Way, way back in the old days I used to play a lot of D&D and there was a class of character called a Monk which relied on martial arts type attacks. The Monk was very weak to start with and it was a struggle to get them to higher levels but once they started getting up there they became some of the strongest characters in the game. I've always thought that it would be interesting to have a school/class similar to the Monk. Devotees of the Mind School could be called Mentalists. They would utilize innate abilities gained through level increase rather than gear to enhance their attacks and defenses. For instance they would have a natural damage resistance boost to all schools and also an inflicted damage boost which would get a percentage increase for every level gained. To make it even more interesting, like it was in D&D, the Mentalist could be restricted to not using gear of any sort except maybe wands, rings, amulets and athames. By the time the character reached level 50 for instance you might have a natural -50% to all damage and a natural +50% boost to inflicted damage as well. In addition to his personal damage and defensive attributes, the Mentalist character could also give a natural aura-like damage and defensive boost to any other members of his team in a duel. Also, because of the character's natural attunement to mental discipline he would have an innate immunity or at the very least a resistance to stun. The Mentalist's spells would all be variations of martial arts attacks - kicks, punches, chops etc. and many of these might incorporate an additional possible chance to stun, and ward and blade removal to represent disarming. And just for giggles, during duels the Mentalist could be floating in the lotus position.
KI always intended to have seven schools, so adding an eighth school makes no sense to me. It would also be pretty insanely overpowered, especially with the stat gaining you described. 50% damage and resistance at level 50? No school can get that from level 50 gear, it's completely overpowered. Innate stun resistance? Other schools don’t even get any stun resistance unless they’re wearing PvP gear, otherwise sub-optimal gear or Conviction. Then there are the problems of adding a new main school no one seems to ever consider: there'd have to be a school building, creatures from that school, lots of gear for that school (not so much for this one than others, but it's still a lot), 40-50 completely new spells with cards, names and animations, some with spell quests. Also, what school(s) would this school boost on? What school(s) would boost on it? Would we get a new character slot? If not, yay, another school I'm not gonna get without a second account. If yes, well, that'd be among the good things, but that's hardly relevant compared to the amount of work needed; it'd have to be refined (sorry, but your design is completely overpowered) and added into the game.
KI always intended to have seven schools, so adding an eighth school makes no sense to me. It would also be pretty insanely overpowered, especially with the stat gaining you described. 50% damage and resistance at level 50? No school can get that from level 50 gear, it's completely overpowered. Innate stun resistance? Other schools don’t even get any stun resistance unless they’re wearing PvP gear, otherwise sub-optimal gear or Conviction. Then there are the problems of adding a new main school no one seems to ever consider: there'd have to be a school building, creatures from that school, lots of gear for that school (not so much for this one than others, but it's still a lot), 40-50 completely new spells with cards, names and animations, some with spell quests. Also, what school(s) would this school boost on? What school(s) would boost on it? Would we get a new character slot? If not, yay, another school I'm not gonna get without a second account. If yes, well, that'd be among the good things, but that's hardly relevant compared to the amount of work needed; it'd have to be refined (sorry, but your design is completely overpowered) and added into the game.
I appreciate the feedback and I can understand most of your concerns. You're obviously correct about the refinements that would be necessary and I had put some thought into them but really didn't want to go into a long dissertation about it in the limited space we have in which to post. Let me briefly address some of your points:
Gear: Because this school doesn't rely on or utilize gear other than what I originally specified there would be no gear specific to the school. In fact, they wouldn't even be able to equip any clothing items that have boosts of any sort.
Spells: Because this character's damage and defenses are determined by level they would get no blades, traps or shields and in fact their damage would not trigger generic traps or feints. This also addresses your point concerning the character being overpowered... as an example, a level 50 Pyromancer casts a Helephant - 625-705 base damage. If their gear gives them a +15% boost, plus a +25% from a Hex or Curse, +35% from a blade, +70% from Feint, +5% from a pet that's a potential damage of 2165-2443 damage. Now the Mentalist casts his level 48 spell... let's say it has a base damage of 900-1200. They only get the boost from their innate increase of +50% - a total potential damage of 1350-1800. I don't see that as insanely overpowered. On the defensive side the Mentalist would have a definite advantage because of the -50% resist to all but that's ALL of the defense they would have unless other party members were to shield them... this would make up for the lack of offensive punch. The spell tree would obviously be much smaller because of the lack of enhancements and because most of the attacks are of the martial arts variety the animations could be tweaked wand attacks.
Boosts: Totally neutral, would not boost against or be boosted on by any of the other schools.
Stun resist: They wouldn't be able to take advantage of any resistance offered by the use of gear so this is sort of an equalizer. The resistance could increase by level as with attack and defense.
I know this is a different approach to the game and frankly it's something a lot of players wouldn't stick with for very long. It would be a challenge to play. I happen to like a challenge so I'm looking at it from a totally selfish perspective. I see posts every day for new schools so I thought I'd just throw in my 1-1/2 cents worth.
I appreciate the feedback and I can understand most of your concerns. You're obviously correct about the refinements that would be necessary and I had put some thought into them but really didn't want to go into a long dissertation about it in the limited space we have in which to post. Let me briefly address some of your points:
Gear: Because this school doesn't rely on or utilize gear other than what I originally specified there would be no gear specific to the school. In fact, they wouldn't even be able to equip any clothing items that have boosts of any sort.
Spells: Because this character's damage and defenses are determined by level they would get no blades, traps or shields and in fact their damage would not trigger generic traps or feints. This also addresses your point concerning the character being overpowered... as an example, a level 50 Pyromancer casts a Helephant - 625-705 base damage. If their gear gives them a +15% boost, plus a +25% from a Hex or Curse, +35% from a blade, +70% from Feint, +5% from a pet that's a potential damage of 2165-2443 damage. Now the Mentalist casts his level 48 spell... let's say it has a base damage of 900-1200. They only get the boost from their innate increase of +50% - a total potential damage of 1350-1800. I don't see that as insanely overpowered. On the defensive side the Mentalist would have a definite advantage because of the -50% resist to all but that's ALL of the defense they would have unless other party members were to shield them... this would make up for the lack of offensive punch. The spell tree would obviously be much smaller because of the lack of enhancements and because most of the attacks are of the martial arts variety the animations could be tweaked wand attacks.
Boosts: Totally neutral, would not boost against or be boosted on by any of the other schools.
Stun resist: They wouldn't be able to take advantage of any resistance offered by the use of gear so this is sort of an equalizer. The resistance could increase by level as with attack and defense.
I know this is a different approach to the game and frankly it's something a lot of players wouldn't stick with for very long. It would be a challenge to play. I happen to like a challenge so I'm looking at it from a totally selfish perspective. I see posts every day for new schools so I thought I'd just throw in my 1-1/2 cents worth.
To be honest, I'd play it if it was implemented. I just have this general negativity towards adding new primary schools. The lack of blades, traps and such removes the overpoweredness, but then it might even be a bit weak. But then again, we'd probably be able to spam our spells without the need to blade all the time. We wouldn't really die, either, because the resistance is really high. It might also have to stop increasing at some point, because immunity would take away a lot of the challenge. It would probably have to be lowered to not completely throw off PvP, because people like it. I don't really care about PvP, so this could be considered as me being really considerate towards those who do . Lastly, I just want to say that this is in my opinion a better and more creative idea for a new primary school than most, so kudos to you.
To be honest, I'd play it if it was implemented. I just have this general negativity towards adding new primary schools. The lack of blades, traps and such removes the overpoweredness, but then it might even be a bit weak. But then again, we'd probably be able to spam our spells without the need to blade all the time. We wouldn't really die, either, because the resistance is really high. It might also have to stop increasing at some point, because immunity would take away a lot of the challenge. It would probably have to be lowered to not completely throw off PvP, because people like it. I don't really care about PvP, so this could be considered as me being really considerate towards those who do . Lastly, I just want to say that this is in my opinion a better and more creative idea for a new primary school than most, so kudos to you.
Thanks for the kudos. I'm with you as far as PvP. I don't really give it much thought so the ramifications of this type of play style on PvP didn't have much influence on my thought process. As far as the immunities go I agree, the increases would have to be progressively smaller the higher in rank you progress. At no time would you ever gain 100% immunity to anything with the exception of maybe stun. Since we run up against enemies that are "stun immune" I don't see that as a negative especially if you take into account the basic nature of this character's mind-based "magic". Personally I would love to have the opportunity to play this type of character and actually I've considered trying to play a "normal" wizard without using gear just to see how far I could get without going insane. Plus as a side bonus, just think of all the extra storage space you'd have in your banks. You could sell virtually everything!
Way, way back in the old days I used to play a lot of D&D and there was a class of character called a Monk which relied on martial arts type attacks. The Monk was very weak to start with and it was a struggle to get them to higher levels but once they started getting up there they became some of the strongest characters in the game. I've always thought that it would be interesting to have a school/class similar to the Monk. Devotees of the Mind School could be called Mentalists. They would utilize innate abilities gained through level increase rather than gear to enhance their attacks and defenses. For instance they would have a natural damage resistance boost to all schools and also an inflicted damage boost which would get a percentage increase for every level gained. To make it even more interesting, like it was in D&D, the Mentalist could be restricted to not using gear of any sort except maybe wands, rings, amulets and athames. By the time the character reached level 50 for instance you might have a natural -50% to all damage and a natural +50% boost to inflicted damage as well. In addition to his personal damage and defensive attributes, the Mentalist character could also give a natural aura-like damage and defensive boost to any other members of his team in a duel. Also, because of the character's natural attunement to mental discipline he would have an innate immunity or at the very least a resistance to stun. The Mentalist's spells would all be variations of martial arts attacks - kicks, punches, chops etc. and many of these might incorporate an additional possible chance to stun, and ward and blade removal to represent disarming. And just for giggles, during duels the Mentalist could be floating in the lotus position.
Whatcha think?
i think they should add a school once you finish your main school have a cool overpowerish school like either a haven school or underworld school and have the option to have a secondary school. i know you can just learn it already but i would be even cooler if i also said you were a romancer necromancer but in a combined word like pycromancer or necpymancert or something like that. also if u add the 2 schools i mentioned it should all be one whole title like either angle or demon instead of the innate journeyman thing and then the secondary school combination. you know hoe each school specializes in something like fire is damage over time and death is life heals heaven and underworld schools which would be either above or below barteby would be specialized in minions that heal you and reviving,heaven, or minions that deal lots of damage or insta-kill depending what card it is,underworld, also it would be cool that in order to get to the heaven school a 7 pip card would take you their like a dragon would either climb/ fly up bartelby or take a secret passage by climbing down the side of raven wood were the death school used to be and take a passage. but that's just and idea which i hope you add
. Lastly, I just want to say that this is in my opinion a better and more creative idea for a new primary school than most, so kudos to you.