Curse

Martian · Aug 29, 2006, 10:53 PM // 22:53

The Medium (Md to avoid confusion with Mesmers) is one who has sacrificed their sanity in order to wield the power of deceased spirits. Now i know what your thinking, its just a necro/rit but let me elaborate.
The Medium allows themselves to be possessed by the angry, condemned spirits which are hovering at the edge of the underworld, trying to break back into the mortal realm. These spirits have been driven mad by their ceaseless torure in The underworld, so they are eager for any opportunity to catch a glimpse of the realm of the living. So, in exchange for a trip down memory lane as it were, the tortured soul Possesses the body of the Medium and imbues him/her with their various powers.

Attributes:
Soul Capacity: Increases the duration of all Possession spells and Weapon spells by 3% per attribute level (p)

Hate Magic: No Inherant effect. Many skills, especially those used to Damage or deter foes, become more effective with each rank in this attribute.

Restraint: No inherant effect. Many skills, especially those used to reduce the penalties tied to spells or restore energy, become more effective with each point in this attribute.

Possession Magic: No inherant effect. Many skills, especially those used to take the form of a spirit, become more effective with each point in this attribute.

Skill Examples:

Horrify: Spell. If target foe was attacking they are knocked over, and any stance thay were using is ended. (Att: Hate Magic)
5 energy, 1/4 sec cast time, 12 sec recharge

"Feed Me!": shout. all nearby foes suffer from bleeding for 3-9 seconds and you gain 10-30 health for each foe affected. (Att: Hate Magic)
10 energy, instant cast, 45 sec recharge

Calming Melody: Skill. For 8 seconds you sacrifice 15-40% less health when using sacrificial spells.(Att: Restraint)
10 energy, instant cast, 10 sec recharge

Protective bindings: Enchantment. For 3-18 seconds you move 30% slower but cannot suffer from new conditions. Whilst under this enchantment All hexes take twice as long to cast on you. (Att: Restraint)
10 energy, 1 sec cast time, 30 sec recharge.

Plagueling form: Possession spell. For 10-40 seconds you take the form of a Plagueling. All your attacks cause disease for 8 seconds and enemies adjacent to you suffer 1-3 health degeneration. Whilst in this form, your off hand item is disabled.(Att: Possession Magic)
25 energy, 3 sec cast time, 60 second recharge.

Harbingers form: Elite Possession Spell. For 15-45 seconds you take the form of The Harbinger. You gain 5 base damage reduction and all your attack skills cause Knock-Downs. (Att: Possession Magic)
25 energy, 3 sec cast time, 100 second recharge.

The Medium will have a basic energy pool of 30, same as most spellcasters, and will have 65 max armour, just to break the decimal trend.
Possible armour mods could be extra armour or energy whilst in a Form.

Medium armour might be straight-jackets or bandages, perhaps stained with vomit or blood (Gross-out FTW!) and maybe those little metal discs doctors wear on their heads for headgear.

Animations could include cupping their foreheads and sinking to their knees, or balling their fists and screwing up their faces.

So please post your opinions and critisisms, i hope to do some pictures for tommorow to help show the way the Medium should look.

:Edited to avoid overpowering:

lyra_song · Aug 29, 2006, 11:17 PM // 23:17

the idea is intriguing, but your skill lines and skills are pretty generic at best.

You have spells, enchantments, skills, shouts and forms, all pre-existing types of skills in game already and a lot of your skills could fit in the game and not require its own profession.

Horrify: Could easily be an assassin or mesmer or necro spell.

Feed me: Feels very overpowered as a shout.

Calming melody: Oh come on...this better be an elite. Think of the abuse with OoB...or any sacrifice necro spell.

Protective bindings: sounds like a mesmer spell.

Plagueling form: Dervish anyone?

Harbingers Form: Wow...attack skills cause KD...ouch ouch. seems overpowered...but there should be a "cannot increase attack speed" clause in there.

This class really has zero gimmick

Ian Savage · Aug 30, 2006, 12:19 AM // 00:19

hmm, I first have to say that i disagree with lyra. while some of the skills are over/underpowered, this is a very original class with obviously some level of thought put into it. The best part for me is that i can see it as working as almost a summoner, but with self-transformation instead of summons. Take some time to develop this further. Work especially on new skills, new things to hook the player. I can see this being one heck of an awesome class.

On the topic of appearance and casting animations, you want a slightly demented appearance, yet it has to show some level of self-control and confidence. A medium has made such a self sacrifice, that they should have a seemingly forgiving or generous nature, yet it is tainted with madness. as far as casting animations, the one thing you want to avoid is ritualist similarities. aside from that, you need something more armor-ish as armor. The idea is good, but you have to remember that these people are getting cut by swords as part of their daily activity. it has to be something durable. at least slightly.

last thing, you need a weapon. either take the traditional caster one or pick a strangely unique one, it's up to you. Go for it, man. i can see this turning out really nicely.

lyra_song · Aug 30, 2006, 01:48 AM // 01:48

See the problem is this:

This class idea has no new FUNCTION

Yes the idea of getting spirits to posses you and use them as your power sounds really cool, but not if it does nothing new functionally.

What can this class do that cannot be just added as more skills to existing classes?

Warrior:
Melee Damage, Conditions, KD, Tanking

Monk:
Healing, Smite, Damage mitigation, Maintained enchantments

Elementalist:
Elemental damage, Snares, Wards, Spike damage

Necromancer:
Corpse control, Mobile summons, Self sacrifice spells, hexing

Mesmer:
Caster-hate, attacker-hate, Energy management

Ranger:
Interrupt, Trapping, Pets, Stationary Summons (spirits), Conditions

Assassins:
Melee spike, High speed map movement

Ritualist:
Area damage mitigation, area crowd control

Paragon:
Medium range damage, Area buffs

Dervish:
Melee AoE damage, Transformations

So whats your function?

Storm Crow · Aug 30, 2006, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Zomg..lyra just made me remeber that Conjunction Junction song...>< Conjunction Junction, What's your function?! >< Wow, blast from the past...xD

Martian · Aug 30, 2006, 08:45 AM // 08:45

Thanks for all the foughts, Lyra i think you are right, i need to define this class a bit more and reduce the power of some of those skills. And thanks Ian for your words of encouragement, i was thinking perhaps some kind of Both-hands ranged weapon, (both-hands as in daggers) perhaps claw-gloves like freddy

New skills:

Reckless contempt: Spell: Sacrifice 15% maximum health. Target foe takes 100%-200% of this amount of damage.(Att: Hate magic)
10 energy, 2+1/2 sec cast time, 15 sec recharge.

Demonic Claws: Weapon Spell: For 5-18 seconds you attack in melee, and your attacks deal an extra 5-15 Dark damage. Your weapon and off hand item are disabled for this time. (Att: Possesson magic)
15 energy, Instant cast, 30 second recharge

Lulliby: Enchantment. For 10-20 seconds you gain twice as much benefit from healing, and all hexes take 20%-40% longer to cast on you. Whilst under this enchantment you have +1-3 energy regeneration. Lulliby ends if you move, attack or use a skill.(Att: Restraint)
5 Energy, 1 sec cast time. 60 sec recharge.

Feel free to tell me if any of these seem overpowered, i don't seem to have a good sense for these things.

Martian · Aug 30, 2006, 10:04 AM // 10:04

I have drawn up an example of the kind of armour a medium might wear, i call this set "Recluse's Bindings"

Martian · Aug 30, 2006, 05:14 PM // 17:14

/bump, hope nobody minds i just wanted to give the idea another chance before it slipped onto the second page.

And just so this post isn't totally pointless, to answer Lyras question, i hoped the Medium could be a class that, depending on the skills used, can fulfil either a Tank, Disruptor or Damage dealers position. Or any mixture of the three.