Greydragon

I guess I'll just keep posting suggestions. Apologies. ... by the way I realized I had seen the 'charge up' effect for magic in the Fable series. Lets see... I was going to do Pyro/Cryokinesis next. Mostly a class for destruction, think fireballs and cones of frost. Some new ideas I had for it's use: Frozen Ground: Literally cover any surface location with ice in an area around the Cipher which causes the enemies that cross it by foot to slow. Dexterity check to avoid the effect. Persistent effect that increases in size and eventually adds direct frost damage to crossing enemies at higher levels. Frozen pitfall: Using the expansion of ice crystals you set a trap invisible to the naked eye below seemingly normal ground. Relex save to avoid. Failure causes small amounts of frost and piercing damage as they step on ultra sharp icicles and leaves the enemy flatfooted for a number of turns until they regain feeling in their feet/stabilize the injury. Useful as a prelude to a sneak attack from an allied rogue. As they progress to mastery over the realm of temperature control the Cipher gains resistance/reduction to fire and ice damage and a further minor increase in lightning reduction (as the primary damage from electricity is heat). Further more as they become more powerful they gain damage reduction to cutting and piercing weapon damage ... they superheat the edge of normal weapons to soften the impact causing minor fire damage to attackers with weapons (and moderate damage to unarmed opponents). Fire... fire has been done almost to death... Wildfire: Start an uncontrolled blaze with no supernatural source to dispel. It expands and grows for several turns burning a randomly sized area, engulfing friend or foe. An answer to an enemy mage or Cipher with dispelling/neutralizing abilities this is a risky move only available in forests and buildings. This is not a magical fire it is aside from the initial push completely natural. Depending on size and duration this power increases in intensity and causes pure fire damage from light to heavy, fortitude save to suffer half. Furthermore while the fire rages all creatures in the area suffer concentration damage (from the stinging smoke and ash) willpower save to avoid.

Again a another double post; sorry I had some more ideas I was thinking that perhaps the Cipher starts out as a telepath but as they progress they earn/discover access to prestige classes that are in essence alternate psychic powers; teleportation (or time/space distortion for more exotic abilities), pyro/cryo kinesis as a single class (as they are in essence two sides of molecular excitation) Seer (futuresight) and all the massive advantages that brings and an antipsychic class that excels in breaking other Ciphers and spills over into general antimagic. Everyone knows the standard powers of teleportation: Motionless Jump: Move through space instantly to another location. Starts off as a random (anywhere but here) button but progresses to precision jumps, moving an ally, moving a small to medium enemy, then finally being able to reposition entire party/multiple enemies or singular large enemy. Enemies must fail a reflex roll to be teleported. Teleportation as a weapon: Reckless Jump: Shaves off a portion of an enemy's health and lowers armour. Reflex save to avoid. Essentially trying to teleport only a portion of the enemy rather than the whole thing. Dice: High level teleportation ability; essentially teleporting the whole enemy to lots of different places at the same time, they only get there as chunks. Reflex to avoid, fortitude to survive. Survivors suffer moderate to heavy damage and bleeding wounds. Two turn ability with major stamina drain and can only target creatures no larger than medium. Does not work on incorporeal beings or slimes. Swathe: Slice an area, teleporting an inch thick layer of everything there. Requires an intelligence check to recognize it is coming from the actions of the Cipher's allies (they all duck) and evade. Reflex save to take half damage. Causes moderate damage and randomly inflicts those who fail with either slow or bleeding wounds (crippled or sliced). Impale: Teleport a small portion of an enemy from the centre of mass; chest/torso. Fortitude to avoid (Only hit muscle). Light damage but 10% chance of causing drowning to living creatures (pierced lung filling with blood).

It isn't a bad idea; they are very similar in result. I was just thinking that underpowered abilities and magic with an instant but uncertain result would be a new direction. I have a nagging sense I've seen your idea or something similar in action/tactical RPGs before.

My thinking was more along the lines of a scalable meta-magic style ability that is set during combat. For example you could increase the chances of an effect/increase the damage of an ability by increasing the activation time or cost manually or under power it to allow you to cast a normally high tier ability next turn at reduced chance to succeed. It allows the character to remain useful through most of combat rather than sit there charging and charging until the ability you want is ready at the level you want. Dragonball style powerups are the most boring part; sitting there screaming for hours versus several half-hearted attacks followed by a really big one. It also adds a tension as you realize that your opponent has been using weak attacks for a while.

I thought it would too; however a secondary skill that allows the Cipher to supercharge the effects of their powers at drastically increased cost would also be useful. For when you really need to mind-control an enemy to buy your group a little time to recover, etc.

Trying to bring back the traditional lightning bolt's effectiveness? Heh. It could be possible. Perhaps a perception distortion or an impulse to indulge in a conga line/millitary drill? Form up! Something along the lines of an attraction to a point to form a solid group? Then to make them scatter the opposite; a repulsive suggestion. Can't work on everybody, willpower check perhaps? Lines would be harder as they are less organic. It would be a bit over powered. So it would require more effort/cost and be less effective on high level creatures, but I imagine a line of low level beasts would be fun to shred with a single spell/bullet. A few new ideas I had were: Mental duel: In a battle with an enemy Cipher the allied Cipher can elect to attack the opponent in a direct mental clash instead of the elaborate tricks they normally use. This in effect results in a temporary paralysis on both sides as they struggle. Depending on level, willpower, concentration and intellect the clash can result in three outcomes; a draw a win or a loss. In the case of a draw both sides are drained of stamina but unharmed. In the case of the player's win the opponent takes moderate damage and is weakened/dazed for a short period and in the case of a loss vice versa. I imagine this to be a dangerous ploy to be attempted only when facing a higher level group and need the enemy Cipher out of commission for a period or when facing Ciphers substantially weaker than your own and wish to press the advantage. An extension or perhaps an extra skill learn-able if you possess the multiple minds ability/perk: Double strike. For every effect you cause which targets one enemy you produce two, targeting a second for half the cost of the first; as your alter-ego duplicates your attack. Toggled ability.

Thanks, I'm writing a fantasy novel about a telepath so I had a lot of material, but a few are new ones I threw together.

Sorry for the double post, I had a few more ideas Compulsive Curse: Force an unstoppable obsessive compulsion upon an enemy that scales in intensity and effectiveness. It begins by forcing the victim to count their steps, slowing their movement considerably. Then they count their attacks, limiting them to one per weapon every round affected. Higher levels cause the opponent to wander aimlessly following cracks or grass stems or cycle through all creatures present and attack them for a single round. Ironic punishment: This is a high level Cipher ability; to destroy the enemy's strengths. The primary attributes of the enemy based upon class are lowered by a point per three Cypher levels. This is followed by a lowering of weapon proficiency in warriors, dodge in rogues, concentration in mages, and so on. They then suffer a random status effect ranging from paralysis, slow, self inflicted bleeding wounds, terror and instant death (suicide/heart attack). The process however takes two rounds to implement and is active only as long as the Cypher is immobile and focused on the enemy. To hurt your enemy in the way they fear most? What could be more satisfying? Talent Thief: The Cipher as an ability is able to temporarily steal the highest weapon skill of the enemies present based upon what the Cypher currently wields. This confers no additional bonuses but will stack with other close combat abilities. Ranged Cooperation: The Cypher compels an enemy to evade missile weapons in the wrong direction if they fail a will save. This effect for a round causes all shots at the target to be unavoidable. Glancing blows still possible. Higher levels increase the probability of a true hit. Exotic Bane: A powerful ability that requires a concentration check. When confronting strange creatures the Cypher can as a once per day ability forcefully steal knowledge of the weakness of a specific monster type directly from the beast's mind and share this with allies. This results in attack and damage bonuses. The bonuses last for only a handful of rounds before the creature favours these weak points, nullifying the advantage. Multiple minds: (Selectable passive ability) the Cypher through necessity has had to explore their own mind, not everything found in there was wholesome and sane. A secondary personality exists within which while still you is also subtly not. You share one brain and soul in a precarious balance. This does have benefits however... other Cyphers have a more difficult time effecting you as they will often mistake your otherself for the true you. Mental magic and Cypher direct abilities which you fail to successfully roll against provide you with an immediate second saving roll as your alter ego attempts to take the brunt of the attack. If you succeed you suffer reduced damage/escape negative effect.

Transmit Impulse: The Cipher sends a psychotic desire to an opponent, a failed willpower save causes the target to immediately and rabidly attack allies in close combat for turns/ seconds equal to the Cipher's level. Mental Barricade: A strong mental defence with underlying traps that protects against magical mental manipulation and harms enemy Ciphers that attempt to breach it. Persistent effect that takes a set amount of concentration from use in combat. Empathy: Detect all thinking creatures within a wide range, unless they possess mental shielding. Higher levels include fragments of the intents/knowledge of these beings. Undetectable scouting ability. Miraculous combat: engage an enemy in close combat while mind-reading them; bonus to attack, high bonus to defence dodge however unable to activate other abilities while doing so. Higher levels allow for multiple opponents and eliminate flanking, sneak attack bonuses of these enemies. The increase in opponents decreases the dodge modifier but increases damage potential of the Cipher. More targets, less room to move. Total command: Possess an enemy and do battle in their body, leaving your own helpless. If the possessed enemy is killed before being released there is a mental backlash as the Cypher experiences their fatal wounds. Cypher is temporarily weakened by shock.

Exactly. Please do not summarize; take advantage of the PC and write the entire dialogue out where we can see and analyse it. I miss being able to do that, a lot.

Did I dispute that assertion? Quote: " ... marked in dialogue just like lies." Rather I don't see a bug/cheat scenario as relevant in a discussion about lies. I tried to put it in a way that could occur in game without bugs i.e. as a part of a lying scenario. Lies however should only be marked as such if the MC is aware that the words are false. If the words are believed to be true by the MC they should be plain dialogue. That is what I tried to explain with Quote: "I suppose glossing over important details might cause this kind of situation, stumbling into a conspiracy without realizing it or something similar. As a dialogue option it would have to be unobtrusive." I apologise if this was unclear, I was quite tired when I wrote this.

This sounds more like a plot event rather than deliberate lying. I suppose glossing over important details might cause this kind of situation, stumbling into a conspiracy without realizing it or something similar. As a dialogue option it would have to be unobtrusive. Alternately a bluff that reveals more than you knew from the npc. Bluffs and scams should also be marked in dialogue just like lies. Just to ensure it is obvious. I suppose a surprise skill check in dialogue would be interesting every so often, but intentional skill/spell/ability uses should always be marked in the dialogue choices. I'd dearly like for spells and talents to be used in dialogue choices for more exotic solutions to quests. Psychic brainwashing or magical charm for example during interrogations, disabling and disrupting spells/talents to weaken enemy groups, etc.

I want the entirety of what my character says in any choice visible before it is said. I'm sick of the consolitis issue of 'pick the tone' responses, examples of what not to do include Alpha Protocol and Mass Effect. I want it be able to carefully analyse and choose my dialogue. While not as easy to implement: I'd also like wide variety in dialogue choices. Also actions mixed in that are indicated within the dialogue or take up a response slot i.e. [shoot him] instead of verbally responding to a stranger taunting the Main Character. Skill uses within dialogue to be colour coded or otherwise indicated (I assume it will be similar to the style used in NWN2. A good example of skill use notification in dialogue is Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines which uses colour codes, symbols and different fonts).

However when each time you make a game isn't it natural to expand upon the material and outdo previous examples? The romances in Baldurs Gate 2 were very slick in that they could be ongoing from beginning to end not merely one-night stands; something lacking in latter games. Only the Mass Effect series/ DA series carried this continuity to my knowledge, but M.E. blew it (unintentional pun) by increasing the available partners and then throwing that inexplicable finale at the players (I am really trying not to go ballistic about that ending, it left me numb for hours and not in a good way). It is also natural for the romances to increase the depth of characters as most people aren't likely to open up their deepest secrets to a new acquaintance; a lover however ... I'd personally like to see more as it adds to the experience for me. Baldurs Gate 2 style with enhanced interactivity and a bit of a softer touch in regards to dialogue: one wrong answer to question should not completely derail a relationship ... it should just make it a trifle rocky. In short romance, yes as long as it adds to the re-playability of the game and depth of the setting and characters. Note character(s) as romance should at least influence the story if not entirely change how some incidents play out. Example: main character falls into crevasse alone or Love Interest in a frantic attempt to save MC falls down as well. Depending on individual personality a more self involved LI may hesitate, recklessly jump in afterwards or try to climb down but get stuck there. Something like the Bohdi event near the end of Baldurs Gate 2: Shadows of Amn only more varied and scattered throughout the game. Also please no late-term pregnancy/childbirth/babysitting on the road/in combat ala Aerie in BG:TOB. We know kids happen unexpectedly. Only a negligent person carries an infant into a sword fight. Also romance should have an initial (stop here) dialogue and also a further (lets just be friends) one available to cancel a romance outside of scripted dialogue. I don't use it but better to have it and not need it ...

It is about souls and how they crystallize and break, as far as I could see in the wiki. Shards of Eternity?

The problem is that the paladin class is not identical to the class of the same name in DnD. This is somewhat jarring for people who got used to it as a presence or an opponent. Having paladin as a subclass with the religious overtones intact would be preferable. Cutting the religion off of paladin doesn't work as overall a paladin is defined as a holy warrior in popular culture and RPGs in general. An atheist paladin is like an atheist priest, something that is at odds with itself. I can understand and encourage different alignments other than the DnD versions; a zealot or an inquisitor who kill or torture for slights or sins would equally fit the profile as a benevolent chivalrous knight. A paladin is a religious warrior with a cause. Anything else is not a paladin, just a pretender. Codes of conduct are the norm for this class. I would like to see it maintained if only as a role-play option; breaking your own rules offers no punishment but instead allows options to absolve the guilt.

I prefer to play as a wizard first play-through of any RPG. It helps me understand the magic system faster, particularly when it comes to combat with other mages. You'll die more often as a weaker character but learn from it. As for ethics I tend toward the neutral good alignment in D&D when I play freely. So a goody-goody who'll break the rules or uphold them depending on situation.