Update #52: Monk!

[Darren Monahan]

Update by Tim Cain, Senior Programmer and Designer

 

 

Hello! I'm sorry I haven't done an update in a while. I've been working on classes and everything related to classes: abilities, skills, spells, combat...you know, the good stuff. For the past several months, Josh and I have been refining the designs for the non-core classes, the classes that are most unusual, classes like the chanter and the cipher and one of my favorites, the monk.

 

Monks in Eternity are different than you might expect. There are no restrictions on armor and weapons – you could wear plate and use a sword, if you wanted to, and the talent system is flexible enough so you could build a great monk that specialized in that gear. But at the core of this class is a little rule about how monks take damage. You see, when a monk gets hit, only part of the damage is inflicted on him or her immediately. The rest is redirected to a Wound, which is an effect that causes damage over time (called a DoT effect) to the monk. That slowly-ticking Wound would only seem to be delaying the inevitable result except for one thing: the monk can get rid of that Wound by using special attacks.

 

The monk gets all kinds of cool special attacks that do extra effects beyond simply damage and, as a side effect, also eliminate his Wounds. Some of their special attacks include:

• Torment’s Reach - this ability increases the range of melee attacks by 200% for a short duration. Enemies between the monk and his or her target are also attacked. Costs 1 Wound to activate.
• Turning Wheel - if the monk suffers from a DoT effect (including Wounds ticking down), he or she adds a proportional fire bonus to his or her melee damage. This is a passive ability which works automatically whenever the monk has any DoT effect.
• Clarity of Agony - when used, this ability cuts the duration of hostile status effects in half. It lasts for a brief amount of time, halving both incoming effects and ones that are currently on the monk. Costs 2 Wounds.

Each of these attacks makes monks stronger in battle, and many also consume their Wounds, hopefully before those Wounds have done the damage the monks were originally supposed to take.

 

And as monks level up, they get more than just these special attacks. They can gain room for more Wounds, so they can have more of them at once to use at the same time for an extraordinarily powerful attack or use them across multiple special attacks. Monks can also change how their Wounds function. For example, they can choose to have their Wounds do less damage at the start and more at the end, so getting rid of them faster is advantageous. Monks can also choose to do their damage sequentially, letting the monk build up a lot of Wounds to fuel a crazy powerful ability and not take much damage for doing so.

 

So as a monk, your goal is simple: you want to take damage, so you get Wounds, so you can perform extraordinary attacks. But remember when I mentioned the monk in plate mail using a sword? Sure, you can do that, but that plate armor will inhibit your ability to get Wounds, which means you don't get as many special attacks. And unarmed attacks are among the fastest types of attacks, so a weaponless monk can get rid of his Wounds faster than any armed monk, so he will suffer very little of their damage-over-time effects. That's like having extra hit points for free! FOR FREE! Who wouldn't want that?!

 

This is why you see a lot of unarmed and unarmored monks running around. Not because the rules say you can't use those items, but because in most situations it's one of the best ways to play. An unencumbered monk can be a terror on the battlefield, a nightmare that just won't seem to die, no matter how hard he gets hit. Blows that seem like they should kill him only serve to make him stronger.

 

Trust me, you are going to love playing a monk. But if you ever feel the need to use a magical sword for its raw damage potential or wear enchanted mail to gain fire resistance for battle with a dragon, you can do that too. Because Project Eternity is all about bending the roles of each class, so you can play how you want, resolve conflicts how you want and solve problems how you want.

 

After all, this is *your* game.

 

---

Culture Concept

 

Concept artist Kaz Aruga has been developing the look of some of Project Eternity's various cultures. So far, he's created concepts for people from the Dyrwood, the Vailian Republics, the Aedyr Empire, and the Valley of Ixamitl. We hope you like the range we've come up with. Let us know what you think!

[NZSnowman]

Thanks for the update

[LordCrash]

That's fuc...... awesome, Tim!

 

All hail the big pencil!

[Hormalakh]

Mr. Cain, you never fail to make me smile Thank you for sharing a part of your day with us.

 

PS. The cultures are awesome. I actually don't mind the monk anymore. Thank you for listening to the fans on this.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Hormalakh

[NOK222]

INB4 Monks do not belong in a medieval RPG hurrr

[Plasma Jesus]

Wow, fantastic update today :D

Also the Vailian Republics dudes look fancy as hell and I love it.

[Nonek]

Can't helped but be intrigued by the Monk concept, specifically why their theology would prioritise this level of suffering for its adherents, are they a flagellant like organisation? Perhaps the old adage of suffering being good for the soul, taken to its logical conclusion? Whatever the case, it's absolutely fascinating.

 

The garb of the varying nationalities is also very pleasing, one can imagine the bustling port cities of Eternity being riots of colour and culture, clashing in a vivacious melange. The Valians in my opinion however need canes, for gesticulating, beating the dirty Glenfathans and general posturing at a jaunty angle.

[Technatorium]

Sweet ideas. Hope to see more interesting features for each class that hasnt been tried before.

[Brother Pain]

This sounds like a very interesting way to do monks, and I think I like it

 

My only worry is if there'll be some way to purge wounds after combat if you run out of enemies too fast.

[Malevolent]

Very nice!  I like the direction that the monk is taking.

 

Also, gotta say,  I'm big on the concept art.

[Gumbercules]

Nice update! So I now have a good sense of why we'd want to use an unarmed, unarmored monk, but what would be the situations where armor or weapons would make sense? Would it just have to depend on finding equipment that's good enough that the tradeoff is worth it?

 

The new concept art looks great! I especailly like the Vailian costumes. Is the Valley of Ixamitl a place that can be visited in the game, or is it further away like the Aedyr Empire and Vailian Republics? Is it an actual nation, or just a region?

[themanclaw]

Cool.

My admission is that the guys from the Vailian Republic invoked images of Django when he was all dressed up in that outfit. That made me chuckle.

[Nishimoto]

Did Time just confirm that there will be dragon fights!? This just keeps sounding better and better.

[vsharres]

Awesome design...this only increases my predisposition to play as a dark elf(or it's equivalent) Monk.

[Alc Cides]

The monk concept sounds to me like "If you damage me I'll delivery you a lot of pain. It's better to be far from me."  I don't like it, sorry. Looks like a class where they want more pain to fight better.  Not a good concept on my opinion.

[Shaz]

Wow! The monk concept sounds really interesting and I can't wait to try it out, but I have to say-- I LOVE the concepts. Fantastic variety and I can just tell that the Vailian Republic guys are going to be total pea****s, aren't they? Absolutely love it.  

 

Edit: Bah, it just doesn't come across properly when it's filtered like that, and it's NOT a foul word. Not gonna remove it, so I'll just define it, because it's the perfect term: The male version of peafowl, with the flashy fan tails. 

 

Boo for people abusing the language so badly that such filters are deemed necessary. A pox on all such language abusers.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Shaz

[Oerwinde]

Dyrwood was originally a colony of Aedyr right? wouldn't their cultural styles be closer to Aedyran(or whatnot)? Or is that more of the style of the indegenous Glanfathans and we would still see a lot of Aedyr style clothing among the upper classes and such?

[LordCrash]

The monk concept sounds to me like "If you damage me I'll delivery you a lot of pain. It's better to be far from me."  I don't like it, sorry. Looks like a class where they want more pain to fight better.  Not a good concept on my opinion.

 

Wasn't that the "original" concept of a Barbarian? That he gets into "Berzerker" mode if he gets badly wounded?

[NerdBoner]

I can't wait to inflict holy genocide on those filthy Dyrwoodian peasants in the name of the esteemed and most noble Valian Republics.

[Gumbercules]

Dyrwood was originally a colony of Aedyr right? wouldn't their cultural styles be closer to Aedyran(or whatnot)? Or is that more of the style of the indegenous Glanfathans and we would still see a lot of Aedyr style clothing among the upper classes and such?

 

Well, the climate of the Dyrwood is supposed to be colder, plus since it's more recently colonized the available materials would be cruder. To me, the Dyrwood clothing (especially for the men) looks like Aedyr clothing if they had to dress warmer and didn't have the same access to dyes.

[ryukenden]

Question for the devs, Will the damage system be Dice roll? This is something lacking in most modern rpg.

[Frenetic Pony]

I'm seeing Greeks, Italian's crossed with Middle East stuff, poor people, and (queen style) effeminate French pirates. Which is as nice a cross section as anything for cultures I guess! But of course I'd question the "I'm a poor peasant and eat dirt" Dyr concept. They look a bit too much like someone from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "Help, help I'm being repressed!"

 

The monk sounds nice, a bit more like a barbarian in being encouraged to go straight into the fray than I'd thought, but then again I'd expect the barbarian to get stronger the more he hits things, not the more he gets hit. It still sounds like a good concept for reasoning out and encouraging people to play monks in the same manner one might picture a "Monk". Good job!

Edited May 8, 2013 by Gorth
Bad choice of words

[kenup]

:banana:

 

****ing awesome update Tim! One of the best ones yet.

 

I like how you made the monk more versatile outside of hand-to-hand combat. And I love the concept at the end very much. Did Kaz get the inspiration for the Ixamitl clothing from 18th-19th century Balkans/Ottoman Empire(I can at least spot Greek clothing, though the hat on the first Ixamitl girl eludes me)? There others are great as well, the Venetians Valkians seem like the rich ones.

Edited May 8, 2013 by kenup

[ManifestedISO]

Update by Tim Cain, Senior Programmer and Designer

An unencumbered monk can be a terror on the battlefield, a nightmare that just won't seem to die, no matter how hard he gets hit. Blows that seem like they should kill him only serve to make him stronger.

Trust me, you are going to love playing a monk.

 

 

 

Sounds good, I'll have that.  I  hope the other classes have similarly unique paths to becoming a nightmarish terror on the battlefield. Dual-wielding lightly-armored for the win. 

[dodusieczek]

I never like monks in RPG and I'm still not conviced, but I very like concept arts and paint. Especially Dyrrvood models, looks like poor medieval villagers outfit.

 

p.s

Will Vailian Republicans have black skin and looks belong to upper class? I guess it's historical justice .