapons" to be disarmed.
Constrict's freeing mechanism makes no sense, you're using your mind to sense things and constrict them, so you could tell if they were trying to use a weapon and move your mental constriction accordingly so as to avoid it.
Return projectiles, the wizard already has that.
"Rei Ginsei", makes little sense because, well the character is mental. How does he have the ability to warp space?

Telepathy is tela pathetic name.
Hallucinate, witch doctor has that.
What happens when levitate ends?
Etheralize should be a witch doctor spell, and does that have anything to do with the mind?
Mind control brings them closer. How does that work? Needs better name.

Guided missile sounds appropriate.
Retrieve missiles just sounds lazy. Also, missiles generally don't cost much.
Backstab: teleport behind an enemy for a chance at an unblockable attack (unblockable by shields, armor defense still counts).
Hey, that's infringement on technomancer's spell!
Flying simitar, yawn. That's not very Diabloish, nor mental skill.
Strafe, can't you already do that, and that's a very unfair advantage.
Colossus makes no mental sense whatever.

[Technomancer]

Hey, that's infringement on technomancer's spell!
In my own game world that I've been working on, this Backstab is almost EXACTLY what all my tele skills were based on!! Touche!! I didn't go there cause Diablo doesn't have a history of determining facing and shield locations, this would be cool if they did.

The name could use some work, but the idea is really cool and out of the box! You could go all D&D and call it a 'Psionicist', but there are probably other usable names as well.

[lunarleif]

Which came first, yours or his teleport skill?

[Technomancer]

What I meant was I had made a skill almost exactly like that, prolly 2 years ago, and that is where I got my ideals on my D3 class skills. As far as who's first, I guess I posted my class first, but to me it's completely irrelevant. Anyone who wants to play off my ideas are more than welcome and it may well be complete coincidence. I've done stuff, and I'm sure I will continue to do stuff, that is knowingly and unknowingly similar to prior ideas.

[CCCenturion]

This class name sounds mental, sorry, just had to say it.

I knew it was only a matter of time before the flamers arrived, but I appreciate constructive criticism, so I'll pretend your post was given in that spirit, and address your concerns.



Telekineses may be off limits since the wizard is drawing from the sorcerer.

You're forgetting the part where this class isn't actually going to appear in the game. But if it were, then you just give it a different name, make it function a bit differently, and problem solved.

Furthermore, having the name of the class tree be the same as one of the spells is a :nono:.

So you change the name.


Disarm might be out as its use is mainly pvp, since Siegebreaker Assault Beast, scavenger, dune thresher, unburied, fallen hounds, gnarled walker, and others don't have "weapons" to be disarmed.

Agreed. So I'll replace it with "Dull Weapons" (needs better name), in which the Mentalist twists his enemies' swords, etc., like bending spoons with his mind. Same effect for gameplay though; causes melee attacks to do less damage.


Constrict's freeing mechanism makes no sense, you're using your mind to sense things and constrict them, so you could tell if they were trying to use a weapon and move your mental constriction accordingly so as to avoid it.

You're assuming that using telekinetic powers requires the same amount of effort whether the target is resisting or not. Are you arguing this from personal experience?


Return projectiles, the wizard already has that.

Haven't read the wizard page since back when the class was first announced, and it wasn't very well developed. But thanks for bringing that to my attention.


"Rei Ginsei", makes little sense because, well the character is mental. How does he have the ability to warp space?


The point of the character is that the physical world is just an illusion, and he experiences reality on a higher, more abstract level. Manipulating space and matter are the same to him.


Telepathy is tela pathetic name.

Aww, now that just wasn't very nice.


Hallucinate, witch doctor has that.


Again, so you call it something else, and make it function a bit differently.


What happens when levitate ends?

Is this a trick question? You come back down to the ground. I'm assuming you mean, what if you're levitating over water, or over empty space. In D2, barbarians couldn't leap over anything if they couldn't make it to the other side. So you do the same thing here.


Etheralize should be a witch doctor spell, and does that have anything to do with the mind?

Again, you're misunderstanding the mechanism that the Mentalist's skills are based on. Go watch The Matrix again. Like the little boy says, "There is no spoon." He wasn't really psychic, he just knew that the physical world wasn't really there. That's basically the idea behind this class.


Mind control brings them closer. How does that work? Needs better name.


I think you should re-read the Mind Control skill that I posted. You cast it on an enemy, and he starts fighting on your side (for a while). I never said anything about mind control bringing them closer.


Guided missile sounds appropriate.

Thank you.


Retrieve missiles just sounds lazy. Also, missiles generally don't cost much.

I suggest trying to build a throwbarb in D2 and see how fast you run out of knives, even self-replenishing ones.


Hey, that's infringement on technomancer's spell!

Actually, it's basically just the Dragon Flight skill from D2.


Flying simitar, yawn. That's not very Diabloish, nor mental skill.
I'm starting to think you've never actually played Diablo 2. Flying Scimitars have already been used in Diablo games, and I don't see how controlling a flying sword with your mind is not a mental skill. This skill is basically just a precursor to Blade Storm.


Strafe, can't you already do that, and that's a very unfair advantage.


If you mean the Strafe skill from D2, this is different. Attacking while moving is a good idea, period. If it's an unfair advantage, then nerf it a bit.


Colossus makes no mental sense whatever.

The phrase "mental sense" makes no sense whatsoever. But I already decided to drop Colossus in an earlier post; I just haven't revised my original post yet. I still think it's a cool skill, but it doesn't fit in here.

[Technomancer]

You mentioned a force field type effect earlier, you could have a passive skill that has a chance to knock an enemy back, maybe quite far, whenever they attack. Could call it Repulsion or something like that.

To borrow more from D&D, you could rename your Telekinesis tree to Psychokinesis... I can't believe that psychokinesis is actually in the Firefox spelling dictionary... :D

And just ignore lunarleif on the flying sabres thing, he's been screwing with me over that. I think it's totally Diablo and I think weapons flying around attacking stuff is AWESOME!!!

This is a really original class idea! I think it would be cool if he was actually blind, not just blindfolded. Where he's going, he won't need eyes to see!

[CCCenturion]

I think it would be cool if he was actually blind, not just blindfolded. Where he's going, he won't need eyes to see!

Yeah, I need to go through my notes from when I was brainstorming the class, and then beef up the Lore section of my OP. I had been thinking that the novice Mentalists would wear blindfolds to train themselves to "see" without seeing, but as their training progressed, there would be some sort of rite of passage where they voluntarily give up their sight, as a sign of how far their powers had progressed.

And by "voluntarily give up their sight," of course, I'm hinting at some type of procedure that sure wouldn't be fun to watch.


I think my original post is in need of an overhaul. I need to collect some of the good ideas people have been giving me, mix them in with what I have so far, reorganize the skill trees, and come up with new names for some skills. And like I said, I also want to add to the Lore section, and include a section where I talk about the inspirations and motivations I had to make this class, to help people have a better idea of where I'm coming from. Some of lunarleif's confusions made me realize that I perhaps could have been clearer in explaining how the Mentalist's powers work.

[lunarleif]

Sorry, I thought you meant attract as a verb, not a skill. Made sadder by the fact that I was a necromancer in Diablo 2.
Also, the change name, tweak effects, were you going to do those anyway? If so, I apologize for that.
With constrict maybe it costs more mana if they try to hit it rather than give up on the spell in its entirety?
Alright, if he can manipulate time and space, why haven't we seen more of it? Besides etheralize, backstab, Rei Ginsei, ect. Like actual really **** cool stuff like the wizards time bubble? Not that the already existing stuff isn't nice :thumbup:
As you said, I just used telepathy insult to say that as you said, it wasn't a very good name. Maybe mental awareness?
Mental sense means that the mind can make no sense of it. So basically, it was the colossus makes no sense to my mind. But it still founds awesome!

[CCCenturion]

Keep in mind, everything I've posted so far is still a work in progress. I still only have around 20 skills posted. So of course I'm willing to be flexible with all the skills and lore ideas I've put up so far.

Your idea for how Constrict works makes sense, although I can't imagine anyone being stuck in that spell and not wanting to struggle, if that's the only way to get out. Maybe it would cost more mana against stronger enemies?

We haven't seen more manipulating of time and space because I haven't had time to brainstorm more ideas. I'm in the process of studying for qualifying exams next month that determine whether I stay in my PhD program or they send me off with a Master's, so I really don't have much spare time. Plus, I started putting together a guide for the D2 Barbarian forum, so I've kept my Mentalist ideas on the back burner for the last week or so.

Telepathy isn't a good name for the skill, I agree. I should probably just stick with Infravision, like it was called in the original Diablo.

And with the "mental sense" thing, I was just pointing out that people usually just say something "makes no sense".

But thanks for posting with good manners this time, it contributes a lot more to the discussion.

[lunarleif]

Originally Posted by lunarleif
Strafe, can't you already do that, and that's a very unfair advantage.
If you mean the Strafe skill from D2, this is different. Attacking while moving is a good idea, period. If it's an unfair advantage, then nerf it a bit.
Heck, even nerfed, all I'd do is run. They teleport, time to run a different direction! Meanwhile, I'd just use guided missile. Any attempt to disrupt chance to hit would be destroyed by the guided factor. Will you please reconsider the skill? In order to get my missiles back, use retrieve missiles. Damage nerf would mean you'd just have to keep it up longer.

[Technomancer]

Are they even going to have ammunition in D3? I'm under the impression they're doing away with that, or at least considering it.

I think Strafe is a cool idea. To nerf it, you could make it to where it automatically fires at the nearest target and make it un-Guidable.

[Summoned]

You know, a lot of those skills sound almost exactly like what I had in mind for my fake class. Coincidence galore aside, I think it may be because things like Mind Control and becoming non-physical just sound cool on paper.

Going to post it in a sec, just don't kill me for making Mental Disciplines a skill tree when it's a whole class for you. ;)

[CCCenturion]

Heck, even nerfed, all I'd do is run. They teleport, time to run a different direction! Meanwhile, I'd just use guided missile. Any attempt to disrupt chance to hit would be destroyed by the guided factor. Will you please reconsider the skill? In order to get my missiles back, use retrieve missiles. Damage nerf would mean you'd just have to keep it up longer.

I don't really know what you're hoping for from me here. All I put in the skill description for Strafe was that "the Mentalist throws knives or shoots missiles while running." I can't say I was very specific about how it works, and I never said anything about the Strafe attack being guided; Guided Missile is a separate skill. I don't think there's any reason to complain about mechanics that haven't been determined yet.

But if you have suggestions for how this skill should work, I'd love to hear them. Everything about this class is still up in the air.

[lunarleif]

Hm. Is strafe a skill that shoots projectiles in or itself or is it more passive? It's still way to spammable. Although a high mana cost, cool down, or duration could potentially fix all of that. What I meant by the previous post was that if strafe was a active that allowed you to shoot while moving, you could use guided missile.

[CCCenturion]

Oh I get it now.

No, I had intended for Strafe to be an active skill, so it wouldn't work together with Guided Missile. Basically, what I had been visualizing would be for the character to dash for a short distance (longer if you hold down the mouse key, like with the Paladin's Charge skill), and just throw knives out in either direction--wherever monsters are--as he's running. It probably wouldn't be a very powerful attack, but enough to do a little damage and more importantly put the enemies on the defensive (or in hit recovery) as you're moving from point A to point B.

I guess, maybe it would look like a cross between Charge and Frozen Orb--the character charges from point A to point B, throwing off a volley of knives, like the ice shards in FO, but without the powerful hit or exploding ice ball at the end of the attack. So you would target a spot on the ground, not an enemy, right click, and dash there, sending out a barrage of projectiles. Again, not a super powerful attack, like FO can be, but one that can help you move around a little more safely.

There is room for abuse here if you don't add any costs to using the skill; after all, if you just strafe around in circles forever, eventually you'd be able to do enough damage to kill the big guys too, so there would have to be some sort of cost to using it. Some possibilities (off the top of my head):
- high mana cost,
- high stamina cost (if they're still using stamina in D3),
- a big defensive penalty while using the skill,
- a big defensive penalty after using the skill (like Berserk),
- a cooldown period.

One way to enforce the cooldown period for this and a lot of other skills is by having them use up a lot of ammunition, requiring you to stop and cast Retrieve Missiles; but as Technomancer pointed out, we don't know for sure if there will be ammunition limits in D3. I know you're not crazy about the Retrieve Missiles skill, but if there are ammo limits in D3, then that's a skill that would be extremely useful, even if it doesn't sound very sexy.

I have mixed feelings on the ammo question. On the one hand, with no ammo limit, then a lot of these skills will just be way too spammable. On the other, as I mentioned before I tried playing a throwbarb in D2 and found that I had to carry an inventory full of spare weapons, since I was always running out of ammo. Even with Gimmershreds, which have a stack size of 240, I could easily run out after just a couple of minutes. He was a really fun character to play, for two minutes at a time.

[lunarleif]

Oh, ok. That's still spammable once someone figures out how to hack mana or stamina. Defense penalty after or before makes no difference if you're running generally. Cool down would work but those are annoying. Cool down is the cheap way out.

[CCCenturion]

I guess I just don't really know what you mean by the whole "spammable" criticism. Most of the Wizard's skills are spammable. A lot of the Witch Doctor's skills are spammable too.

In D2 we had Charged Bolt, Lightning, Chain Lightning, Nova (and all of their cold and fire counterparts), Blessed Hammer, Multi-Shot, Guided Arrow, Strafe (the D2 version), Teeth, Bone Spear, Bone Spirit, Tornado, Twister, Whirlwind, Double Throw, just to name a few. So a lot of skills in D2 were spammable, and a lot of skills in D3 are going to be spammable.

So what exactly is the problem with how this skill works?

[lunarleif]

Nothing wrong with it, but if you create a detailed version, remember to balance it. Also, on spammable, don't forget the druid's awesome hurricane and Armageddon.

[Summoned]

Also, on spammable, don't forget the druid's awesome hurricane and Armageddon.
Those actually had cooldowns. :P

Activate them and they both become red for a while, so it's near impossible to keep them both going at the same time without a lot of +duration synergies.