New Character Class Ideas (For XPs, etc.)

[Darth_Gandalf]

I know this is a little premature, considering that the vanilla version of PoE isn't even out yet, but I figured, what the heck, why not engage in a little XP brainstorming and speculation. Ever since PoE's class lineup was announced, I've been toying with some additional ideas for character classes that could be neat. I especially liked the creative spin that the developers have placed on the new Chanter and Cipher classes, and I think those two classes should set the tone for the kind of classes that would be potentially playable in future incarnations of PoE: a new intriguing take on an existing archetype, but each with a unique aspect to them that you wouldn't find in the other classes, and not too over-powered, unbelievable or too cliched.

 

For starters though, I like that PoE's classes represent core archetypes. There's no funny-sounding "Arcane Dragon Psionic Swordsage" classes and I think it should stay that way. But I do think there are a few more archetypical niches that could easily be filled. I'm especially interested in what other kinds of special skills these new party members could bring to the table. After all, Robin Hood's band included more than just fighters, rogues and a fat cleric, you know.

Here's a few ideas:

 

The Tinker

First of all, please discard any thoughts you may be having about goblin or gnomish steampunk engineers with funky mechanical gizmos. This term has a bit of baggage thanks to the Warcraft universe, but there's still a genuine medieval trope under the surface. The original tinkers were itinerant smiths, handymen and petty inventors who traveled the countryside offering their services to townsfolk in need. I think this could been an excellent "crafting" class. The tinker could repair existing items, forge new weapons and armor, maybe even design a few items himself. This class could be particularly useful if item deterioration is ever added to PoE as the devs were considering once upon a time. The tinker could also function as a brawler, whether using his smith's hammer or any of the renaissance era tech he's tinkered with.

 

The Alchemist

This is another crafting-based class along the same lines as the tinker. However, instead of tinkering around with metalwork, the alchemist focuses on creating potions, explosive powders and magical talismans like the mythical philosopher's stone. The alchemist could learn to make everything from healing draughts to deadly poisons. He could buff the party with herbal elixirs to improve physical attributes or provide poisons for coating blades and arrowheads, or design some crude explosive or incendiary devices or traps. Imagine what kind of wicked gunpowder weapons an alchemist and tinker could come up with together.
 

The Shaman

Here's another class that's been sullied a bit by the Warcraft mythos, but I think that's easy enough to overcome. I want to step away from that kind of elemental magic and create a character that's more like a cross between a witch doctor, a medicine man, and well, Gannayev-of-Dreams. The shaman would be a spiritual caster like the druid, but rather than drawing his or her magic from the ambient souls of nature, the shaman would walk the lines between light and darkness, life and death. The shaman would be able to cast healing magics but would also commune with the shadow realm. I'm thinking the shaman could engage in tribal rites, cast hexes and wards, create totems to harness spirit energies, summon or otherwise control a few creepy crawly minions, like locusts, serpents, toads or spiders, and commune with ghosts, spirits and so forth for buffs and the like.
 

The Mystic

For this class, I'm thinking of a mage/cleric crossover, that blurs the lines between the arcane and the divine. The mystic would not derive his or her abilities from the studying of tomes or the worship of deities so much as from meditations, mantras, self-discipline and scrying in the spirit realm (with his or her spiritual third eye, perhaps). The idea is to have something sort of like a monk, except one who doesn't focus on physical disciplines or martial arts, choosing instead to hone his mind and his soul. The mystics could belong to any number of orders seeking different ends, from enlightenment or transcendence to asceticism, or even the acquiring of greater knowledge or power. The mystic could cast both powerful arcane incantations from harnessing the powers of the spirit realm as well as engaging in divine activities like blessing buffs and healing. The trade-off would be that the mystic would not get as wide a selection of spells as either the wizard or priest could get on their own. This character is a jack-of-two-trades, but a master of neither.

The Necromancer

This is of course another casting class, but the necromancer eschews the learning of wizards in favor of darker pursuits. Necromancers definitely focus on the darker aspect of animancy. Given the new lore of the PoE world and mythos, a think there's a number of directions this class could take. As always, I'd prefer to err on the side of caution and stay away from the Warcraft versions of these archetypes. No ice or frost spells if possible -- I think the necromancer's magic should only be based on shadow, darkness and death incantations. This class would definitely involve summoning undead minions of various kinds (such as skeletons and zombies, etc.). I think there's a lot of potential to redefine the class as well though. I'd like to see various curses and life-tapping spells alongside the traditional dead-raising abilities.

I've also been toying with new ideas for the Bard, the Sorcerer and the Warlock, but I haven't exactly perfected those yet. This is primarily because I want them to be more than just so much rehashing of old D&D ideas. In particular, I would like bards to not be as lame as they tend to be in the Forgotten Realms. They either end up too weak, too diversified, or just playing on a lute while their friends fight. There's got to be a way to redeem that class. The sorcerers also need a more diverse back story than merely "casting from their own soul energy rather than from a book." I wasn't overly fond of the NWN2 lore for warlocks either, but I think the trope could still be revisited.

 

Feel free to contribute any character class ideas of your own! What would you like to see in a PoE XP?

Edited July 1, 2014 by Darth_Gandalf

[ManifestedISO]

Class-related thread number four, June, 2014.

 

By that, I mean I've responded in all the other ones and no one wants to talk about their characters because I guess they don't have any because everyone is dumb.

Edited July 1, 2014 by ManifestedISO

[Silent Winter]

Class-related thread number four, June, 2014.

 

By that, I mean I've responded in all the other ones and no one wants to talk about their characters because I guess they don't have any because everyone is dumb.

There's a class idea right there:

The Dumb: Incapable of original thought, this character is only capable of repeating the last action they saw - careful timing is necessary to ensure 'fireball' doesn't become 'flee in terror'

[Didier2]

I'd rather have multi-classing for the expansion than additional classes, either that or specialization classes.

[Karkarov]

 

Class-related thread number four, June, 2014.

 

By that, I mean I've responded in all the other ones and no one wants to talk about their characters because I guess they don't have any because everyone is dumb.

There's a class idea right there:

The Dumb: Incapable of original thought, this character is only capable of repeating the last action they saw - careful timing is necessary to ensure 'fireball' doesn't become 'flee in terror'

 

They already have that in Final Fantasy so, it is the Mimic class.  No.... not the man eating chest.... though now that I think about it that would make a great character class.... What about a man eating Armoire? 

Edited July 1, 2014 by Karkarov

[Darth_Gandalf]

Another idea I've been bandying about is the Assassin, a stealth-focused class that would excel as a "striker" in combat. Where the fighter class has a choice of weapon specializations, the assassin could specialize in his or her preferred type of target. A battlefield assassin could specialize in killing unwary warriors in the melee without drawing attention, whereas a wizard-slayer would focus on spell-resistance and tactics for eliminating casters (including firearms, I would expect).

Edited July 1, 2014 by Darth_Gandalf

[Osvir]

The Scholar:

Whilst the Scholar is in no way a fighter, and is best to keep far back in the band of heroes (or villains). The Scholar specializes in History, Philosophy, a sharp wise tongue that is easy to get caught up with. Of course, a Scholar is also seen as a ravaging madman by many, this is due to some Scholars getting lost in the Soul of History, and are assumed to gain scrying abilities far far far into the future, these Scholars are called "Doomsday Scholars" and their minds lost in multiple dimensions. Their eyes and mind seeing a most distant apocalypse in a parallell continuation of the universe. A potential outcome.

A Scholar's magic is mystical, and as mentioned above, is called "Soul of History". A Scholar can remember past lives, and also future lives. But it is a dangerous path to take, and many fine Scholars have lost themselves in the "Labyrinth of Time". Time is a constant and confusing thing, as there are infinite amount of instances where life goes in different ways and paths, and only the Scholars who can maintain their minds in one timeline achieve masterhood.

Concept Abilities
- A Scholar is in a way a Time Mage who can warp time and space. Their signature style is called "Weave of Time".
- A Scholar does not have any abilities or spells that deals damage, but are more a support role and town-heavy characters.
- A Scholar can give boosts to the Party when camping, raising "morale" by telling stories or educating the other party members of the world.
- A Scholar can fast travel on his/her own between cities, it makes the party smaller (5 party members) during travel, but you'll always have the best merchant and best Charisma character when you are in towns.
- A Scholar and a Doomsayer Scholar are both great distractors of guards. For instance, if a Doomsayer Scholar starts crying out the end of the world near well guarded treasure door, the guards will investigate and potentially arrest the Doomsayer Scholar (which you then can rescue later). Or a regular Scholar can go up to the guards and use a distraction ability a la "Stay a while and listen"~ e.g. "Did you know this building was built in bla di bla isn't it fascinating?" etc. etc. and meanwhile your Rogue can sneak by and take all the treasure.
- A Scholar can identify all items, and also gives identified items a permanent bonus. This can be seen as the Scholar identifying the blade and telling it's history to the Fighter, which in turn gives the Fighter more respect for the blade and more confidence wielding it. This goes for any character wielding the blade. E.g. Samurai-styled "Way of the Blade" honor-stuff.
- A Scholar is also wise in the ways of herbs and plants, making him a light medic.
- A Scholar is a very wise man or woman, and is very often a low-priority target in combat and on the world map. Lowers random encounters and is almost never targeted in combat.
- The Scholar is a Teacher, whenever the Scholar levels up every other character in the party gains extra Skill Points (If Pillars of Eternity uses a similar skill system like F:NV).

The Architect:

I don't know what this class could do. But I like the title as a class. I'm thinking a Wizard of some kind that can create constructs perhaps. Different types of walls (Thorn Wall, Ice Wall, Fire Wall etc.) perhaps, could be fitting. Uses a different type of technique of animancy, "Hold Person" stuff. A lockdown Wizard.

Soul Gambler/Vampiric Wizard/Fampyr Mage

A Vampiric Wizard or perhaps even a Fampyr Mage who feeds on other characters life force to cast magic. Both party members life force and enemy life force. But it's a double-edged sword, other peoples/foreign life force is unstable and not so cooperative and can backfire, but the most powerful magic/damage-wise. Using your own life force is harmful to yourself but most stable. A Wild Mage variant~

Likewise, the Gambler could be a Fampyr, one who has been given immortality by a mad animancer, and the only way to stay sane and living is to drain others of their life force through magic (instead of eating flesh, the Fampyr Mage drinks soul essence). If not maintained the Fampyr Mage eventually becomes a Dargul, and could potentially even become a boney skeletons.

However, those who are very strong in their Souls (I almost wrote "strong in the Force" lol) retain their mind in spirit-form, and becomes what people call a "Lich". A strong Fampyr Mage = Does not lose their sanity/memory/mind by becoming a skeleton, instead they become an immortal being. The drawback is that if a Fampyr Mage becomes a Lich and they are defeated, their Souls then become trapped in the place they died, and shakes in limbo in a constant nightmare of pulsating between the living universe and the dead universe which is why it is most important to kill a Lich in a place that is easily buried, for if a lingering Lich Soul is engaged by a witless wanderer, there is a high probability he will become possessed. A great signifier that a dead Lich is close by is that the environment becomes much colder and trees and plants are rotten and dead.

There is a story of one Lich who died in a once beautiful forest, but after a band of adventurers had slain the evil being, the entire forest became corrupted and blighted by massive evil of all of the Lich's Souls that he/she had consumed under its 1000 year lifespan.

Gunslinger/Gun Mage

Albeit the guns in Eora does not reload fast, there are those who have found solutions. A Gunslinger has practiced this new type of weapons in the world day and night to either become a historical figure (like "Billy the Kid" conceptually) by being the first Gun Master in the world, or by becoming a part of some Gun Squad in some army. To become a soldier. The solution the Gunslinger uses to become the fastest shot in time is using several guns.

- A Gunslinger can carry up to 6 small guns, and reloads faster than any other class can.
- A Gunslinger can also modify their guns and has different ammo-types as abilities.
- A Gunslinger has a branching build path called "Gun Mage", which allows the Gunslinger to shoot elemental bullets that has different effects (Ice = Slow, Fire = Burning, Water = Poison, Earth = Stunning)

Edited July 1, 2014 by Osvir

[anameforobsidian]

I think I responded to previous ones, but I could be wrong.  Skill classes are a bad idea for this game, since it separates combat from skills anyways.  It helps to think of possible classes if you think like 4e and divide it into striker, tank, controller, and leader roles: strikers are focused on pure damage usually single target; tanks are focused on taking hits; controllers are focused on disabling enemies and AoE damage (a strong argument could be made to separate these two); leaders are focused on buffing and healing allies.  Consider each class role and sub-role.  Here's a list role first, subroll second (most of these are debatable and I exercised my best judgment).

 

Barbarian - Tank / Striker

Chanter - Commander / Controller

Cipher - Striker / Controller

Druid - Controller / Striker

Fighter - Pure Commander

Monk - Tank / Controller

Paladin - Commander / Tank 

Priest - Pure Commander

Ranger - Striker / Controller (very debatable)

Rogue - Pure Striker

Wizard - Pure Controller

 

That means there's room for:

Striker / Tank,

Striker / Commander,

Tank / Commander,

Commander / Striker,

Controller / Tank,

Controller / Commander

 

So my suggested classes are:

Warlord, 

Alchemist,

Beastmaster,

Shaman,

Woodsman

 

First of all, I would get rid of ranger and split it into two class.  Woodsman and Beastmaster, beastmaster for everyone that wants an anipal, woodsman for specialist ranged weapon attackers and trap setters.  The Beastmaster would fight in melee, including two swords if people wanted -- sigh.  They would be controller/tanks, who were able to use summons and their exuberant vitality to help control the flow of battle.  The Woodsman would be a striker / controller who worked by setting traps on the field.

 

Next comes the Shaman / Hedge witch.  Shaman is an amazing fit for this setting with it's animancy.  Shamans commune with the "wild" souls, mainly nature and the dead but not reborn.  Shaman are controller / commanders who focus on cursing enemies and buffing allies.

 

After that we have the Doctor.  They have powerful single target healing and a few stimulant based buffs, there are even some who break their oaths and administer poison to enemies.  They are commander / strikers.  They dash into the battlefield, cure the fallen and stab with poisoned daggers, and then try to extricate themselves.

 

The tank / commander is the Warlord or Stalwart.  They have seen more then their fair share of fighting, and have a high deflection to show for it.  They have also picked up snippets of chanter lore, and can exhort their comrades to greater action.  Their buffs are usually static radii.

 

I ran out of ideas there, but there's still room for a beefier striker (tough? assassin? mercenary?) and a striker that heals / buffs their allies (warlock?, soul thief?).

Edited July 1, 2014 by anameforobsidian

[Hiro Protagonist II]

They sound very Diablo/Torchlight.