Post by Variaz on Sept 11, 2010 1:51:01 GMT -5
Let's face it. In 0.4(and below), the Mage wasn't a very good class at all. Serving as little more than a bridge to the High Mage class, it had several "gimmick" abilities, producing all kind of effects, but in the end, very few of these abilities were worth the points placed in them. Some, like Mirror Image, were downright worthless.
The Mage did not even have a single ability to raise the damages of spells!!!
Well, now, I've almost completely remade the class. Mirror Image is gone, and so are the other useless abilities, and now the Mage has several abilities to impove spell damages, as well as various other aspects of spellcasting.
And if you liked the concept of Animated Knight, fear not. I plan on remaking this ability for the Enchanter class. After all, building golems is more of an enchanter thing, with both crafting and alchemy involved. It will become more usable as well. Stone to Gold would be enchanterish as well, if I ever decide to bring it back(though I am more hesitant about this one).
Here's the 0.5 Mage!
The old Mana Boost was nice very early in the game, but it quickly became obsolete. This is the new one. While it starts slightly slower, it will scale well and become quite powerful. With 10 points, you get +100% to mana AND to intelligence, which itself gives more mana, so you really more than double your mana. And increase the power of your spells due to intelligence(but the main purpose of the ability is to raise mana).
The first ability to increase the damages of spells. It will also make it easier for your spells to hit the monsters(who can now have Magic Defense), so they become both more powerful and more reliable in terms of hitting the enemies.
In addition to providing an attack of it's own, it makes the Missile type much more usable, and much more powerful. If you are worried about resistances, this ability is for you!
It was there in 0.4, but has now been improved in 0.5. In addition to still providing a nice and free mana recovery, the defensive aspect of the ability is now much more effective, should you decide to place some points in it. With 10 points, you will essentially get two rolls to stop incoming enemy spells rather than one. And regardless of whether the spell goes through or not, you recover mana.
It is worth noting that as of 0.5, the spell skills don't provide radius increases anymore, as they basically made creating spells with radius higher than 1 completely pointless.
This ability is another one that raises damages, and works for radius of spells. Probably best for Conjuration mages who like to use damage fields, since creating large radius fields is quite costly mana-wise. But it's also nice for Elemental spells, since you can create cheaper bolts, and still get nice AoE!
This one focus on Rods users, and gives several improvements, including extra zappings per turns, something that wasn't present in 0.4.
This ability is mostly Alteration support, as it's the school that it benefits the most(Elemental casters are better off with Improved Combat Spells instead). This will make Alterations much more likely to work, and therefore much more useful.
Not many changes to this one, it still gives you a high bonus to the power of activated items. With the new damage formulas, activated items will probably become more powerful overall. The increase is as high as the Rods Mastery ability, but works with all items, not just rods.
Lots of possibilities with this one. It can be a Jump substitute for mages, and there are other possible moves, such as summoning a bunch of monsters around, and then using this to switch places with an enemy monster. The fact that it allows the use of the spells and scrolls in quest levels also make it useful.
Another ability that I hope won't end up being overpowered. But this could be quite deadly, especially with things like Life Blast and other Alterations, or a chain spell or multi-effect spells in general. We'll have to play with it to see if it's balanced or not!
And so this is the new Mage. Much more possibilities. For damages, you can get Improved Combat Spells for additional accuracy, Magic Missiles for resistances or Explosive Spells for AoE. Or a mix of the three, which still gives the same damages bonus. The other abilities provides many other benefits, and so the new Mage should be more than just a bridge to High Mage, and he will definitely provide more than just useless Mirror Images.
The Mage did not even have a single ability to raise the damages of spells!!!
Well, now, I've almost completely remade the class. Mirror Image is gone, and so are the other useless abilities, and now the Mage has several abilities to impove spell damages, as well as various other aspects of spellcasting.
And if you liked the concept of Animated Knight, fear not. I plan on remaking this ability for the Enchanter class. After all, building golems is more of an enchanter thing, with both crafting and alchemy involved. It will become more usable as well. Stone to Gold would be enchanterish as well, if I ever decide to bring it back(though I am more hesitant about this one).
Here's the 0.5 Mage!
1. Wizardry(Passive, level 1)
Effect: Increases your Intelligence and your maximum mana.
Bonus to Intelligence: +10% (based on base stat value)
Bonus to Mana: +10%
Extra points: +10% to Intelligence and mana.
This ability raises your Intelligence and your maximum mana. Having a lot
of mana will help casting more powerful spells(or endless casting of
weaker spells), and more Intelligence will raise the power of these spells
even further.
Effect: Increases your Intelligence and your maximum mana.
Bonus to Intelligence: +10% (based on base stat value)
Bonus to Mana: +10%
Extra points: +10% to Intelligence and mana.
This ability raises your Intelligence and your maximum mana. Having a lot
of mana will help casting more powerful spells(or endless casting of
weaker spells), and more Intelligence will raise the power of these spells
even further.
The old Mana Boost was nice very early in the game, but it quickly became obsolete. This is the new one. While it starts slightly slower, it will scale well and become quite powerful. With 10 points, you get +100% to mana AND to intelligence, which itself gives more mana, so you really more than double your mana. And increase the power of your spells due to intelligence(but the main purpose of the ability is to raise mana).
2. Improved Combat Spells(Passive, level 1)
Effect: Increases power of damage dealing Elemental, Mysticism and
Conjuration spells. (does not affect Life Blast and Divination)
Also makes them harder to avoid.
Bonus to damages: +10%
Bonus to hit rolls: +10%
Extra points: +10% to damages and to hit rolls.
This ability will increase the power of your damage dealing spells, and
also make them more likely to hit. Some enemies have very high Magic Defense
skill, and can be very hard to hit with spells. This ability will help
in these situations.
Effect: Increases power of damage dealing Elemental, Mysticism and
Conjuration spells. (does not affect Life Blast and Divination)
Also makes them harder to avoid.
Bonus to damages: +10%
Bonus to hit rolls: +10%
Extra points: +10% to damages and to hit rolls.
This ability will increase the power of your damage dealing spells, and
also make them more likely to hit. Some enemies have very high Magic Defense
skill, and can be very hard to hit with spells. This ability will help
in these situations.
The first ability to increase the damages of spells. It will also make it easier for your spells to hit the monsters(who can now have Magic Defense), so they become both more powerful and more reliable in terms of hitting the enemies.
3. Magic Missiles(Active/Passive, level 1)
Effect: Cast magic missiles at enemies. Also improve the damages of magic
attacks of the 'Missile' element, and reduce the creation cost
of Missile-based spells.
Power: 3 (Intelligence)
Bonus to Missile spells and magic attacks: +10%
Creation cost reduction: 9%
Type: Missile
Extra points: +3 to Power.
+10% to Missile damages.
-3% to creation cost(up to a maximum of 67%).
+1 additional missile every 10 points.
This ability provides both an attack of it's own, and also a passive bonus
to all Missile-based spells and magic attacks(meaning it also affect
Missile-based damages from rods, for example). The Missile element is a
Physical/Mana hybrid, meaning it does half Physical, half Mana damages,
and since very few monsters resists both types(especially Mana), Missile
will almost always have some effects. Because of this advantage, and
because it's available right at the start of the game, it's creation cost
is three times higher than other Elemental spells.
This ability makes this extra cost a better investment by raising the
damages of Missile-based spells. It also reduce the creation cost, and if
you place enough points, the cost can reach 67% reduction, at which point
it will cost as much as other Elemental spells.
The ability also provides an attack of it's own. It uses the same damages
formula as normal spells, and is based on Intelligence. It benefits from
both Spellcraft and Elemental for bypassing Magic Defense.
Effect: Cast magic missiles at enemies. Also improve the damages of magic
attacks of the 'Missile' element, and reduce the creation cost
of Missile-based spells.
Power: 3 (Intelligence)
Bonus to Missile spells and magic attacks: +10%
Creation cost reduction: 9%
Type: Missile
Extra points: +3 to Power.
+10% to Missile damages.
-3% to creation cost(up to a maximum of 67%).
+1 additional missile every 10 points.
This ability provides both an attack of it's own, and also a passive bonus
to all Missile-based spells and magic attacks(meaning it also affect
Missile-based damages from rods, for example). The Missile element is a
Physical/Mana hybrid, meaning it does half Physical, half Mana damages,
and since very few monsters resists both types(especially Mana), Missile
will almost always have some effects. Because of this advantage, and
because it's available right at the start of the game, it's creation cost
is three times higher than other Elemental spells.
This ability makes this extra cost a better investment by raising the
damages of Missile-based spells. It also reduce the creation cost, and if
you place enough points, the cost can reach 67% reduction, at which point
it will cost as much as other Elemental spells.
The ability also provides an attack of it's own. It uses the same damages
formula as normal spells, and is based on Intelligence. It benefits from
both Spellcraft and Elemental for bypassing Magic Defense.
In addition to providing an attack of it's own, it makes the Missile type much more usable, and much more powerful. If you are worried about resistances, this ability is for you!
4. Spell Absorbtion(Passive, level 1)
Effect: Regain mana from enemy spells, and gives you a chance to absorb
the spell and prevent all damages and effects.
Power(prevention): 10% of (Intelligence + Wisdom + Magic Defense) vs
(Mind + Magic skill)
Mana restoration: 1% of spell's power.
Extra points: +10% to absorbtion roll.
+1% of spell's power to mana restoration.
An additional 10% of (Int + Wis + MDef) is used for the roll,
up to a maximum of 100%.
This passive ability offers a second level of protection against magical
spells. Before the standard Magic Defense roll, this ability will trigger,
and if successful, you will prevent all damages from the spell.
Regardless of whether the roll succeeds or not, you will regain mana based
on the spell's power and this ability's level. At higher levels, this can
be a very potent source of mana recovery.
Effect: Regain mana from enemy spells, and gives you a chance to absorb
the spell and prevent all damages and effects.
Power(prevention): 10% of (Intelligence + Wisdom + Magic Defense) vs
(Mind + Magic skill)
Mana restoration: 1% of spell's power.
Extra points: +10% to absorbtion roll.
+1% of spell's power to mana restoration.
An additional 10% of (Int + Wis + MDef) is used for the roll,
up to a maximum of 100%.
This passive ability offers a second level of protection against magical
spells. Before the standard Magic Defense roll, this ability will trigger,
and if successful, you will prevent all damages from the spell.
Regardless of whether the roll succeeds or not, you will regain mana based
on the spell's power and this ability's level. At higher levels, this can
be a very potent source of mana recovery.
It was there in 0.4, but has now been improved in 0.5. In addition to still providing a nice and free mana recovery, the defensive aspect of the ability is now much more effective, should you decide to place some points in it. With 10 points, you will essentially get two rolls to stop incoming enemy spells rather than one. And regardless of whether the spell goes through or not, you recover mana.
5. Explosive Spells(Passive, level 1)
Effect: Increases the power of your damage spells and their area of effect.
Bonus to damages: +10%
Extra points: +10% to damages.
+1 to radius of all damage spells for every 5 points.
This passive ability increases damages of spells, and increases their area
of effect, or give them one if they didn't have one(such as bolt spells).
This allows you to create cheaper bolt spells and still benefit from AoE.
It also works with damaging fields, so placing points in this ability will
allow you to create greater fields using the Field spells(Fire Field, Storms,
etc...). Note that this ability will not raise the AoE of non-damaging
spells, such as Grow Trees. It also won't improve the damages of Life Blast
and Divination(but will give them AoE).
Effect: Increases the power of your damage spells and their area of effect.
Bonus to damages: +10%
Extra points: +10% to damages.
+1 to radius of all damage spells for every 5 points.
This passive ability increases damages of spells, and increases their area
of effect, or give them one if they didn't have one(such as bolt spells).
This allows you to create cheaper bolt spells and still benefit from AoE.
It also works with damaging fields, so placing points in this ability will
allow you to create greater fields using the Field spells(Fire Field, Storms,
etc...). Note that this ability will not raise the AoE of non-damaging
spells, such as Grow Trees. It also won't improve the damages of Life Blast
and Divination(but will give them AoE).
It is worth noting that as of 0.5, the spell skills don't provide radius increases anymore, as they basically made creating spells with radius higher than 1 completely pointless.
This ability is another one that raises damages, and works for radius of spells. Probably best for Conjuration mages who like to use damage fields, since creating large radius fields is quite costly mana-wise. But it's also nice for Elemental spells, since you can create cheaper bolts, and still get nice AoE!
6. Rods Mastery(Passive, level 1)
Effect: Improve Rods zapping and activation damages, and give you extra
zappings per turns. Also improve the mana bonus of rods, and their
melee damages.
Bonus to Rods zapping power: +20%
Bonus to Rods activations power: +50%
Bonus to Rods mana bonus: +20%
Bonus to Rods melee damages: +10%
Extra points: +20% to Rods zapping power.
+50% to Rods activations power.
+20% to Rods mana bonus.
+10% to Rods melee damages.
+1 rod zapping per turns for every 10 points.
This passive ability gives you several bonus when using rods. From extra
zappings per turns, to melee damages bonus, this ability improves almost
all feature of rods and classes(melee weapon that gives mana and makes
spells stronger, while providing magical powers of their own). If you want
to specialize in using rods and staves for more than a simple buff to
spells, this ability is heavily recommended.
The bonus to "Rods mana bonus" applies to the bonus given by rods, and not
to your total mana. For example, if you have a rod that gives you +20% to
mana, and you have 5 points in this ability, the rod will now give you
+40% to your mana.
Effect: Improve Rods zapping and activation damages, and give you extra
zappings per turns. Also improve the mana bonus of rods, and their
melee damages.
Bonus to Rods zapping power: +20%
Bonus to Rods activations power: +50%
Bonus to Rods mana bonus: +20%
Bonus to Rods melee damages: +10%
Extra points: +20% to Rods zapping power.
+50% to Rods activations power.
+20% to Rods mana bonus.
+10% to Rods melee damages.
+1 rod zapping per turns for every 10 points.
This passive ability gives you several bonus when using rods. From extra
zappings per turns, to melee damages bonus, this ability improves almost
all feature of rods and classes(melee weapon that gives mana and makes
spells stronger, while providing magical powers of their own). If you want
to specialize in using rods and staves for more than a simple buff to
spells, this ability is heavily recommended.
The bonus to "Rods mana bonus" applies to the bonus given by rods, and not
to your total mana. For example, if you have a rod that gives you +20% to
mana, and you have 5 points in this ability, the rod will now give you
+40% to your mana.
This one focus on Rods users, and gives several improvements, including extra zappings per turns, something that wasn't present in 0.4.
7. Spells Efficiency(Passive, level 6)
Effect: Improves the success rate of resistable spells effects(such as most
Alteration spells, Harm, Divination, Warp's teleport effect, etc...),
and gives a bonus to all magic attacks for the purpose of bypassing
Magic Defense.
Bonus to Magic Defense rolls of all magic attacks: +10%
Bonus to resistance rolls of all spells: +10%
Extra points: +10% to Magic Defense rolls of all spells.
+10% to resistance rolls of all spells.
This ability will make all spells you cast more likely to hit, and less
of their power mitigated by the monster's Magic Defense. It will also
improve rolls of all spells that requires a successful roll for their
effect to trigger. Therefore, this ability is best suited for mages who wants
to specialize in the schools of Alteration or Divination.
It's also worth noting that the bonus to Magic Defense rolls apply to ALL
magic attacks, not just spells. That means that if you have another magical
ability from another class, or an item's activation, they will also get the
bonus.
Effect: Improves the success rate of resistable spells effects(such as most
Alteration spells, Harm, Divination, Warp's teleport effect, etc...),
and gives a bonus to all magic attacks for the purpose of bypassing
Magic Defense.
Bonus to Magic Defense rolls of all magic attacks: +10%
Bonus to resistance rolls of all spells: +10%
Extra points: +10% to Magic Defense rolls of all spells.
+10% to resistance rolls of all spells.
This ability will make all spells you cast more likely to hit, and less
of their power mitigated by the monster's Magic Defense. It will also
improve rolls of all spells that requires a successful roll for their
effect to trigger. Therefore, this ability is best suited for mages who wants
to specialize in the schools of Alteration or Divination.
It's also worth noting that the bonus to Magic Defense rolls apply to ALL
magic attacks, not just spells. That means that if you have another magical
ability from another class, or an item's activation, they will also get the
bonus.
This ability is mostly Alteration support, as it's the school that it benefits the most(Elemental casters are better off with Improved Combat Spells instead). This will make Alterations much more likely to work, and therefore much more useful.
8. Improved Activation(Passive, level 6)
Effect: Improves the effects of offensive/healing item activations.
Activation's power bonus: +50%
Extra points: +50% to activation power.
This passive ability improve the effects of magical item activations.
Many artifacts, and some other objects(such as rods and a couple others)
have special activations that can unleash special powers. This ability
will make them more effective, sometimes much more so, if you also raise
intelligence or wisdom to improve the base damages. Note that this only
improves the damages of magic-based activations. Special melee or ranged
attacks are not affected.
Effect: Improves the effects of offensive/healing item activations.
Activation's power bonus: +50%
Extra points: +50% to activation power.
This passive ability improve the effects of magical item activations.
Many artifacts, and some other objects(such as rods and a couple others)
have special activations that can unleash special powers. This ability
will make them more effective, sometimes much more so, if you also raise
intelligence or wisdom to improve the base damages. Note that this only
improves the damages of magic-based activations. Special melee or ranged
attacks are not affected.
Not many changes to this one, it still gives you a high bonus to the power of activated items. With the new damage formulas, activated items will probably become more powerful overall. The increase is as high as the Rods Mastery ability, but works with all items, not just rods.
9. Advanced Teleportation(Active/Passive, level 6)
Effect: Allows you to control where you appear when you teleport. Also, if
you target a monster, gives you a chance to exchange positions.
Maximum teleport radius: 2
Resist: (Int + Wis + Spellcraft + Alteration) vs (Mind + Magic Defense)
Extra points: +2 to maximum to teleport radius.
+10% to resistance roll.
When you use teleportation(such as the 'Alter Position' Alteration spell,
scrolls of phase door, etc...), you will be prompted if you want to use
Advanced Teleportation. If you do, you will be able to control where
you appear, up to the maximum distance that the teleportation allowed. This
ability will only trigger if the teleportation's power is equal or lower than
the maximum teleport radius of this ability. For example, a scroll of
phase door has a power of 10, so you need at least 5 points in this ability
to use it with scrolls of phase door.
Effect: Allows you to control where you appear when you teleport. Also, if
you target a monster, gives you a chance to exchange positions.
Maximum teleport radius: 2
Resist: (Int + Wis + Spellcraft + Alteration) vs (Mind + Magic Defense)
Extra points: +2 to maximum to teleport radius.
+10% to resistance roll.
When you use teleportation(such as the 'Alter Position' Alteration spell,
scrolls of phase door, etc...), you will be prompted if you want to use
Advanced Teleportation. If you do, you will be able to control where
you appear, up to the maximum distance that the teleportation allowed. This
ability will only trigger if the teleportation's power is equal or lower than
the maximum teleport radius of this ability. For example, a scroll of
phase door has a power of 10, so you need at least 5 points in this ability
to use it with scrolls of phase door.
Lots of possibilities with this one. It can be a Jump substitute for mages, and there are other possible moves, such as summoning a bunch of monsters around, and then using this to switch places with an enemy monster. The fact that it allows the use of the spells and scrolls in quest levels also make it useful.
10. Aftermath(Passive, level 10)
Effect: Monsters struck by your spells have a chance to get struck by the
same spell once again.
Resist: 10% of (Int + Wis + Spellcraft) vs (Mind + Magic Defense)
Extra points: +10% to resistance roll.
An additional 10% of (Int + Wis + Spellcraft) is used, up to
a maximum of 100% at 10 points.
With this powerful ability, your spells will have a chance to affect the
monsters a second time. This apply to every times the monster is struck,
so if you can a multi-effect spell, all effects have a chance to strike
the monster twice. This ability can be very powerful if used in combination
with large radius "chain" spells, since they strike the monsters multiple
times.
Note that all aftermaths are applied with a radius of 0. Also, an aftermath
cannot cause another aftermath.
Effect: Monsters struck by your spells have a chance to get struck by the
same spell once again.
Resist: 10% of (Int + Wis + Spellcraft) vs (Mind + Magic Defense)
Extra points: +10% to resistance roll.
An additional 10% of (Int + Wis + Spellcraft) is used, up to
a maximum of 100% at 10 points.
With this powerful ability, your spells will have a chance to affect the
monsters a second time. This apply to every times the monster is struck,
so if you can a multi-effect spell, all effects have a chance to strike
the monster twice. This ability can be very powerful if used in combination
with large radius "chain" spells, since they strike the monsters multiple
times.
Note that all aftermaths are applied with a radius of 0. Also, an aftermath
cannot cause another aftermath.
Another ability that I hope won't end up being overpowered. But this could be quite deadly, especially with things like Life Blast and other Alterations, or a chain spell or multi-effect spells in general. We'll have to play with it to see if it's balanced or not!
And so this is the new Mage. Much more possibilities. For damages, you can get Improved Combat Spells for additional accuracy, Magic Missiles for resistances or Explosive Spells for AoE. Or a mix of the three, which still gives the same damages bonus. The other abilities provides many other benefits, and so the new Mage should be more than just a bridge to High Mage, and he will definitely provide more than just useless Mirror Images.