The current state of Spiritshifting: Ideas, reworks and more

[Harpagornis]

Even though i like the idea we must notice that there is already a talent at PL9 that adds +1 PL in general. Getting +1 PL when shifted seems a bit too powerful at PL5.

 

Therefore i think its not a bad idea to continue the Beast & Primordial Talents as these are THE enemies where the Shifter has innate knowledge about. What about:

 

Hunter´s Instincts:

Innate knowledge against primordial creatures and beasts have given Shifters an inherent chance to Graze against them. Sounds like a plan - no?

Edited September 29, 2018 by Harpagornis

[GuyNice]

I was thinking of +1 PL only for abilities with the Beasts tag. Im not sure if shifts have that tag or not - if not maybe having it affect 'Beasts' spells only would be balanced?

 

About miss to graze conversion, im not a huge fan of it. Especially if you already have the accuracy +15 talents. Miss to graze is already situational to high defense enemies, that would make it doubly situational to high defense of certain type enemies. How about simply a +15% damage vs beasts and primordials - then it's a reliable situational bonus. I dont think its too powerful considering its an additive bonus.

 

By the way 0.52 fixed the issue with save loading. Thanks for the quick response on that!

Edited September 29, 2018 by GuyNice

[Harpagornis]

I have to say "Thanks!" @GuyNice cause without "some help" from the Community this Mod would not be the same. No: It would not exist. Thanks to complications when modding. Thanks to my most chaotic nature. So its always good to have some backup here. People who know how modding works. Others who keep giving me essential feedback and new ideas. Thats great! Thats "Evolution"... hah, i always knew that this name would be good!

 

With regard to the new talent: I got your point @GuyNice and its right. Shifters already should be able to hit (nearly) any beast or primordial. The problem is that there is no command that increases damage only against specific races so i have to fall back to another idea - what about this:

 

Hunter´s Instincts:

Innate knowledge against primordial creatures and beasts have given Shifters an inherent chance to land a critical Hit against them.

 

I have set the numbers to "25% of Hits are turned into Crits" - thats the same number you get from the Intuitive Inspiration. Sounds okay!?

Edited September 29, 2018 by Harpagornis

[GuyNice]

Yeah it sounds great to me. Good synergy between talents and good thematically. Still a big investment for situational gain so I think the fairly hefty bonus is okay. I still like the idea of a talent to boost Beast spells as a way to enhance a different aspect of the class other than direct attacks. Could possibly encourage building around such spells with other items and passives. Just a thought!

 

By the way I'm already having a blast with my new playthrough with your mod, almost level 7 now. And it's nice to be able to give feedback and see it evolve as I play. Glad you're enjoying making the magic happen

[Harpagornis]

Oh, this is (nearly) the first time i have switched the seats cause for the last decade(s) i have only been the hardcore-powergamer-nerd that always was on the hunt for masochistic solo challenges. That was very enjoying. But creating the game - or in this case - a specific class in a way that its "a blast" is also fun. Especially as diving into the codes is still unknown territory for me but - yeah - i am learning new things each day!

 

While you keep going with your Shifter @GuyNice i have already coded the next step. But before releasing it i should explain the idea behind it:

 

For me the Shifter is not only a master of transformation but about focusing on the "Inner Beast". He has learned to control it and - even more - he has gained access to completly new abilities. Abilities that a "normal" Druid will never learn cause they lack something which i call "Embrace the Beast". With this innate talent the Shifter gets supernatural powers when unleashing the Beast but he also loses a lot of his strength - and his mental focus - as long as he remains in his "natural form".

 

To make it short: He loses 5 PL´s when NOT being shifted.

 

This makes a normal combat initiation like "Cast a Spell -> Spiritshift" very supoptimal so - and here comes the Gate Opener - this "forces" us to allow shifting out of combat. Open your mind for all the possibilities! Charging as a Boar out of stealth into the middle of group. Sending an Archmage to sleep with Concussion Blow. With other words: The sky is the limit. Well. Nearly.

 

Are you ready for some "madness"?

Edited September 29, 2018 by Harpagornis

[Harpagornis]

Okay, the new changes for shifting are working even though with a "nice sideeffect" - but more on that later. I will try to upload version 0.6 tonight!

[Harpagornis]

The next version is ready for testing!

 

Changelog 0.6:

- Moved the "Bark Skin" talent up to PL6

- Moved the "Vicious Strikes" talent up to PL7

- Added the new talent "Hunter´s Instincts" to PL5

- Reduced the passive healing of "Vampiric" for Wolf Form to 33%

- Added the new talent "Embrace the Beast" to PL0 (-5 PL in natural form)

- Added the option to use Spiritshift outside of combat to increase tactical depth

 

Especially the last two points will be of major interest: How much will they change and/or influence the playstile of Shifters? We will see!

Spiritshifting Evolution 0.6.zip

Edited September 29, 2018 by Harpagornis

[GuyNice]

Gonna try it out now. I'm interested in how the PL malus affects things. I was already in shifted form basically 100% of the time in combat. I wonder if I'll run into any encounters where I can actually run out of shifted time. It would certainly make me think twice about shifting early to use other abilities if I don't expect to finish the fight quickly.

[Harpagornis]

Okay, the next step is a talent for PL9. There are several choices... should it be:

 

1. A offensive talent (for instance: stun or interrupt on crit)

2. A defensive talent (for instance: damage shield when hit by crit)

3. A utility talent (for instance: chance to charm beasts)

 

There are so many options. Any suggestions are welcome!

 

After this is done its  - maybe - time to test the mod by myself. Maybe!!

 

P.S. Thats exactly what i intended @GuyNice. You now have to chose more carefully if early shifting is a good idea or you wil run out of shifts being much weaker for the rest of the fight. But - hey - there is always "Camouflage" from the Cat. If you dont used it earlier!

[GuyNice]

How about a permanent animal companion for PL9? Too much?

[Harpagornis]

Yeah, i think that a permanent animal companion would be too much. What we could do is that each Spiritshift has a small chance to summon help - maybe 25-33%.

 

There are lots of good talent when looking at the other classes... Suvival of the Fittest from Ranger... Persistent Distraction from Rogue... Hearbeat Drumming from Monk...

 

As i said earlier... so many options!

[GuyNice]

I dont like too much RNG personally. What about a universal ability for shift forms to summon a group of beasts 1/encounter? With a limited duration. Like a Leader of the Pack type thing. Similar to what you did with Wolf except shorter duration, a group of summons, and you have to manually cast it (like 3 second cast). Could be 1 of beast of each form (bear, wolf, boar etc).

 

I guess its more of an active than a passive though xD

Edited September 29, 2018 by GuyNice

[Harpagornis]

The Shifter already has several active spells to call summons so getting another via talent feels rather... hmmmm... boring. Its either some RNG or something different.

 

We could also change the Conditionals of calling summons: If its not shifting then maybe when getting critted, something like "Guarding Presence".

 

Maybe we should sleep about this one... no?

Edited September 29, 2018 by Harpagornis

[GuyNice]

Shifting out of combat seems a little buggy. Most of the time I'm in caster form but still have the buff of the last shifted form I used in battle. So essentially I get to have the form passive effect with humanoid equipment outside combat, and the -5 PL malus doesn't come into play (maybe it will in very long battles but so far I didn't experience it in or out of combat).

[Harpagornis]

Its no bug, its a feature @GuyNice! As removing the effect proved to be difficult i decided to give it a try - lets call this feature "Echoes of the Beast". I dont think thats its gamebreaking if you take over the immunity into Human Form especially as you will suffer the PL penalty.

 

I am also aware that the PL penalty will play no role in most fights but the intention was to make fighting in "Human Form" more unappealing. Maybe PL is not the ideal attribute so we might change that. A heavy deflection penalty might also work. Maybe even better. Ideas are welcome!

Edited September 30, 2018 by Harpagornis

[GuyNice]

It's a little weird though to have the shifted form buffs in humanoid form. Kinda goes against the point of being weaker in that form. At that point I would just revert the feature back to vanilla.

Edited September 30, 2018 by GuyNice

[Harpagornis]

Yeah, i am not really satisfied with the "feature" either but for whatever reason it breaks some hidden strings whenever i want to change it...

 

Therefore i removed shifting outside of combat for now. I changed the penalty in humanoid form to -25 Deflection. Keep it or kill it?

 

I got the feeling that today is not a good day for modding... cannot keep any focus... however... i have build a first PL 9 talent:

 

Fury:

Whenever the Druid gets critically hit he will immediately strikes back at the attacker.

 

Now the big question is: What happens when getting hit from an Archer?

Edited September 30, 2018 by Harpagornis

[GuyNice]

I would kill the malus, there is already plenty of incentive to stay shifted, and you get major drawbacks compared to regular druid while in caster form (limited spell list, no scrolls).

 

How about this idea for a talent: Cornered Animal - While Bloodied the Druid strikes back fiercely, gaining 20% of damage dealt on hit as life, and having a 50% chance to retaliate with a Full Attack when Hit or Crit in melee.

Edited September 30, 2018 by GuyNice

[Harpagornis]

Yeah, we need something more special @GuyNice. Your idea sounds interesting even though there are so many conditionals that i dont know if i can get this working!

 

Maybe tomorrow!

 

P.S. Here is the resetted version with only some smaller updates and tweaks. Lets hope i havent found a way to revive the savegame killer!

 

 

Spiritshifting Evolution 0.61.zip

[GuyNice]

Thanks for the quick update Yeah I thought my idea might be a bit complicated to execute but I figured it at least relies on existing mechanics and it fits thematically. Also it encourages a bit of risk/reward - stay at low health and get hit in melee for better damage and sustain. Should have nice synergy with wolf, bear and boar forms especially.

[Harpagornis]

I will try to code this tomorrow @GuyNice. But i have another idea that would work really well with Druid: Earth Talon. Or with other words: A talent that gives the Shifter a chance to petrify enemies when landing a crit in close combat. Maybe we can even build upgrades: Earth Talon (PL6-7, 50%) -> Greater Earth Talon (PL 8-9, 100%). The duration should be very short - something around 2 seconds (with hig Int this is still ~ 3 seconds).

[GuyNice]

I see that the ability preview tree now works correctly in 0.61, great stuff!

 

Now I would just update the description on the PL4 forms to detail the new abilities gained for each form at that tier, and update the description for Shifter (PL0) to include the new spell list.

 

About Earth Talon, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, so I will reserve judgement until I try it

[Harpagornis]

After some resting i got time to start reworking lots of entries and descriptions.

 

With other words: The Shifter Forms now display the abilities they get at the specific levels.

 

Finally the character creation text is updated and working so every player can get a quick overview about the new Shifter.

 

As i did not like the name "Greater XYZ" anymore for the second tier form i renamed it to "Elder XYZ". Sounds nicer - no?

 

The next step will be the integration of at least one new talent and/or spell.

 

I think we might soak some inspiration from the new Galawain challenge:

• Vampiric - Heal from damage dealt[/font][/size]
• Reflecting - Reflect damage back as Raw
• Unstoppable - Cannot be interrupted / Immune to Afflictions
• Exalted - Gain Permanent T3 Inspiration (random)
• Vengeful - Gain stacking Power Level when a friendly is killed
• Accelerated - Attacks much faster
• Bullish - Attacks interrupt and knock back
• Hardened - Additional AR and Max HP
• Prowling - Invisible (until attacks) and re-stealths if scoring a kill
• Volatile - Explodes when defeated

My favourites are Vampiric and Bullish so far. Maybe we can use one or more of the abilities and build some new upgrade trees. Any suggestions?

[GuyNice]

I like Vampiric! Bullish seems a bit strong. Maybe interrupt on crits only? Would synergize well with other existing talents. Reflecting sounds cool too! Could be interesting with Vampiric. Also leans into the heavy AR / regen but low deflection nature of the class.

 

I have a suggestion. It's similar to Vengeful but grants a power level on kill until combat ends. You can call it "Natural Selection". PL9 obviously. Maybe even cap it at 3(?) stacks.

Edited October 1, 2018 by GuyNice

[Harpagornis]

Hmmmmm.... i am not a big fan of PL talents but i also like "Vampiric" a lot. Even if we put it "only" at 33% (like Wolf) it will increase the survival rate of any form significantly. Not to forget that it also soaks life from any DoT that is ticking. Imagine this with Primal Beast + Plague of Insects + Proliferation... holy cow... the Druid will be immortal. At least for some time.

 

But what we could do: Change Prestige (+1 PL) into something like "Beastial Prowess" (+2 PL for Spiritshift only).

 

EDIT: Yes, Reflection would work great too!!!

Edited October 1, 2018 by Harpagornis