Update #74: The Mob Rulers: Wizards and Druids and our Partnership with Paradox

[Reever]

Loved this update! Both classes sound great, especially the Wizard! But I'll still roll a Cypher first, me thinks...

 

While neither wizards nor druids are restricted to offensive spells that target groups or areas, they excel in that arena. Whether it's dishing out elemental damage or inflicting status effects on enemies, both classes have a wide variety of spells to whittle down the hordes. Rangers and rogues are the kings of single-target takedowns, but the mob rulers exist to soften up, slow down, hinder, or otherwise mess up groups of enemies. Both classes focus heavily on spellcasters, but they have slightly different mechanics to how they work. Together with priests, wizards and druids are the "traditional" spellcasting classes that can cast a certain number of spells of each level per rest. As they gain levels in their classes, they can access more powerful spells. Over time, their weakest per-rest spells become per-encounter spells. At very high levels, the weakest spells eventually become at-will abilities, capable of being cast indefinitely.

 

This especially makes my day ♥

And how about some crazy level 9 spells animation? (forgot if they said something about this, but I doubt they'd include something like this).

 

Cool stuff but that orthodox picture of Mary with Jesus... well, I didn't expect to see that there

 

I was suprised by that as well, but why are you sad?

 

 

 

Almost evrything sounds good. Love the look of portrait art direction. thumbs up to the artist! 

Unlike priests and druids, wizards do not personally shape the magic that is released.

 
This is what i meant by almost. I cant pin point detail, not sure what or why, but this doesnt sit well with me. Moment I saw it. Just a silly feeling. I must have carried different idea or expectation how those forces work. For some reason being wiz and personally shape the magic felt like certain definition of wiz to me. Oh well, I guess Tauron will be exception to the rule Anyway, great update, carry on guys!

 

Think of it that the Druids and Priests have powers sent directly through them by their deities or what have you, whereas the Wizard is using his skills, knowledge, grimoires and rituals, incantations etc. to harness and manipulate the magical forces around him; a conductor so to speak.

At least, that's what i shall do...

 

Also something I kinda stumbled upon, but what cornishr says actually makes sense!

 

[rjshae]

A nice update all the way around. I quite enjoyed the artwork and the class details. Thank you. Hopefully those portraits will be available for use with Adventurer Hall characters.

 

What I wonder about is the role spell scrolls will play in this, if any. Will those be available as loot items for spell-casting classes and will they still function as one-shot spells that can supplement your grimoire or spell repertoire?

[Lephys]

IN A WORLD WITHOUT FIRE MARSHALS

 

*image of smoldering hunk of wood covered in flammable vines in the middle of a giant inn hewn out of wood*

LOLCANO!

 

Well yeah, I have to agree, in a sence they do shape spell whn you put it that way...the magic energies from grimoire have to be realised somehow and have to be stored, so certain shaping takes place than. But it is not just shaping or how it takes place that I found "meeh", for lack of better expression

I feel you. I prefer the "I actually take energy/mana into myself and shape it into something else before releasing it" as well. And yeah, the Wheel of Time reference is great. The grimoire right now acts basically just like a ter'angreal; it gathers and manipulates the energy to do what it does (or, rather, each spell in the tome is like a separate ter'angreal. It's like a ter'angreal multi-tool, haha). But, alas, it seems we won't really see any angreal or sa'angreal-type devices that simply deal with energy being gathered by/into the user himself.

 

Whereas, in contrast to the Wizard, the Druid actually does stuff like that. The innateness of the power/ability is my favorite. BUT, I'm still okay with the way Wizard's work. It's kinda cool, in its own way. 8P

 

Yeah, if you haven't checked out Full Metal Alchemist, it's pretty good. There's also, specifically, "Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood." As far as I can tell, it's almost like a re-do (both series' cover the "same" story, but the overall story's a bit different in each), and apparently it's a lot closer to the original manga story than just-plain "Full Metal Alchemist." It's pretty good, though. They practice alchemy, which is LIKE magic (to us), but to them it's just science. But, the magical effect, itself, is just sort of a part of the natural world in their world; it's no different from certain temperatures producing fire, or chemicals mixing to make other substances. Formulas and symbols have the ability to alchemize stuff into different forms. So, they control this process, but they don't actually innately do anything.

 

Annnnyway... I digress. 8P

[Lephys]

Also, a very important question:

 

If we cast Dimensional Shift five times in a row, does the universe prompt us to activate Dimensional Sticky Keys?

 

[bjm123]

Wizards:

Druids:

Damn now all i need is for the Chanter to be everything i'm after in a support class and I will never be able to choose, Thanks Obsidian!

Seriously though the number of spells and abilities on offer make it clear a lot of time and love has gone into development and giving people what they want, some of the previous class updates have only mentioned a few abilities so it was hard to judge just what they might be capable of but this one leaves me in no doubt all of the classes are going to be well cared for.

 

In the past you have mentioned the wizards familar and how that would play into their spells and abilities could you give us a little bit more about how it works? will you be able to channel any spell through a familar for example.

[Louis2014]

Great Update ...Thanks for that

 

really can´t wait to play that Game. Wizards where always my favorit class in all of the Infinity Games,so I´m very excited about them.

 

hopefully there are spells like Sequencer or Contingency (from Baldurs gate2)

 

They added alot of Micro-Managment for Spellcasters to the Game.

 

Cheers to All The Backers !!!! :bow:

 

Good that such Games are still possible :yes: :yes:

[Raeya]

• Portraits look amazing.
• The inn is lovely and not to mention the lighting is superb.
• Classes are fleshing out nicely with some added diversity.

 

So happy to see the game continue to progress in the direction it's headed. Keep up the great work Obsidian!

[Tauron]

Think of it that the Druids and Priests have powers sent directly through them by their deities or what have you, whereas the Wizard is using his skills, knowledge, grimoires and rituals, incantations etc. to harness and manipulate the magical forces around him; a conductor so to speak.

At least, that's what i shall do...

 

 

Yeah i will have to do the same i guess, have to cheat in my mind tho.

 

Well yeah, I have to agree, in a sence they do shape spell whn you put it that way...the magic energies from grimoire have to be realised somehow and have to be stored, so certain shaping takes place than. But it is not just shaping or how it takes place that I found "meeh", for lack of better expression

I feel you. I prefer the "I actually take energy/mana into myself and shape it into something else before releasing it" as well. And yeah, the Wheel of Time reference is great. The grimoire right now acts basically just like a ter'angreal; it gathers and manipulates the energy to do what it does (or, rather, each spell in the tome is like a separate ter'angreal. It's like a ter'angreal multi-tool, haha). But, alas, it seems we won't really see any angreal or sa'angreal-type devices that simply deal with energy being gathered by/into the user himself.

 

Whereas, in contrast to the Wizard, the Druid actually does stuff like that. The innateness of the power/ability is my favorite. BUT, I'm still okay with the way Wizard's work. It's kinda cool, in its own way. 8P

 

 

Yup, "ter'angreal multi-tool" is perfect description   very clever, I chuckled, couldnt have said it better.

 

Yeah knowing the druid, I thought mages or magics work in similiar fashion. Druid, something like hippie mage, goes with the flow (nature). Mages are like 'cheats', hence grimoire. Engineers of magical flow. They are not content with the "flow" of river, they want to make a dam or change it's current, etc. Thought of grimoire(spellbook) like blueprints for such, which they are in a way, just that one draws it all from grimoire not one self...So yeah, power/ability is more to my likness. Best not overthink it tho, argh!

 

I will do cornishr reasoning ingame if playing a mage. It is not just grimoire it is me, damn it! Like in last Iron Man movie, Tony Stark had epiphany at end of the movie, even without the suit, he is the Iron Man. So yeah, from today I enter blissfull denial

[mudd1]

For those interested, the recording of the announcement of the Paradox partnership on GDC 2014 went online an hour ago:

 

 

It really looks like they have a common vibe that goes beyond a business relationship (if you can look past the general social awkwardness of everyone involved that is ).

Edited March 20, 2014 by mudd1

[Allvaldr]

I like the spells, but what really surprised me is to see one "evil" druid spell that desecrates your enemy's corpses to heal your party. That is fresh and really uncommon.... and I love it because if you role-play a good or evil druid it makes you think about using that spell or not. It would be totally awesome if you can put more of that kind of grey-moralized spells (for all the casters) into the game, maybe raising enemy corpses as zombis that fight for you for a time? Damaging your companions to fuel an incantation? I know you can come with better ideas.

 

I always enjoyed playing death and decay style druids in PnP D&D. Wasn't exactly hoping for them in this game, but this update did give me a slight glimmer of hope it would be viable ...

 

We'll see. These days in CRPGs I usually play rogue-type characters anyway. Or warriors.

[Lephys]

I will do cornishr reasoning ingame if playing a mage. It is not just grimoire it is me, damn it! Like in last Iron Man movie, Tony Stark had epiphany at end of the movie, even without the suit, he is the Iron Man. So yeah, from today I enter blissfull denial

Haha. Well, what helps my mind is that, what the Wizard does with a Grimoire is at least so precise/complicated/particular that only a very skilled/trained/learned Wizard can do it. Or, to put it another way, if electricity is magic, and Wizards are engineers, and they build electronic devices (grimoires), then they don't just have a little switch on them that anyone with a thumb can flick and launch spells out of them, ya know?

 

So, the magic itself might not be innate, but... something about them is "innate" (even if it's developed/trained) such that only they can utilize the "machine" they've made to use as a conduit to generate spell effects. *shrug*

 

I dunno if that made sense. Maybe too much metaphor. I should go easy on the metaphor. Maybe I'll dial it down to meta-three next time.

[mindx2]

I am concerned that Paradox will just go all "industry standard" on the physical boxed copies and I'll end up with something cheaply made (ie. save every penny possible) and decidedly NOT old-school like Harebrained Schemes did with SR. I wanted and paid a lot of money for a big box, map, thick manual, etc. like many of my vintage games sitting on my shelf right now!! They're outsourcing this to a publisher that probably doesn't care about that aspect of Kickstarter that got people like myself excited about cRPGs again. Granted the game itself is the most important thing here but I could have pledged a lot less for "just the game." I paid a premium for the collector/ nostalgia part and hope Obsidian reminds their new partners of that fact.

 

Can anyone from Obsidian comment on this...?

[Bryy]

They have.

 

Many times.

[mindx2]

They have.

 

Many times.

I don't frequent these boards so a few links to those "comments" would be a little more helpful.

Edited March 20, 2014 by mindx2

[Lephys]

mindx2... let me put it this way:

 

Do you trust Obsidian to care about having a nice boxed-copy product? If so, then trust them to not decide "yeah sure, Paradox... just whatever you wanna do with a box. If it's technically boxed in some way, then we don't really care what it looks like." Then, trust Obsidian to have intelligently chosen Paradox partly due to the fact that they actually follow their partners' wishes (have in the past and therefore are reputable). THEN, trust Paradox to not have built up a solid reputation for providing quality marketing/distribution service, only to suddenly give Obsidian the finger and say "to HELL with your wishes on the quality of the boxed copies!"

 

See, I know I'm weird, but that's how my brain works whenever a concern arises. There are things that could just possibly happen, in isolation, and then there are the probabilities that remain after you apply all the relevant factors of reality and the given situation. Paradox could do a horrible job of what they've been tasked with, but then, what are the actual odds of that, and what factors actually support that potentiality?

[mindx2]

mindx2... let me put it this way:

 

Do you trust Obsidian to care about having a nice boxed-copy product? If so, then trust them to not decide "yeah sure, Paradox... just whatever you wanna do with a box. If it's technically boxed in some way, then we don't really care what it looks like." Then, trust Obsidian to have intelligently chosen Paradox partly due to the fact that they actually follow their partners' wishes (have in the past and therefore are reputable). THEN, trust Paradox to not have built up a solid reputation for providing quality marketing/distribution service, only to suddenly give Obsidian the finger and say "to HELL with your wishes on the quality of the boxed copies!"

 

See, I know I'm weird, but that's how my brain works whenever a concern arises. There are things that could just possibly happen, in isolation, and then there are the probabilities that remain after you apply all the relevant factors of reality and the given situation. Paradox could do a horrible job of what they've been tasked with, but then, what are the actual odds of that, and what factors actually support that potentiality?

 

I don't know... how about a little thing called money and profit magin...

 

It's all fine and dandy that you have blind faith in Obsidian but as they have stated themselves, they aren't publishers nor do they want much to do with it. I do have faith that in them as developers and the quality of the game. However, I am hoping someone from Obsidian would just post their own re-assurances to those concerned and that their KS backers will still be receiving that "old-school" physical reward.

 

Remember I mentioned Harebrained Schemes who also promised an "old-school" boxed edition but what was ultimately sent out was certainly lacking.

Edited March 20, 2014 by mindx2

[Lephys]

I don't know... how about a little thing called money and profit magin...

 

It's all fine and dandy that you have blind faith in Obsidian but as they have stated themselves, they aren't publishers nor do they want much to do with it.

"Blind" faith?!

 

So... lemme ask you this:

 

When your best friend in the whole world -- who you've known for like 15 years -- asks for a ride somewhere because his car's dead, is it blind faith to trust that he isn't going to shiv you and steal your car so he can sell it at a chop shop?

 

Now, I realize you haven't personally known Obsidian for 15 years, but... you either trusted them enough to back the project, or you didn't.

 

Why does it matter if they're doing everything themselves or not? If anything they're not explicitly handling themselves is worrisome, then let's start worrying about the people they ordered their office supplies and desks and computers from. Let's start worrying about where they store their sourcecode. THEY didn't personally hand-craft those drives and systems. What if they all fail?

 

What if Paradox actually starts World War 3, because Obsidian just picked the first people they happened to bump into in a dark alley and said "*shrug*... here, publish our game! 8D!"

 

Either everything is blind faith, or there's actually some amount of caution/aptitude that can be deemed trustworthy. Feel free to pick.

 

 

The even better question is: how do you know people aren't just lying? What amount of information would leave you content? Assurance in the form of text? A could-not-be-the-actual-box-they're-going-to-send-out photo of the product? When could you truly rest assured that bad things weren't going to happen?

 

Hence, the purpose of trust/faith. Not blind faith. Reasonable faith.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Lephys

[Stun]

For those interested, the recording of the announcement of the Paradox partnership on GDC 2014 went online an hour ago:

 

 

It really looks like they have a common vibe that goes beyond a business relationship (if you can look past the general social awkwardness of everyone involved that is ).

Strip away all the press-conference spin and one is left with a single question, which was neither asked nor answered.

 

Ok, we've been assured that Paradox will be handling all the distribution and marketing

 

In the meantime:

1)all game design decisions remain with Obsidian

2)all backer funding remains allotted to the game's development

 

 

So.... what's in it for Paradox? They're certainly not going to be handling all the marketing and distribution for free. All those media guys in the audience and not a single one of them bothered to ask for any meaningful details. Typical.

 

So, we're back to square one: where gamers are stuck having to speculate. *I'm* guessing Paradox is going to get a share of the profits. How big of a percentage though?

Edited March 20, 2014 by Stun

[ManifestedISO]

Who's we ... everyone else left square one already thanks to generously applied facts. No need to invent a snub that wasn't.  

[Lephys]

So, we're back to square one: where gamers are stuck having to speculate. *I'm* guessing Paradox is going to get a share of the profits. How big of a percentage though?

Yes, because, if we don't speculate, the world is DOOMED, I say!

 

Also, I'm betting it's 100%. Rest assured, backers... all creative license for PoE's design rests firmly with Obsidian. They're just going to go bankrupt after they finish the game, is all.

 

They probably promised all the profits of Stick of Truth (retro-active) to Paradox, as well.

 

Seriously, though, who are we to decide how they run their business? The profits of the game don't even have anything to do with any obligation they have towards our backer funds. They can sell their company to Paradox, if they really want to, and it's no business of ours.

[Bryy]

 

They have.

 

Many times.

I don't frequent these boards so a few links to those "comments" would be a little more helpful.

 

They commented on this in the first post. You're a V.I.P., so you saw the update like everyone else.

 

There are at least two other threads, one dev-made, concerning this issue.

[Falkon Swiftblade]

For those interested, the recording of the announcement of the Paradox partnership on GDC 2014 went online an hour ago:

 

 

It really looks like they have a common vibe that goes beyond a business relationship (if you can look past the general social awkwardness of everyone involved that is ).

 

 

woohoo who knew we raised over $4.5 million and more coming in every day! That's fantastic and should cover a lot more art in the game. I wish I had context of how the costs dictate what is being divvied up to which department. I hope they use it towards animations and spells.

[Bryy]

 

For those interested, the recording of the announcement of the Paradox partnership on GDC 2014 went online an hour ago:

 

 

It really looks like they have a common vibe that goes beyond a business relationship (if you can look past the general social awkwardness of everyone involved that is ).

 

 

woohoo who knew we raised over $4.5 million and more coming in every day! That's fantastic and should cover a lot more art in the game. I wish I had context of how the costs dictate what is being divvied up to which department. I hope they use it towards animations and spells.

 

What I would like to know, in all honesty, is when incoming funds spill over to DLC.

 

Because I would be really surprised if they needed the excess at this point.

[TarponCrest]

I am so pleased that shape shifting made it into the game! Even more that the idea of hybrid shape shifting also made it in the game! A few questions from someone who loves to play shape shifters…

1. Will we be allowed to cast spells when shifted?
2. How long will we be allowed to be shifted?
3. Will buff spells and abilities remain when changing shapes or when shifted for the first time?
4. If items will not merge when shifted what will make shape shifting unique? The abilities+ buffs or will it just be for role playing?
5. Will there be any shapes that are ranged in nature, for example like medusa with bow and arrow?

I hope I did not ask to many questions, however I am very thrilled and anxious to learn more about druids and their spirit shifting abilities. *Dreams dragon or half dragon shape at epic levels or even a lich with raise dead army ability… Day Dreams*.

The wizards sound like they will be great fun as well for multi-classing characters.

The art work reminds me much of Ice Wind Dale 2, such fond memories I have of that game. I never thought I would see these kind of games make it to market again. I am happy I was wrong, I also noticed that Age of Wonders 3 is soon to be released, if it is as good as the last one and PE as good as I know it will be I may be finally able to let Skyrim rest for a while (the only newer game that seemed to keep me interested).

I still have all my old NWN Modules, I might just convert them to PE once we get the toolset to make our own games!

Thank you, great update. Keep up the great work. This game is going to winner in my eyes I am sure of it!

[Stun]

The wizards sound like they will be great fun as well for multi-classing characters.

It's interesting. That's exactly the vibe I got when I was reading the list. Many of these spells sound like they'd compliment a multi-class Mage-warrior build marvelously. Like Mage's Double, for example. Imagine casting that on yourself then wading in and engaging in melee brawl...

 

But alas. There's no Multi-classing in PoE.

 

Of course, you can still do the above, but you'll be doing it as a pure wizard.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Stun