Alright, so I'm currently working on classes/abilities for Roguelike Minecraft RTD, and I'm running into both practical issues and problems with the way things work in general.
Specifically, I'm still not positive how I want classes and their associated abilities to work. I still like the notion some games have where a character can level and then switch classes, and then either get some benefit out of mastering a class or even gain the ability to use or equip some of said class' abilities, but I'm not sure how that would/should work in this case.
For instance, I've considered giving each class a number of levels (currently and arbitrarily 6), which are purchased with exp and grant a given ability each level (or purchasing the next ability in the tree increases your level, or level is how far you are in the linear skill tree, depending on how you want to think of it). I've also considered just starting with 2 abilities, and indeed currently I have some prototype classes laid out with a major/minor ability for each.
In either case, assuming multiclassing is possible, presumably mastering a class would give you some benefits even while not of that class; either some sort of static bonus or always-useable ability, or the ability to use abilities from any class you have experience in. Presumably in the latter case, I'd need to divide abilities into different slots depending on what they do so you can't be all classes at once, but then again, especially if you're spending exp to increase abilities rather than stats, maybe you really could be a paladin-necromancer-rogue-jester-chef-ninja all at once.
All that aside, I do have some very rough prototypes of the classes, and even a very rough system for how classes operate:
| Class | Role | Job | First Skill | Second Skill |
| Knight | Tank | Absorb damage, protect allies | Lure | Damage Reducer |
| Assassin | Bruiser | Deal damage, be defensively competent | Damage Move | Defensive Move |
| Sorcerer | Glass | Deal massive damage, be horribly squishy | Damage Move/AoE Damage | AoE Damage Move/AoE Damage |
| Priest | Buffer | Aid Allies | Defensive Buff | Offensive Buff |
| Necromancer | Debuffer | Hinder Enemies | Offensive Debuff | Defensive Debuff |
Any comments on this proposed setup would be appreciated. I'm currently leaning/designing towards both of these abilities being available from the start and not especially planning with any further abilities in mind, but the former could change and the latter almost certainly will.
More specifically, the prototype classes, as well as notes concerning them, are as follows:
Knight
Challenge: If successful, forces enemy to attack you instead of intended target. //I would prefer something that encourages rather than forces, but I can't think of how I'd do that. The required success part is an attempt to make it situational rather than the replacement for a knight's attack, but I don't think it actually does that.
//Challenge: If this attack is successful, enemy must attack you this round. //Alternate Challenge version, basically rolling it into the attack. Still fails the spamtest, as there's literally no reason for a knight not to use this every round unless they suck at their jobs or have been critically injured.
///Challenge: Forces enemy to attack you this round instead of an ally. Recharges on successful attack/when you take damage/when an ally is attacked/when an ally takes damage. //Array attempt at cooldown-based skill. I suspect conditionally recharging/becoming available like this is the key to making this skill function as intended, but I'm wary of having something else to track.
Shield: ? //Undecided. In particular, I'd like to make it scaling for obvious reasons, but since the damage he'd be taking is (somewhat inversely) scaling off his Str to begin with... well, I'm not sure how to make this a damage reducer without just saying it takes twice as long to kill the knight because his Str is the lower cap on how fast you can kill him. I wonder if allowing different ranks of skills, Shield 1 reducing damage by 1 Str, Shield 2 by 2 Str, etc, would be viable and useful?
Assassin
Assassinate: Attack same target twice. Target then gets a free attack against you for each time you missed. //Attempt at making a scaling attack move that's not grossly overpowered, though I'm not sure if this is too weak or not. I also like the notion of an assassin being rather luck-dependent, even though this assassin is actually the closest thing there is to a not-meatshield warrior.
Dodge: ? //Also undecided. This is another area where my hesitance to include cooldowns is a pain, because I think a cooldown-based autododge or other defensive bonus would work well on bruisers, giving them basically an occasional get out of jail free card without just making them tanks. Might also work well with Assassinate, since you could pop it to gain immunity to half of any screwups you're about to commit.
Sorcerer
Nova: Attack all enemies at a maximum Wager of Str/Number of Enemies, rounded down, on each one. //Probably a terrible, terrible idea, since it lets him instagib swarmy enemies who's main advantage will probably be that you can't just cleave through them four at a time, but it does reinforce the notion of the sorc as a hardass squishy.
Firebolt: ? //Oh good, another undecided secondary. I'd like this to be good against single targets without being your default attack. Once again, cooldowns are an option but make me wary, and I don't think I want a risk-style move like with the assassin.
Priest
Bolster: Ally gains temporary defensive Str equal to half your Str against the next attack made this round. //Oh man, where to start. First real attempt at a scaling buff, "defensive Str" is supposed to mean your Str gets reduced by that much less, though I guess it might make some sense to have it also increase the Wager if you're up against something more powerful than you, to prevent being a "you automatically take an additional round to kill" move. Autosuccess is an attempt at making it a wager as to whether this or attacking that round is better, since this works but might not be necessary, while attacking is almost always good but might fail. "This round" might be too harsh, but I'm concerned about priests bolstering everyone's stuff up if they get any breathing room from enemies missing.
//Bolster: Ally gains +1 to next dodge roll during this fight. Dissipates outside combat. //Alternate version. Don't think I like messing with the rolls, but it's certainly an option and certainly powerful.
Infuse: Ally gains your Str as a bonus to next attack Wager. //Don't like this one at all. For one thing, players will have more Str than enemies a lot of the time anyway, so this is pretty much exclusively for bossfights or when they're been crippled. Secondly, since it's basically riding on an ally's attack roll, it's not that different from just attacking. Could potentially still be advantageous if there's some reason an ally needs to deal damage instead of you, but what would that be?
Necromancer
Defile: Enemy takes additional damage the first time they're hit this round equal to your Str. //A bit wonky, for much the same reasons I don't like Infuse. I also wonder if Enfeeble should be the first/main skill and Defile the second.
Enfeeble: Enemy takes offensive Str penalty equal to your Str score for its first attack this round. //This one I kind of like, because it gives a choice between shutting an enemy down guaranteed or risking an attack. Also doesn't let you permastun anything that you couldn't oneshot anyway.
As you can see, I have a basic framework down but the details are a mess. Any feedback on anything about this would be appreciated.
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Topic: Roller's Block (RTD Brainstorming Thread) (HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY) (Derm is 5k) (Read 746437 times)