Class Idea: Geomancer

[sicilian]

Class Idea: Geomancer

I have an idea for a variation of the Sorceress class from D2... The Geomancer. With the addition of destructable and interactive environments, Blizzard could create a magic wielding character that would have some skills that relied on particular elements being available in the environment.

For example, in a forest he could ensnare enemies with trees, in deserts create quicksand, in dungeons summon a stone golem, etc.

The downside would be the class would be crippled in certain environments (or lack thereof). Three possible solutions:

1) Make the geomancer also a capable melee fighter. Not anywhere near the level of the Barbarian, but not a typical magic user. Make it a melee class with utility spells based on the environment.

2) Make the environmental spells extremely powerful. That way, you've got a high risk, high reward type of character.

3) If they use skill trees, make one tree the environmental magics, and another tree some other kind of natural magic, like weather (causes lightning bolts, movement slowing rain clouds, etc). That way there's always SOME magic you can do, with the environmental skills augmenting them.

Any thoughts?

 

[snugglson]

Re: Class Idea: Geomancer

yes, I love this idea. However I think to make it fair the weather skills would have to work anywhere, and it wouldnt be that hard to rationalize. there is moisture everywhere, especially in deep, dark dungeons, so a storm in a dungeon would be feasible. and most dungeons also have stone, which is just tightly compacted sand really, so quicksand in a dungeon would work perfectly fine.

I like it, i want them to stay away from the same old classes and give us something new.

maybe there could be a weather tree, a flora tree, and an earth tree.

 

[Sequitur]

Re: Class Idea: Geomancer

/agree

I too would like to see new classes, and not just overhauls.

I like the idea of the geomancer, though. The weather magic works for me.

 

[Bad Ash]

Re: Class Idea: Geomancer

What about if they make an elemental summoner class that deals with the environments around it?

It could be like a necro, (or hunter from WoW i guess ) where your trees would be 3 elements like stone, sand, water. All have some beneficial melee skills, all have some beneficial magic skills, and each has like 3-5 that would let you create either a Hard hitting Rock dude, a magic spewing water monster, or like a poisoning sand monster IDK haha. Each with their own positives and negatives

 

[Ddraig]

Re: Class Idea: Geomancer

You could have a single spell work the same but with different animations depending on environment. An ensnare spell would in a forest grab with roots, in a desert with sand, in a dungeon with rock, in the snow with ice, etc. Similar with damage dealing stuff. In that way a character doesn't have a spell that is useless in many environments.

Personally I think the classes get a bit too exotic and pointed. What I loved about d1 and 2 was the generic class ideas, caster warrior archer, that you could specialize in your own way. Even in d2 a paladin and a barbarian could simply have been a generic "warrior" with a few different trees to venture down. (especially if you removed all worthless skills that were only there for the 1 point prereq).

Environmental spells could simply be a caster branch, and something like an ensnaring roots type spell would likely work exactly the same in any environment in order to save the animators some time.

 

[sicilian]

Re: Class Idea: Geomancer

You could have a single spell work the same but with different animations depending on environment. An ensnare spell would in a forest grab with roots, in a desert with sand, in a dungeon with rock, in the snow with ice, etc. Similar with damage dealing stuff. In that way a character doesn't have a spell that is useless in many environments.

Personally I think the classes get a bit too exotic and pointed. What I loved about d1 and 2 was the generic class ideas, caster warrior archer, that you could specialize in your own way. Even in d2 a paladin and a barbarian could simply have been a generic "warrior" with a few different trees to venture down. (especially if you removed all worthless skills that were only there for the 1 point prereq).

Environmental spells could simply be a caster branch, and something like an ensnaring roots type spell would likely work exactly the same in any environment in order to save the animators some time.

You're probably right, the implentation would be difficult to pull off, especially since we don't know exactly how varied the environments are going to be yet. If there's only desert in one section of the game, that would essentially make any desert dependent skills useless 80% of the time.

But something related to the environment would be my goal... maybe like you said, have one skill that behaves differently depending on where you are. Kind of like the Necro's golems, only you can't control which one comes out. If you're in a dungeon, you get a stone golem, if you're near a volcano, you get a fire golem, if you're in the desert, you get a sand golem, etc.

Would be a fun and varied class to play I think.

 

[Ishmayl]

Re: Class Idea: Geomancer

This could easily be answered by just revamping the druid. Assuming there are several separate skill trees for each class, then one of the trees for the druid could be "Nature," giving him the abililty to manipulate the environment. Thus, you still also have the shapechanging fighting class, and also summoning aspects.

 

[lunarleif]

Re: Class Idea: Geomancer

Aaaaa. Technomancer is doing the exact same thing.

 

[Technomancer]

Re: Class Idea: Geomancer

Aaaaa. Technomancer is doing the exact same thing.

Uhh... I am?!

Lazer's the one working on the Geomancer, I'm just trying to help brainstorm stuff.

 

[lunarleif]

Re: Class Idea: Geomancer

Dang it! I keep getting you two confused! You both have good ideas and info so I just meld you into one being.
Yes, Lazer is the one working on it.

 

[LaZeR]

Re: Class Idea: Geomancer

Yep.
I actually remember this thread (it's a month old), but I didn't really like the ideas brought up here.
As they said, a skills that changes according to where you cast it is most likely too complicated for D3 and Blizz.