Let's invent some talents!

[Nonek]

Fighter.

 

Challenge - The warrior bellows out a challenge that may be (saving throw) answered by the strongest member of an opposong mob, if successful in the ensuing duel the enemy disperse, if unsuccessful the party suffer a penalty in their dismay, if the duel is interrupted the normal melee ensues.

 

Knockback - Tranforms successful disengagement crits against one foe into a knockback, that knocks them prone and hurls them a short distance back for a brief duration.

 

Enemy - The war wise warrior may choose one enemy from a full Lore entry to gain a damage bonus against, may gain roleplaying penalties when trying to parley with these characters.

[Jojobobo]

General talent:

 

Fortification - When paralysed or petrified, you gain +6 DR. When stuck, gain +3 DR.

 

Might be good to solve the paralyse/petrification insta wins, both for monsters and for party members - though it is highly situational.

[b0rsuk]

 

 

Crossbowmen among the Flemish citizens, in the army of Richard Lionheart, and others, could have up to two servants, two crossbows and a pavise to protect the men. Then one of the servants had the task of reloading the weapons, while the second subordinate would carry and hold the pavise (the archer himself also wore protective armor). Such a three-man team could shoot 8 shots per minute, compared to a single crossbowman's 3 shots per minute.

 

Animal Squire (Ranger)

Your animal companion is trained to reload ranged weapons - crossbow, pistol, arquebus, arbalest, blunderbuss. If your animal is close by, he will reload ranged weapons in the not currently wielded weapon sets.

 

A honey badger could totally pull that off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw-qG0_WbGQ

[Zwiebelchen]

I don't think it would make it any more over powered than passive +12 DR which combined with that robe that gives you 7 DR and other DR bonuses would give you about 20 DR which is about same which you can get with buffed Plate Armor. At least in this case you need to take hits before your DR rises high, and higher DR you have longer it takes. I would say best that is you can hope in fight is about 10 wounds, which would mean +20 DR, so with boosted Plate armor it would be about 40 DR, which would make them very though but not immortal, But its bonus probably should be dropped to +0.5 DR per wound so that it would be about same level as other talents in the game. But in my opinion talents as general could have much bigger impact in the game than what they currently have. 

 

But idea behind my change is that it would go with that mortification of flesh theme that monks have in PoE, first they let enemy whip them so that they become angry and then they start to hit back.

 

I really wouldn't want even more talents that depend on me not spending my wound resource. I mean, turning wheel is already infuriating. I don't like my characters being passive auto-attackers without active abilities and stacking wound bonuses encourage you to do just that.

[MadDemiurg]

Some more for the classes I omitted in my initial post:

 

Rogue:

 

Misdirection: 1/encounter - Targets an ally. Rogue becomes invisible until he attacks or until the targeted ally is knocked out. Targeted ally gains +1 engagement slot. Long activation time. (Would also make a good cipher spell alternatively. Basically per encounter invisibility that is not as abuseable as shadowing beyond solo, with some extra utility on top).

 

Overwhelming assault - Passive. Hits inflict -10 accuracy on target for 5 sec.

 

Fighter

 

Bodyguard - transfer 25% damage dealt to allies in 2m radius to self. Modal.

 

Ranger

 

Bonded rage - Replaces bonded grief. Gives +33% attack speed for 15 seconds instead.

 

Longshot - gain damage bonus proportional to the distance to the target for a max +30% at 12m.

[luzarius]

If the game was moddable, we could actually add these new talents. I wonder if there is a way to convert unity3d files to XML, then have unity read the data from the XML, then users can easily edit the XML, hence making the game easily moddable.

[danielkx]

If the game was moddable, we could actually add these new talents. I wonder if there is a way to convert unity3d files to XML, then have unity read the data from the XML, then users can easily edit the XML, hence making the game easily moddable.

Or if Obsidian decided to take 3-4 months to convert the engine to Unity 5 people could download it for free and be able to mod the game.

 

Would be nice but I am pretty sure they said that they would not be doing this.

[Luckmann]

Additionally:

 

Weapon Focus Swashbuckler:

+6 Accuracy with Dagger, Stiletto, Rapier, Sabre, Pistol.

 

Also, changed Mystic's Stiletto to Quarterstaff, for obvious reasons.

 

 

 

 

Weapon Focus Knight:

+6 Accuracy with Battle axe, Sword, Mace, Morning star, Crossbow.

 

Weapon Focus Noble:

+6 Accuracy with Stiletto, Rapier, Mace, Scepter, Rod.

 

Weapon Focus Ruffian:

+6 Accuracy with Sabre, Dagger, Club, Pistol, Blunderbuss.

 

Weapon Focus Grenadier:

+6 Accuracy with Spear, Pike, Pistol, Blunderbuss, Arquebus.

 

Weapon Focus Mystic:

+6 Accuracy with Dagger, Quarterstaff, Scepter, Rod, Wand.

 

Weapon Focus Thug:

+6 Accuracy with Club, Hatchet, Dagger, Unarmed, Pistol.

 

Weapon Focus Swashbuckler:

+6 Accuracy with Dagger, Stiletto, Rapier, Sabre, Pistol.

 

I used to think that adding and changing weapon foci like this would necessitate making them not stack, but after some thinking, I've come to the conclusion that it wouldn't be. If you are willing to use a Talent for a +6 boost to Accuracy, I think that's perfectly reasonable, whether you do it once (like now) or twice. I added Mace to Knight, because Knight only had 4 weapons, for whatever reason, I switched Dagger and Stiletto on Ruffian and Noble, and I added the Grenadier, Swashbuckler, Mystic and Thug foci.

 

Alacritous Charge (Paladin):

Modifies Zealous Charge, +10 Reflex and +5 Defense when Disengaging.

 

Primordial Endurance (Paladin):

Modifies Zealous Endurance, +3 DR vs. Shock, Burn, Freeze, and Corrode; -5% to Armour Action Recovery Penalty.

 

Why? Because currently, only Zealous Focus can be boosted with the Critical Focus Talent, never Zealous Charge nor Zealous Endurance.

 

 

If the game was moddable, we could actually add these new talents. I wonder if there is a way to convert unity3d files to XML, then have unity read the data from the XML, then users can easily edit the XML, hence making the game easily moddable.

Many of the Talents (at least mine) are probably quite easily added, if you really, really want to go through the hassle. PoE is moddable in some ways, it's just not a very pretty experience.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Luckmann

[MadDemiurg]

I think we need more spellcaster talents as well.

 

Will breaker - +6 accuracy to spells and abilities that attack will

Plague master - +6 accuracy to spells and abilities that attack fortitude

Spell sniper - +6 accuracy to spells and abilities that attack reflex

[Luckmann]

I think we need more spellcaster talents as well.

 

Will breaker - +6 accuracy to spells and abilities that attack will

Plague master - +6 accuracy to spells and abilities that attack fortitude

Spell sniper - +6 accuracy to spells and abilities that attack reflex

I like this idea, because it supports more specialized spellcasters, which is cool.

[Alweth]

Someone else suggested something like this elsewhere to replace the weapon specialization talents:

• Weapon Specialization - +6 Accuracy for any 3 weapon types of your choice. Can be taken multiple times but only for new weapon types.

Some names might need work:

• You Can Wear Medium Armor - +4 DR that stacks with armor but cannot exceed 12 DR combined, not counting magical enhancements.
   
• Please Wear Medium Armor - Constitution and Strength each grant -2% and -1% armor action speed penalty (respectively).
   
• Please Wear Light Armor - Perception and Intellect each grant -1% armor action speed penalty. Light Armor grants +2 DR.
   
• I haven't played a barbarian or monk but they might need: Barbarians and Monks Can Tank Without Heavy Armor - +8 DR that doesn't stack with non-enchantment armor DR and -10% armor action speed penalty. Barbarian or Monk only.
   
• Tanks Can Deal Some Damage Too - Armor action speed penalty is reduced by the percentage of base Endurance (ie. without Constitution mod) that you've been damaged this encounter / 2, maximum -25%.
   
• Armor Wearers Can Deal Damage Too - Melee attacks can't crit but have increased damage equal to your net armor action speed penalty, maximum of 30%.
   
• Damage Dealers Can Wear Armor Too - Light and Medium Armor only apply their action speed penalty if you've been attacked by a single-target or melee attack within the last 2 seconds.

Some non-armor-related ones:

• Blood Magic - May use a per-encounter abilities or spell that you have no remaining uses of at a endurance cost that increases based on the level of the ability and the number of times you've used this talent since resting. (This talent is broken with the current broken rest-whenever-you-want system, but if that gets fixed, something like this could make sense.)
   
• Darker Blood Magic - Like Blood Magic but only usable once per rest and only on per-rest abilities.

For Wizard:

• Area Finesse - You can reduce the AoE of all your abilities as much as you want while targeting.
   
• More Area Finesse - You can switch the position (but not the radius) of the foe only and friend or foe areas of your AoE.

Based on:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/78570-animal-companion-should-be-a-series-of-talents-not-a-class-feedback-on-the-ranger/

 

• Baby Pet - Get a pet-slot style baby animal pet that doesn't do anything.
   
• Trained Pet - Upgrades your Baby Pet to a ranger-style pet that can only do disengagement attacks.
   
• Animal Companion - Upgrades Trained Pet to a full-on ranger pet.

After this you can select other pet enhancement talents from the ranger class. (Also, get rid of the ranger class.)

 

And one last one:

• Epic Abstraction - Might grants bonuses to Action Speed, Duration, and Areas of Effect. Dexterity and Intellect do not. Might is renamed Pwnage. Resolve and Lore conversation options now require Pwnage instead. Can only be taken by Ciphers.

[SeekDWay]

A bit of a Ranger dream going on here:

 

Brutal Takedown is now baseline.

 

Faithful Companion is now learned for free at level 4.

Stalkers' Link now works with any weapon.

 

New Talent:

Brutal Takedown

*Requires Takedown

1 per rest

 

The ranger's animal companion will knock itself and the target Prone with increased accuracy (+10). This ability deals double the usual Takedown damage to the target.

 

New Talent:

Concussive Shot

*Requires level 5

1 per encounter

 

The ranger's shot inflicts Concussion to the target, in addition the target is also Dazed for 9 seconds.

 

New Talent:

Blackout

*Requires level 5

1 per encounter

 

The ranger's shot inflicts Blinded (7 seconds) in a small area around the target, but deals no damage.

 

New Talent:

Designated Target

Passive

*Requires level 11

 

Whenever the ranger lands Wounding, Concussive Shot or Blackout on a target, the animal companion has 8 seconds to charge the target ignoring collision and gaining a +30 bonus towards disengagement attacks. The charge attack cannot be interrupted, is more accurate (+20) and inflicts Flanked (8 seconds) on hit.

Edited May 4, 2015 by SeekDWay

[scrotiemcb]

It's a derail, but here's what my dream Ranger would look like...

 

Revenge: This is a new resource similar to a Cipher's Focus. However, it increases when a Ranger's Animal Companion takes damage. Rangers start battle with zero Revenge by default. Without an Animal Companion, Rangers have no way to generate more Revenge.

 

At character creation Rangers would have an additional Animal Companion choice called Lone Wolf. This option forsakes the Animal Companion completely, but the Ranger begins each encounter with maximum Revenge instead of zero.

 

Themes in Revenge power design:

1. Marking powers

Warning Shot

Deals 1.2x ranged weapon damage

Secondary effect: -10 Accuracy against Beasts (vs Will)

[but not all Marking skills need be ranged-only]

2. Dual buff or heal powers

Pincer Attacks

You and your Animal Companion both deal 1.3x melee damage against Flanked enemies for 10 seconds

[probably a Revive Companion at higher levels]

3. Pure archery coolness

Ricochet

Deals normal weapon damage with a ranged weapon, then the projectile bounces to another nearby enemy, then another, etc. Can hit a total of five times.

4. Limited nature stuff

Binding Roots

 

What would be gone would be many of the passives such as Swift Aim, etc. These would mostly be moved to the Fighter (whose role should be "King of Autoattacks" and also include some offensive builds).

 

Ranger class-specific talents would be gated by Animal Companion type (including at least one for Lone Wolf). This would make choice of companion important for build variations, in the same way Order is important to Paladins.

Edited May 4, 2015 by scrotiemcb

[mnoisewater]

I'm actually quite happy with the talents -- my only gripe is that I feel like you should be allowed to take more talents, and that some talents should be available to other classes.

 

But with creative use of the console and a bit of imagination, you can bypass both of those limitations.

 

By selecting the right cross-class talents, you can create dual-class or multiclass characters -- for example, I made a rogue, but took some of the fighter's talents, effectively making a fighter/thief.

 

And for anyone familiar with Drizzt: If you were attempting to make Drizzt in PoE, you'd probably take talents from barbarian (rage), thief (sneak attack abilities), ranger, and fighter.

 

I've never been a fan of game rules that limit my character options, so I break the rules wherever possible

Edited May 4, 2015 by mnoisewater