Species Proposal – Gnome

[Pingas]

Purpose of Proposal
This proposal aims to introduce two things to the game:

• A small species that doesn't rely on stealth.
• A racial focus on evocations beyond a high aptitude.

The Species
Inventors at heart, Gnomes share a love for anything mechanical. Their stunted limbs and plump body afford little agility – instead, their keen minds turn to tinkering. Whether through metal, electricty or oil, a gnome's passion lies in creation.



Innate Abilities

• Empowered Wands 1: Gnomes have increased power when zapping wands.
• Gnomes can repurpose wands into other types of identified wands. This consumes some of the wand's charges.
• Gnomes are small creatures, unable to wield large shields, bardiches, battleaxes, dire flails, executioner's axes, glaives, great maces, great swords, halberds, longbows, scythes, triple swords, giant clubs, giant spiked clubs, and javelins. One-handed weapons like magical staves, broad axes, tridents, demon tridents and double swords are two-handed weapons to them.

Gnomes have a base Strength of 9, Intelligence of 10 and Dexterity of 5 (before Background modifiers).

Level Bonuses

• +1 strength or intelligence every 4th level.
• 10% less hit points than average.
• 3 MR per level
• At levels 8 and 16, your Empowered Wands is upgraded to ranks 2 and 3, respectively

Empowered Wands Mutation

  Code:

Rank | Effect                  | Flavor
1    | 17% more powerful wands | Your wands are a little more powerful.
2    | 34% more powerful wands | Your wands are more powerful.
3    | 50% more powerful wands | Your wands are much more powerful.

Repurpose Wand Ability
When activating the ability, the player first selects which wand to repurpose, and then selects the type of the desired wand (from identified wands).

First, the game determines how many charges of the original wand are to be repurposed. Since not all wands are equal in strength, charge amount and conversion rates scale around the wand types' "max charges per individual wand on pickup" value (hereafter "max value"). Wands can have max values of 9, 15, 24 and 48. Determining the amount of charges to be converted is done using the formula (1-(random2(67,80)/100)*a, where 'a' is the wand's max value. This results in converting 20-33% of the wand's max value. For example:

A wand of Flame would convert 10-16 of its charges.
A wand of Disintegration would convert 5-8 of its charges.
A wand of Ice Blast would convert 3-5 of its charges.
A wand of Clouds would convert 2-3 of its charges.

Once the amount of charges to be converted has been determined, the game determines the result of the conversion. The conversion uses the following formula: a/(b/c)*0.67=d, where 'a' is the amount of charges to be converted (determined in the previous step), 'b' is the original wand type's max value, and 'c' is the desired wand type's max value. The output is then cut by 33%, representing the cost of this ability. In other words, the conversion operates at a 33% loss rate, sacrificing total charge in return for adaptability.

A few example conversions:
Converting 15 charges of wand of Flame would yield 5 charges of Disintegration, 3 charges of Ice Blast, or 2 charges of Clouds.
Converting 3 charges of Clouds would yield 3 charges of Ice Blast, 5 charges of Disintegration, or 11 charges of Flame.

Aptitudes

  Code:

+0 Fighting
+0 Short Blades
+0 Long Blades
+0 Axes
+1 Maces
-1 Polearms
+1 Staves
-2 Unarmed Combat

-2 Bows
+2 Crossbows
+0 Slings
+0 Throwing

+2 Armour
+0 Dodging
+1 Shields
-2 Stealth

-1 Spellcasting
+1 Fire Magic
-1 Ice Magic
+2 Air magic
-1 Earth Magic
-1 Poison Magic
+0 Conjuration
-1 Hexes
+0 Charms
-2 Summoning
-3 Necromancy
+2 Translocation
-3 Transmutation

-2 Invocation
+3 Evocation

+0 EXP

Design Notes

• Despite their size factor, a lack of dex and stealth aptitude makes it difficult for Gnomes to go undetected. Fair weapon aptitudes and good defensive aptitudes lets them hold their own in combat.
• Gnomes' love for metal and machinery makes them especially interested in crossbows and armour.
• Though their magical aptitudes are less than great, their attunement with electricity, steam and explosions lets them dabble in air and fire magic with a bit more confidence.
• As scientist and experimenters, Gnomes pay less heed to the divine.
• Determining the amount of charges to be converted uses a flat (though variable) value based on the wand's type. This gives the player more control over quantity converted. If it was based on a percentage of the wand's current amount of charges, it would lead to situations where the player might be forced to convert more charges than intended, due to having a lot of charges on that wand.

I hope you enjoy this concept. Any feedback is welcome.

[Tumalu]

...huh. That's a unique and quite useful ability, and you've already done all the math for making conversion between wand types reasonable. And the wands that'd be really crazy to boost (hasting) have been removed by now. And unlike all the other race suggestions this week, there's nothing extreme or similar to an existing species.

The one concern is it seems like it might be very strong with +50% wand power, but I suppose wand use is also self-limited and you can't really spam the heck out of them, so perhaps it's not a large issue? (That'd be for someone with more experience than me.) Such problems can always be tweaked if deemed necessary later, through lower wand boost or some other increased detriment. I definitely approve of the concept and would love to see this in the game. Pakellas returns as a race instead of a god, huh.


Edit:Actually, one suggestion is that their wand power comes with the cost of the mp-powered-wands mutation. They have high-power wands of their choice with a large power boost, but can't just zap 10 wands in a row.

[Tumalu]

Rather than adding yet another edit onto my post hours later that'd likely go unseen- I had a great thought. The one problem with this species is that the powers it offers are quite strong; 1.5x (!) wand power plus higher availability of desirable wands, with the only real downside being -2 invo and a minor HP penalty, on a race that comes with solid aptitudes for melee/ranged combat.

What struck me to more clearly define the species is the removed Forlorn mutation, which reduced piety gain by 33%. This clearly exemplifies their devotion to science over the divine, and properly counterbalances their improved evocational ability. Having only -2 invo had simply meant you wouldn't pick an intensely invo-based god, but really isn't much of a detriment to the myriad of powerful choices that don't need the skill over 10-ish, if they even used invo at all. This provides a clear and appropriate cost for the race's talents.

[Pingas]

What struck me to more clearly define the species is the removed Forlorn mutation, which reduced piety gain by 33%. This clearly exemplifies their devotion to science over the divine, and properly counterbalances their improved evocational ability. Having only -2 invo had simply meant you wouldn't pick an intensely invo-based god, but really isn't much of a detriment to the myriad of powerful choices that don't need the skill over 10-ish, if they even used invo at all. This provides a clear and appropriate cost for the race's talents.

The idea fits quite well thematically, and helps balancing out the species' advantages. I like it.

My only concern is whether it would cause the species to become a bit more bloated than needed. Could toning down its aptitudes be enough to hold the power level in check? While I'm not opposed to forlorn, I also know that some people prefer for it to stay dead.

[Tumalu]

Two straightforward mutations, and one special ability sounds pretty reasonable to me. One good, one bad, one ability.

And it's not as though Forlorn would be reinstated as a random mutation for other species. That's just my 2 cents, in any case.

[Rast]

[list][*]Empowered Wands 1: Gnomes have increased power when zapping wands.

We already have a mechanism for this: The Evocations skill and aptitude.

[Tumalu]

tbh that's probably right. +50% spellpower wands do sound pretty bonkers. If there really needs to be a wand power booster (which, honestly, +3~4 evo is enough for some sick damage) they could just have the MP powered wands mut instead. I'm not sure how much that one -actually- increases wand damage, though; it -is- technically in the Bad mutation category.

[VeryAngryFelid]

I don't like the species for 2 reasons:
1) all characters will need to train Evo unless they want to play a worse Human. It's even worse than Mf with polearms who theoretically can ignore polearms skill if a good weapon from another weapon category is found
2) it is based on random and limited resource. It is possible to train Evo to high levels and then run out of wands even without transforming them.

[Pingas]

tbh that's probably right. +50% spellpower wands do sound pretty bonkers. If there really needs to be a wand power booster (which, honestly, +3~4 evo is enough for some sick damage) they could just have the MP powered wands mut instead. I'm not sure how much that one -actually- increases wand damage, though; it -is- technically in the Bad mutation category.

The MP-powered wands mutation has the same damage levels of 17%/34%/50%, but with the added MP costs of 3/6/9. The MP cost for this species was removed to make it a positive mutation, allowing the player to cast spells simultaneously.

[list][*]Empowered Wands 1: Gnomes have increased power when zapping wands.

We already have a mechanism for this: The Evocations skill and aptitude.

That's a fair point. The mutation should likely be removed in favor of a non-evocations quirk that stays in line with the gnome flavor, as to not make it too one-dimensional.

I don't like the species for 2 reasons:
1) all characters will need to train Evo unless they want to play a worse Human. It's even worse than Mf with polearms who theoretically can ignore polearms skill if a good weapon from another weapon category is found
2) it is based on random and limited resource. It is possible to train Evo to high levels and then run out of wands even without transforming them.

1) I agree that the wand power bonus could be removed to create more valid character paths for the player. With the removal of the power mutation, other aptitudes could be more pronounced to give the player even more options. Though I think even in its current state, gnomes would make excellent marksmen, and fine hybrid spellcasters.

2) A resource that is guaranteed to spawn in abundance, that you can also buy more of through shops. It introduces interesting decision making on how to optimize your wand repertoire against the threats you expect to face, or to complement your character build. It rewards skilled preparation, and gives further resource management options. When has a player ever had incentive to buy a wand of random effects in the late game? With gnome it could be a valid use of resources.

[Alphaeus]

What is you paired MP-powered wands as an innate mutation with a really high natural mana regen rate?

That might make it a bit more viable without creating new mechanics. In exchange, drop the magical aptitudes drastically so that Gnomes don't have the ability to just spam spells. As in troll/minotaur level of magic aptitudes. Just a thought.