Chumpystyle
Diabloii.Net Member
A couple of options for #4 & #5: Hunter & Monk variants
Before I get into the detail - like some of the folks on here, I think the two remaining slots will be fairly conventional (Ranger/Hunter and Monk variant to save you reading on if you aren’t interested). I think the more way-out stuff will probably not be seen until the expansion comes out.
What follows is a combination of what I think we will see + what I would like to see in the final game. Some of my ideas are based on/ripping off D1 & D2, some on other things I’ve seen/read and a few original ideas for good measure. I don’t consider either of these builds remotely complete – but hopefully some idea of the direction of the characters will come through.
I also haven't gone to the effort of giving particularly imaginitive names (or any names at all) to most of the skills - I figure the guys at Blizzard can take care of that.
Character 4:
A Ranger/Hunter-esque character: A solitary nomad who has spent much of their life alone in Sanctuary’s wilderness, living off the land and forming a strong bond with Nature.
If I were going to write a back-story I would say that as a young person, this character grew up in a small, rural community somewhere near Entsteig on the edge of the Sharval Wilds (Blizzard have a great map of Sanctuary here for those interested in fictional Geography).
For the sake of convenience, let’s say that your father was the finest bowyer for leagues around and – even from a young age – you showed an aptitude with the weapon. Then, about 20 years ago Diablo’s forces razed your village, slaughtered your family and ate your pet dog. (Fluffy! Noooooooo!!!) With nowhere to go and nobody to protect you, you found yourself living in the wilds, using yourr bow for food and protection and over time developing an incredibly strong bond with the natural world.
*Cue Movie Preview Narrator Voice*
Now... 20 years on, Evil has returned, and it’s time for revenge!
*Fantastic mid-90’s electric guitar shredding lick*
Skills:
Tree 1: Bow & Crossbow Skills
Sound familiar? I should think so. To be honest, I can’t see any game like this having 5 character classes and no skill tree revolving around the bow. The Amazon had some great bow skills, and I’d say quite a few will be rehashed. I’m thinking:
There are also a couple of additions I’d like to see:
Plus the passives:
2. Nature Magic:
(Yes, I’m borrowing a bit from the Druid here – but you want any other casters to be a bit different from the Wizard, don’t you? Besides, as I see it, the ranged attacker doesn’t need lots of ranged magic, that's what the bow is for – more of a support caster than front-line mage.)
Offense:
Defense:
Passive:
3. Traps and Pets
Obviously, all that time spent out hunting, this character must have a few trap skills up his/her sleeve. Likewise, all that time communing with nature should also allow you to call upon a few animals to help you out from time to time. Basically you are looking at a twist on the Assassin’s trap tree and the Druid’s summonables. This gives you the option to be either a ranged attacker &/or caster with some meat shields, or to get a bit cunning, trap your enemies and then pick them off with your bow or spells.
Traps:
Character 5: Monk-ish
For the other melee character, I am leaning away from the Paladin/Knight/Cleric archetype. I think it’s important to differentiate it from the Barbarian who will be quite adept with the sword/shield combo. If you want to be that kind of character, play as a Barbarian. I would like to see staves & clubs used as the weapons of choice – as they are often not used much offensively (especially staves) giving you a 1 & 2 handed option. It also allows the players who want to focus on the caster side of things to take the staff for magic bonuses and the melee player to grab a club, a shield and get physical.
On magic, the Wizard has a fair range of powers in the Arcane & Elemental fields, so I don’t really want to rehash those either. As such, I would see our Monk harnessing Prime Magic for the most part instead. This avenue gives scope for all kinds of physical offensive and defensive buffs and opens the way for some psi-based magic.
Backstory:
Separated from your parents in Caldeum following the chaos caused by Diablo’s forces twenty years ago, as a young child you were found wandering the streets, getting into fights, by a monk from a remote monastery in the mountains of northern Kehjistan. You have spent the last two decades training and meditating and participating in montages involving you doing tai chi at sunrise and carrying buckets of water up lots of stairs. At the same time, you have been gaining supreme control over your body and mind – which in turn gives you some control over the minds of others.
For this character, it’s not about upholding good or destroying evil, but restoring balance in Sanctuary. Bringing down the Prime Evils is not a quest for loot or revenge, but simply as task that the Order feels must be done for the good of the world.
1. Combat skills
Think along the lines of Paladin Combat skills, but with a focus on the staff & club
Attacking skills – General (ie, for use with any weapon):
Combat skills – Staff-based:
Attacking skills – Club-based:
2. Body & Soul
This tree would be made up of various abilities that take advantage of the Monk’s mastery of their own body & mind – many of these skills would be passive.
3. Mentalism
As the name suggests, the Monk’s magic focuses not on the elemental or arcane, but mind attacks. For some variety, there would also be a bit of Spirit Magic/Godly Magic) thrown in. I would envisage the Psi magic as doing a mixture of physical and maybe some lightning damage.
Psi:
Spirit Magic:
Godly Magic:
There you have it. That’s my take on the two final classes as I wouldn’t mind seeing them. One thing you realise when writing a post like this is how damn DIFFICULT it must be to actually come up with 5 unique characters with 50 or so skills each. It’s hard enough to come up with remotely feasible ideas, let alone actually working them in with the physics and gameplay....
... No wonder the wait for this game has been so long!
Before I get into the detail - like some of the folks on here, I think the two remaining slots will be fairly conventional (Ranger/Hunter and Monk variant to save you reading on if you aren’t interested). I think the more way-out stuff will probably not be seen until the expansion comes out.
What follows is a combination of what I think we will see + what I would like to see in the final game. Some of my ideas are based on/ripping off D1 & D2, some on other things I’ve seen/read and a few original ideas for good measure. I don’t consider either of these builds remotely complete – but hopefully some idea of the direction of the characters will come through.
I also haven't gone to the effort of giving particularly imaginitive names (or any names at all) to most of the skills - I figure the guys at Blizzard can take care of that.
Character 4:
A Ranger/Hunter-esque character: A solitary nomad who has spent much of their life alone in Sanctuary’s wilderness, living off the land and forming a strong bond with Nature.
If I were going to write a back-story I would say that as a young person, this character grew up in a small, rural community somewhere near Entsteig on the edge of the Sharval Wilds (Blizzard have a great map of Sanctuary here for those interested in fictional Geography).
For the sake of convenience, let’s say that your father was the finest bowyer for leagues around and – even from a young age – you showed an aptitude with the weapon. Then, about 20 years ago Diablo’s forces razed your village, slaughtered your family and ate your pet dog. (Fluffy! Noooooooo!!!) With nowhere to go and nobody to protect you, you found yourself living in the wilds, using yourr bow for food and protection and over time developing an incredibly strong bond with the natural world.
*Cue Movie Preview Narrator Voice*
Now... 20 years on, Evil has returned, and it’s time for revenge!
*Fantastic mid-90’s electric guitar shredding lick*
Skills:
Tree 1: Bow & Crossbow Skills
Sound familiar? I should think so. To be honest, I can’t see any game like this having 5 character classes and no skill tree revolving around the bow. The Amazon had some great bow skills, and I’d say quite a few will be rehashed. I’m thinking:
- Strafe
- Multiple shot
- Enchanted arrows/bolts (fire/cold/explosive etc)
There are also a couple of additions I’d like to see:
- Block (using the bow to block melee attacks, give bows durability as well, and blocking would obviously do damage to the bow)
- Smite (use the bow as a clubbing weapon when out of ammo – or even when you have ammo, just for the sheer joy of it. If you added a stun effect it could be a useful skill for when the baddies get too close for comfort)
Plus the passives:
- Masteries, obviously
- Ability to dodge ranged attacks
- Improved accuracy/damage with bows/crossbows
- Blind (Passively gives chance to blind enemies)
2. Nature Magic:
(Yes, I’m borrowing a bit from the Druid here – but you want any other casters to be a bit different from the Wizard, don’t you? Besides, as I see it, the ranged attacker doesn’t need lots of ranged magic, that's what the bow is for – more of a support caster than front-line mage.)
Offense:
- Creepers/vine attacks (one-off spells not pets that deal physical/poison damage + slow)
- Bind (a vine pops up out of the ground and restrains your foe – for added enjoyment, the vine branches out and grabs onto any other enemies nearby – you end with a nice pile of non-moving enemies to pepper with arrows.)
- Wind attacks (tornados and the like – physical/cold damage, I’d also like to see a skill that summons up a gust to either toss around your enemies, or move/destroy parts of the environment, pick up destructible items and drop them on enemies, that kind of thing. More Storm from X-men than Jean Grey)
- Poison attacks (coat your weapon with it, enhance the weapons of others a la Venom from the Assassin)
- Decay (A skill that renders corpses un-revivable and releases a toxic cloud, similar to the Necromancer’s poison explosion, but less.. well.. explosive.)
- Command beast (effectively a conversion spell, only effective on animal-type monsters, and only after you’ve dealt a certain amount of damage to ‘show them who’s boss’)
Defense:
- Summon fog/clouds to blind enemies
- Dispel poisons/slowness (basic healing useful for party play)
- Barkskin, or some similar defensive buff (also useful for party play)
Passive:
- Give poison attacks slowing properties
- Increased effectiveness vs. ‘animal’ type monsters (after all, you’ve been hunting them your whole life)
- Mastery of wind spells
3. Traps and Pets
Obviously, all that time spent out hunting, this character must have a few trap skills up his/her sleeve. Likewise, all that time communing with nature should also allow you to call upon a few animals to help you out from time to time. Basically you are looking at a twist on the Assassin’s trap tree and the Druid’s summonables. This gives you the option to be either a ranged attacker &/or caster with some meat shields, or to get a bit cunning, trap your enemies and then pick them off with your bow or spells.
Traps:
- ‘Basic’ fire/poison spewing devices
- Webs/nets that slow enemies, giving you a chance to fill them with arrows
- Decoys (things to distract your enemies while you fill them with arrows)
- ‘Sticky’ traps, that turn the enemies into walking traps themselves (eg. An enemy gets covered in spines/poison/fire and then wanders around dealing damage & spreading the effects to his companions)
- Low-level, little critters (angry badgers, ferrets that kind of thing. Little guys who serve more to annoy and distract the enemy than inflict/take massive damage
- Mid-level, bigger animals (yeah, I’m talking wolves, eagles, the usual clichés)
- High-level, I would like to see something like an air elemental, capable of tanking and dealing some cold & physical damage and/or maybe something Ent-like with an innate Thorns ability
Character 5: Monk-ish
For the other melee character, I am leaning away from the Paladin/Knight/Cleric archetype. I think it’s important to differentiate it from the Barbarian who will be quite adept with the sword/shield combo. If you want to be that kind of character, play as a Barbarian. I would like to see staves & clubs used as the weapons of choice – as they are often not used much offensively (especially staves) giving you a 1 & 2 handed option. It also allows the players who want to focus on the caster side of things to take the staff for magic bonuses and the melee player to grab a club, a shield and get physical.
On magic, the Wizard has a fair range of powers in the Arcane & Elemental fields, so I don’t really want to rehash those either. As such, I would see our Monk harnessing Prime Magic for the most part instead. This avenue gives scope for all kinds of physical offensive and defensive buffs and opens the way for some psi-based magic.
Backstory:
Separated from your parents in Caldeum following the chaos caused by Diablo’s forces twenty years ago, as a young child you were found wandering the streets, getting into fights, by a monk from a remote monastery in the mountains of northern Kehjistan. You have spent the last two decades training and meditating and participating in montages involving you doing tai chi at sunrise and carrying buckets of water up lots of stairs. At the same time, you have been gaining supreme control over your body and mind – which in turn gives you some control over the minds of others.
For this character, it’s not about upholding good or destroying evil, but restoring balance in Sanctuary. Bringing down the Prime Evils is not a quest for loot or revenge, but simply as task that the Order feels must be done for the good of the world.
1. Combat skills
Think along the lines of Paladin Combat skills, but with a focus on the staff & club
Attacking skills – General (ie, for use with any weapon):
- Head strike (a powerful attack on a single enemy that either stuns/disorients/confuses them)
- Low blow (an attack that targets the legs of your enemies, slowing them)
- Find weak point (Passive, increases chance of a critical strike)
Combat skills – Staff-based:
- Parry (Passive, uses your staff to block melee attacks)
- Crescent moon (Attacks in an arc in front of you, dealing damage to multiple enemies)
- Whirl (a staff attack that causes the Monk to do one 360 degree turn, damaging and knocking back any nearby enemies – useful for getting out of the middle of mobs)
- Elemental combo (A charge-up style skill, each successive hit within a certain short time-frame adds a random elemental damage to the attack, up to five hits. I would envisage this to work something like this: First hit, generates a little bit of, let’s say, cold damage, second hit increases the damage, third hit increases the damage & freezes the enemy, fourth hit adds more damage & freezes, fifth hit does big damage and gives off a frost nova. Similar build-up for fire – which would add damage & ignite enemies before a final explosion – and lightning – which would add damage & stun enemies before a final electrical nova. All five hits in each combo will be the same element, but the element itself will be chosen randomly.)
- Staff mastery
Attacking skills – Club-based:
- Defensive smash (Passive skill, gives you a chance on successful blocking of a melee attack to retaliate with a fast auto-attack of your own)
- Return fire (Passive skill, gives you a chance to smack a ranged attack back to its point of origin, damaging the enemy)
- Zeal (or that skill with another name – fast successive attacks)
- Devastating blows (A charge-up style skill, each successive hit within a certain short time-frame adds damage and AoE to the attack, up to five hits. I see this playing out thusly: First hit does a bit more than usual damage, second hit does more damage to target monster + some damage to nearby monsters, third hit increases damage and radius, fourth hit increases damage and radius, fifth hit increases damage & radius and adds a stun effect)
- Crushing blows (Passive, increases chance to do crushing blow damage, as in D2)
- Club mastery
2. Body & Soul
This tree would be made up of various abilities that take advantage of the Monk’s mastery of their own body & mind – many of these skills would be passive.
- Focus (Passive, increases % chance to hit in melee)
- Pain threshold (Passive, reduces the amount of time it takes to recover from hits)
- Alacrity (Passive, increases attack & movement speed)
- Precision (Passive, increases melee damage done)
- Intuition (Passive, reduces chance of being hit)
- Clarity (Passive, increases mana recharge rate)
- Meditate (Increases health regeneration rate for a period, but slows movement during this time)
- Soul drain (Cast like a curse, causes mana leech on affected enemies – like Life Tap)
- Elemental resistance (Passively increases resistances to elemental magic)
- Astral Travel (Allows the Monk’s mind to temporarily leave the body and scout ahead – passing through walls and barriers. The mind itself cannot be targeted and appears invisible to enemies, however the body is totally exposed to attack during this time.)
3. Mentalism
As the name suggests, the Monk’s magic focuses not on the elemental or arcane, but mind attacks. For some variety, there would also be a bit of Spirit Magic/Godly Magic) thrown in. I would envisage the Psi magic as doing a mixture of physical and maybe some lightning damage.
Psi:
- Psychic bolt (Like a missile of mental energy that attacks a single monster)
- Mind Blast (AoE psychic blast that stuns a group of monsters, much like the Assassin attack)
- Mindstorm (A number of psychic bolts shoot from the Monk and seek out targets)
- Brainwash (Conversion skill that lasts a certain amount of time)
- Mind control (higher level conversion that allows for a very limited number of converted enemies who will fight for you till their death)
- Destabilise (Causes a single monster to go a bit nuts, simultaneously causes other nearby monsters to attack them and it to attack them. Increases the target monster’s damage, but lowers their defense – they can still attack the Monk.)
- Puppet mastery (Passive, increases duration/effectiveness of Brainwash & Mind Control)
- Intimidate (AoE curse-style attack that works similar to the Necromancer’s Decrepify curse, slowing and weakening enemies)
- Fear of the Elements (Curse-like AoE mind attack, convinces enemies that they are susceptible to elemental attacks, lowering their resistances – like Lower Resist curse from D2)
- Silence (Silences a single enemy for a period of time, preventing casters from casting)
- Calm (AoE spell that tricks the monsters into believing you are not a threat, and they will not attack you – until the spell runs out – or unless you attack them first)
Spirit Magic:
- Peaceful Death (AoE curse-like spell. Prevents any corpses in the area from being resurrected for a time, and causes any live enemies affected to be unable to be raised when killed)
- Breath of Life (Gives off a torrent of Life energy, like the Sorceress’ Inferno, except that it will heal living things – including enemies and party members – but deal damage to undead)
- Release (Grants a suffering enemy the release of death. When targeted on an enemy that has sustained large damage – say 20% health left – it kills them instantly. In the case of enemies with more health than that, the mental anguish caused deals large psychic damage)
Godly Magic:
- Summon Lightning Elemental (By offering a corpse of one of your enemies to a lightning deity, they send forth a little electrical sprite, who will dance around the screen, dealing electrical damage to your enemies for a time, or until it is destroyed. Destroys the corpse it is cast on and costs mana)
- Summon Ice Elemental (By offering a corpse of one of your enemies to a frost deity, an ice elemental will come forth, chilling and damaging your enemies for a time, or until it is destroyed. Destroys the corpse and costs mana)
- Summon Fire Elemental (By offering a corpse of one of your enemies, plus some of your own life force to a fire deity, a fire giant will come forth, burning your enemies for a time, or until it is destroyed. The most powerful of the elementals the Monk can call upon, this summoning destroys the corpse and costs both health and mana. If you don’t have enough health to summon successfully, you will be reduced to one health point and the summoning will fail.
There you have it. That’s my take on the two final classes as I wouldn’t mind seeing them. One thing you realise when writing a post like this is how damn DIFFICULT it must be to actually come up with 5 unique characters with 50 or so skills each. It’s hard enough to come up with remotely feasible ideas, let alone actually working them in with the physics and gameplay....
... No wonder the wait for this game has been so long!
